Page 6 of Through the Fire
“No. My arm’s fine.”
“The cast just came off two days ago.” By his concerned frown, it didn’t look like Otto believed his partner’s denial. “Shouldn’t you have it in a sling?”
Hugh let his head fall back in an exaggerated motion. “It’s fine. Want me to prove it?” He smirked at Otto. “I could punch you in the nuts, and then you could tell me if you think it’s healed enough.”
Although Otto didn’t look too concerned about the threat, he stopped grousing and turned to Kit. She braced herself for more questions. Of the three, this one made Kit the wariest, maybe because he’d been so quiet thus far. “You’re K9?”
“Yes.” She was much happier talking about dogs than about what had happened at her old department. “For the past six years. After working with a K9 partner, I could never go back.”
Otto didn’t smile, but he looked slightly less serious, so Kit decided it was close enough. “Bet it was hard to leave your dog.”
“I didn’t.” She grinned, still thrilled that everything had worked out as it had—even despite the apocalyptic state of her new town. She’d found Justice at a rescue a year ago, and she’d done all of his training, so she would’ve been heartbroken to leave him behind. “My bloodhound came with me. Chief Bayard agreed he’d be an asset, so I bought him from my old department.” They’d given her a really good deal, which hadn’t surprised her. No one she’d worked with had been too impressed with Justice, but she’d known from the beginning that he was a diamond in the rough. Training him had been a long, slow slog, but it had paid off.
All three cops eyed her with renewed interest. “Patrol?” Theo asked.
“No.” The memory of that complete fail made her grimace. “He doesn’t have the drive. He’s an amazing tracker, though.”
“We don’t have any trackers,” Hugh said, rubbing his arm. Kit was pretty sure that he wasn’t aware he was doing it. He seemed to be a show-no-weakness kind of guy.
“We do now,” she said, trying to keep her voice light. It’d take time before they accepted her. She knew that, but sitting through this tense mini-interview with her new partners made her realize just how much it was going to suck until they did. Quickly shoving away the thought, she reminded herself that it couldn’t be any worse than the past six months at her old department.
Hugh made a noncommittal sound just as Theo glanced at the entrance. “Incoming.”
Resisting the urge to duck at his warning—which she felt she couldn’t be blamed for, considering the current state of the town—Kit followed his gaze to the door. A tall, beautiful woman in a down coat, skinny jeans, and amazing boots that Kit instantly coveted walked in. After giving their table a quick, guilty glance, she made a beeline for the kitchen, tipping her head forward so that her hair—glossy and ink-black—fell forward to hide her face.
“Gra-cie,” Hugh called out in a singsong voice, but she didn’t turn or even look at him.
Theo snorted. “What’d you do to piss off Grace?”
“Nothing.” Hugh stood up, his lips tightening slightly as he got to his feet. Although Kit recognized the pain that flashed across his face for a microsecond, she didn’t mention it this time. He hadn’t seemed to appreciate it when she’d asked about his arm earlier, and she didn’t want to compound her mistake. “Everything was bubbles and puppies when I saw her last night. Something’s up.”
As Hugh started to weave his way through the tables toward Grace, Jules came out of the kitchen, and Grace nearly ran toward her.
Theo gave a long, drawn-out groan. “Jules is involved?” He got up and followed Hugh.
Glancing toward Otto, Kit saw he was tapping at his phone, frowning.
“What’s going on?” she asked, feeling lost. It hit her how much she’d have to figure out—a new job, a new town, all these new people—and she was suddenly overwhelmed. Even though Gold Mill was a much bigger community than Monroe, she’d known the people there, known the players on both the shady and the bright sides, known who to go to for information, known where to find the suspects when they bolted, known which people to check on to make sure they had food and heat, known who to trust and who to listen to with a high degree of skepticism. The amount that she’d need to learn about Monroe and its citizens seemed momentous.
“Guess we’ll see.” Despite Otto’s calm, even tone, the line between his eyebrows deepened as he glanced at his phone again.
Figuring she wasn’t going to get any information out of him, she turned her attention to the other four. After a short, intense conversation with Grace, Jules peeled away and delivered the food she was carrying to a family sitting at a table in the corner. Although Theo stopped several feet away, he still seemed to be looming over her. As she passed him on her way back to the kitchen, she smiled, standing up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek, not seeming at all intimidated by the looming. They exchanged a few quick words that Kit couldn’t make out before Jules patted his arm and hurried away. After watching her for a few broody seconds, Theo started back toward their table.
Hugh, it appeared, was having a much more exciting time of it. He and the very stylish-looking woman—Grace, he’d called her—were having a low-voiced argument that involved a lot of dramatic gestures and facial expressions. Watching them, Kit was positive that they were together—or had been very recently. No one argued that passionately unless there was some chemistry involved.
Kit turned her attention back to their table as Theo sat in his recently vacated seat. He looked even crankier than he had before the mini-drama. When Otto raised his eyebrows in question, Theo gave an irritated shrug.
“She’s going to fill me in later.”
“About what?” Otto asked.
“News.”
“What kind of news?”
Theo’s frown deepened as he took a drink of coffee. He even drank angrily, Kit noticed, trying not to smile. “She didn’t say.” Glancing at Hugh and Grace, Theo scowled. “Doesn’t look like Hugh knows, either.”
“Sarah knows.” Otto held up his cell phone for a moment, face out, and Kit saw a screen full of texts. “Says she’ll tell me about it when she gets home from work this afternoon.” He dropped the phone back into his pocket.
