In Bed With the Badge (8 page)

Lisa didn’t take the hint. Like most children her age, Wyatt’s daughter was the personification of honesty. “No, I want to ride with you,” she quietly insisted.

Well, at least she doesn’t throw tantrums, Riley thought.

She looked over the little girl’s head at Wyatt, but the latter seemed relieved. And Lisa gazed up at her with pleading eyes.

Riley caved. “Fine with me.”

That was all that Lisa needed to hear. Like a bullet, the little girl raced to the passenger side of the vehicle, pulling at the door handle.

Riley hit the lock release on the driver’s armrest. The other locks instantly popped up in unison.

“You have to ride in the back, honey,” Riley told her kindly, then turned toward her partner. She’d forgotten about this earlier when they were coming here. “Doesn’t
she have a car seat?” Lisa might be six, but she was petite and definitely under the weight cutoff point.

Wyatt started to say he didn’t know, but Lisa cut in. “I do. It’s at home.” Lisa looked sad. “Car seats are for babies.”

“And petite little girls. Trust me, you’ll like that description some day,” Riley said with a wink of her own. And then she replayed what Lisa had said. “Honey, if the car seat was in your mother’s car, I’m afraid it’s gone.” The car had been totaled. “We’ll have to get you another one.”

Again Lisa shook her head. “Mama had another one for me. It was in the spare bedroom. In my home,” she emphasized. “I’ve got more things there, too. Aunt Carole didn’t bring everything with her when she brought me.” A small, shaky sigh separated her sentences. “She just wanted me to start getting used to you,” she explained, looking at Wyatt.

“I’m going to go see ‘Aunt Carole’ about getting a key to your mom’s apartment so I can get the rest of your things,” he promised.

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than Lisa dug into the tiny purse she had been carrying around and held up a key.

“Is this okay?” she asked innocently.

He took the key from her. “Is that a key to your apartment?” he asked the little girl in disbelief.

“Yes. That’s why I gave it to you,” she answered as if she didn’t understand what the problem was.

He remembered being a lot older before his father
trusted him with a key to the house. “Aren’t you a little young to have your own key?”

“No,” she replied authoritatively.

Riley did her best to hide her amusement. “Guess we can’t argue with that,” she commented. For all they knew, the landlord was trying to rent out the apartment already. “Why don’t you go over there and see about getting Lisa her things? And while you’re doing that, I’ll take Lisa over to your place.” She looked at the little girl. “How do you feel about pizza for dinner?”

“No pepperoni,” Lisa responded. “I’m not supposed to have meat.”

“A miniature vegetarian,” she marveled. “Okay, no pepperoni on your side,” she compromised.

Wyatt struggled against feeling constricted. His first reaction to McIntyre’s offer was relief. But that was wrong. This wasn’t her problem, it was his and he had to face up to it sooner or later.

“You don’t mind?” he asked.

“If I minded,” Riley pointed out, “I wouldn’t have suggested it. I don’t do martyr well,” she assured him, then put out her hand. “Now give me the keys to your apartment so I can get in. My B&E techniques are a little rusty.”

Sam took his apartment key off his key chain and handed it to her. “I owe you.”

Riley grinned and he caught himself thinking that she had the ability to light up an area with her smile. “Yeah, you do,” she told him.

The next minute, she got into her car and drove off.

I
t took Sam almost two hours before he finally returned to his own apartment.

He had trouble deciding exactly what to take and what to leave behind. He had no idea what little girls considered necessary. The two suitcases she’d brought with her had more than an adequate supply of clothing in them. But even he knew that little girls—even precocious ones—didn’t live by simply clothes alone. So when he came across a somewhat misshapen teddy bear under the bed, he picked up the stuffed animal and dusted it off, tucking the toy into Lisa’s car seat, which was one of the things he intended to take with him.

Sam didn’t go into the apartment, or through its rooms, alone. The woman from the complex’s rental
office was just shutting down for the night when she saw him unlocking Andrea’s door. Since she didn’t recognize him and knew the circumstances surrounding her late tenant, as well as being incredibly curious, the matronly woman took it upon herself to investigate.

Accosting him as he went through the door, Mavis Patterson swiftly went from suspicious to sympathetic the moment she discovered that he was taking Lisa in and was there to pick up more of her things.

A widow for more than ten years, the heavyset woman insisted on helping him with his mission. She even brought several boxes from the rental office to help him pack up and volunteered to help carry the things he was taking to his car.

With an air of someone who had done this before, she supervised his selection.

“I like to think of everyone here as family,” Mrs. Patterson told him as she trailed behind him when he made the final trip from the apartment to the car. “Some family members you can do without,” she admitted, “but Andrea, she was really something else again. Always had a good word for everyone—when she stopped to talk,” Mavis qualified. “Busy as all get-out most of the time.” And then she switched gears as she continued her summation. “Sure was proud of that little girl of hers. Smartest thing I’ve ever seen. Smarter than a lot of the people living here,” Mavis confided, lowering her voice.

“You need anything, you let me know,” she instructed solemnly. “And not just until the end of the month, neither. Lease is up then,” she informed him, “but I’m
not.” She patted his hand as he placed the last box into his trunk. Sam firmly shut the trunk. “Tell Lisa that Mrs. Patterson says hi.”

“I’ll be sure to do that,” Wyatt promised.

Mrs. Patterson stood to the side as he pulled out of the covered parking slot, then watched as he drove away. She waved until he disappeared from view.

Guiding the vehicle out the apartment complex, Sam wondered if he could do anything to stall his arrival home a little longer.

The next moment, he grew annoyed with himself. Since when had he become a coward? Hell, he’d faced down armed felons. Why did the thought of coming home to his daughter suddenly send these chills shimmying up and down his spine?

His daughter.

That still didn’t sound right to him. Wrapping his head around the concept of having and being responsible for a child would take him some time. A hell of a lot of time.

He glanced at his watch as he drove. Damn, Riley wasn’t going to be happy about him being away for so long. Not that he blamed her.

Just what he needed. Two females to face, not just one.

He supposed it could have been worse. There could have been three of them.

It only occurred to Sam after he’d walked up to the front door of his ground floor apartment and slipped his hand into his pocket that he couldn’t open the door. He had no key.

With a suppressed sigh, he realized that he had to knock on his own door in order to get in. So much for just quietly slipping inside.

He knocked. Several minutes went by. It didn’t sound as if anyone stirred inside. Certainly no one was opening the door. Had Riley gone out with Lisa?

All kinds of alternate scenarios began to suggest themselves. Was this what parenthood was like? Half-formed fears chasing through his brain? He couldn’t say he much cared for it.

Sam raised his hand, about to knock again, when the door finally opened.

Riley flashed him a somewhat weary smile. “I thought maybe you’d lost your way,” she commented, opening the door wider to allow him to walk in.

“I had trouble deciding what she was going to need,” he muttered, setting down the box he was carrying on the sofa.

Turning around to continue with his explanation, Sam faced the kitchen and saw the table. A pizza box, its bottom heavily leached with olive oil, took up nearly half of it. There was more than half a pie left. But it was the not-quite-fading aroma of the pizza that got to him, teasing awake his salivary glands.

“Did you get the car seat?” Riley was asking.

“Yes. I’ve got it in the car.” He snapped out the answer, then told himself he had no right to lose his temper with her. Riley was doing him a favor, not the other way around. “I almost forgot it,” he admitted. “Just as I was about to go into Andrea’s apartment, the
landlady came to check me out, probably to make sure I wasn’t trying to break into the empty apartment.” And then he sighed. “Once she heard that I was Lisa’s father, she just wouldn’t stop talking.”

The corners of Riley’s mouth curved in amusement. “So you’re late because you couldn’t decide what to bring back with you and because the landlady talked too much.”

“Something like that,” he mumbled.

“And being nervous about hanging around Lisa had nothing to do with dragging your feet getting back here?” Riley questioned.

He bristled at her implication—even if it was true. “What are you, trying out for the department’s shrink now?”

“This whole thing has hit you right between the eyes. It’s okay to be nervous. That’s why I volunteered to stay with her.”

He looked around. “Where is Lisa, by the way?”

“In the guest room,” she replied. “Asleep.” She didn’t add that it took her making up two stories for the little girl before Lisa nodded off and finally fell asleep. “Poor thing’s exhausted by her ordeal.”

“That makes two of us,” Sam admitted under his breath. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he began to move restlessly about the living room. He felt as if his back was against the wall and he didn’t like it. “What am I going to do with her?” he asked helplessly, keeping his voice down as he turned to his partner.

“Love her,” Riley answered very simply. “She is yours, you know. Can’t go wrong when you give a kid
love,” she assured him, then added, “My brothers, sister and I had a very rocky childhood. But throughout it all, we knew our mother loved us with all her heart.” Their father loved them in his own way, but it wasn’t nearly enough to make up for the way he behaved both toward them and their mother. “In the end, that love saw us through an awful lot. It really helped smooth out some of the very rough patches we went through. Love is a very powerful, necessary emotion.”

He supposed she had a point. Sam sighed. “She say anything about me?” The question was hesitantly framed. He wasn’t sure if he wanted an answer.

She nodded. “She talked about you a little.”

Curiosity got the better of him. “What did she say?”

Her eyes smiled first, creating a warm glow about her and, strangely enough, within him.

“Lisa said she thought you were very good-looking and that she could see why her mother ‘fell’ for you, I believe were the words she used.” Riley laughed. “This kid of yours is pretty precocious. She’s going to keep you on your toes,” Riley predicted.

He didn’t want a kid who kept him on his toes, who provided him with a mental challenge everywhere he turned. “That’s what the cases I work on are for,” he told Riley. “When I come home, all I want is to kick back and relax.”

“Little kids can do that, too,” Riley assured him, adding, “She’s not going to require being mentally stimulated 24/7.”

He had his doubts. Feeling like a man trying to cross
quicksand, he dragged his hand through his hair. “I’m going to suck at this.”

“Give yourself a little credit, Wyatt. Every new dad thinks he’s going to be a complete disaster when he starts out. This is all new for you.” Hadn’t they already been through this? She supposed that Wyatt just needed to hear it again. And maybe again after that, until it finally sank in. “You’ll get used to it.”

He had sincere doubts about that. Just because they had the equipment to make one, not everyone—male
or
female—was cut out to be a parent. “I don’t even remember
being
a kid, much less how to treat one or relate to her.”

“Practice makes perfect,” Riley told him cheerfully. “Besides, this one is more adult than some of the people I know. That should make it easier for you than if you were dealing with a run-of-the-mill little kid.” Not that she thought he’d have one of those. Riley patted him on the shoulder. “This time next year, you’ll deny ever having this conversation and showing me your vulnerable side.” She saw the uncertain expression in his eyes and grinned. “Trust me, I know. I grew up with two minimacho men. News flash,” she added in a stage whisper. “There’s nothing wrong with being vulnerable.”

Sam still shook his head. “Not a condition I choose to be in.”

“It’s not always that easy, Wyatt. Sometimes, circumstances dictate otherwise,” she said, thinking of how she had felt looking at her former partner’s lifeless body.

It was then that she realized she hadn’t thought about
Diego once this whole day, not since she came to pick up Wyatt and discovered what was keeping him from the precinct.

The realization made her feel both guilty for not thinking about him and, at the same time, hopeful. Maybe she was finally over the worst of it. Maybe, with luck, she would work her way back from the all-consuming darkness.

Without the benefit of the shrink Brian wanted her to see, she realized happily. First chance she got, she would talk to Brian and appeal his decision about her seeking therapy. She was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel without it.

Taking a deep, fortifying breath, she looked at her partner and asked, “Hungry?”

The question caught him off guard and he had to think about it for a second. That was when he became aware of the gnawing sensation in the pit of his stomach.

“Yeah,” he told her, slowly coming around. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

“Good, then have at it,” she encouraged, gesturing toward the remainder of the pizza. “That’s why I ordered an extra large one.”

First things first. Before sitting down, he dug into his pocket for his wallet. “What do I owe you?” he asked.

“Not a thing—at least monetarily,” she said, amusement dancing in her eyes. When he still took out some bills, she waved them away. “Don’t worry, I can afford to spring for a pizza. Besides, you don’t have to be gallant about it. This isn’t exactly a date.”

“A date?” he echoed.

The moment the word was out, something distant and vague inside his head began to entertain the notion. When they were attending the academy together, he and Riley had gone out a number of times, but there had always been other rookies around. It had never been a one-on-one scenario.

“Yeah, a date.” Her amusement increased. The thought of dating her had obviously thrown him. “If we ever are, then I’ll let you pay,” she promised.

He merely nodded, struggling to place everything, including the myriad sensations swirling around inside him, into proper perspective. His thoughts, mostly unfocused, couldn’t stop racing through his head. “Look, about tomorrow—”

“You take Lisa to school, introduce yourself as her dad to her teacher. Go through the motions of being normal—if you can. I’ll cover for you with Barker, though I’m not looking forward to that,” she had to admit.

She couldn’t decide whether Barker was a good guy who just liked to growl, or an idiot who threw his weight around. But she supposed it was still early in the game for final opinions.

“We can trade,” Wyatt offered, picking up a slice of pizza and putting it on a paper plate. “You take Lisa to school tomorrow and I’ll cover for you with the lieutenant.”

She shook her head. “Not going to happen. You need to build a relationship with your daughter and I need to show Barker that he doesn’t scare me.” Hopefully, the
lieutenant respected people who didn’t cave and wouldn’t view them as a threat to his authority.

“He’ll be sorry to hear that,” Sam said with a quiet laugh. “He likes putting the fear of God into all his people.”

“God, maybe,” she allowed. “Him? No,” she said as she watched Sam take a healthy bite of the pizza. “By the way, I looked through every cupboard, but all I found were paper plates.”

He took another bite before answering. “That’s because that’s what I have. This way, when I’m finished, I can just throw them out. I’m not a big fan of having the dishes pile up in the sink.”

“Then don’t let them pile up in the sink,” she told him simply. “You need plates, Wyatt. You have a daughter, you need plates.” Since he eyed her skeptically, Riley added, “Kids need a sense of stability.”

He wouldn’t argue with that, just with her reasoning, which seemed a little off to him. “And having plates’ll do this?”

“For openers,” she said confidently. “Paper plates are transient, real plates aren’t. They say ‘we’re staying put.’” She smiled at him. “I’ll give you more tips as we go along.”

Granted, she was a female, but that didn’t immediately make her more qualified than he was at this. “You have any kids?”

“No.” She knew where this was headed—or thought she did. “I’ve never been married.”

“You don’t need to be married to have a kid,” he reminded her. “I seem to be living proof of that. But if
you don’t have any, what makes you think you’re such an expert?”

She didn’t know if he was challenging her, or just curious. The man was probably very stressed out by this sudden turn of events in his life so she gave him the benefit of the doubt.

“Easy.” She smiled at him broadly. “I’m just good at everything.”

“Right. I should have known.” He knew her well enough to sense she was kidding. “Hey, McIntyre,” he called after her as she walked into the living room and picked up her purse from the sofa.