I grinned wide. “At the last police department I worked at, there was a cop there that I used to eat lunch with every day. I’m not sure why we did, but we did. At first he was delegated to desk duty because he still wasn’t one hundred percent yet. Anyway, so I started eating lunch with him, then we became friends, and when he got better we just stayed friends. I tried to convince him to move to Kilgore with me, actually.” I paused for breath then poked the new bionic knee. “Anyway, I found this company—this one.” I pointed at the prosthetic. “And I convinced him to give it a try. He loves his. Tell me you love yours?”
Foster was grinning ear to ear. “Yeah, it’s much easier to work with.”
I tucked his pants leg back down over his boot, then stood. “Davy actually used to live here. He was one of a bunch of guys that came here to recover after the war. He was pretty bad off, but a woman here was able to get him a job and get him back on track. Mandy’s… Minnie’s…”
“Mercy,” Miller said from behind me.
I snapped my fingers as I said, “Yes. Her!”
Miller was grinning ear to ear. “Was this man’s name David Crocket?”
I started laughing. “Yeah. Oh, man. He got so much shit for that name. Davy is the best, though. You know Mercy?”
“You could say that,” Foster muttered under his breath. “Intimately.”
My brows rose as I looked from one brother to the other. “Intimately?”
“Mercy is his wife,” Foster offered up. “You know.” He pumped his hips suggestively. “Intimately.”
I snorted and froze when I heard someone say from behind me, “If you could please not ever do that again, that would be great.”
I turned to find Luke Roberts standing there with his massive arms crossed across his chest.
I swallowed hard, still just as intimidated now as I was then.
“I got your background check back,” he said, making my heart start to pound. “Clean. You got your writing hand ready? I have a shit ton of papers for you to sign before we talk salary and how good of an insurance plan we have.”
I grinned wickedly. “That would be great… but just sayin’, I have to be out of here in about an hour. I want to go to the lawyer with Ace. He’s having a rough time of it lately.”
Luke nodded as if he understood my need to be with Ace.
And I felt my face flush.
“Sounds good. I don’t see it taking…”
“Uhh,” Marie said from behind us. “What’s going on?”
Luke looked over at her. “I was looking for you this morning. Do you happen to know if there were any applications for Codie Spears?” He gestured at me with a thumb. “She said she applied in person when she rolled into town, yet I never saw her paperwork on my desk.”
Marie’s eyes widened as she slowly shook her head.
“No, sir,” she said slowly, lying boldly to the man who was her boss, and could probably read her like an open book.
“Okay,” Luke said, drawing the word out like he didn’t believe her.
Marie scurried off to the desk that was in a small room that led to a larger room that I assumed was Luke’s office.
“When are you going to fire her?” Miller asked.
Luke sighed. “When I can find a way not to offend the ex-assistant-police chief.”
Thirty minutes later, I was the proud new owner of a KPD—Kilgore Police Department—issued ID badge, a shit ton of paperwork in a nifty folder that I was going to have to find a use for since it had handcuffs on the cover, and a ton of pens.
“Why do you have so many pens?” I asked curiously.
When I’d taken one and stuffed it into my purse—that was what the cup full of complimentary pens was for, correct?—he’d brought a box out from under his desk and ordered me to take more.
I had, and when three wasn’t enough, I took an entire handful.
“The new printing company in town?” he said.
At my nod, he continued. “My daughter started working last week to earn some cash so she didn’t have to borrow money from me that came with stipulations. They started using KDP as a guinea pig to help promo other companies. Now I have like ten boxes in the storage room and she brings me more every fuckin’ day. Yesterday it was bookmarks.”
“And today,” a young girl who was all of sixteen said. “It’s cell phone holders!”
I grinned at the look of exasperation on Luke’s face.
“Why the hell do you keep bringing me shit?” he grumbled, but nonetheless took the box she held out.
I pulled out one of the plastic wrapped thingies and looked at it quizzically.
“Your phone goes into this little notch right here,” she said. “Just pull it out into a V, place it on the counter, and set your phone right into it!”