the bastard and had him cuffed before Amber made it to their location. She glanced at the man and panted into her radio, "We need an ambulance at Marlin and..." She glanced around.
He keyed his mic. "Marlin and Pier Drive. Perp has abrasions, needs to be cleared by medical before we transport."
She nodded and dropped her hands to her knees, her service weapon still grasped in one hand. "Damn, he's a fast son of a bitch."
Brody stood and glanced at the perp. They both were going to be sore, but they'd both okay. He wished he was as resilient as the suspect appeared to be. Guess the cement wasn't very forgiving today. He pointed to the man and for the first time looked at Amber. "You got this?"
"Yeah. Thanks." She stood up and holstered her weapon. "Look, Brody, we should probably talk."
Wisps of her long red-gold hair fell from the ponytail she'd cinched it into, and the strands perched against her high cheekbone. Her face was flushed and her eyes, damn those blue-green eyes of hers, threw him right back to the moment he'd last seen her. She was still as beautiful as he remembered, perhaps more so now. The confidence she was rocking looked damn good on her. He shook his head. "Little late for that.”
She flipped her ponytail to her back and put her hands on her hips. "We're going to need to talk eventually. I'm permanently assigned to this team, and there are things I need to say, that I should've told you––"
"Let's cut through the shit. You're a member of my team. We work together. Nothing more. I'm your sergeant and in your chain of command. If you can't deal with that because of our past, you can report directly to Lt. Anderson or Captain Terrell." He turned as the ambulance rounded the corner on Marlin with a black and white behind it. He looked back at her. "Your refusal ten years ago said more than enough. I wasn't what you wanted."
"I was scared! I didn't want my life to pass me by!" she hissed as the ambulance stopped at their position.
He pointed at the man. "Deal with him. Radio in when you're clear."
He spun on his heel and headed back down the alley. The road rash and ache in his shoulder from tackling the suspect was nothing compared to the pain her words recalled. She didn't want her life to pass her by. As if he was going to weigh her down and stop her from living. He'd loved her with every cell of his being. She was the one for him. She always would be.
He'd almost died when she’d fled from him. Literally. No, he hadn’t been willing to let her go without a fight. When he'd recovered from the shock of her refusal, he’d driven to her sister's house. On the way there, he’d been t-boned by a delivery truck. The accident had put him in a coma for two weeks and then shit got tough. Surgeries and physical therapy distracted him from the rejection that caused more pain than any doctor could inflict. When he came out of the coma, he realized that while he’d gone after her initially, he wasn't going to beg her to love him. As he crossed the street, Colt shouted down the alley, "Brody, Captain wants to see you inside!"
Colt was obviously in charge of processing the SUV. All the doors stood open, and the forensics team assigned to their department was digging into their kits.
"Roger that. Derek and the perps?"
"Perps are in the wagon. Derek's heading down to the precinct with them. He'll sit on them until we get there."
Making sure their perps weren't “accidentally” released wasn't a joke. His father, the Hope City Police Commissioner, had made huge strides in rooting out the systemic corruption which had riddled the department as few as five years ago, but there were still those who “lost” paperwork for a few hundred dollars.
He made for the first door and entered the skanky smelling bar. His eyes adjusted to the darkened interior, and he headed toward the sound of voices. He entered the main seating area of the bar in time to hear his captain.
"What did you say?"
Oh hell, that couldn't be good. When Captain Terrell's voice got low and growled like that, he was one step away from flaying someone alive.
"What's up, Cap? You wanted to see me?"
His boss turned. Oh, hell yeah, he was pissed. The man's face