Page 18 of No Sweet Goodbyes

“I see you’re in a chipper mood,” Chief says with a smile on his face. “Did you have a good first day training Officer Hayes?”

“Stuff it, Alex.” I sit down and completely disregard the fact that he is my boss and we’re sitting in the police department. “Why did you assign her to me?”

“I don’t know.” Alex shrugs and takes a drink from the large clear water bottle that always sits on his desk. “It could have something to do with the fact that you’ve been in the desert training for a month when you weren’t supposed to be gone that long and half my department has had to cover for you. Or it could be the fact that Rob called and asked me to make sure that his daughter got a fair shake in a department where there’s only one female officer and she had to fight to even get a spot. My favorite reason,” he says with a smile. “Is the fact that I’m chief of police, and you’re not. So you’ll follow my order or you’ll be looking for another job.”

“Not yet.” I’m baiting him, and he knows it. Alex knows I want his job, just not until he retires. I haven’t even hit thirty, and he still has a long time as the boss. I can wait for him to retire. “I’m not the chief, yet.”

“You’ll get the chair eventually.” He snorts. “If Remy doesn’t beat you to it.”

Alex knows about my career plans. Hell, he knew before I did. And he’s encouraged and guided me every step of the way. That’s how I made detective before most people make it out of their patrol cars. Plus, we both know Remy doesn’t want his job.

“I’m leaving in two weeks,” I tell him bluntly.

The gleam in his eyes tells me he already knows. “Good. You can pass off your active cases, and you can train her. Dispatch, admin, CAD. All of it. Make sure we’re not sending a dud to the academy.”

I roll my eyes at that. Emma Hayes is a lot of things, but she isn’t a dud. She doesn’t have a single failure as a human being, and I know she won’t let our job become her first one.

“I’m not going to lie,” I tell him. “I’m surprised to see her here.”

“She’s been working at it for a year,” Alex points out. “Ride-alongs, the ALERT test, all of it. She’s sat in with dispatch. She’s done the work. As far as I know, she only waited until her twenty-first birthday to make sure that she got her degree, to give her a leg up on the competition. She’s determined. And she didn’t want to apply for anything until she was legally able to work in the state of Maine as a full-time officer.”

“Determined to be a pain in my ass,” I tell him. “That’s what she is.”

“Is there another reason you don’t want to train her?” Alex leans forward and steeples his fingers, staring at me with over twenty years of experience while he tries to get me to break. “A personal reason that would prevent you from being able to do it?”

I won’t break. I’ve been trained not to, and honestly, he’s not even trying that hard.

“Did she do anything to show that she wasn’t capable of doing the job today?”

I do a damn good job of not breaking under his attention, too. At least until he narrows his eyes and touches the tips of his fingers to his nose. “Are you sleeping with her?” He purses his lips. “No. You still look like you’ve got a stick shoved up your ass. If you were dating someone, you wouldn’t be wound as tightly as you are. Especially not if that someone were Emma.”

Embarrassed to have to disclose it to my boss, and someone close to her family, I sigh. “I kissed her.”

His eyes drop to his desk for a moment, and then they spear me with an intensity that I’m not prepared for.

“Don’t do it again. There won’t be a problem. I can’t put her with Stryker. They’ve dated, and I know for a fact it didn’t end well. Hands off, Dom. She’s your trainee, and she’s forbidden.” I see him flinch because we both know when you tell someone that they can’t do something, the first thing they want to do… is do it.

“Don’t worry, Alex.” I put my hands behind my head and lean back slightly, doing my best to appear relaxed, even if I don’t feel it at all. “It was just a kiss,” I lie through my teeth. “It didn’t mean anything.”

A small gasp comes from behind me, and the wide-eyed expression on Alex’s face tells me that it isn’t just anyone standing there.

Hell.

Shit.

Piss.

I turn around to see Emma standing there, not bothering to hide the pain of her reaction at what I’ve just said.

At least I won’t have to push her away.

I’ve already managed to do that without even trying.

When I walk out without saying another word, it’s for the best.

It really has to be for the best.

I may be Emma’s, but she can’t be mine.

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