Page 53 of I Can't Even

I’d started out in the gang unit just like most of my brothers had, but the gang unit was a hard life to deal with. Almost all of us but Quinn were out of it now, finding alternatives to work where we were needed most.

Quincy was a detective.

I was sergeant in charge of patrol.

Quinn was head of the gang division now.

Auden and Atlas were on SWAT.

Garrett was a K9 officer.

And Gable, well, Gable did a little bit of everything, everywhere.

Last year he’d been undercover. When he’d gotten done with his last assignment, he’d decided to call it quits after a case gone wrong. He’d been in violent crimes when his old boss had come to him, begging for his help on the case.

Needless to say, the Carter family didn’t shy away from tough jobs.

Mostly. Because the gang division was a death trap that sucked the life and soul out of you.

It was hard on any day to see young kids doing stupid things.

It was a completely different story when you saw young children, all of ten and eleven, choosing the gang life, only to die in the streets thinking they’re badasses.

“Thought you had to go,” Ellodie murmured into my shoulder.

“I do,” I sighed, turning my hand and grabbing the inside of her juicy thigh. “You gotta let me go.”

She did, albeit reluctantly, and I pulled my pillow out from under my head to hand to her.

She clutched it to her chest, and I felt this pang in my heart that I’d never felt before.

The last thing I wanted to do was leave my bed where a certain very willing woman was fast asleep. But crime didn’t stop just because I didn’t want to go to work.

So, to work I went.

The shower I took was quick, and less than fifteen minutes after peeling myself out of bed, I was heading to the front door.

“Hey,” I said when I disarmed the alarm and Gable was already standing there waiting. “You just get off shift?”

“I did,” he confirmed. “I’m gonna catch about six hours of sleep on your couch. She told me she was a late sleeper yesterday, and I’d have plenty of time to catch a few hours before she was ready to do anything for the day.”

Gable and I passed in the doorway of my place, and I closed the door behind him.

He locked it tight, and I was headed to my cruiser seconds later, ready to face my day, despite the warm, willing woman I left in my bed.

Sadly, I had a feeling as I drove to work that this day had already started out on the wrong foot.

And I wasn’t wrong.

“Sergeant,” one of our newest beat officers, Trig Rochester, said as he raised his hand. “Are you sure that you want us out there handing out tickets left and right? You know that they’re going to start bitching about us meeting our quota.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and said, “I don’t give a fuck.”

“But really you should,” Teague, another new hire, said. “I mean, look at the way the mayor came down on us during that parade. You had that sweet ass car chase, and he couldn’t care less. All he cared about was the fact that we gave out tickets aplenty to all of those drunk fucks who were reckless and disorderly.”

I looked over at Teague and said, “A fuck must be earned, Teague. Neither the mayor, nor anyone else, has earned that from me. I do my job. I make sure the city is safe. And there’s a goddamn fair going on, that year after year, brings out the worst of the worst. You see anything shady going on, I want you to fuckin’ fix it. If that’s giving a goddamn ticket, then give the goddamn ticket.”

Someone snickered, and I whipped my head around, ready to hand them their ass, only to have my eyes clash with deep blue eyes that were clearly amused with me.

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