Page 75 of Clap Back (Carter Brothers)

I wasn’t.

I had a feeling I was about to change the flight path of my career today, and it was making me nervous.

I’d been at DPD since I’d done my four years in the Navy right out of high school.

I loved working for the DPD, but things were about to change, and I surprisingly wasn’t too upset about it.

“As I’ll ever be,” I answered. “Are you coming with me or riding with Atlas?”

“You,” he said. “I want to make sure you don’t get your ass kicked by the chief.”

I rolled my eyes.

I didn’t think it’d go that far, but hell, there was no telling at this point.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not going to let him kick my ass,” I admitted as we pulled onto the road that would lead us to the precinct. Fuck, but these tolls were kicking my ass. “He may be my superior, and a high ranking individual in the community, but if he comes at me in a fight, I’m not going to take any punches from him. What little I’ve learned about him from Maven and Athena makes me want to murder him already. I’m barely hanging on as it is, so if he gives me a reason…”

“Athena’s cute and grouchy,” Gable said. “Ask Maven if she’s single.”

I chuckled as we talked a little more about what we thought of Athena.

Personally, I liked her.

Though she was a bit younger than I expected, she seemed like a great friend to Maven, which was all I cared about.

Unfortunately, the trip to DPD took less time than usual, and as I walked up the steps, possibly for the last time, I wasn’t anywhere near as nervous as I thought I would be.

“I’ll meet up with you after your meeting with the chief,” Gable said. “I have stuff to do around the office today, that I should be able to get handled before you’re set to get your beat handed out.”

He split left to go around the building to the back door, meanwhile I took the main entrance, ready to face the bullet head on if it was headed for me.

I stopped to say hello to a couple fellow cops as I walked in, and arrived in the training room for SWAT, unsurprised to find that the impromptu meeting planned for the SWAT team wasn’t actually a meeting for the entire team. Just for one team member.

I supposed I should’ve confirmed it with Atlas before I’d come. Though, just sayin’, but why would I have expected anything less? It was childish and beneath him, yet there Scott was, fuming, as I walked into the training center.

“Where’s everyone at?” I asked, unsurprise leeching into my voice.

Scott’s eyes narrowed. “It’s only you today, Carter.”

“Why?” I asked, voice short and clipped.

“You ask me why when you damn well know the issue,” he said carefully. “I told you to stay away from her.”

“I’m sorry, correct me if I’m wrong, but nowhere in the employee handbook that I have read, and signed that I understood, did it say that I couldn’t date whomever I wanted,” I said, trying to control the anger.

“She’s off limits to Carters,” he said, ignoring me. “If you want to keep this job, you’ll stop talking to her immediately.”

Like hell I would after yesterday.

Witnessing that accident and walking up to the passenger side window to see the woman I wanted with a burning that never quit, bleeding and scared, as she stared at me with desperate eyes to help her… that wasn’t something I’d ever forget.

I’d give her the time she needed. I’d help her move her business. I would be the buffer she needed between her and her father… and her brother.

But I would be there.

And when she was ready, I’d tell her exactly how I felt.

What I didn’t need was the SWAT team. The Dallas Police Department. The entire Dallas area.

---