Santa's Posse (2 page)

After the cashier
rang up the order, the couple stood back to wait for their sandwiches.  Kellie
glanced around uncertainly, still wondering why he had sprung for lunch.  She
turned toward him when he cleared his throat.  He smiled broadly, his right
hand extended to her.  “I’m Miles Blake.  I work out of the precinct at the
east end of the mall.”

She suddenly remembered
that the sheriff’s office retained a precinct on-site, from which deputies were
dispatched to calls both at the mall and at other East County locations.  Her predecessor
had explained that the arrangement for law enforcement to work from a mall had begun
six months before, and that it was working out well.  She had to concede that
having them here had proven beneficial to her well-being today.

When she didn’t
introduce herself, he prompted, “And you are?”

“Oh, sorry,” she
murmured, taking his hand.  “I’m Kellie Sanders.”

“Good to meet
you,” he said, but glanced away when their order number was called out.  He released
her hand and retrieved the tray of food.  She followed him to a table near a
window overlooking the mall’s southern parking lot.  He deposited the tray on
the tabletop and held out a chair for her.  She sat down and still eyed him
quizzically.

He smiled.  “You
look … perplexed.”

“I am.  Why … did
you pay for my lunch?”

“It’s not every day
I encounter a real life hero,” he said matter-of-factly.  He sat down and took
a bite of his sandwich.

Was he teasing
her? she wondered—perhaps being sarcastic again.  She eyed him skeptically, and
he chuckled. 

“Really, I’m being
serious.  I saw you stand up to those boys…”

“You did?  How?”  

“Cameras,” he said
succinctly.

She nodded and
then a light bulb went on in her head.  She remembered her predecessor
mentioning that cameras had been installed at various positions along the mall
corridor, to assure that both mall security and the local deputies could keep
an eye on the goings-on there.  The security system was called
Mall Watch
,
and allowed law enforcement to watch both the inside and outside of the mall
via a series of monitors within the precinct.  Lucky for her.

“Accosting them
like that probably wasn’t the best idea,” he observed, interrupting her
thoughts.

Accosting them
? 

“Wait a minute,” she
said crisply.  “I wasn’t … accosting anyone.  I was merely attempting to stop
those boys from assaulting that other boy again.”

He nodded.  “Which
is why we were on our way, and lucky for you, too, since there’s no telling
what those kids might have done to you.  They’re wannabe gang- bangers.”

She swallowed
hard.  “I was doing fine,” she said in her own defense, watching him through
narrowed eyes. 

He dropped his
sandwich onto the plate and leaned toward her, his muscular arms bracing his
broad, upper torso on the tabletop.  “The tall kid, Tag, he’s a mean one.  He
has a rap sheet a half-mile long.  The last time we picked him up, he had a
knife along with the bad attitude.”

She considered his
words, her brows furrowed as she met his eyes.  “I couldn’t very well let those
boys hit that kid again.  He was just walking along, minding his own business. 
I … had to do something.  They were going to hit him again,” she murmured.

“You’re very fortunate
they didn’t hit
you
.”

She glanced out
the window.  What did he want her to say?  That she regretted helping the boy. 
She didn’t regret helping him.  If more people got involved when others were in
need, the world would be a better place.

“I couldn’t just
stand by and watch them hurt him again,” she repeated, as much for herself as
him.  “Would you expect me to look the other way?”

“Most people would
have,” he interrupted.  “In the future, call us, or mall security.” 

“Okay, yes,” she
admitted, “I probably should have called for help before I rushed in.  To be
honest, I forgot how close you are.  But, I couldn’t let them hit him again. 
He wasn’t big enough to stand up to so many.”

“You’re not so big
yourself,” he said with a smile.  “What are you, maybe five foot tall?”

“I’m five two!”
she said, and then regretted answering his question.  She just couldn’t
decipher whether he was being condescending or not.  Usually, she could read
people, which had been a beneficial trait in securing her current position.  She
checked her watch and rose from her chair.  “I really have to go.”

“You haven’t
finished your lunch.  Heck, you haven’t
started
your lunch.”

“Duty calls,” she
said.

“Look, I do need
to take your statement, and I’d be glad to call your employer to explain why you’re
late getting back to work.”

She sat back down
with a sigh and waved off the offer.  “Let’s get the statement done,” she said
tiredly. 

“Let’s eat first,”
he suggested with a wide grin, and once again, she wasn’t sure what to make of
it. 

She ate quietly
for a moment.  She just couldn’t read this guy.    

“What do you do
for a living?” he asked, pulling her from her thoughts.

She met his
curious gaze.  “I’m the new director of mall security.”  She felt a pique of
remorse for misleading to him, but she wanted to make a point.  Besides, she
was
the boss of the director of mall security, so her assertion wasn’t entirely
untrue.

He appeared taken aback. 
“I thought Doug Dell was…”  He shook his head.  “Are you really?”

“No, but I could
be,” she told him, folding her arms and leaning back in the chair to watch him
with a challenging gleam in her eye.

He laughed and
raised a hand in a conciliatory gesture.  “Hey, I’m not trying to suggest
you’re not capable and that you couldn’t do the job, but…  Come on.  You have
to admit it wasn’t the best idea to approach those kids without at least
alerting authorities first.  There were eights kids back there, and a few
weren’t so little.  A couple of them were nearly as tall as me.  Those were
lousy odds for anyone, even a director of mall security if she happens to be
all alone trying to handle several volatile individuals without backup.”

“Who was the
little freckled face kid?” she asked then, remembering that he apparently knew the
boy.

He sighed.  “He’s
the son of a cop who was…”  He raked a hand through his hair.  “He was killed
in the line of duty eight months ago.”

Kellie gasped, her
heart instantly going out to the little boy. 

“Daniel and his
dad were close.  He’s having a hard time—acting out, getting into trouble at
school.  Today was the first I’ve seen him running with that crowd.  I intend
to put a stop to that particular association.”

She nodded.  She
hoped the little boy could be helped before he got into even bigger trouble. 
Poor little guy.

He watched her
face, taking in the sympathetic green eyes against a perfect peaches and cream
complexion.  Her full lips were currently set in a frown.  “Aren’t you going to
eat?” he prompted.

Absently, she took
a dainty bite from the sandwich.  She was lost to her thoughts, but his deep
voice penetrated.

“What is it you
do?” he asked again, watching her with a ghost of a smile on his face.    

“I’m a Navy Seal,”
she told him, keeping her face impassive as she spoke.

“Really?”

“No, but I could
be.”

He laughed, a deep,
throaty chuckle.  “Okay, point taken.  What do you do?”

“I’m a
firefighter.”

“You are?”

“No.  But I could
be.” 

“Okay, okay, I
give.”  He raised his hands in surrender.  “I’m
really
sorry if I
offended you.  I don’t mean to suggest you’re anything but a capable
individual, however, we all have our limitations.  And I just hope that in the
future, if you encounter a group of violent boys, you’ll call the law, rather
than rush headlong into a very dangerous situation.”

“I didn’t…”  Her
words dwindled, and then she nodded.  “I’ll be more careful.”

He nodded, seeming
pleased with her admission.

“Can we get to
that statement?” she asked.  “I really need to get back to work.”

He checked his
watch then and let out a long sigh.  “I need to move, too.  I have a one o’clock meeting.  If you don’t mind, I will take a brief statement, and if we need
anything more from you, I can give you a call later.”

Pulling out a pad,
he asked her a series of questions, which she answered quickly and concisely. 
When he snapped the notebook closed, Kellie rose from the table.  “Thanks for
lunch,” she said.

“Anytime.”

As she walked away
and toward her office, he called out to her.  “And hey, no more heroics!”

She didn’t
respond.  She wasn’t making any promises.

As Kellie dashed
into her office, she shot a harried glance at her assistant Jill.  “Sorry I’m
late,” she told the middle-aged brunette. 

Jill gave her a
high-voltage smile.  “You’re the boss, remember?  You can be late if you want
to,” she said, simultaneously passing her a stack of messages on sticky notes. 
“Besides, your one ‘o clock hasn’t arrived yet.”

“Good, good,” she
said absently, scanning her messages.  “Who did you say I’m meeting with?”

“Oooh, you are in
for a
treat
!” she answered in a sing-song voice.  “The commander of our
very own mall precinct is stopping by to talk to you.”

“Hmmm,” she
mused.  “Wonder what he wants to talk about?”

Her assistant shrugged. 
“Who knows?  Who cares?”

Kellie shot her a
quizzical glance.    

“When you get a
look at him, you’ll understand what I’m talking about.  He’s a heapin’ servin’
of eye candy.  When he talks, I see his mouth moving but I just can’t hear
anything he says.  All I can see is that gorgeous face, that broad chest, and
those arms.  Oh, my, those arms…”

Kellie burst out
with a giggle, which she quickly stifled.  “A heapin’ servin’ of eye candy, eh? 
Sounds like I
am
in for a treat.” 

“That you are.  He’s
a nice guy, too,” Jill said.  “Single, too! 
Single
…” she added.

Kellie was still
chuckling as she stepped into her office and took a seat behind the desk.  She
consulted a desk-top calendar, on which her predecessor had written a series of
notes about upcoming mall events and to-do items.  On today’s date, he had
written in crisp lettering, “Discuss Santa’s Posse with the commander.” 

She eyed the
words.  What the heck was Santa’s Posse?

Jill tapped on her
door, and then pushed it open with a grin.  “Commander Eye Candy is here,” she
whispered, too loudly.

Kellie gave her a
meaningful stare, which only prompted the older woman to chuckle.  She didn’t
look the least bit repentant as Commander … Miles Blake stepped into the room.

Like hers, his jaw
dropped the instant his blue eyes lit on her face.  “You’re…” he began, but his
sentence died before he could finish it.

She rose from her
chair and extended a hand to him.  “Mall director,” she told him.

He dropped into a
chair with a gulp.  “So you’re…”

“The mall director,”
she repeated.  “I started two day ago.”

He nodded his head
in measured intervals.  “So essentially you are in charge of mall security,” he
murmured with a smile.  “I mean, technically, you’re the director of the
director of mall security.  Are you a Navy Seal, too?  A volunteer firefighter
in your off hours?”

“No,” she laughed
as she sat down in her chair.  “But I could be.  What can I do for you?” she
asked, meeting his still surprised gaze. 

He didn’t immediately
respond, but continued to watch her speculatively—his blue eyes narrowed in
apparent confusion.  He seemed to have lost the power of speech, which gave
Kellie pause.  Although she was one of the youngest mall directors in the
business, she didn’t think he should find her presence in the job so
startling.  She’d worked hard to earn the position, having worked at a series
of malls since she’d earned a Masters degree in Business Management at the age
of twenty-four.

“Is there a
problem?” she asked, wondering when the man planned to speak again.

“No, no, it’s
just…”  He smiled sheepishly.  “You look all of twenty-two years old.”

“Oh,” she said. 
“I’m flattered … I guess.  I’m twenty-nine.”

“Good,” he said
with a grin, which became rueful when he realized he’d spoken the word aloud. 
“I mean…  Uh, well, I don’t know what I mean…”  Suddenly, he thrust a piece of
paper at her.  “Would you mind taking a look at this?”

She took the paper
from him and read it.  “Santa’s Posse,” she said aloud, now understanding what
the words referred to.  It seemed the sheriff’s office, along with both mall
and community volunteers, assembled and delivered meals and gifts to needy
families each holiday season.  The sheet of paper was a letter intended for
local businesses as a means to drum up both community support and donated
items.

She glanced up and
met his gaze.  “Sounds like a commendable undertaking,” she observed.

“Right up your
alley, I’d guess,” he said, and she eyed him quizzically.  He only smiled in
return. 

She sat quietly,
waiting for him to speak.  It occurred to her she wasn’t the only one who was
younger than might be expected in a position of authority.

“You’re a
commander,” she mused, not realizing she’d spoken the words aloud. 

“Yes.”

“Aren’t you
awfully young to be a commander?” she asked, turning the tables on him.

“I’m thirty-four.”

She nodded, and
then passed the sheet of paper back to him.  “Was there something else?”

“Well, I was
wondering if I could send out a copy of this letter to all the stores in the
mall—see if we can drum up any donations.”