Sworn to Be His(The Archer Family Book 3)(2)

It figured, too. A guy like that would be in the Navy instead of the Army.

Oh well, just so long as he didn't intend on swapping war stories, Derrick could manage.

He flicked another sidelong glance at Jade. She was staring at Flynn,  her blue eyes glazed over with something that looked dopey and strange  on her square, serious face.

You know this guy or something?

He scrawled the message while the supervisor moved on to overviewing what each detective would be working on that day.

Him?         

     



 

That was it? All she had to write?

No, the other new guy

She rolled her eyes.

We went to high school together.

High school. He always forgot Jade was from Hawaii. He always assumed  that everyone around was an implant like him, using their military  experience to get a leg up in their detective training. But no, she'd  gone and done things the old fashioned way.

So this guy was from Hawaii, too?

Interesting.

She didn't bother to respond, and for the rest of the meeting he watched  as her expression dipped in and out of dreaminess while she stared at  Flynn. Or, more accurately, poorly concealed her efforts not to stare at  Flynn. She was unusually, quiet, too. She didn't even mouth off when  Fitzsimmons made a crack about female detectives.

He wanted to reach over and shake her, ask what was wrong with her. He'd  never seen her this way before, and in the year they'd worked together  that was really saying something.

When the meeting was over, the other detectives slowly filtered out of  the room with the supervisor leading the charge, but Derrick hung back  and grabbed a donut from the box on the counter, then poured himself a  cup of coffee and stirred.

Eventually, there was nobody in the room but Flynn and Jade, the later  of whom was scrawling absentmindedly on a notepad and trying her best to  look important. She was failing.

Staying in the corner, he took a bite of his donut and pretended not to pay attention.

"Long time no see," Flynn said to her and she let out a little gasping sound.

"Oh my gosh, yeah, sorry, I was just-"

Derrick rolled his eyes. She couldn't do better than that?

"No, no problem. That was quite an entrance you made. I don't think  Supervisor Sanders ever let you say what you came in here on fire  about."

"Oh it was nothing. Just, you know, some...reforms. For a children's shelter. That...caught on fire."

Derrick nearly choked on his coffee.

"Wow, sounds important. I hope he lets you talk about it soon." Derrick  chanced a glance behind him and caught Flynn beaming down on a clearly  flustered Jade.

"Yeah, it's my passion. Helping the less fortunate." She bit her bottom lip.

"I remember," Flynn said.

"Oh, right, duh. You totally would."

An awkward silence fell between them, and then Flynn knocked his  knuckles against the wooden conference table and said, "You know, I  should probably start in on that case file. By the looks of it, this  unit moves fast."

"Super fast. So fast you might not even notice how...fast it is." She  finished lamely and Derrick closed his eyes, a coil of embarrassment  slithering through his stomach on her behalf.

"Right, well, I hope we can catch up later." Flynn nodded, then headed out the beige office door.

Derrick waited until the other man as gone to turn and face his friend,  but as soon as their eyes met she hissed the word, "Don't."

"Don't what?" Derrick had to restrain his laughter.

"Just don't."

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean. Or maybe you're just talking so  fast I didn't even notice how fast you were going." He grinned, and she  shuddered.

"Okay, that was bad."

"Very. Very bad." Derrick nodded.

"It's not my fault!" Jade hid her face in her hands, then glanced up at  him between her fingers. "Did he say what time the witnesses are  supposed to come in? Do I have enough time to drown myself in my shame?"

"I don't think there's enough time in the world for that one."

She made a sound that was something like a cross between a gurgle and a cat dying.

"Look at it this way," Derrick offered, "At least you'll have a whole  bunch of time to get used to him being around. There's so many more  occasions when you'll talk to him and-"

"Ugh, you are so not making this better."

"Oh, that was never my intention." Derrick raised his hands in mock innocence.

"Why are you the worst?"

"It's a gift." He shrugged. "Now come on, you should probably prep  before the interview. When we're done, we'll have lunch and go over the  notes. It'll be fun."

"Like a root canal is fun," she groaned, then leaned back in her metal  fold out chair until she was practically prostrate, her long gold hair  swinging in the air behind her.

"Still more fun than that train wreck I just witnessed." He walked over to her and held out a hand. "Come on, work is calling."

She glanced at the hand, then allowed him to help her up. Walking over  to the coffeemaker, she looked over her shoulder and said, "Did you  really tell the supervisor that the new badge looks like a...you know  what?"

"And deprive you of the honor? No." He smiled, remembering the  horror-struck look on her face when the email had dinged into their  in-boxes the day before.         

     



 

"Good. I have a speech prepared."

"Oh, I'm sure you do." He chuckled. This from the woman who planned  speeches to request vacation time. Her soliloquy on the badge was sure  to be right up there with the "I Have a Dream" speech.

"You laugh, but are you really going to walk around town with that symbol on you?"

"You're right. You're a freedom fighter."

"Damn straight." She nodded, then grabbed her coffee cup from the counter and made for the door. "What would you do without me?"

"Probably a better job."

She leveled him with a glare before heading out the door, but he hung  back, still trying to shake the weird uneasiness that had clung to his  chest since the meeting had begun this morning.

This wasn't the first time a feeling like this had plagued him. Way back  when it had just been him and his dad and his two little siblings, he'd  always gotten this feeling when Andy or Matt was about to get sick or  in trouble. And when he'd been in the Army, he'd felt this way, too.  Just before trips into Kabul when they could never be sure what they'd  find or what might happen.

It was more than apprehension, and less than certainty. Suspicion, but  not belief. And whatever it amounted to, the end result was that it made  him uneasy.

Maybe he was missing something in this case. Something obvious he'd  picked up on subconsciously. He reviewed the notes in his mind and  leaned against the wall with his eyes closed, but nothing came.

Nothing.

And that was the worst part of all.





Chapter 2





Derrick exed out of the email from his sister and glanced at the clock  in the far corner of the office, just above the wide glass conference  room partition. It was nearly noon. The whole morning had passed and  this stupid feeling still hadn't gone away.

Worse, his interview had done nothing to assuage the feeling. He'd been  assigned to a little old lady, Agnes, who was nice enough and  cooperative enough but...there was something else. Something he couldn't  put his finger on. It had something to do with the way she almost  flinched when he tried to get specifics of who she'd seen. The way she  suddenly stopped talking and had to go when she'd finally broken down  and told him how the crime had transpired.

He gritted his teeth and glanced at Jade's cubicle. She was staring off  into the distance, her blond hair tucked absently into the back of her  blouse from where it had fallen out of its haphazard knot. He shook his  head. Damn girl was a mess.

Sliding from his seat, he walked over to her and tapped on her shoulder.  She gave a little start, then pressed her hand to her chest and shot  him a glare. "Hey, didn't your father teach you better than to scare  people?"

"Guess not." Derrick shrugged. "Ready for lunch or are you busy solving something?"

He was teasing her, and she knew as much. She almost never came up with  epiphanies when she was sitting by herself. She was one of those weird  kind of people that had to be talking to someone, working through it,  pushing themselves to keep talking until they stopped and the answer was  staring them in the face.

Just last month she'd called him on his weekend off to try to talk  through a gang-related murder. He'd fallen asleep while they were on the  phone, but she hadn't cared. She just needed to feel like someone was  there to listen.

"Okay, fine, you caught me spacing out. But yes, I'm starving. Did you  bring anything good today?" She pushed out of her seat to walk with him  toward the break room.

"Nope. Peanut butter and jelly. The usual."

"Trade you for my lean cuisine." She batted her eyelashes up at him. "It's sesame chick-en."