Page 7 of Jackson
Bracing herself, Paula made eye contact.
Captain Morris had been her mentor since she’d started at the Kansas City Police Department and had believed in her capabilities from day one. People had frowned when he had encouraged her to take the sergeant’s exam.
He narrowed his eyes at her. “If you’re sure.” He didn’t sound convinced.
“Really, Captain.” Perhaps a more personal approach would convince him. “I need to get some distance from some things. This assignment is perfect.”
“You realize you’ll be in deep cover and can’t have any contact with your friends and colleagues?”
“Yes.” Her gaze didn’t waver as she met his stare head on.
“Fuck.” He stood and shoved back his chair. “I don’t like it, but I must admit you’d be great for the job.” He settled back in his chair and again raked his hand through his hair.
At this rate, he wouldn’t have any hair left before he hit sixty.
Paula’s lips twitched as she tried to contain her laughter at the inappropriate thought.
He scowled at her. “You can contain your glee. I’ll make some calls and let you know. I have a friend who might be able to give us an answer today, but it will probably be tomorrow. The Drug and Crime Control people tend not to work on Sunday unless they’re in the middle of an operation.”
Paula nodded. “Thank you, Sir.” She was on her way to the door as his quiet voice halted her in her tracks.
“You know that people care about you here, don’t you?”
She wasn’t sure how to respond to his question—or if he even expected her to. Instead of answering, she acted like she hadn’t heard him at all. Her hand closed around the doorknob, and she pulled it open without hesitation.
Not giving herself a chance to look back, she stepped outside and let the door close behind her.
Okay, so plan A to ‘avoid Jackson Cagney’ was in motion. At least she hoped so, because she had no plan B.
She’d broken her cardinal rule—never sleep with a coworker. Worse, she’d let him take control. She’d submitted. Freely. Willingly. And God help her, she’d liked it. More than liked it.
She didn’t want to examine what that meant. Not now. Maybe not ever.
Sure, taking on the assignment meant leaving the few friends she had, but she could live with that. What she couldn’t live with was seeing Jackson every day and pretending he hadn’t gotten under her skin, hadn’t stirred something she’d spent years keeping buried.
Paula settled behind her desk and started to go through her current cases.
She still had a hit-and-run from almost a year ago to solve. She didn’t think much of her chances after all this time and considered moving it to the inactive files but decided against it. She could always do it when she got back.
Assuming I get the assignment.
She had two other active cases—a missing teenage girl and a middle-aged man who had been killed in what looked like a burglary gone wrong. Paula went over the available detectives in her mind to decide which ones would be the most suited and had capacity. She didn’t want to dump both cases on her partner. Bill Christopher already pulled more than his weight, and handing them off to him felt unfair.
That was always the problem. Every time she got pulled into a special assignment, it left the rest of the team stretched thinner.
Paula felt a twinge of guilt about being gone for weeks or maybe even months. It would make things harder on her colleagues.
Her desk phone started ringing.
“Stone.”
“Paula, you have the assignment. Could you come to my office, and we’ll discuss your absence?” Captain Morris said in his efficient way.
“Yes, Sir!” Paula rose and went to her boss.
Jackson stared down at his phone in frustration.
Paula
