Read In Bed With the Badge for Free Online Page A

now an aunt, by proxy, to a whole slew of children coming in all sizes, shapes and ages. Children represented innocence, a clean slate.
    Everyone should remain a child for as long as possible, she thought, a wave of protectiveness washing over her.
    Crossing into the living room, Riley was aware that Wyatt was behind her. “Hi,” she said to the little girl. “I’m Riley. What’s your name?”
    “Lisa,” came the prompt, polite response.
    Riley looked back at Wyatt for some kind of enlightenment. “Your niece?” she guessed.
    Rather than answer, Sam took her by the arm and led her to the kitchen.
    But before he got there, Lisa raised her voice and called out after her, “I’m his daughter.”
    Riley froze just shy of the kitchen and looked up at her partner. “Did she just say…?”
    There was no childlike lisp, no baby voice to misunderstand. Lisa’s enunciation was perfect, the kind that belonged to precocious, budding geniuses poised to take the world by storm.
    Sam nodded. “Yes.”
    Riley was sure she was still missing something. “She’s your daughter,” she said, leaving it as a statement.
    This time the single world came out like an angry cannon shot. “Yes.”
    The police department had been growing in recent years, but they were still pretty much a tight community. There were fewer detectives than uniformed cops. Word got around. There was never even a hint that Wyatt was anything but an available stud. If a short person was in the wings, someone would have mentioned it in passing.
    “Since when?” she said.
    He glanced over her head toward the living room and the child with flawless posture. He used to curl up on the sofa when he watched TV at her age. With her hands folded in her lap and sitting ramrod straight, Lisalooked as if she was attending a meeting instead of watching television.
    “Apparently since six years ago,” he told Riley with a sigh.
    Riley studied him for a moment. The detective seemed unsettled. They hadn’t interacted very much in the last few years, but to her recollection, she’d never seen him rattled before.
    “How long have you known?” she asked.
    Sam looked at his watch. “Two hours, give or take a few minutes.”
    He wasn’t volunteering anything, so she started piecing things together herself.
    “This woman who obviously can keep a secret, she just left her daughter with you? Just like that?” Riley knew it happened but it was difficult to envision.
    He had no idea why, but he suddenly felt defensive for Andrea. “She didn’t have much choice, seeing as how she’s—” His voice dropped before he said the last word. “—dead.”
    Thoroughly confused, Riley looked over her shoulder into the living room. “If her mother’s dead, how did Lisa—”
    Wyatt cut her off before she could finish. “Her friend brought Lisa over, along with a letter from Andrea and a copy of Andrea’s will.”
    According to the document, his new daughter had a small trust fund set aside in her name. But she couldn’t touch it until she turned eighteen. Twelve years from now, he thought.
    The name meant nothing to Riley. “I take it Andrea was your—” She left the sentence unfinished, searching for the right word, hoping that Wyatt would supply it.
    “Andrea wasn’t anything of mine,” he denied vehemently.
    As far as he was concerned, until this morning, Andrea belonged to his past. Just one of the women he’d dated. Except now she wasn’t. She was the mother of his child. The child that, less than three hours ago, he didn’t even know he had.
    “Well, she must have been ‘something’ of yours if that little girl in the next room really is your daughter.” All sorts of thoughts rushed through her mind. She asked the first logical one that occurred to her. “Are you sure that she’s yours?”
    “If you mean did she come with DNA test results, then no. But there was no reason for Andrea to lie.” Especially since the woman had never come to him with this