Chapter 2

Home is where I can poop for however long I desire.

-Tyler to his sisters

Tyler

I maneuvered the kickstand down on my bike, then looked at the unassuming building with trepidation.

I wanted nothing more than to go home, sit on my couch and drink a beer. In fact, I’d been doing that when the little trespasser came onto my land, not caring one bit that she was on someone else’s property.

By the time I’d followed her ass home to make sure that she got where she needed to go all right, I was almost late getting here.

In fact, I almost called and told them I wasn’t coming.

But then I remembered the promise to myself that once the station settled down and got under control, I’d start living my life again.

Coke, who was currently staring at me from the porch of the Taco Shop, had a grin on his face. He was the owner of the local salvage yard and a friend. Something that kind of surprised me because at first, I hadn’t actually liked the man. He was too much like me—standoffish, gruff and blunt.

But, after a couple of months of working with him, I now called him a friend.

Swinging off my bike, I stood to my full height and reached for the sky, stretching my muscles out.

I was tired.

I’d had a full day at work, had gone to the gym afterward for a quick arm burnout and then had gone home to chill for a couple of hours before I had to be back in town to meet with Coke.

Sighing, I walked across the broken and cracked asphalt, skirting around water puddles and potholes, until I arrived at the steps.

“You so owe me,” I said to the man standing there watching me with amusement on his face.

Coke grinned and offered me his hand.

I shook Coke’s hand, dropped it and then stepped around him inside the restaurant, unsure why I’d said yes to the man.

I’d been in Hostel for a little over a year and during that time I hadn’t had one second of free time.

Maybe that’s why I said yes.

I needed some me time—not more Hostel Police Department time. The Hostel PD had been getting a lot of my time and attention and honestly, I was starting to feel stressed. The sheer amount of work that still needed to be done there was staggering.

Before me, Hostel PD had been run by a corrupt chief of police and a bunch of cops who weren’t exactly dirty but weren’t clean either. When the FBI and the Texas Rangers came in and cleaned house, nothing was left. Not even a secretary.

Which led to me getting the job as chief of police at the fairly young age of thirty-five.

I was one of the youngest police chiefs in Texas.

I’d applied for a detective position and was hired shortly after the intense clean-up of the department had gone down. I expected to get the job, but what I hadn’t anticipated was that I’d get this job after being hired. A position where I had complete authority over everything—from all administrative matters including the hiring of all my officers, crime scene techs, secretaries and dispatchers to casework in the field. I was the person in charge of it all.

“Glad you could come,” Coke said, with an odd look on his face for some reason.

I shrugged. “I had to eat anyway. I’ll stay for a bit and visit.”

Coke grimaced.

Before I could ask him if there was something wrong, the hostess gestured for us to follow her.

Why she needed to show us to our seats, I wouldn’t know. I could see them from the front door, but I wasn’t going to argue.

She was cute and she was just trying to help.

But she was way too young. Twenty at most.

I’d learned my lesson with the young ones—one that would burn for a while.

Tara, my former girlfriend, had not only fucked me over, but she had also stomped on my heart by running off with another man while I was busy investigating a murder.

The worst of it was that this betrayal was perpetrated by my best friend, Rome, by stealing my woman.

Though, to be honest, I wasn’t sure that Rome knew that Tara and I were together—but he sure did now. He was a player for the Longview Legends and football season was always busy and stressful for him.

“Yo,” Janie, the girl who had set this whole thing up, cried out. “I’m glad you could come!”

I shrugged. “Coke invited me.”

Rafe Luis, Janie’s husband, offered me his hand. I took it, shook it once, then offered it to the man at his other side, Parker Penn. Parker was married to the other girl—Janie’s best friend—who was heavily pregnant and looking at the chips like she was trying to decide if she could have another without anyone saying anything.

Once I’d said hello to everyone, I sat across from the empty seat that was next to Janie.

Reaching for the menu, I busied myself trying to find something to eat instead of jumping in on the conversation that Janie, Kayla, and Rafe were having about what kind of pepper was the hottest.

“Tyler, this is my neighbor, Cora Maldonado,” Coke said, breaking up my perusal of the menu.

I nodded my head at her. “Nice to meet you. You own the property that butts up against my acreage at your back.”

Cora’s eyes went wide. “Cool.”

I moved my eyes back to the menu.

I’d just decided on what I wanted when the phone in my pocket rang.

I sighed and pulled it out, unsurprised to find dispatch calling me.

Standing up, I stopped at the waitress who was at the counter filling drinks and said, “I want to order eight tacos and a sweet tea. I’m going outside to take a call.”

She gave me a chin jerk and I went back outside before calling dispatch back.

“Yo, boss,” Trevor answered the moment he picked up. “We got a problem. Brown isn’t going to make it into his shift today. He has the stomach flu. Says he hasn’t been able to get off the pot long enough to even get his pants on in the last two hours.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Can you see if Mackenzie or Alfredo can cover him?”

“Already done. Johnny just came off a double shift. Alfredo’s having his baby tonight, remember?” Trevor asked.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

“I’ll be in to take the patrol. I just have to finish dinner,” I said. “I’ll be an hour. Ask one of the on-shift people to cover for me. Make sure that you tell them I’ll buy them dinner if they do. Tell them I’ll be at the Taco Shop for the next hour and if they want something, to call it in and I’ll get it on my way to the station.”

“Righty-O, boss man. I’ll ask Ramirez. He’s the only one that doesn’t have kids to go home to. And you know he is always up for getting a free meal.” Trevor hung up and I chuckled under my breath.

Ramirez was my newest hire and he was absolutely hilarious when it came to his frugal nature.

Shoving the phone into my pocket, I turned on my heels and started walking. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a woman reaching for the door at the same time as me, only she kept right on walking when I didn’t.

She barreled into me and I had to throw my arm around her hips to keep her from plunging to the ground.

The moment my hands were on her, I felt a zing of electricity jolting through my fingers.

The woman turned around, smiling. That smile turned into a ferocious frown the moment she saw me. Her glare told me exactly what she thought about me.

“You were the one to walk in front of me.” I held up my hands. “Apparently, you need to learn to pay attention to your surroundings. You’ve nearly bit the dust for the second time today.”

She bared her teeth.

I felt my dick harden and cursed inwardly.

This little hellion, in her short shorts, tank top, and hiking boots, was not going to get to me.

The wavy brown hair that went almost down to her ass or the freckles on her nose and cheeks underneath her eyes weren’t going to either.

Nope. No. Nuh-uh.

Not going to happen.

She crossed her arms over her chest and glared.

That’s when my eyes, once again, drifted to her breasts—just like earlier when she’d stepped into the lake to wash the mud off her ass and legs. When she was done washing, she stripped her shirt off and tucked it into the back of her pants—leaving her breasts encased in a white sports bra.

And, from my vantage point fifty yards away, I had seen the tan outline of her nipples through the thin material.

Now, even though she was wearing a tank top and a hot pink bra, I could still see the beads of her nipples—but thankfully not the outline of them.

Without waiting for her to reply, I walked around her, not bothering to hold the door for her.

Instead, I walked to my earlier vacated seat where my tea was waiting and sat down, downing half of my drink in the time it took her little ass to stomp across the room and take the one remaining seat—directly across from me.

She glared the moment her ass hit the seat and I found my lips twitching because her breasts bounced, causing the R on her necklace to become askew and rest against her collarbone.

She moved it, keeping her glare squarely on me.

While she did, I tried really hard not to look at her chest.

“Do you know each other?” Janie asked, looking from her friend to me and back.

“Negative,” I said. “I found her trespassing on my property today.”

“Reagan,” Janie elbowed the sourpuss. “What have you been told about that?”

“To not get caught,” Reagan replied, allowing her glare to move to her friend.

Janie snickered.

“It was the moss again, wasn’t it?” Janie asked.

Reagan shrugged.

“Yes,” I replied for her.

Janie shook her head.

Reagan turned to Janie and said something under her breath, causing Janie to snicker.

“Oh, this isn’t a blind date. I just thought that if I told you that little white lie, you’d be more willing to come,” Janie, the blonde bombshell said. “I know you don’t like big group settings and between you and Cora, I wasn’t sure how to get you to come if I told you we were having a big group dinner.”

Cora, the woman sitting next to Coke, grimaced.

I felt for her.

Reagan, the little trespasser, on the other hand, I wasn’t feeling sorry for her.

No, I was quite intrigued to see her so uncomfortable.

Plus, during the time that I was at the table, I’d heard her talk using more than one word at a time. I was surprised and a little bit captivated.

Though, each time she spoke, it was never directed toward me until I engaged her in conversation.

Our food came and I started in on my tacos, very much aware that the woman hadn’t taken her glare off of me the entire night.

I spoke to Cora more than I probably would have normally because each time I did, Reagan would glance at me and narrow her eyes in anger.

I would’ve gone a little further and asked Cora out on a date just to piss the little firecracker in front of me off if I hadn’t seen the tension in Coke’s shoulders whenever I spoke to her.

That was one bridge I didn’t want to burn.

He’d been doing the impound investigations for the department and I couldn’t afford to lose him.

Once my last taco was eaten, I flagged down the waitress and gestured her over with a flick of my fingers. “I need to pick up the to-go order for Tyler. I also need to get the check for my meal and the to-go order.”

The waitress, who looked like someone I knew, nodded her head and rushed to the counter to do my bidding.

“Rude,” came a muttered reply in front of me.

My brows rose and I said, “What was?”

She gestured with her head to a table behind us and I saw an annoyed-looking woman with three kids at her table holding up her credit card with her check, glaring daggers at the waitress’s back.

I got up and walked to the woman, smiling at her. “Can I take it to the waitress? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cut in front of you.”

The harried woman smiled. “That’s all right.”

I recognized this woman, too.

Then again, that was quite easy to do when the population of the town you were working was as small as ours.

“I really don’t mind,” I paused. “How’s Erica?”

Erica, her eldest daughter, was around nine years old and had some trouble at the school with bullying. Once I’d heard about it, I’d gone for a little visit to the school and explained to a class of third graders why bullying was bad. I gave Erica a plastic badge and told her to hold her head up.

“She’s good,” the woman replied. “She’s at a birthday party right now at the gym.”

I grinned. “That’s good. I’m glad she’s doing well. Want me to take that?”

She handed it over to me and I walked up to the waitress who was twirling her hair and staring at the cook through the window.

“’Scuse me. This is the ticket from that woman over there.” I pointed at the mother with a thumb over my shoulder. “You can add her ticket to mine. Here’s my card.”

I reached for my wallet and extracted my credit card, handing it over.

The waitress took my credit card, the check for the mother, and breezed away.

“That’s sweet, Chief Cree,” the waitress cooed.

I smiled tightly. “How’s that to-go order coming?”

The cook, who’d obviously heard my question, dropped his head and looked like he was very busy all of a sudden.

I narrowed my eyes for a few seconds, then waited for the waitress to run my card.

She gave it back moments later and I pocketed the card and the receipt. I’d need the receipt to turn in to the accountant—something I had to do once a month to be reimbursed for the food that I was forced to eat out while on duty—or treat my officers to when I was forced to make them work overtime, which was more often than not.

I really needed to hire another officer, but with the budget what it was, that wouldn’t be happening until at least after the next election. Hopefully the next mayor would allot more money to the police department that protected his ass.

“Have a good day, Chief.” The waitress smiled.

I didn’t bother to look at the number on the receipt that she’d surreptitiously written while she hoped I wasn’t looking.

Instead, I tucked it into my wallet next to my money, then put the wallet back into my pants.

“Here you go,” the cook said, handing me my food.

I thanked him with a nod and walked back to the table, relishing in the way that Reagan stiffened more and more as I got closer to the table.

By the time I was standing at my seat and reaching for my tea, her scowl was downright ferocious.

My lips twitched.

After downing my glass of tea, I set the empty on the table and gestured to the table at large. “I gotta go. Work calls.”

I vaguely noticed that Coke and Cora had disappeared sometime after I left, but didn’t give it much thought as I made my goodbyes to the rest of the table.

Saving Reagan for last, I leveled her with my best cop look.

“No more trespassing.”

She bared her teeth at me. “You don’t know me.”

The thing was, I had a feeling that I did.

And I wouldn’t put it past her to try again for whatever moss she was going for earlier in the day. Which was why I shared with her what I did next.

“I have camera feed on my property.”

She stiffened.

“Y’all have a good night.”

I turned and left, but I didn’t miss the way her eyes stayed on me nearly the entire way.

When I looked up as I was leaving, I saw her staring at me through the plate glass window.

I gave her a chin lift and she lifted her hand.

Not to wave, though. To flip me off.

I snorted, then pulled out and headed to the station.

Her flipping me off was, unfortunately, the highlight of my night.

Who knew a town this size could get up to so much trouble?