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clipboard and listened to the message. He took notes, grimacing as he wrote. “Now what? I have half a mind to apply for a spot with the FBI.” He drank the last of her Coke. “I couldn’t catch anymore shit than being with this crazy outfit.”
    “I heard.” Whatever the problem at headquarters, it couldn’t compare to the fact that Don really wanted to leave the department. That meant he would be leaving her as well. That wasn’t supposed to matter to her, but God, it did. “It’s probably nothing. You know how they call you in a dozen times if a felon gripes about you.”
    He gazed at her with those dark, sexy eyes and nodded. “You’re probably right.” In an unconscious gesture, he touched the riot gun bolted to the dash. “We’d better get downtown before they send out the dogs.”
    “Look in my purse and get my sewing kit.” His look of surprise made her want to laugh, but she held it in. “Look for a safety pin.”
    “Damn.” He grabbed her satchel and rummaged through the contents, finally holding up her emergency repair kit. He opened the plastic box and dug out a huge safety pin. “This okay?”
    “It’ll do.” She pulled into a fast food parking lot and turned on the overhead light.
    While she closed the blouse over her bruised breast, Don quietly observed her.
    “You haven’t said much about seeing the chief.” He took the box from her and dropped it in her purse. “You’re not worried about being pulled in for an ass chewing? Not even the least bit pissed off?”
    “Nope.” She drove from the parking lot and headed downtown.
    Carmen couldn’t afford any more problems with the department. She had no intentions of staying on the street or being a uniform until retirement. That wasn’t good enough, especially since she’d worked so hard for advancement.
    She knew Don had applied for captain when she had, almost a year ago. He was too good a cop to keep chasing two-bit drug dealers and the hassle of domestic calls.
    Her thoughts drifted on a forbidden journey, teasing her with the memory of his lips on hers, the weight of his muscular body pushing her into the mattress. She had recurring wet dreams of him and was tempted to lure him back into her bed, but it would have to look like his idea.
    “We should have gotten drinks back there.” His bellyaching erased her erotic daydream. “And, I need to empty Big John.”
    “For God’s sake, Don. You’ll survive.”
    She found barking at him a release for her knotted up nerves. The closer they got to downtown headquarters, the tighter her nerves coiled. Keeping him ticked off meant he’d forget to insult her.
    God, what was she in for now
?
    * * * *
    Three months later, and she still treated him like shit. Don had thought he knew women, but Carmen showed him how little he knew.
    “Did you come up with anything? This is a hell of a note, being dragged down here like a cut steer.” He cleared his throat at her cool glance in his direction. “We went over that river bottom arrest.”
    So the brass got to live like this, drapes at the windows and flowers on a table? Redstone would fit perfectly in here, only she’d have buffalo robes covering the windows and a moose head on the wall. She caught him staring at her and broke the deafening silence with a not unexpected insult.
    “You’re paranoid, Don.” She sounded confident, but the constant checking of time on her watch drove him crazy.
    Sitting in the Chief’s office wasn’t on his list of great things to do.
    And why had they both been called in at the same time?
    Hell with that. He was more concerned with getting Carmen to pull some more time in the sack. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, or do any of the lowdown things she thought he’d done. On the other hand, he wasn’t ready to start explaining his every move to the woman who wanted nothing beyond a working relationship with him.
    When Major Green had been shot, all he could think of was Carmen could have been the one