Page 19 of Devil's Hour
“Officers and EMT are already en route,” Royce said, not surprised someone had already dialed 911. “While we wait, why don’t you tell me why you were running from us.”
“I thought you were my girlfriend’s dad coming home from work early,” he cried. “The dude hates me.”
“Is your girlfriend’s dad a cop?” Royce countered. The guy just shook his head. “Then why didn’t you stop as soon as I identified myself?”
“I’d already committed to running,” the smartass said.
Royce snorted. “Look how well that turned out.”
“How old is your girlfriend?” Sawyer asked. Royce knew where his mind had gone.
The guy flipped Sawyer off. “She’s eighteen. I ain’t no pervert.”
“A word of advice, Ray,” Royce groused. “If her family hates you so much you’re willing to run into oncoming traffic to avoid them, you might want to rethink things.”
“After I sue your ass, I’ll have money to set us up somewhere away from her stupid family anyway. We’re in love, and no one can stop us from being together.”
“A modern-day Romeo and Juliet,” Sawyer replied dryly.
The patrol unit arrived almost immediately, and they heard the ambulance sirens in the near distance. Royce had to bite the inside of his cheek when he saw Diego Fuentes and his partner were the responding officers. Just great. He remembered how the tall cop’s demeanor had changed when Sawyer arrived at The Putz’s crime scene on his first day with the SPD. The kid stood taller, puffed out his chest, and aimed his jockstrap-melting smile at Sawyer. They’d run into Fuentes several times since then, and his attraction and admiration for Sawyer lit up his face like a neon sign. It flashed messages like “take me,” “let me drop to my knees for you,” and “I already carved our initials in a tree. DF+SK 4ever.”Christ.
“Hello again, Detective Key,” Fuentes said while eye-fucking his man. “Twice in one day. Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket or something.”
Sawyer laughed, but Royce could tell it was forced, and he looked a little embarrassed.Wait. Twice in one day? How was that possible? They’d spent the entire day—Ohh.Fuentes was the cop who’d pulled Sawyer over for running the stop sign.
Fuck you, universe, for shoving this out-and-proud hunk in front of my guy while I hide behind my old letterman jacket in the closet.
Fuentes tore his gaze away from Sawyer and nodded at Royce. “Good to see you too, Detective Locke.”
“Sergeant Locke,” Royce corrected, raising his voice to be heard over the ambulance sirens as it pulled up to the scene. Thankfully, they turned them off as soon as they parked.
Fuentes turned back to Sawyer. “That’s right. You did mention his pinning ceremony this morning.”Just how long had they chatted during the traffic stop?Recalling Sawyer’s joke about giving the cop a blow job to get out of a ticket made Royce want to punch Fuentes’s smug mouth when he grinned at him. “Congratulations,Sergeant.”
“Can I get some help here?” the guy on the ground asked, pulling everyone’s attention to him.“I hate to inconvenience anyone, but I did just get run over by a car. I could end up with permanent damage.” The driver started sobbing louder.
Royce waved the EMTs over and stepped aside. “We’ll turn this scene over to you, fellas,” Royce said to Fuentes and his partner.
Fuentes interviewed the shaken driver while his partner, Bergman, asked Royce and Sawyer about the incident as the EMTs loaded Ray into the ambulance and drove him to the nearest hospital.
“Any idea which house he’d snuck out of?” Bergman asked. “I’m not willing to take his word for it that the young lady is a consenting adult since his reactions were so extreme.”
“No,” Royce said. “I can’t even say for sure which street.”
“We’ll head to the hospital to get his statement, and I’ll snap his picture with my phone so I can knock on some doors in the neighborhood.” Royce admired his gumption. He glanced over at Sawyer, who’d moved off to the side to take a phone call. “So that’s the guy Fuentes won’t shut up about, huh? Is he single?”
Down, boy, Royce chided himself. “Nope. He has a boyfriend, and he’s crazy about the guy.”
“Really? Fuentes will be bummed.”
“Yeah, really,” Royce said, unable to look away from Sawyer, who was grinning at something he heard on the phone. “Too bad for Fuentes.” Feeling his attention, Sawyer glanced over and smiled.
Bergman chuckled. “Ah, I see.” Good. Royce hoped like hell Bergman convinced his partner to abandon his crush on Sawyer. “Well, I got everything I need. I’ll call you if I think of something else.”
Royce tore his attention away from Sawyer to shake Bergman’s hand. “Sounds good.”
Sawyer disconnected his call and joined him a few seconds later. His smirk did nothing to improve Royce’s suddenly shitastic mood.
“Not a word out of you,” Royce said, turning toward the Charger.