Page 45 of Beyond the Badge: Crew

“I knew something was off.”

She rolled her eyes. “You can’t even give me a little credit, can you? What do you have against me?”

“Nothing.”

“You act like I’m some sort of burden, when I’m here to help. I was exc—” No, she wasn’t admitting to him how excited she was to join this task force.Fuck him.“I want to do buys.”

“I have you on surveillance.”

“It’s boring and unneeded.”

“Are you questioning my authority?”

“You sound like Cartman from South Park.Respect my authoritah!”she mimicked. “Now it makes sense why Decker uses that ringtone for you.”

His head jerked. “He does what?”

She dramatically slapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, did I just fuck up?”

His eyes narrowed again. “He has Cartman as my assigned ringtone?”

“Maybe I’m wrong and just imagined it.”

“Right.”

“C’mon. Just let me do one buy and we’ll see how it goes.”

“What if it goes wrong?”

Then it goes wrong, she wanted to scream. Investigations and undercover work went wrong all the time. “Crew, I can think my way out of a jam and I can defend myself. I’m a goddamn federal agent just like you and want to be treated as such.”

“You’re not just like me,” he said too calmly.

“If you say it’s because I’m not a man…”

He pulled in a sharp breath. “I wasn’t going to say that. You only have a year under your belt. That’s my concern, not that you’re a woman.”

Bullshit.“I need something worthwhile to do. Let me prove myself to you.”

He stared at her for far too long, then he slowly slid his sunglasses back over his eyes. “Let me think about it.” He threw his leg over his bike and pushed the start button. “Open the gate, will you?”

She sighed but did it despite wanting to tell him to fuck off.

As he pulled past her, he yelled, “Close that behind me, then go home and enjoy your day off.”

“Yes, boss,” she muttered through gritted teeth as she shut the gate.

* * *

She had pulledoff tricking him. Cabrera’s acting had been decent, the makeup even more convincing.

But he still wasn’t sure he wanted to approve of her making buys.

Why he was more cautious with her than the rest of the team members, he didn’t know.

Well, there was the little fact of who her father was.

And the fact she was a newer agent.

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