“Ho! Take it easy!” Allie held her hands out, palms forward. “Deo, baby. Easy. I’m just late for work.”

“Late for work?” Deo looked at her like she was crazy. “Jesus.

What do they do, fl og you?” She shook her head, breathing hard, and put the gun away. Then she grabbed Allie and kissed her. “Good morning.”

“I’m not going to ask if you have a license—”

• 53 •

RADCLY fFE

“I do, Offi cer Tremont.” Grinning, Deo kissed her again. “I carry a fair amount of cash for the payroll and other things. I got jumped once in the parking lot on the wharf.”

Allie didn’t mention that Deo had reacted as if she’d expected someone to break in and accost them. She’d slept with her—well, they hadn’t actually done much sleeping. She’d spent the night letting Deo explore just about every part of her body and had revealed a good deal of herself to Deo in the process, but four outstanding orgasms still didn’t give her the right to get personal.

“I’ve got fi rst shift,” Alley said, hastily picking through the clothes on the fl oor, “and Reese will kick my ass if I’m not on time.” She dropped her panties back into the pile. She couldn’t wear those again.

“Shit. I don’t have time to pick up my car at the station, go home, shower, change, and get back to work on time.”

“Is there a plan B?” Deo grabbed her khakis off the fl oor and pulled them on, not bothering with a shirt.

“I’ve got a spare uniform in my locker, and I can shower here.”

Allie grimaced. “’Course I’m still going to have to walk in there with the same clothes on as I was wearing last night. Nothing like announcing I’ve been out all night fucking.” She scanned Deo’s body. Her biceps swelled even when she was relaxed and her chest and abdominal muscles rippled beneath the smooth burnished skin. Despite the hard body, her breasts were just large enough to soften her image. That—in addition to the fact that she opened so beautifully when Allie was inside her—made Deo a spectacularly delicious butch treat. Allie got a fl ash of how Deo’s stomach tightened when she was about to come and her clit pulsed. “Jesus, you’re sexy. I feel like a cat with a big ball of catnip.

I just want to roll around in you.”

“If we weren’t on the clock, I’d drag you back under the sheets. I woke up with an urge.”

“Sorry,” Allie said, patting Deo’s crotch. “I can’t.”

“I know. That’s why I’m going to make you coffee instead of getting into the shower with you. Go.”

“You could give me a break and put a shirt on too.”

Deo laughed and stretched. “Sure.”

On her way to the bathroom, Allie called back, “I don’t suppose you have any underwear that aren’t boxers, do you?”

Deo laughed. “Jockeys?”

• 54 •

Winds of Fortune

“Nevermind.”

Five minutes and a quick shower later, Allie returned to the bedroom with a bath towel wrapped around her to fi nd a steaming cup of coffee on the dresser next to a pair of plain black silk panties. Deo slouched in a scuffed brown leather reading chair by the window with her own cup of coffee balanced on her knee. She’d added a sleeveless grey T-shirt which was an improvement, but Allie still got a rush just looking at her. She scooped up the panties and dangled them on her fi nger. “Let me guess. You’re a collector.”

“You wound me.”

When Deo absently pulled her T-shirt up and rubbed her bare stomach, Allie felt a sharp twinge of arousal and forced herself to look away. What she really wanted to do was drop the towel and climb onto that chair and rub herself all over Deo’s amazing mouth. She slid on the panties. “Ex-girlfriend?”

“A present from one who liked her packages wrapped a little differently than what I was offering.”

With a shake of her head, Allie walked over and pushed her hand into Deo’s crotch. “Any girl who’d want to change a thing about you doesn’t deserve you.”

“You better quit that,” Deo said, not moving a single muscle.

“You’re getting me hard again.”

“That makes two of us.” Allie squeezed Deo for another second and then let go with a groan. “Really really sorry.”

“Get your clothes on so we can get out of here. I’m weakening.”

Allie laughed and pulled on her jeans and top. “Just in case you weren’t sure, last night was great.”

Deo shrugged and collected her keys. Straight faced, she said,

“After the third time I fi gured we were doing okay.”

“More than okay.” Allie kissed her quickly and hurried from the room. Fortunately, they were only a few minutes from the sheriff’s department and there was a chance she might make it almost on time.

“Is there anything we need to get clear on?” Deo said as she gunned her truck down Bradford. At seven twenty-fi ve in the morning, vehicular traffi c was scarce but the runners and cyclists were already out. She scanned both sides of the road, on the lookout for unwary tourists and frolicking dogs.

Allie turned sideways in her seat. “About last night?”

• 55 •

RADCLY fFE

“Yeah.”

“We’ve got some kind of heavy-duty chemistry thing going on, because I can’t even look at you without getting wet.” Allie smiled with satisfaction when Deo tensed. She liked turning her on. “So I wouldn’t mind a repeat. But if it doesn’t happen, I’m okay with it.”

Deo looked over at her. “I’m working twelve, fourteen hours a day.

Most of the time I have a beer or two after work and fall into bed.”

“I’ve been working a lot of doubles myself. If you’re awake some night and want company, call me.”

“Same here.” Deo swung into the parking lot next to the rambling, one story white building that looked like a cross between a Cape Cod cottage and a ranch house. Two cruisers and a van marked Provincetown Sheriff’s Department were parked in the lot, along with a few civilian cars and a Harley.

Allie released her seatbelt and slid across the seat toward Deo. She skimmed her hand under Deo’s shirt and caressed her stomach while nuzzling her ear. “All those nights I’m sleeping alone, I’m going to be making myself come thinking about you inside me.”

Deo kissed her hard. “You’re such a fucking tease.”

Laughing, Allie pulled away and jumped out of the truck. Leaning on the door, she said, “Are you complaining?”

“Do I look crazy?” Deo tilted her chin toward the building. “Better go to work. Take it easy, sexy.”

“I’ll see you around, hot stuff.”

Allie slammed the door and stepped back so Deo could back out.

Waving, she sprinted up the steps to the side entrance to the station.

With luck she wouldn’t run into anyone in the short hall that connected the squad room in the front with the small locker room in the rear.

She banged through the door into the unisex locker room and nearly fl attened Bri.

“Sorry,” Allie said breathlessly, sidling around Bri. She grabbed the combination lock on her locker and hastily dialed in the numbers. It didn’t open. She muttered a curse and started over again. So much for her luck holding.

“Reese is waiting to start shift change,” Bri said. “I just came back to look for you.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I get dressed.”

“It looks bad when you show up like this, Al.”

• 56 •

Winds of Fortune

Allie shot Bri a look. Like she didn’t feel stupid enough already for forgetting to tell Deo to set an alarm. “Well thank you so much.

What are you, my babysitter now?”

“I don’t know,” Bri snapped. “Seems like you need one.”

“Oh, fuck you, Parker.” Allie whipped her top off, then remembered that she hadn’t put her bra on. Well, it wasn’t as if Bri had never seen her tits before. She could just close her eyes if it bothered her. She toed off her shoes, pushed down her jeans, and kicked everything into the bottom of her locker. Then she yanked her uniform shirt off the hanger.

“Just because you think being married is the answer to everything doesn’t make it so.”

“This isn’t about me. This is about you not thinking about what—

or who—you’re doing half the time.”

Allie jerked her pants up, jammed the tail of her shirt in, and zipped up. Then she grabbed her equipment belt and realized her weapon was locked in the trunk of her car in the parking lot where she’d left it last night when she’d hitched a ride with Bri to the party. “Crap.”

“Give me your keys. I’ll go get it.”

“Forget it.” Allie dug her keys out of the pocket of her jeans and shouldered past Bri. “Don’t do me any favors.”

Bri caught up to her in the hall and yanked on her arm. “Don’t be stupid. Finish dressing. It will only take me—”

“Would you two offi cers care to attend the morning briefi ng?”

Reese said from the far end of the hall. She stood with her hands behind her back, her legs slightly spread, her gaze unfl inching. “The chief is waiting.”

“Yes ma’am.” Bri snapped to attention. “We’ll be right there.”

“Now,” Reese said quietly.

“Go ahead,” Allie murmured, slinging her belt around her hips.

“Go.”

“Both of you.”

Silently, Allie fi nished buckling up and walked beside Bri into the squad room. Tony Smith and Jim Winters from the graveyard shift sprawled in chairs around a conference table in the corner of the room opposite the small communications center, waiting to make their reports and go home. Chief Nelson Parker leaned against the counter next to the table, munching on what Allie fi gured was a Tums. He seemed to eat them like candy lately, and at the moment his expression suggested he

• 57 •

RADCLY fFE

had indigestion. When he saw her, his scowl deepened. “Your uniform needs some work, Offi cer Tremont.”

When Tony and Jimmy smirked, Allie checked her shirt and realized she’d missed a button. It was a good thing her tits weren’t any bigger, because they would have been sticking out. Hastily, she turned her back and straightened her shirt. “Sorry, Chief.”

“Since you and Offi cer Parker don’t seem to be in any hurry to start your shift, you can both take the desks this morning.”

Desk duty was the worst. Filling out forms, answering phones, dying of boredom. Allie was pissed at Bri for being such a tightass all of a sudden, but she couldn’t let Bri take the blame for her screw up.

“It’s my fault Bri…that Offi cer Parker is late, sir—”

“No it isn’t,” Bri said fi rmly.

“Shut up, Bri,” Allie muttered.

“I don’t really care whose fault it is,” Nelson grumbled. “It’s 0740

and neither one of you…” He winced and rubbed his stomach. “Who the hell made the coffee this…” He caught his breath and his face lost all color. “Christ.”

“Chief?” Reese just managed to catch him as Nelson slumped to the fl oor.

“Dad?” Bri blurted. “Dad!”

“Call fi re rescue,” Reese ordered, feeling Nelson’s neck for a pulse. She couldn’t fi nd one. “Tell them to get here code four.”

Then she started CPR.

• 58 •

Winds of Fortune

CHAPTER SIX

Bri’s hands were shaking so badly she couldn’t push the right numbers on the phone pad. The last time she’d been this scared was when she saw Reese take a round in the chest when they had been trying to apprehend an arsonist. When she’d thought Reese was dying, she’d felt just like she did now—like she was crumbling inside, collapsing in on herself, the way the towers had in New York City when the steel had superheated and simply disintegrated. She fumbled with the phone. “I can’t…Jesus, I can’t—”

“Here, I’ve got it,” Allie said in a calm, unruffl ed voice, plucking the receiver from Bri’s nerveless fi ngers. She kicked the desk chair out with her foot as she punched in the number to fi re rescue. “Sit down here.”

“No, I’ve got to—”

“Sit. Reese will handle things.” Allie dropped her hand to Bri’s shoulder and guided her into the chair. She kept her hand there, softly stroking, as she spoke. “Geri? This is Allie Tremont at the station—we need a unit over here code four. Yeah…at the station. I don’t know, a heart attack I think.”

Allie disconnected and shouted to the room in general. “Everyone’s out on calls. Ten minutes, they said. Should I call Tory or someone?”

“Take too long,” Reese grunted as she knelt astride the Chief’s body. She compressed his chest with the steady rhythm of a metronome and intermittently directed Tony to administer a breath.

Allie hesitated, then made another call and spoke softly into the phone.

Bri stared past Allie to where Reese worked. She couldn’t see her dad’s face, but he wasn’t moving at all. When she’d only had twenty-four hours’ notice that Reese was leaving for Iraq, she hadn’t slept at all. Instead, she’d lain awake trying to think of how to thank Reese for everything she had done, starting with the day Reese had picked her up