Really.
People talked about women with ‘Resting Bitch Face,’ but Duval had been told, by every commanding and training officer, that he had ‘constant insubordinate face.’
It hadn’t served him well.
Ever.
It took a while before people were able to distinguish between his snark and humor and his pissant behavior.
Sometimes they just blended together.
It’s not like he had a lot of control over that.
He smiled imagining West’s face if he ever said that out loud in front of their S.W.A.T. leader.
West was constantly telling him to ‘watch his face.’
It was only his respect for the man that kept him from quipping out a reply like, ‘got a mirror?’
Yeah, he really did wallow in it sometimes, but most of the time, his no-nonsense expression kept suspects from doing stupid things.
Too many stupid things.
Even his hard facial expressions were failure proof.
He finished settling his trouser legs and his boots to rights and picked up his duffel. “Okay,” he gave his team a nod. “I’m headed out. See y’all on the next shift.”
He didn’t wait for goodbyes.
Or even a wave.
He just turned and walked out with as close to a smile as he got sitting on his lips.
His sister rarely came into the City of San Antonio unless something was really interesting.
He wanted to know what was important enough for her to brave the traffic in the city.
When he excitedthe locker room he saw Douglas standing too damn close to his sister.
And by too damn close, Duval meant within a mile of his little sis.
He pushed open the door to the briefing room and felt a smug twist pull at his lips when Douglas startled.
If he’d swung the door harder, Duval might have been able to pull a rather silly noise from the other man, but he didn’t want to scare his sister.
“McCrae!” Katie stood up and Douglas back pedaled into a chair and nearly took himself down to the ground.
His sister giggled and Douglas went from flustered to fuming, steam nearly pouring out of his ears, a moment later.
Duval kept moving, coming to a stop when he was toe to toe with the other ranger.
“W-what are you doing?” Douglas’ eyes moved from Katie to him and back again.
“Don’tlook at my sister, Douglas.”
“I was just talking to-”
“My sister, Douglas. You’re bothering my sister.”
