Strangers with Benefits (Siren Publishing Classic) (3 page)

She decided to go into the store as she would want the kids to be able to call her if she wasn’t at home.

She stepped over the bags she left at the door and went on a quick excursion. She stopped at a drug store and bought a funny thank you card that wasn’t extremely emotional or sappy, just good for a chuckle or two.

The card was much easier than the choice on how to give him his money back. She didn’t feel comfortable mailing actual money, so she bought a prepaid gift card worth twenty dollars and since that didn’t seem like enough, she got a gift card worth ten for a popular fast food place she saw lots of officers at when she passed by.

She wrote a confused note on the flap that she didn’t recall the gist of and sealed the envelope, but the darn thing almost refused to close. Sidonie pulled the card with his information out and looked at it so she could address it correctly.

Dennis McTavish was Officer Gorgeous’s name and the card gave a general number to what she assumed to be his precinct along with the address.

When she went to the store, she wanted the same one she used to have, but her carrier no longer offered that model and she deliberated over her choices until she finally settled on a device that she might be able to live with for the next two years.

After her phone turned on for the first time, she felt a weight she didn’t even know was there lift from her shoulders and she spent an irritating hour setting up her e-mail account and the numerous apps she used.

She would have to wait until she went to work on Monday to set up her office server e-mails and systems, but at least she wasn’t incommunicado.

The first message she sent was to her best friend, Mimi.

The phone rang with a generic jingle she immediately hated, and she made a mental note to change it as soon as possible.

She swiped to answer. “Hello?”

“Hey, girl! What happened to you?” Mimi asked in flurry of words that barely made sense.

“Girl, lemme tell you! I got robbed last night!”

“What!” Mimi screamed. “Oh my god, are you okay?”

Sidonie huffed. “Yeah. Lemme tell you all about it. Uggh! I’m so disgusted.”

“You know what? Let’s do this over drinks and wings. My treat.”

“Okay. Can I get a couple of hours? I just picked up the phone, I need to drop this card off in the mail, and not to mention… I look like crap.”

Mimi laughed and Sidonie rolled her eyes, despite her best friend not being able to see the dramatic gesture.

“You want me to pick you up?”

“Sure, why not.”

“All right, see you at six?”

“That works for me.”

Sidonie used the two hours to put away the clothes she had allowed to linger on the floor overnight. The kids bags were tucked away into the drawers and closets, and her clothes were put away in her walk-in.

Then she made herself up for a girl’s night out. A simple beaded tank top and pink jeans were paired with a set of strappy flats. Since she would likely cancel her hair appointment, she was stuck rocking a bun.

By the time six came, she popped down to the entrance and watched her best buddy pull into a visitor’s space.

Sidonie looked in her purse for a tube of lip balm and smoothed it on as Mimi drove them to parts unknown in the search for a perfect hot wing and an even better beer on tap.

They were headed downtown when she looked back in her purse and realized she hadn’t put the card in the mail.

“Hey, can we drop this off first?” Sidonie held the card up for her friend and Mimi shrugged.

“Sure. Where are we headed?”

“A mail box, I guess?”

Mimi chuckled. “Girl, you don’t even have any stamps on it.”

Sidonie flipped the card over and tsked when she realized she had nary a stamp on the front. “Dang, I sure don’t.”

“Where is it going?”

Sidonie rattled the address off.

“Actually, that’s the big one, not too far from where we’re headed.”

“Okay, then carry on.”

Mimi drove to McRae Street and turned as they looked for the entrance. When they found a small service road off to the left, they pulled in and Sidonie noticed the lack of police cars. Most of the officers must have been out already, but she should be able to give the card to someone inside.

When she walked up the ridiculous number of stairs to open the door, she saw three uniformed officers, two older females and one young male, sitting behind a huge bulletproof glass across a huge expanse.

The group almost felt like a tribunal judges.

“Hi, I just wanted to drop this card off for an officer that helped me yesterday,” she said to all three as she had no idea which one could help her.

The youngest of the officers smiled. “Do you know his name?”

Sidonie flipped the card over. “It’s Dennis McTavish. His name is already on the back.”

“Okay, slip it under here.” He pointed to the small metal slot at the lower half of the glass and she dropped it in.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll put it in his mail box.”

When she walked back out, she wondered if Officer McTavish would like the card.

But she would never have the chance to find out.

Fifteen minutes later, Mimi and Sidonie sat at the bar of a popular spot downtown called the Copper Penny. It was a small place that served the best cheese steaks in town and the blue cheese dressing was to die for.

As they each nursed a beer, Mimi with her preferred Corona, and Sidonie with her sixty minute IPA, Sidonie told her friend about what happened to her the night before.

“You should have called me!”

“For what, honey? If Officer McTavish couldn’t do it, then I doubt you could, Inspector Gadget.”

Mimi’s nose wrinkled and pushed her slim frames. “Yeah, whatever.” Mimi rolled her eyes and sipped the brew with apparent greed. “So are you going to try and contact him again?”

“For what?” Sidonie laughed.

“Well, it seems like he may like you.”

“No way, Jose.” Sidonie rolled her eyes and took as big a bite as she could manage of her cheese steak. “He was just a really nice person and he wanted to help me. I don’t think he was looking for anything when he did it.”

Mimi lifted an eyebrow skeptically at Sidonie’s statement. “So you’re telling me this cop waded into a ditch, carried your laundry inside, gave you twenty bucks, chased the phone GPS, came back to the laundromat three times, and wiped your device from the app on his computer without you asking, and he doesn’t like you? I’ve never met a cop that helpful before.”

“Yeah, well there are some people who choose the right career for themselves, dontcha know? He just seemed like the type that wanted to help people and that’s why he chose the job he does. And he is perfect for it, too.”

“You didn’t get a picture of the guy?”

“No phone, remember?”

“Gah! He probably has a Facebook page. What’s his name?”

“Uh, Dennis McTavish.”

Mimi dug out her phone, the exact same model as Sidonie had chosen earlier that day.

“I’m going to see if I can find him, hold on a sec.”

After a few minutes, Mimi said, “Ooh, is this him? God knows, he’s sexy.”

Sidonie looked at the device and nodded. “Yeah, that was Officer Gorgeous.” She had to tear her eyes away from the phone before she drooled on it.

They laughed and ate and drank until Sidonie couldn’t hold another beer to save her life. When all was said and done, they piled back into Mimi’s car.

That night Sidonie fell asleep as usual.

But the last thoughts before she nodded off that normally crossed her mind were absent.

In their place was Officer McTavish.

Monday morning, she called the twins to see how they fared with their father. Seeing as the man spoiled them to no end, both were excessively pleased with their break thus far. She didn’t mention what happened to her, there was no reason to scare them as she was okay and nothing really bad happened to her, even if the theft really hurt.

Sidonie would never steal from anyone. She had worked too hard in life so that she didn’t have to take from others.

Monday, she went to work as usual. She told her supervisor about her stolen phone, so they would know to watch for any potential breeches in case the guy that took her things was a tech guru of some sort.

The last thing she needed was to have the company firewalls breeched because she lacked common sense and put her job in danger.

Sidonie loved her job. She was good at what she did, even if she didn’t save lives on a daily basis. She worked for a technology firm that specialized in accessibility software for the disabled. The software her company made was for advanced tech, like smartphones, tablets, and computers.

The company also tinkered with hardware, but everything was in development, so none of the projects she worked on were currently available to the public, though some of her hardware was in the testing phases.

There was a joy to be found in the idea that one day the tech she developed now would be in the hands of a deaf or blind person and could take the place of an assistant or service animal.

Her current baby was a device that would work as a smartphone, but created for the blind. There would be no display as most tech users were used to it, instead, there was a bracelet that the user wore on one wrist.

The bracelet would use GPS to allow the user to navigate the world with simple directional feedback that used vibration to tell them where safe walking was available. It would decipher sidewalks, and give an audible chime when the desired location was close.

The bracelet would also use Braille to give information, the same way a smart phone user would read blogs and newspapers with visible words.

The tech was in its infancy stages, but a few years from now, she could potentially create something that would improve the quality of life for those without use of their sight. It would hopefully allow them freedom to go and come without worry.

Today, she was working on a safety alert that would allow the user to request help with a simple command.

There was an issue somewhere though, as the call only was successful half of the time. The other half, it called numbers close to the one she programmed in and she ended up speaking to half of the company in succession.

Why did she decide to take on this project to begin with?

Dangerously Attracted

Officer Den McTavish knew he was going to have a long day on patrol Saturday when he stood up for roll call.

The afternoon started out fairly normally. He made sure his shoes and brass, the covers on his gun belt and shirt pins, gleamed with a hand polished shine. Since he preferred to be casually dressed on his own time, Den used the locker room to get ready per his usual habits.

The briefing was the standard. He was given his beat, the patrol area he was supposed to work within. Tonight, he was working a spread-out district that would just skirt downtown’s drunk wagon and end in Midtown, near the airport.

His beat would see more action when the bars closed at two in the morning. Anyone that came down Market Street would have to be eyed carefully to make sure no one was drinking and driving. But at least it wasn’t the upcoming Azalea Festival weekend.

That weekend seemed to attract boozers like moths to a flame.

The town was a college one and a vacation spot to boot, so there were too many people that indulged and decided to make a bad choice in driving. That was a crime that he took personally, as he had lost a good friend to a drunk driver when he was in high school and the accident cemented his decision to become an officer.

He looked over and saw a girl in a fresh uniform with series of freckles over her nose that almost merged into one large spot. Her stance was awkward as hell, and he knew she must be a rookie. Any transfer would have been more comfortable in a room with other seasoned officers and the newbie stuck out like a sore thumb.

When he looked at the girl, her recalled that her last name was Henderson but he didn’t bother paying attention to the first name his Chief mentioned, he knew she wouldn’t make it two weeks.

He was supposed to be the FTO, or field training officer for the rookie’s first rotation, but Richards drew the short straw at the briefing they had a week ago when assignments were being handed out.

He always felt sorry for the rookies that had their first rotation with Richards. Especially this one, as Richards was not only a dick, but a misogynist to boot.

The last two FTO assignments Richards got his hands on first had quit within a month.

Saturday was a bad day to have a fresh rookie as the nights were hectic and a trial by fire.

Maybe if the girl made it to the third week, he’d be able to salvage what was left, but likely not. Richards had bad habits, and he was sloppy with his work. That was the reason that he didn’t ride with him, if he could help it.

He’d known since he was a child that he wanted to be a police officer. All he did was play cops and robbers as a boy and now that he was an adult he had the chance to do what he had always wanted to do. Dennis loved his career, it was rewarding, even if he fought the stresses that came with the territory.