Page 4 of Love Undecided
Chapter 2
One Week Before
Kat
I start to feel uneasy as I walk into the police precinct. Which is silly since I’ve been here plenty of times before to do the same thing I’m here to do today; help solve a crime. I just don’t know yet what type of crime, and Detective Sherman was not forthcoming with any additional information when he asked me to meet him here.
I pause a moment to see if my pinky finger is tingling, my only indication that whatever I’m sensing is more premonition than it is emotion, but I feel nothing. Premonition is almost too strong a word though, what I feel is more like that flash of instinct you get from your subconscious when something happens; that brief moment before the logical mind has a chance to take over and negate it.
It started after I had a brain tumor removed last year and woke from the surgery being able tofeelthings that are about to happen with surprising accuracy. I don’t offer myself out for hire, and I can’t get feelings on command, but I have been able to help the local police with solving a couple of small crimes and the San Soloman Investigative Homicide Team (SSIHT) with apprehending the Kriss-Kross Killer.
Which is how I first met Sherman, he’s the lead investigator for the SSIHT. An acronym that my brain immediately reads as ‘SSHIT’ every time. He didn’t look happy when he asked me to meet him this morning. Then again, every time I’ve worked with him, he’s been unpleasant and never looked happy. So maybe that’s just his normal face.
I tell the woman at the front desk that I am there to meet with Detective Sherman. She raises her head to me.
“Oh, you must be Kat?” She seems surprised, almost.
“I am.”
“They are in conference room 3 – up the stairs and to the left. You can’t miss it.”
“They?” I ask.
“The task force.”
Shit.
This isn’t just a little low key gab session with Detective Sherman about something he’s stuck on. This is another case they need my help on.
A case with a task force.
Which means a big case.
I make my way to conference room 3, stopping to grab a cup of coffee on my way. They are out of paper cups, so I have a choice between two ceramic mugs. I go with the least grungy of the two, which has a picture ofJack Bauerfrom the TV show24on it and a caption that reads‘Once you go Jack, you never go back.’
I snort lightly, trying to hold in my laugh as I step into the room. Sherman is off to the side talking to a really big guy I’d never seen before. His back is to me but I can tell that he has soft looking hair that’s just a little too long, broad beefy shoulders, and a great ass showcased in faded jeans.
Hello there, guy I would totally do naughty sexy things to!
If he looks this good from the back, I’ll need to brace myself for when he turns around.
Four other men sit around the conference table with an assortment of coffee cups, notepads, muffin wrappers, and donut boxes in front of them. I know there is a joke in there somewhere, I just can’t think of it.
Detective Sherman turns. “Kat. Good, you’re here,” he says and moves toward me, motioning for the guy with the great ass to do the same.
“Chance, I’d like you to meet Katarina Walker. Kat, this is Chance Bauer.”
Ha! What are the chances?
I snort as I try to stop a laugh, then raise my coffee cup in acknowledgment. My other hand reaches out to shake his. He looks at me, then my mug, then back at me, blue eyes twinkling.
“Go on, give it to me,” he says. “I’ve heard every24andJack Bauerjoke being in this business. But maybe you’ve got something new, what with having the coffee cup and all.”
There’s an underlying laughter in his tone and he’s smiling.
I feel my stomach tighten.
He’s a dead-ringer for Bradley Cooper, circa 2010. You know, the Bradley Cooper from theA-Teammovie? The one with hair that’s just a little too big on top and a little too long at the neck. Hair that’s begging to have a woman run her hands through it.
