Hunks Pulled Over (4 page)

Turning away from the body, Emerald faced Rex’s parents and was very surprised by how young both of them looked. They had to be in their mid to late forties.

“Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton, I’m so sorry about your loss,” Emerald said expressing her sympathy as she slowly walked up to Rex’s grieving parents. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Chance still watching her. However, she couldn’t give him her attention because this moment wasn’t about him. He might still be trying to figure out who she was but now wasn’t the place for her to be thinking about it. Her main agenda was to get this family through the pain of finding out their son was no longer with them.

“You’re wrong,” Mrs. Hamilton shouted at her. “My baby boy isn’t dead. He ran away before just a few weeks ago and he came back home on his own. You have the wrong person underneath that sheet behind you.” Tears filled her eyes and poured down her cheeks.

“Judith, Officer Cutter wouldn’t have come and got us if the chief medical examiner wasn’t sure about Rex,” Mr. Hamilton told his wife as he looked at her then the covered body on the metal table a few feet behind her.

“Do you really believe our son killed himself?” Mrs. Hamilton yelled at her husband. “No, I won’t ever believe it. I know that isn’t him. I know he was having problems at school but not enough to take his own life.”

Emerald wanted it to be a different young man for Mrs. Hamilton, but it was their son. Dr. David had already confirmed it. At this point in her career, this kind of scene shouldn’t faze her since she had already witnessed too many painful moments like this one unfolding in front of her. Yet, each and every one still always got to her no matter how many times she did them throughout her work day.

Pushing her emotions to the side, she gathered the strength she needed to help these parents get through this. “Are you ready to see his body now?” she asked, softly.

Secretly, Emerald wondered how well Mrs. Hamilton was going to be able to handle this.

Her son Rex was dead and no one else was going to be replacing him underneath the blanket. Would she be able to come to grips with it when her own eyes finally saw the truth?

It would without a doubt devastate her to no end. Mr. Hamilton was really going to have to step up to help his wife cope with the reality of the situation.

“Yes, I’m ready,” Mrs. Hamilton told her as she moved away from her husband. “I can’t wait to prove all of you wrong about my baby boy. He isn’t dead.”

Going over to the sheet, Emerald looked at the parents then at Officer Cutter who nodded his head at her to continue before she pulled the sheet away revealing Rex’s face.

“OH MY GOD! NO!” Mrs. Hamilton’s anguished screams filled the otherwise quiet room as she stumbled up to her son’s cold body. “My baby...he can’t be dead.”

“I’m so sorry for your loss, Mrs. Hamilton,” Emerald whispered again watching as Rex’s mother ran her hand down her son’s smooth brown cheek.

“Get away from him,” she snapped. “I want to be alone with Rex. Leave us alone.”

Stepping away from the overcome mother, Emerald went over to Mr. Hamilton who had tears pouring down his cheeks. He looked like he had lost a piece of his heart.

“I’ll give the two of you a few minutes alone with your son,” she whispered touching him on the side of the arm.

“Thank you,” he said. “Was there a note found with my son’s body?”

Removing her hand, Emerald shook her head. “Dr. David didn’t find one at the river bank. So, I don’t think there was one, but if one does come up you and your wife will get a copy.”

She started to move away, but Mr. Hamilton touched her on the arm. “I used to take Rex fishing there all the time when he was a little boy. He loved that place. Anytime he needed to think about things my son would go there. I’m just so sad he didn’t come to us more about his problems before doing this to himself. Things would have gotten better for him. Why couldn’t Rex have seen that?” he questioned.

“Most people can’t see past the pain they’re feeling at the moment to their future,” Emerald replied softly as she stepped away. “I think you should go to your wife. She really needs you. I’m worried about her.”

Mr. Hamilton glanced away from her over to his wife who was bent over their son’s body sobbing. “You’re right. I need to help her, but all of this is just so—”

“I know. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Emerald moved away for a third time and went up to Officer Cutter who hadn’t taken his eyes off her the entire time.

“Let’s give them some privacy,” she said then walked past him.

Emerald was trying her best to ignore how her heart skipped a beat when his eyes had looked into hers. Now wasn’t the time for her mind to be excited about her past coming back. She had worked hard for years to get rid of her lingering feeling for Chance. It wasn’t easy to do, but she did it and without the help of her friends or family. She would be damned if she allowed his surprise appearance to bring them rushing back to the surface.

Going out the door, Emerald stood in the hallway looking at Chance as he came towards her. She did have to admit that his body had gotten better since they were younger. He looked amazing in his police uniform.

Stop it!
Her mind screamed.
Don’t you dare go there with him again
.
Chance was placed out of your mind for a reason. Remember why. Keep your distance from him. Today will be the last time you will probably ever lay eyes on him.

“You did a good job in there with them. I was very impressed with your empathy,” Officer Cutter said.

“Thank you,” Emerald answered. “I always try to put myself in their shoes. Death is hard on anyone, especially more when it is your child. I didn’t fault Mrs. Hamilton’s reaction at all. She wanted to believe her son was still alive.”

Officer Cutter continued to watch her closely. Emerald saw the curiosity shining in his light blue eyes. They searched her face like he was trying to read something that wasn’t there. She sensed he was about to say something that had nothing to do with this case.

“Do we know each other from somewhere?” he questioned. “I can’t shake this feeling we’ve met somewhere before. I’m usually pretty good with remembering things like this, but I can’t recall where we could’ve met.”

Emerald’s heart lodged in her throat as she thought of ways to get out of this situation. There was a slim chance that Chance would actually remember who she was. Too many years had passed for him to truly recall their encounter anyways. And besides, she’d taken pains then to disguise herself. Chance wouldn’t ever to be able to place the two of them together.

“I don’t think we do,” Emerald answered. “This is the first time I’ve ever met you. I could just have one of those faces.”

God... let him drop it.

Chance’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “No, I know I’ve seen you somewhere before.”

Emerald glanced around the empty hallway trying to think of something else she could get Chance to talk about and off her back.

“Maybe you’ve seen me out at a crime scene with Dr. David,” she suggested hoping he would believe her.

For a moment, Chance studied her intently like he was going to believe her and the look on his face changed to frustration. “No, I’ve seen you somewhere else that doesn’t involve work. I’m going to stop thinking about it so my mind can pull it up.”

No! She didn’t want any of this to happen right now, but Chance seemed determined not to let it go. So, it meant she would have to move the topic onto something else.

“I need to go back inside and check on the Hamiltons. If they’re ready, I’ll send them back out here to you.”

Moving around Chance’s tall, tempting physique Emerald placed her hand on the door and pushed it open with the palm of her hand. She walked inside without looking back.

Taking a second look at Chance was the thing that had gotten her into trouble with him in the first place. She wasn’t about to repeat the same mistake twice in her life.

Chapter Five

Later on that night after driving the heartbroken Hamiltons home from identifying their son’s body, Chance fixed the driver’s seat of his patrol car as he got ready for the long night ahead of him.

He was hidden from view beside a tree with a radar speed gun attached to his dashboard so he could check for speed demons on this stretch of back road.

Teenagers mixed with a handful of college students were the main ones who decided to use this less than frequented area as their own drag racing strip but they weren’t going to get by with it since he was on patrol tonight.

Actually, he wasn’t supposed to be doing this tonight. He had reports to work on for his captain, but one of his co-workers wanted time off to attend his son’s last college football game, so he’d volunteered to take the guy’s spot tonight.

Besides, Chance would rather be out here in his cruiser than behind a desk any day. This time alone would give him the space to work on two things going on inside of his life. One mistake was a problem he had brought on himself by not knowing how to keep his mouth closed.

He’d tried calling Nash and Brian earlier, but neither one of them answered his phone calls. Honestly, he couldn’t blame either one of them for taking their women’s side over him. He should have never opened his mouth in the first place. Now, his size twelve shoes were shoved so far down his throat that he might not ever find the right words to apologize to his friends.

Both Shauntie and Sapphire never treated him with anything but respect whenever they were around him. He was the one with the problem, not them.

Chance knew his friendship with his buddies would change once the two of them took the final step and got married. He hated the thought of being alone.

While he was growing up, his parents had pawned him off on other people or left him in the care of a well-paid nanny until he got old enough to be alone, which in their eyes meant sixteen years old. They cared more about spending time with their friends than raising their children.

He had two younger siblings his ‘loving’ parents adopted after he was a freshman in college. He needed to check in with his brother and sister more often but they were so much like his parents that he tried to avoid them as much as possible.

Kate and Nicholas were like two peas in a pod despite Nicholas being four years older than his sister. Chance wondered how his younger siblings had ended up so much like his image- driven parents without sharing a blood line.

His parent’s bad parenting skills could have come from the fact his mother gave birth to him when she was in high school. What kind of guidance could either one of his parents have given to him at that young age? Thank God, his father’s parents had stepped in and helped raise him until he turned eight years old. At that point, unfortunately, his mother had decided to come back into his life and take him back. His grandparents fought so hard to keep him, but in the end the judge gave him back to his mother and father. He never had the same life again after leaving his grandparents’ house because he got moved from place to place.

He never remembered staying in one place more than a year and a half. The only thing that kept him going was doing well enough in school so he would get accepted to a college far away from his unfit parents.

Luckily, he got accepted to a college in Connecticut which meant he was leaving Tennessee behind. A month after graduating from high school he packed up all of his belongings and moved away. Chance couldn’t have been happier to leave the control of his parents than he was on that day.

Nothing his parents told him would have made him stay there a second longer. For years, Chance considered his life a version of one those bad family sitcoms from the late eighties or early nineties. Sure, he was born into a wealthy family but all of the money in the world didn’t give him the childhood his other friends had in school when he was a little boy.

Most days, he was so envious of seeing his other playmates running up to their parents when his grandparents were the ones picking him up from school. He never doubted his grandparent’s love for him. Chance cherished them to this day. Now in their late eighties, he couldn’t ask for a better gift than them still being alive.

Chance still couldn’t believe the lack of attention his mother and father still gave him today. At his age, it should be water under the bridge; yet, something about it even now rubbed him the wrong way. His never having them in his life as a child and now maybe the sudden thought of losing his two best friends was stirring up all of these buried emotions.

No matter what it might be on his end Chance knew he better find a way to overcome it or risk losing Nash and Brian who were always nice enough to put up with his crazy bullshit.

Shaking his head, Chance ran his hand down his face. He was done focusing on his deadbeat parents. There wasn’t a thing he could change about them, so why was he giving them any more of his time?

Besides, he wanted to stay in the present so he could figure out where he might have run into Emerald before. Even her name was as sexy as her luscious, curvy body. One of his biggest secrets that he kept close was how much he loved a black woman with some meat on her bones.

In the past, Chance had tried approaching women like Emerald at nightclubs, but they usually turned him down thinking he wasn’t serious when he asked them to dance. So, after getting shot down more than once he stopped asking them and moved on to women who wanted him.

He did have his pride and rejection hurt him just as badly as the next guy. Nevertheless, the women brushing him off in the past wouldn’t stop Chance from going after Emerald. She might have looked at him with disinterest, but he still felt something underneath her cool façade.

Emerald didn’t want him to know how they had crossed paths before but he would figure it out. All he had to do was spend more time in her presence and it was bound to come back to him.

One way or another
,
he was sure of it.

For as long as he could remember, Chance liked how he had a remarkable and keen endurance when it came to getting what he wanted out of life. Tenacity was a huge part of his personality. Once he decided to do something, nothing or no one would get in his way and he
always
finished what he started. He invested his all in everything he did with his personal life along with his job.