Page 30 of Before They Were Lovers

Yeah, you were too.

There were a lot of eyes on them, and many of the officers who’d been in the warehouse came by and patted them on the back.

It was recognized they were no longer rookies or the new guys in the department. They were notoriously infamous. And it made the praise and acknowledgment feel almost unnecessary. Day didn’t care about all that, and neither did his partner.

The captain walked out of his office, and the voices lowered to a dull hum. He appeared all business, his tone clipped and sharp.

“Godfrey, Day…my office. Now.”

Day swallowed a lump of nerves when he walked into the cramped office and saw the SWAT lieutenant, his sergeant, the precinct commander…and the chief.

Chief Robinson stood rigidly behind their captain’s desk with his face buried in a thick file.

Oh shit.

Day began to go over every detail of the bust from the moment they stormed in to the last zip tie they cinched, coming up with no violations.

The chief only made an appearance when the captain was in trouble.

“Sit down, God,” the chief ordered, not taking his eyes off the papers he was flipping through.

“I’m good,” God rumbled.

Chief Robinson threw a hard glare in God’s direction.

“Sit your big ass down, Godfrey. I don’t need you towering over me. I got a big little-man complex.”

Day bit his tongue so he didn’t laugh since that confession was probably true. Robinson couldn’t’ve been any taller than five foot six. It was rumored he stood on a stool when doing press conferences.

Good thing the guy had a lot of power.

God eased onto the chair beside him, both staying quiet.

It was another five minutes before the chief looked back at them.

“You guys are making quite the name for yourselves, especially if the stories have reached all the way to my office.”

Silence.

“You not only catch every bad guy you go after, and even some that the other officers can’t seem to get, but you do it by the book every single time.” The captain frowned at a particular page. “Well…mostof the time.”

Day smirked.

“And they fuckin’ jump in front of bullets,” Joker added. “I’d be in the hospital with Jones and Brown right now if it wasn’t for God. And a few of my men swear they wouldn’t’ve made it out of that warehouse alive if it weren’t for these two.”

“Shit, man, I’ve never seen anything like what they did,” Joker’s lieutenant agreed.

The chief cocked his head to the side. “Impressive when you’ve both only been on the force for three years.”

Robinson’s dull blue eyes watched them for a long moment before he slammed the file closed.

“If you keep this up, you two won’t be in a squad car and blue digs much longer. My office is talking promotions.”

Day’s heart leaped to his throat.

“I’m sure you already know this, but we’ve got drug dealers taking over this city, and it’s getting harder to catch these shitheads. They’re targeting schools, low-income neighborhoods, and shanking down struggling businesses.”

Oh, they knew very well, and he and God wanted more of the kind of action they had today.

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