In Bed With the Badge by Marie Ferrarella Page B

relationship with your daughter and I need to show Barker that he doesn’t scare me.” Hopefully, thelieutenant respected people who didn’t cave and wouldn’t view them as a threat to his authority.
    “He’ll be sorry to hear that,” Sam said with a quiet laugh. “He likes putting the fear of God into all his people.”
    “God, maybe,” she allowed. “Him? No,” she said as she watched Sam take a healthy bite of the pizza. “By the way, I looked through every cupboard, but all I found were paper plates.”
    He took another bite before answering. “That’s because that’s what I have. This way, when I’m finished, I can just throw them out. I’m not a big fan of having the dishes pile up in the sink.”
    “Then don’t let them pile up in the sink,” she told him simply. “You need plates, Wyatt. You have a daughter, you need plates.” Since he eyed her skeptically, Riley added, “Kids need a sense of stability.”
    He wouldn’t argue with that, just with her reasoning, which seemed a little off to him. “And having plates’ll do this?”
    “For openers,” she said confidently. “Paper plates are transient, real plates aren’t. They say ‘we’re staying put.’” She smiled at him. “I’ll give you more tips as we go along.”
    Granted, she was a female, but that didn’t immediately make her more qualified than he was at this. “You have any kids?”
    “No.” She knew where this was headed—or thought she did. “I’ve never been married.”
    “You don’t need to be married to have a kid,” he reminded her. “I seem to be living proof of that. But ifyou don’t have any, what makes you think you’re such an expert?”
    She didn’t know if he was challenging her, or just curious. The man was probably very stressed out by this sudden turn of events in his life so she gave him the benefit of the doubt.
    “Easy.” She smiled at him broadly. “I’m just good at everything.”
    “Right. I should have known.” He knew her well enough to sense she was kidding. “Hey, McIntyre,” he called after her as she walked into the living room and picked up her purse from the sofa.
    On her way to the front door, she stopped and looked at him over her shoulder. “Yeah?”
    Pushing his chair away from the table, Sam got up and crossed to her. “Thanks,” he told her sincerely. “For everything.”
    She raised and lowered her shoulders in a careless gesture. There was no need to thank her, although she had to admit the fact that he did pleased her. “That’s what partners are for.”
    An impulse suddenly flashed through him, so quickly and sharply that it stunned Sam. She was standing only a breath away from him. Maybe it was gratitude, or maybe it was a sudden need, but he wanted to kiss her.
    Common sense prevailed and restrained him. “See you tomorrow.”
    Riley had absolutely no idea why there was this sudden rise of temperature within her body, why the spacebetween them seemed to shrink without either one of them making a move. She needed fresh air, she decided.
    Now.
    “Tomorrow,” Riley echoed. Still facing him, she reached behind her and pulled the door open. The next second, she’d made her retreat. It couldn’t honestly be called anything else.
     
    He thought the noise was coming from outside.
    A moment ago he’d been asleep, but the sound had spliced through the darkness in his bedroom, rousing him even as it teased his brain for identification.
    What was that?
    Propping himself up on his elbows, Sam cocked his head and listened intensely. His apartment wasn’t located that far from the communal pool. It seemed like someone was always throwing a party in that general vicinity. Parties that lasted well into the night and occasionally growing progressively louder by the hour. These hot October nights had everyone wanting to cool off in the pool.
    But this didn’t sound like some sort of a party noise. This sounded more like someone crying. A young someone.
    And the