Their passenger was singing again. She certainly wasn’t a lounge singer, but now she was crying too. Her voice wobbled and cracked as she belted out a loud rendition of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
Luca glanced over at Joe and raised his eyebrows. It wasn’t Christmas. It wasn’t even Halloween yet. He couldn’t wait to get to the station they had left only forty minutes ago.
“So, is this normal for a Monday night?” Luca asked.
“Normal?” Joe chuckled. “Fridays are usually heavy OUI nights, but nothing is ‘normal.’”
“Okay. Let me rephrase. Do you deal with this often? Including this level of uncooperativeness?”
“Her? This is nothing. Just wait until you have to arrest a suspect wearing green in a rowdy crowd on St. Patrick’s Day.”
* * *
After his first shift, Luca was exhausted, but the adrenaline that surged through his veins would keep him awake for quite a while. He decided to call his girlfriend, Lisa, hoping she was awake. All he wanted was to curl up with her. Unfortunately, they rarely had a place where they could get horizontal.
Neither her parents nor his knew they were dating. Hers because her father was a hard-ass cop and hated firefighters, and his because his mother would have them walking down the aisle in a month. They’d started dating in college, and both of them commuted from home. Their living situations had led them to have sex in some pretty unusual places—including once in a church!
Lisa’s father was a police sergeant, and if Luca had to admit it, hoping to gain his approval was one of the reasons why he had chosen to become a cop instead of a firefighter. He’d already been ninety-five percent there in his decision, but his feelings for Lisa tipped his decision to one hundred percent.
Luca had also hoped that he could remove the “fear of the unknown” factor if he was known to her father through the police department.
At first, it was fun to keep their relationship a secret from their families. He fancied himself the bad boy, sneaking around for a couple of years, but it had begun to grate on Luca. He hated keeping secrets from loved ones, but his entire life was a secret, so he could do it. Lisa had no idea what he truly was and what he could actually do. But he’d cross that bridge later.
On his way home, he called Lisa with his car’s Bluetooth technology.
A sleepy hello greeted him.
“Hi, beautiful. It’s Luca.”
“I know. Your ringtone is ‘secret lover.’”
He groaned. “Aren’t you afraid that will tip off your father?”
“No. The only radio he listens to is the police scanner.”
“Well, speaking of that, I just worked my first shift.”
She yawned. “How did it go?”
“Terrible. I was hoping you could meet me somewhere. I think I need a hug.”
She laughed. “Buck up. I can’t always be there to give you a hug after a tough shift.”
Luca wasn’t thrilled with that answer. Sure, he didn’t expect her to drop everything and run to him every time he had a bad day. He wasn’t a baby—despite being the youngest, and all his older brothers accusing him of being coddled. That was another reason he’d chosen to be a cop instead of a firefighter. He wanted to show them he was as brave and tough as they were—if not more so.
“I know that, but this was my very first shift, and it makes me wonder if they’re all this rough. Do you want to hear about my bruises?”
“Not particularly.”
What the hell? She wasn’t usually so cranky. Well, she could be, but not when he was vulnerable. “What gives? Are you having a bad day already? It sounds like you just woke up.”
“No. I’m not having a bad day. I’m having a bad several months. I thought you becoming a cop would be okay since you were aiming for detective someday. They make decent money—not the crap salary they’re paying you to get beat up now. But it’s not just the money. I’m afraid you’ll become hardened like my dad.”
“I’m not your dad. Not even close.”
“Did you meet him?”
“Yeah. He was in on a practical joke that just topped off my night.”
