Page 42 of No Sweet Goodbyes

Chief Townsend sighs, rubbing his forehead with his hand, resting at his temple. “Did you sleep with Dom?”

I cough. “Um. Is that your business?”

“Emma.” He taps the top of his desk with a pen, something he always does while he is trying to think or figure out what to do. “I don’t care who you do or where. But this form has to be filled out. Dom already signed his copy. I need it on record, so that the department isn’t liable for anything that comes from the two of you being together. You already can’t work together in a direct relationship, which makes it a good thing that you’re going to the academy next week. Just sign the paper.”

He slides it over the desk to me, holding out the pen he’d been tapping against the wooden top.

I do what he tells me and sign on the dotted line.

I mean, Dom already signed the form, so it shouldn’t be awkward, right?

“Good.” He takes the sheet and shoves it in a folder without looking at it. “Great. That’s out of the way. Now. You’re training at the range this week. Unfortunately, you’re sleeping with the best marksman in the department. So I don’t have a choice. Linc’s going to be the one who has to train you because there’s no one else more qualified.” He sighs. “Now get out of here before I regret the decision to hire you more than I already do.”

Taking that as the dismissal that it is, I walk out with my head held high and a cocky grin on my face.

“Hey, Linc.” I sit in his chair once I change into my uniform, since he is standing in the doorway to Dom’s office. “Are you ready for the range this week?”

He groans almost pathetically. “No. Please tell me it’s not me training you.”

“I can’t do it,” Dom says from inside his office. “They’ll suspect favoritism.”

“She’s my sister. Why wouldn’t they suspect it from me?” Linc leans back and slams his head into the wooden panel on the wall.

Remy walks into the bullpen with a somber expression and a cup of coffee in his hand. “Probably because we all know you’re going to make it ten times harder on her than it should be. Plus, you’re the next best marksman here. That’s what you get for wanting all that fancy training at the academy. Now me? No one expects me to train her.”

“You’re damn right.” Linc grins suddenly. “I can run you through the hardest paces and watch you crash and burn.” He uses his hands to make imaginary crashing movements. “Then you’ll have to admit that I’m the best.”

“Hey, Linc.” I lean forward in his chair and cross my ankles together, not even worried in the slightest. “Don’t you remember who’s the better shot?” Admittedly, I wouldn’t have been worried even if it was Dom who was training with me on the range.

“Hey, Emma,” he mocks me with a sneer. “Don’t you remember that I served in the Marine Corps and had to train regularly?”

What Linc doesn’t know is that I trained every week while he was gone, too. And unlike him, I got to go with our dad and got pointers from all the old-timers on the range whenever I needed.

“Okay,” I say instead of correcting him. “When are we gonna go?” Through it all, I’m still relaxed. Still smiling.

Linc pushes off the wall. “Right now. Might as well show you how much you still have to learn.”

Dom takes his spot, giving me a look that promises more of what we’d done all weekend. But he doesn’t say a word.

“I’ve got a hundred on Emma wiping the floor with him,” Remy announces loudly to the room as a whole. “Anyone want in on the action?”

I walk out to the sound of everyone betting on who will come out on top.

The only two I know for a fact that bet on me are Remy and Dom.

Smart men.

The range that Birch Police Department uses had been built on the grounds of the old elementary school on the opposite end of town. The massive compound is the same location that the fire department uses to train, too. In fact, it has become the proving ground for everyone involved in public safety and it’s the same place where my dad taught me how to shoot.

Linc runs through everything to do with a gun, like I’m a complete novice with a firearm, and I let him because it’s his job. Plus, it’s not like he actually asked me about my experience with a gun. He just assumed that he knew everything.

“Are you ready?” He finally steps back and hands me the handgun that I’ll be training with. A light and accurate Ruger. Perfect for a training weapon. “If you want to take time, it’s okay. I know you have experience with a hunting rifle, but the sights here are a lot different. And I might give you shit, but I do want you to succeed.”

I stare at my brother, trying to figure out where he is trying to set me up for failure, but I can’t see it. There’s no angle that he seems to be working. Nothing that he’s trying to do that doesn’t line up with actually training me.

“Hey, Linc.”

He eyes me suspiciously, like he’s trying to figure out where I’m gonna trap him.

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