What the hell did that mean? He was in front of her and let the knuckles of his free hand graze slowly down her cheek and neck, landing on her chest. His finger circled the underside of her breast, and he grinned, his pupils dilating as he caught the scent of fear in the air. She batted his hand away and grabbed his fingers, bending them backward until he yelped, his other hand releasing its death grip on her upper arm.
“I told you not to touch me,” she warned. Thankfully, between the academy and her father, Krista was no slouch when it came to self-defense. She’d taken down bigger men than him at the academy. But what she lacked was experience. Myles was a senior officer. He knew more tricks and wrist flicks than she did, and before she knew it, he had her spun around, her back to his chest and her stomach pressed hard—too hard—against the counter. She winced from the sudden pain, her brain immediately flying to the little jellybean or avocado or whatever it was now inside her. She prayed it was okay.
“Like it rough, do you? Well, I can work with that.” He tore at the buttons on the front of her shirt and shoved his hand inside her now-open shirt and fondled her breasts. Squeezing just a bit too hard. His warm breath on her neck smelled faintly of coffee and whatever he’d eaten earlier that day. She struggled with all her might to get away, but instead he just pulled tighter.
“I could kill you or fuck you right now,” he said, a menacing chuckle in his tone. He flipped her back around to face him, pinning her arms behind her with his free hand.
Krista tilted her head up and met his gaze. Nothing but blackness stared back at her. “You make me sick,” she said with a sneer before rearing her head back and spitting in his face.
If eternal darkness could grow even darker, even bleaker and more desolate, it did so in Myles Slade’s eyes. His lips curled up into a sinister smile. “I’m going to enjoy breaking you, Matthews.” Then his mouth crashed down on hers, and he rammed his tongue to the back of her throat as his hands on her wrists tightened until she fought not to cry out in pain.
But she wouldn’t go down without a fight. If he was going to take her right here in the work breakroom, she was going to make it as difficult for him as possible. She chomped down hard on his tongue until she tasted blood, making the man yip like a poodle and release her in the process.
“Fucking bitch!”
He lunged for her again, but Krista had managed to sprint to the door, one hand on the knob, the other on the taser firmly in her hip.
His eyes drifted down to her hand. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Just try something like that again, and we’ll see. I’d rather get suspended for what I did in that jail cell or go to prison for tasing a cop’s dick than let that dick anywhere near me,” she whispered, using every last ounce of energy she had left to keep her voice from quavering. She unlocked the door and opened it. “Stay. The. Fuck. Away. From. Me.” Then she turned around and headed to the locker room to go and fix her shirt.
Ignoring the fact that she was supposed to be out on patrol with Myles, after finding a new shirt in her locker and splashing some cool water on her face, Krista made her way to Staff Sergeant Wicks’ office. Every muscle, every bone, every fiber of her being trembled as she brought her fist up and rapped on his door.
“Enter,” he barked, the shuffle of papers greeting her as she slowly opened the door.
Was his office abnormally hot and stuffy? Or were those just her nerves causing sweat to break out on the back of her neck and between her breasts? Stupid hormones.
“Matthews?” Wicks said, lifting his head. “Shouldn’t you and Slade be out on patrol?”
Krista licked her lips, tossed her shoulders back and stepped inside, closing the door softly behind her. “May I speak with you, please, sir?”
He nodded at the empty chair in front of his desk.
Holding on to the back of the chair, she slid into the seat, grateful to be off her feet for a moment.
“What can I do for you, rookie?”
Right! She was a rookie. Hadn’t even been on the force a year, and she was already requesting light duty and complaining about her partner. She was going to be labeled as “that” person. The whiner. The snitch. The rookie who couldn’t keep her legs shut and got knocked up in the first six months of her career.
Wicks lifted one bushy salt and pepper eyebrow. “Rookie?”
“Sir, I’m pregnant.”
The other eyebrow joined its twin. “Really?”
She nodded. “Yes, sir. I apologize, as I know this isn’t ideal. It wasn’t planned. Just a … happyaccident, if you will. But I’m here to officially request light dutyeven though I know I should have sooner. And I apologize. It is no longer in the best interest of me or my partner for me to continue working in the field.” She exhaled. Her gaze moved from his light brown eyes to his stapler. The stapler couldn’t possibly look at her with as much judgment as she was sure he was looking at her with at the moment.
He cleared his throat. “Well, congratulations, Rookie. I’ll be sorry to pull you from the field. You’re a good cop. Slade has nothing but good things to report about you.”
He what?
Krista nearly swallowed her tongue. And she must have made a noise or a face of disbelief, because Wicks cocked his head. “You don’t believe me?”
Blinking half a dozen times, she shook her head to clear out the bullshit. “I … it’s just, well, I was also coming in here to file a formal complaint about Constable Slade.”
The staff sergeant’s jaw visibly tightened. “Oh, really?”
Her head bobbed. “Yes. Since early on, Constable Slade has been inappropriate with me and making sexual advances. I’ve asked him to stop, but he doesn’t seem to take no for an answer. Just earlier he cornered me and ripped open my shirt and touched me and kissed me.” The back of her eyes burned with the desire not to cry. Her throat wasn’t much better off as it slowly threatened to stop her speech altogether with each word she got out.
