Page 28 of Beyond the Badge: Crew

Then he took her out back and showed her the patio.

It shouldn’t give him any kind of satisfaction that she was impressed with all the work they’d done on the place, but deep down it did.

And that was fucked up since he didn’t need her approval.

Just as they were heading back inside, Rez opened the rear door and stepped out, his eyes immediately landing on Cabrera. As soon as Rez’s dark eyes began to twinkle, Crew steeled himself for what was to come.

“Jamison’s looking for you.”

“We’re heading back inside now,” Crew told him.

“This her?”

Crew swallowed down his normal smart-ass comment and instead answered, “Cabrera, you haven’t met Antonio Alvarez yet.”

“Llámame Rez. Torres me dijo que hablas español con fluidez.”

“Llámame Cami o Cabrera.”

Of fucking course.“English!” Crew barked.

“Cami, huh?” Rez laughed. “Well, Cami, don’t mind J. Crew. He gets paranoid because he thinks when we speak Spanish we’re talking about him.” Rez curved a hand around the side of his mouth and whispered, “We tell him we’re not but we really are.”

Crew sucked on his teeth.

Rez continued, “My parents came here from Venezuela. You?”

“Both sets of grandparents immigrated from Columbia,” she answered with a huge smile.

“Damn.Será agradable tener a alguien más con quien hablar español.”

Rez mentioned something about speaking Spanish but that was all Crew could pick up.

“Same. With my parents back in Virginia, I was worried I’d get rusty.”

He should get a language tutor and not tell any of them. Then, when they had conversations in Spanish, he’d know everything they said.

No more secrets.

“No worries around here. Frasier knows a little, too, but not enough to have a full-blown conversation.”

“Maybe I can help teach him.”

She could do what? No. “You’ll be busy with the task force.”

Rez barked out a laugh, hooked a thumb toward Crew and shook his head. “If you start learning now, Crewella, you might understand what we’re saying in ten years or so.”

“Probably a waste of time for him, because by then he’ll have old timer’s and will forget everything he learned.”

Rez released a low whistle. “Damn. It’ll be nice to have someone on the team who can give as good as she gets.”

“Thick skin is one thing I developed in the Navy,” she replied.

“Navy, huh?” Rez glanced at Crew. “Good choice.”

He didn’t have a damn choice. “We’re lucky to have her.” His response was as dry as burnt toast.

Rez laughed and whacked him on the back. “Jamison has his panties in a twist. He’s getting impatient to get this intervention started.”

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