Page 2 of Wanted: Forever (Murdock Brothers #3)

Parker

I’d been out on my patrol. I’d drawn the short straw on the overnights this week. Jonas Tanaka, one of our late shift officers, was out on leave thanks to a torn rotator cuff.

It was going to be a long six months unless I could convince the mayor to give me a little more budget to hire a temporary replacement. Or, a long shot, two permanent people.

Even longer with this kind of bullshit.

The park shenanigans wasn’t even my first drunken idiocy of the evening. Hell, not even my second.

“Stay there.”

“Staying,” came the resigned voice. It just had to be Cash Murdock—one of the six and my least favorite. Because I hadn’t had enough fun on this Thursday night.

I’d crashed a party at the old factories on the edge of town.

They were getting bigger and bolder with a couple dozen teens congregating at the back of the buildings where patrols couldn’t see them from the road.

Then Ladies Night had ended up in a brawl at Table Talk.

Who knew people could get so heated at a tabletop game night?

Add in the insane heatwave, a few of the players pre-gaming next door at Rafferty’s, and it created the perfect storm.

I’d been warned during the shift handoff that Rafferty’s had a rambunctious crowd tonight. Between the bar and Table Talk, the drunk tank had been popular tonight.

I had two women nursing black eyes and a busted lips on the ladies’ side, and another five warming the benches on the men’s side. What the hell was I going to do with this idiot?

Cash swayed a little and I rolled my eyes.

Looks like I was making it six.

I walked around the truck.Daisy Rae sat in the back of the Chevy. A network of tie downs held the statue safely in the center. I flashed my MagLite toward the fountain.

How the hell did this drunk idiot do that?

I paced back around the truck where Cash still had his hands up, his eyes closed against the takedown light illuminating every inch of him.

Every long inch.

Had he gotten bigger?

I wasn’t sure how that was at all possible.

He’d been the quarterback for Indigo Valley High and starred in a few of my teenage dreams. The golden god on the field and troublemaker the minute he got off.

Driving his motorcycle too fast, partying too hard, and never dated the same girl for longer than a month.

Evidently, he hadn’t grown out of the troublemaker part.

“Have you been drinking?”

He rocked back on his heels. “I plead the fifth.”

I tucked my flashlight into my utility belt. “You’re swaying.”

“I’m actually being blinded by the light.” He said in a singsong tone like the lyrics to the song.

“Is this your pickup?”

“Maybe.”

It was easy enough to double check his plates and pull up his record, which he knew.

“You do realize driving while intoxicated and theft are some hefty charges, Mr. Murdock.”

“I wasn’t driving.”

“You’re the only one here.”

“Deserters,” he muttered.

“What was that?”

“Nothing. Look, you got me. I’m not going to run unlike my idiot bro—” he cut himself off.

“Your brothers? Which ones?” I pulled out my notebook.

He shook his head. “Snitches get stitches.”

I sighed and tucked my notebook into my vest. “Please put your hands on the truck, Mr. Murdock.”

“You seem to know me, but I don’t know you. What happened to Chief Pope?”

“Hands on the truck.”

He huffed, then turned toward the truck, following instructions. “Look, new Chief. We were just having a bit of fun with Daisy. No harm. I’ll make sure she’s back on the fountain by sunset tomorrow.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Oh, c’mon.” He glanced at me and bloodshot gray eyes finally focused. The pupils slowly went from pinpricks to a heavy darkness leaving a thin gray line around them. His gaze tracked down my body and the corner of his ridiculously full lips tipped up. “Upgrade.”

“Eyes forward.”

“Right.” He turned his head to stare straight over the hood of his sterling gray hood.

Did he pick the stupid truck because it matched his eyes?

Jeeze, Parker, get it together.

“How much have you had to drink tonight?” I was a tall woman, but Cash was well over six feet. I wasn’t worried about our size differential. I knew at least six ways to incapacitate a person of any size, but the heat pumping off his skin in the humid July night was distracting.

As was the rugged, expensive scent coming off of him. It warred with his faded Def Leppard shirt and ancient jeans wet to the knees.

“Well, it is my birthday.”

“That’s no excuse to climb into the fountain, Mr. Murdock.”

“Cash. And who said I did any of this?”

“Your soaked boots and wet jeans.”

He looked down at his feet and I could hear the squish of the water as he shifted. “Yeah, that doesn’t look good for me.”

I brusquely patted his shoulders then followed the warm line of his back and gritted my teeth at the obvious muscles beneath the cotton.

I quickly checked around the waistline of his jeans.

The angle he was at left a gap between his shirt and belt and my fingers skimmed over warm skin and soft hair just above the button.

I quickly moved on and patted his pockets and ignored the weapon that was definitely of the skin variety until I found a pocketknife.

I scooped it out of his pocket and tucked it into my vest.

“Hey. I don’t want to lose that.”

“I’ll be logging it in with you at the station.”

“Oh, c’mon Chief...what’s your name?”

“Chief Olsen.”

“Olsen.” His voice was a purr. “Are you new to town and the badge, Chief Olsen?”

“Legs apart.”

He shifted his weight, widening his stance, and I quickly ran my hands down his legs to the damp cuffs of his jeans. I gave a cursory look at his boots. They were laced too tight to be holding a gun or knife.

I’d learned my lesson by not checking all the way down. At my old job a drunk idiot had gotten a swipe at me as I’d been cuffing his friend. I still had the scar to remind me of my idiocy.

I stepped back. “Your arm, please.”

He sighed and let me bring it around his back, along with the other. I snapped the cuffs around his wrists—which barely clicked around the thickness—and turned him around. I held a hand to his middle, keeping him against the truck.

I clicked the relay mic at my shoulder. “Leroy?”

“Yeah, boss?” Came the dispatch voice.

“I have a...” I didn’t even know the code for this. “I’m coming in with a drunk and disorderly.”

“Hey, I’m not disorderly.” Cash grinned down at me. “Unless you want me to be. Do you like it rough, Chief?”

I pushed him harder against the truck.

“You good, boss?”

“I’m fine. Bringing in a male in his late thirties.”

“Hey.” His tawny eyebrows furrowed. “Thirty-two, thanks.”

I knew how old he was, but couldn’t help needling him a little.

“Not sure of the code violation off the top of my head but theft of property in the park.”

There was a pause, then Leroy’s crackly voice. “Aww, not Daisy again.”

Cash grinned.

I gave him a flat stare, but he just kept smiling. The crinkles at the corner of his eyes made something stir in my belly.

Absolutely not.

Not a Murdock and especially not this Murdock brother. Hell no.

Suddenly his demeanor slid away from defiant charm to pleasure. “Parker Olsen. Skinny Parker. Damn, girl. You have grown up.”

I pulled him away from the truck and pointed him toward my cruiser. I hadn’t been that gangly Parker in a long time. I’d left for college and learned about strength training and had worked my ass off to fill out and had been rewarded with some curves when I turned twenty.

“You were in school with Gus, weren’t you?”

I didn’t answer. I’d graduated with Gus. He’d been on the track team with me and his brothers came to our meets sometimes. Usually Cash, with a new girl wrapped around him all the time.

I hated that I secretly wanted to be one of them for a time.

I opened the back door, cupping his head so he wouldn’t slam it into the roof of the car with his size. Being that close to him the warm scent wrapped around me and I was very glad my vest was bulky and hid the state of my nipples.

I slammed the door and clicked the mic on my shoulder again. “I’m going to put a boot on the suspect’s truck and I’ll be in.”

“Got it, boss.”

I locked the cruiser, grabbed what I needed from my trunk. The smirk slid off Cash’s face when I waggled the boot on my way by. Finally, he didn’t have a smartass remark.

I put up some cones and locked up his tire so no one could drive off with the damn duck.

“Sorry, Daisy.” I patted the statue then went back to my car.

“The boot was rude,” he said from the back.

“So one of your brothers could come back and finish off the prank? I wasn’t born yesterday, Cash.”

The ride to the station was quiet. The smile was long gone and I was pretty sure Cash’s buzz went with it. Being two hundred pounds of male meant he didn’t hold onto the buzz unless he was sloppy drunk, which I didn’t think he was.

Far too drunk to drive though.

I couldn’t get him on that since he was out of his vehicle, but you could be sure he’d be adding this little adventure to his record.

I got him booked and was dumbfounded to find another four men added to the now crowded cells in the back.

Leroy was doing intake and had a stack of fingerprint cards at his computer. “I got him, Chief.”

“Thanks.Send Micah and Sam to the fountain on their morning shift. We have to figure out some way to get Daisy back into the fountain.” I glanced at Cash. “Might you have a clue?”

He just shrugged and grinned.

Annoyed, I left Leroy to handle him.

Before I could walk away my admin waved me back. “Boss, we’re over capacity. Do you want me to send him to Saratoga?”

“No, we don’t need to get county involved.” I sighed. “Stick him in my office. I’ll figure out where to put him.”

“Got it.”

Cash’s lips twitched.

I gave him my death glare. “Enjoy your birthday mug shot, Mr. Murdock.”

“Oh, I will. Third time’s the charm.”

I slammed my molars together as I walked away.It was almost three and I still had a few more hours of patrol.

There wasn’t much to do on a Thursday night, but I liked to roll through town a few times to make sure there was nothing going on. The kids were out of school and I was more than aware of how boring it could be when you were a teen and restless as hell.

I pushed out the door and tried to leave Cash Murdock behind me.