Page 35 of Star Crossed
Chapter Seven
Feet up on the desk, with her laptop in her lap, Jules was reading over the information on a new case. She was helping Katie Foster for nothing more than the cost of expenses because Katie was naive and sweet and should have never gotten married at nineteen. Now the young teacher was forced to battle through a divorce from a man who didn’t want to let her go and was resorting to the age-old technique of making Katie’s life as miserable as possible in the hopes of her just giving up and going back to him.
Not if Jules had anything to do with it. If Katie wanted to be free and clear to start over, Jules was going to make sure that’s what happened—she hated bullies.
Her cell phone buzzed on the desk, and she reached over, picked it up, and grinned. She slid her finger across the glass and then touched the picture of Romeo to make it bigger. With snow sparkling under the bright lights, he looked as handsome as ever standing in the street with all the flash of Times Square behind him. He wore a black leather jacket and a matching black ski hat pulled low over his ears, but it did nothing to hide his handsome features. She actually touched the screen nostalgically, missing him even when she knew it was dangerous to do so.
Then the dispatch buzzed, and she scrambled to put her laptop on the desk as she answered the call. “911, what’s your emergency?”
“Jules, that you? I can’t believe they gotcha working on New Year’s with as much work as you got all the time.”
Jules tossed her cell on the desk next to the computer to give the caller her full attention as she repeated, “What’s the emergency?”
“Jason and Carl were drinking too much, and they got into it.”
Jules brushed the fine blonde hairs that had escaped her braid off her forehead as she asked, “They’re fighting now?”
“Yeah, dumb-asses. They’re beating each other black-and-blue.”
Jules frowned in concern. “Is this Fran?”
“Who else would it be?” Fran asked bitterly. “No one else gives a shit if they kill each other. I’m nine months pregnant. I need a healthy paycheck bringing food home, and here Carl thinks it’d be a good idea to invite his brother over for New Year’s. You know Jason’s been drinking a lot since Sara left and—”
“Fran, where are they right now?” Jules interrupted her. “Are you in any danger?”
“No, I’m fine. They’re out in the front yard. In the snow. Idiots.”
“Do they have any weapons?”
“Not unless you count thick skulls as weapons.”
“No guns?” Jules clarified. “Or anything they could use to cause serious injury? Bats? Knives?”
“Nah, all the guns are still in the house. Hold on, lemme make sure they ain’t gotten into the shed since I called ya.” Fran huffed as if she were attempting to get up. After a few moments she said, “Just two drunk morons out there trying to drown each other in the snowdrifts.”
“Okay, I want you to go ahead and lock ’em out of the house. We wanna keep you safe, and we wanna make sure they’re not grabbing any guns,” Jules said calmly. “We’re gonna send someone out there to break it up.”
“It’s freezing out. They’re gonna get frostbite.”
“They’ll be all right,” Jules assured her. “We got all our units out. It won’t be more than a few minutes until someone gets there.”
“Thanks, Jules, I sure do appreciate it.”
“Lock the door. And go ahead and gimme your address so I can make sure they find ya.”
“Shoot, the sheriff knows where we’re at. Not like he ain’t been out here before.”
“Just give it to me,” Jules said, turning in her chair and typing at the main computer. “And I need a call-back number.”
Jules quickly took Fran’s information before hanging up and then picked up the dispatch radio.
“Two-alpha-five.”
It took less than twenty seconds before Wyatt’s voice crackled over the system, “Two-alpha-five.”
“I got a signal 38 at 14 Pine Ridge Way.”
“Sorry,” Wyatt responded back. “I’m 1015 with a signal 10 and 1025 to the station.”
