Page 47 of Beyond the Badge: Crew

No answer.

He pounded on the door next.

Still no answer.

He placed his ear to the door, hoping to hear footsteps or her calling out. Nothing.

She was most likely out back since the spring weather was perfect and the sun was out. Even the damn birds were chirping.

He really needed to get his ass home, grab his mountain bike and go for a long damn ride.

Riding—either his Harley, his Peloton or his Trek trail bike—always seemed to clear his head.

He needed that. Because someone was taking up a lot of his gray matter and needed to be evicted.

That someone happened to be renting the house he was about to enter.

He dug deep into his front pocket, pulled out his key ring and slipped the key into the deadbolt lock. He only hoped she hadn’t changed the security code since he didn’t want to have to explain to the local cops why he was entering a home without the renter’s permission first.

Something he knew was wrong but was doing it anyway.

As soon as he stepped inside, he entered the code and it worked.Thank fuck.

He announced his arrival by yelling, “Cabrera!” so he wouldn’t catch her in an embarrassing situation, especially since she had no idea he was stopping over.

Or letting himself in.

But the house was dead quiet.

No Cabrera. No Murphy.

No sounds at all.

Just like he thought, she was probably out back enjoying the day. He made quick work of heading to the backyard through the great room. Before he even opened the door, he could see a big gray hairy mass sprawled out flat on the concrete and sunning himself.

Great guard dog.

He shook his head, but a splash in the pool caught his attention next.

She had opened the pool already? The water had to be as frigid as a witch’s tit.

When he stepped outside, the damn dog didn’t even lift his head.For fuck’s sake, what was the point of a huge dog if it didn’t protect its owner?

As he approached the pool, Murphy finally lifted his head, opened his big yapper in a huge yawn and then flopped back down, closing his eyes.

“What’s the point of feeding that thing if he doesn’t warn you about or stop intruders?”

Her head popped up over the side of the pool with her eyes wide and her dark hair plastered to her skull. “What are you doing here?”

Good question. What the hell was he doing here? Why was he drawn to show up in person instead of using his damn cell phone? He didn’t want to answer either of those questions.

“Wanted to talk to you about work.” At least that was true.

“It couldn’t wait until tomorrow?”

“I’m off tomorrow.” Also true.

“You couldn’t call?”

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