Chapter Three
You Look Familiar
Sleep did not come to Melissa that night and the longer she tried to close her eyes and forget about what had happened at the club, the less she was confident in her decision to leave.
I should have stayed. It was my duty to stay, wasn’t it? So what if I was there. I didn’t do anything wrong… but then again, how would it look if I encountered someone who was going to be my superior in that dress and stilettos? They already won’t take me seriously as a blonde woman working in the police department… or do I just have a chip on my shoulder… I should have stayed…
It was a vicious, annoying circle which she played over and over in her head but it was far too late to rectify what she’d done.
Unless I go in tomorrow, sensibly dressed, and tell them that I saw the shooter… but then they’ll think I’d been out drinking the night before—oh my God! Melissa, you’re going to drive yourself over the edge.
Cara showed up two hours after she got home.
“Did anyone die?” Melissa demanded the second her roommate walked in the door. “Was anyone hurt?”
If someone died and I could have found the shooter…
Cara scowled and Melissa could plainly see her friend was annoyed that she had left the scene, but even with the perspective of time, Melissa wasn’t sure she’d done wrong.
“They think it was a drug deal gone awry,” Cara told her begrudgingly. “Or at least, that’s what I think they think.”
Guiltily, relief touched Melissa and she nodded, exhaling.
Okay, so no innocent people were affected.
“No one died, though?” she asked, gritting her teeth at the question.
Cara shook her head. “He barely got hurt,” she replied. “You should have stayed. There were some hot cops.”
Cara was trying to make light of the situation but Melissa knew she was still upset.
“I’m sorry,” Melissa sighed. “I panicked. I couldn’t imagine explaining to another cop why I was in a place like that the day before I report for duty.”
“I get it,” Cara replied and sighed. She looked at Melissa and offered her a smile.
“I owe you a thank you, I guess,” she added and Melissa eyed her in confusion.
“For what? For leaving?”
“You saved my life!” Cara cried. “For what? Jesus. You’re already thinking like a cop. ‘Just doing my job, ma’am.’”
Melissa snorted and embraced her friend tightly in a hug.
“I didn’t save your life, so get that out of your head. That altercation had nothing to do with us but I’m glad you’re okay.”
“I’m not okay,” Cara growled, untangling herself from Melissa’s arms. “I’m not okay knowing you’re going to be going to work and dealing with shit like that every day!”
“Care…”
“I know you’re still going to do it but it doesn’t make me feel any better about it,” Cara snapped. “I’m going to bed.”
Her roommate’s words had done little to help with her insomnia, but by dawn, Melissa had dismissed the events of the previous night with a regretful sigh.
I did everything I could at the scene and the cops are on it. Detectives or whatever. It’s okay. It’s not a big deal.
It was time to get ready for work and she couldn’t waste another minute thinking about Portia or the shooting.
As Cara says—I better get used to it. I’m going to see a lot of them.
It was just another thing she had considered on paper, so to speak, but the reality was suddenly slapping her in the face.
Could it have been a sign, like Cara suggested?
Melissa scoffed at herself.
If it was a sign for anything, it was saying that I should go today. I handled myself like a pro, even if I did take off.
She dressed with extra care that morning, using pins to fasten any stray strands of hair as stipulated by the police guidelines for dress and conduct. She wanted to make sure she was beyond reproach when she got in the patrol car that morning.
I’ll never be written up for anything. I’m going to be the perfect cop, she told herself in a mantra she’d played in her mind over and over since the first day she’d started studying criminal justice in college.
I’ll do the Chicago Police proud. And I’ll never run from anything ever again.
She didn’t remind herself that she had already broken that vow the night before at Portia.
But I wasn’t a police officer yet.
Her uniform was impeccable, lacking only the firearm and badge she’d be issued when she arrived at the 22nd.
“You’re going to be late if you keep gawking at yourself in the mirror. I mean, you’re hot, Liss, but you’re not red-dress, diving-on-top-of-me-in-stilettos hot, you know? Although, some people really do get off on that whole female cop, baton thing.”
“Are you going to have sexual fantasies about me now?” Melissa snorted, turning to face Cara. To her surprise, the smaller woman was fully dressed.
“What do you mean ‘now?’” Cara teased.
“Last night you wanted to marry me, today you’re talking kink. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you have a crush on me, Care.”
“Thanks, but I like my meat on a stick, sister,” Cara countered and Melissa whooped at the term. She squinted at Cara curiously.
“Why are you up and dressed so early?”
“I’m taking you to work,” Cara replied softly. “You didn’t think I was going to let you go by yourself on your first day, did you?”
Relief flooded through Melissa’s body and she jumped to scale the bed and hug Cara.
“Thank you!” she breathed, placing a kiss on her cheek. “You’re the best.”
“Get off me,” Cara laughed, pushing her away playfully. “Or I’m going to start thinking you like me.”
“Sorry, sis,” Melissa laughed. “I belong to no one but Jason Momoa.”
~ ~ ~
Oh. And maybe this guy… I might give up Jason Momoa for this guy…
Melissa’s breath caught fully in her chest as her eyes rested on the burly, uniformed man who sat casually sipping a coffee at the back of the packed room. The cap of his hat was tipped just enough that she had to cock her head to look into his face, her heart thudding wildly.
Is he doing that on purpose? Looking so hot, or is that just his usual pose?
“Uh… Detective Silas?” she asked tentatively, approaching him. He looked at her with penetrating blue eyes that took her breath away, and for a foreign, irreplaceable minute, Melissa felt like he was looking into her soul.
He said nothing and Melissa could feel her cheeks burning as he waited for her to speak again.
“I-I’m Melissa. Melissa Stark. I, uh, I’m with you.”
I’m with you? I’M WITH YOU? What are you, twelve?
She tried to blame her idiotic babbling on the lack of sleep and stress but she knew it was much, much more than that.
He continued to study her face, his eyes unblinking, and Melissa was certain she was crimson with embarrassment.
“I’m supposed to be riding with you,” she rushed on. “I’m… it’s my first day.”
He finally spoke and when he did, it didn’t alleviate her humiliation in the least.
“I can tell,” he replied, rising from his seat. “Let’s go, Officer Stark.”
He was out of the room before Melissa fully realized what was happening and she rushed to keep up with him, her heart hammering wildly.
You’ve just got first-day jitters. It has nothing to do with the fact that this might be the most handsome man you’ve ever laid eyes on in your life and he thinks you’re an idiot already.
Through the station they moved, Detective Silas a few steps ahead of her, and Melissa marveled at the way such a huge man could move with such grace. She found her eyes fixed on the curve of his perfectly sculpted ass unabashedly.
They pushed their way into the early morning light of the parking lot and to Melissa’s shock, he spun abruptly and tossed a set of keys at her. She caught them reflexively and stared at them blankly.
“W-what’s this?” she asked when he turned back toward a nearby patrol car. Silas didn’t respond and Melissa had no choice but to join him at the car as he waited… at the passenger side.
“I’m driving?” she demanded, her face pale. “You want me to drive on my first day?”
Oh dear God in Heaven, please tell me this is some kind of hazing. He wouldn’t do this to me… would he?
“You expected a chauffeur on your first day?” he asked evenly and Melissa’s mouth gaped.
“I-I have no idea what to do!” she protested and he snorted, folding his arms over his barrel chest to stare down at her again with his magnificent eyes. She could read no anger in his expression but there was exasperation.
“How else are you going to learn, Officer?” he demanded. “You trained in school. You’ve done ride-alongs. You are going to have to get behind the wheel sometime, aren’t you?”
Melissa knew he was speaking the truth but it didn’t stop her heart from dancing almost out of her chest. She tried to focus on the rhythmic quality of his voice.
He sounds confident and he probably doesn’t want to die today. If he has faith in you, then you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth… even if you might kill us and others.
“I-I guess,” she managed to say, and he nodded curtly.
“Good. Why don’t you start by unlocking the doors?”
She inhaled sharply and did as she was told, sliding into the cool leather of the squad car’s interior. It did nothing to drop the temperature of her body, which was already overheating.
Oh my God. I haven’t slept. I’m a witness in an attempted murder and I’m going to crash this car on my first day as a cop. That’s it. My career is over. It hasn’t started and I’m done.
“Officer Stark, look at me.”
She turned her head and bit on her lower lip, trying to maintain a neutral expression on her face but failing miserably. A panicked lump formed in her throat and stupidly, she wondered if he could see it.
“I need you to listen to my voice very carefully. Can you do that?”
She nodded, fixing her gaze on his expressive irises.
What I wouldn’t give to be inside his head right now. Or maybe I wouldn’t want to know what he’s thinking.
“I had a very late night last night,” he started, the words surprising her, despite the mellifluousness of his voice. There was no indication of anger, even if his words were condescending. “I’m in no mood to babysit a little girl who wants to play police officer for a day. Do you think you can get it together, Officer Stark? Or do you need to go to your safe space first?”
Heat stained her face and Melissa’s jaw tightened in anger.
“I’m not a little girl playing police officer!” she snapped back. “I have just as much a right to be here as anyone! Probably more than anyone! I graduated second in my class at the academy!”
And that’s only because the instructor’s son was in my class. I would have been first!
She didn’t bother to add that because she knew she was already coming off as a petulant brat and that was the last thing she wanted this hunk of gorgeous man to see her as.
Too late for that.
“Uh huh,” Silas replied, sounding bored. “And yet you’re sitting here pouting that you have to drive.”
“I’m not pouting!” She jammed the keys in the ignition and started the car. The vehicle came to life, including the computer and radio. She cast her training officer a scathing look but he grinned happily at her.
“Oh good,” he sighed happily. “You’ve got a backbone.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“You were testing me?” she demanded, unsure if she was pleased she’d passed or furious he was baiting her. The beam on his face froze and then faded and he leaned toward her with a seriousness which overtook the car.
“This whole job is a test, Stark, except there’s no room for error. Every decision you make could be your last. Every step you take could affect someone else’s life. You don’t get the luxury of being unsure or worried. You remember your training, keep your wits about you and you go in with a hundred percent of your heart. You make a decision and you stand by it. There’s no time to be wishy-washy. There’s no time to be confused. You need to think on your feet. If you don’t think you can do that—”
“I can!” Melissa told him firmly and she meant it. Her nervousness was fading with the words he spoke echoing through her ears.
This is what you signed on for, she reminded herself, backing out of the spot without being prompted. This is what you want to do.
“Make a left out of the parking lot. I’ll guide you through your patrol routes. It’ll be an easy day for the most part.”
She nodded, pretending to focus out the windshield, but through her peripheral vision, she could see that Silas was staring at her face pensively. There was an amused smile on his face and she wondered what he thought about her.
“Why did you become a cop, Stark?” he asked suddenly.
She gave him a half-smile.
Okay. Maybe he’s not so bad. He wants to know about me.
“You want the long version or the short one?” she asked, prepared for that query. She’d played her first day out in her mind many times.
“The real version. Save the prose and BS for someone else.”
He’s profound, this one.
Inexplicably, a shiver of pleasure coursed through her like his brashness was a selling point.
“In a nutshell, my mom moved me around a lot when I was growing up. I think my biological father was abusive or something, so she was scared to stay in one place, but she always came back to Chicago.”
“Yeah, Chicago has that affect on people,” Silas agreed dryly. “It’s hard to escape once it’s in your bones.”
“When she died, I knew that this was the place that would best honor her memory, so this is where I stayed.”
Silas snorted after a silent moment.
“What?”
“I think you’d make a better lawyer or politician than cop,” he told her and she bristled.
Is he trying to insult me or is he testing me again? Is the whole day going to be a faucet of hot and cold with him?
She willed herself to calm down and not overreact.
He just told you that you need to think on your feet. He wants to see if you can.
“Why do you say that?” she asked pleasantly. “Do I look designed for expensive things?”
She batted her eyelashes flirtatiously and he snorted again. Melissa couldn’t tell if he was amused or growing more annoyed with her by the second.
“Because you didn’t answer my question in the least. I asked you why you wanted to be a cop and you told me why you stayed in Chicago.”
“Oh.”
He’s right.
“I’m nervous,” she muttered by way of excuse but she shook her head. “I guess because I didn’t want to worry about running anymore.”
“You guess?”
Defensiveness flooded through Melissa and suddenly she wished he would stop talking. She had no desire to have a heart-to-heart with this patronizing jackass, no matter how attractive she might find him.
And good God, he is attractive. But being an ass doesn’t make you handsome.
“I don’t have a cut-and-dried answer for you, Detective,” she answered in a clipped tone, hoping that was good enough to end his queries.
“You could have just said that to begin with. Go right at that light.”
Again, she peered at him out of the corner of her eye and put on her signal as the radio began to crackle.
“Advise all units, there are reports of gunshots on Milwaukee, near the preserve. No visible suspects. Please advise.”
“Are you shitting me? Another one?” Silas muttered before he clicked the radio on his shirt. “15-Charlie responding. We’re three blocks out.”
“I read you, 15-Charlie.”
“Do you know where that is?” Silas asked but his question was drowned out by the sound of the siren as Melissa activated it and did a U-turn in the opposite direction.
This is a coincidence. What happened last night was an isolated incident. This is Chicago, after all.
“Hey,” Silas said, peering at her face, and she glanced at him fully.
“What?”
“You did that quite instinctively.”
They shared a private smile but Melissa was forced to shift her eyes back toward the road again, lest she really did fulfill her worst nightmare and crash the squad.
“Have we met before? You seem very familiar to me.”
Melissa eyed him, the hairs on her arm raising.
He’s asking me this now?
“I don’t think so,” she replied quickly, darting her attention back to the road. She took another two lefts and ended up on Milwaukee, her pulse rushing in her ears as they neared the very same spot she had been at not nine hours earlier.
Oh God… no, not Portia…
But the slew of squad cars squealing to join the party told her that they were responding to the Waylands’ club.
Is this my nightmare or are the fates mocking me right now?
Once more, she thought of Cara’s endless warnings.
“Stay by my side and don’t make a move unless I tell you,” Silas ordered her. “Be alert and keep it together. Do you understand?”
“Of course.”
Easy for you to say, she thought, grimacing.
They jumped from the car to meet the other officers gathered at the entranceway to the club.
“What’s happening?” Silas barked at the cops. “Let me through.”
“We think the suspect is in the club but no one is letting us in.”
Silas grunted. “You think?”
“Gonzales and I followed him in our squad down this alleyway and he disappeared. You can see there’s nowhere to go but into that club, Detective.”
“How sure are you that he’s in there?” Silas demanded, his eyebrows raising to look at the other responding officers.
“Not sure enough that this won’t backfire without a warrant,” one of the women retorted.
“Shit!”
Silas looked around as if seeking help from a nearby car. Without thinking, Melissa ran back to the squad car and dug out her cell phone.
“Stark! What are you doing?” Silas yelled at her but she was already dialing out. To her relief, the call was answered on the second ring.
“Hey, baby. This isn’t the best time,” Louis muttered in her ear in a low voice.
“Because the cops are about to flood your club? Or because you’re being held hostage?”
The silence was deafening.
“Louis, are you in danger down there or are you harboring a fugitive? Answer me, because in a minute, you’re going to have to answer to someone else otherwise.”
“H-how do you know that, Melissa?”
“Know what? Which part? Hostage or abetting? Tell me, Lou!”
Louis’ voice dropped to a whisper. “Kenny came back,” he hissed. “He came back to shoot up the security system. I told him it was too late, that the cops already took what they needed.”
“Kenny?” Melissa asked in confusion. “Who the hell is Kenny?”
“He’s the idiot who shot up my club last night.”
“Jesus Christ, Lou. You knew who it was all along? Why didn’t you say anything last night?” Melissa yelled.
Idiots. My God.
“Oh, come on,” Louis snickered. “I ain’t no rat.”
No, just a moron.
“Where is he now?” Melissa demanded, checking her temper and shoving down everything she desperately wanted to say.
“He’s here, having a drink.”
“Having a—” She inhaled sharply and closed her eyes before speaking again. “The lot is crawling with cops, Lou. You need to get him out of there.”
“If he figures out that there are a dozen cops waiting for him up there, he’s going to kill me too!”
“Tell him not to be an idiot!” Melissa shouted. “He barely hurt that guy last night. He’ll probably get a slap on the wrist. Louis, if you want your club intact, you better tell that moron to come out with his hands up. What is he, 19? 20? He’s got his whole life ahead of him.”
“Are you here?” Louis asked in shock. “Are you arrested?”
“No, you idiot. I’m a cop, trying to negotiate the best move for everyone. Just get him out before your club gets demolished and that little brat’s life gets ruined. Tell him what I just said, word for word!”
She hung up the phone and tossed it back on the driver’s seat but before she could take a step, she found herself staring into August Silas’ piercing eyes.
“I knew I recognized you from somewhere,” he growled. “You’re the witness who left the scene last night.”
And just like that, my dream was crushed, Melissa summarized silently, the wind whooshing from her lungs.
Her mouth parted to explain but as she spoke her first word, the door opened in the alleyway and every officer reached for their weapons.
“WAIT!” she screamed, realizing what was happening. “He’s surrendering! His name is Kenny and he’s the man you’re looking for from last night. Kenny, show them your hands!”
Pushing past Silas, she bolted forward, praying that she was not walking into an ambush, but before she could get any closer, her body was tackled to the ground and she was pinned beneath her T.O.’s muscular frame, his bulletproof vest pressing against her as he covered her head from the spray of potential gunfire.
“DON’T SHOOT!” a man squeaked. “I’m giving myself up!”
Melissa tried to push Silas off her but he remained in place as a flurry of commotion ensued around them.
It was only when she heard the click of handcuffs that he finally released her from the ground, his face a mask of sheer fury.
“What the hell was that?” she gasped but her question only seemed to incense him more.
“I think,” he spat back, grabbing her arm and dragging her toward the squad car, “that was the end of your career.”