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  Table of Contents

  Rookie Shift

  Undercover Shift

  Stolen Shift

  Last Shift

  Fallon’s Mate Preview

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  Rookie Shift

  Bears in Blue

  Book 1

  Mia Taylor

  Prologue

  The usual toddler toys littered the living room floor, a mass of wooden blocks and puzzle pieces, but the child herself was nowhere to be found.

  “Melly?” her mother called, a note of panic lacing her tone. “Melissa? Where are you?”

  Abruptly, a small, blonde head of curls popped up from behind the coffee table, partially hidden by unpacked boxes, and a set of smoky eyes lit up.

  “Here I am, Mama!” she cooed, waving her hands for effect. Lisa Stark laughed, relief flooding her face, and she opened her arms for the child to fall into, sweeping Melissa into her embrace.

  “Are you my sweetest girl?” Lisa murmured, inhaling Melissa’s baby-scented head. “Are you Mama’s best child?”

  The precocious three-year-old threw her head back and looked at Lisa with surprise.

  “I’m your only child!” she argued and Lisa laughed, although her heart was thudding at the statement.

  Thank God for small favors, she thought regretfully. Oh, what Lisa wouldn’t have done to have another child to hold in her arms, to watch grow up and play with the pretty blonde she had already birthed.

  Only one child. That’s all you’ll get.

  Melissa continued to stare adoringly at her mother, waiting for a response which would assure her that that was all Lisa needed.

  “That you are, Melly. You are my only baby and I will always protect you.”

  She lavished Melissa’s small face with a dozen kisses until the girl squealed and struggled to escape, and Lisa permitted her to go.

  No one will ever keep you against your will or force you to be something you’re not, Lisa vowed silently. I’ll die before that ever happens.

  The phone in the kitchen was ringing and reluctantly, the exhausted single mother rose to answer it, casting Melissa a warning as she did.

  “You play gently now,” she said, sauntering into the other room to find the landline. “Don’t forget, we’re going to have to clean this up before supper and bath time. There’s still a lot of boxes to be put away.”

  “I will, Mama,” Melissa replied but Lisa smiled, knowing that her words had gone right through her daughter’s ears. What did a three-year-old know about cleaning?

  “Hello?” she answered warily, noting the blocked number on the call display.

  There’s no way. It’s just a telemarketer. It’s just a—

  “It’s me.”

  The two words were enough to send chills of panic through Lisa’s body and her instinct was to hang up the phone but she dared not, not without knowing where he was.

  How does he always manage to find us?

  “No…” she whispered. “No…”

  “Listen to me,” he rasped. “You can’t hide her forever, Lisa. She’s mine and she will—”

  “You’ll leave us alone!” Lisa hissed, regaining her composure. “She’s a child! My child!”

  There was a long, deep silence and for a moment, Lisa thought he had hung up the call.

  “She belongs with me, Lisa, maybe not now, but when she gets older, she’s going to want to know about her father. If you come home now, I promise—”

  “Your promises don’t mean jack to me, Paul. You leave me and my daughter alone!” Her fury managed to override her fear if only to yell at him.

  “Lisa, she’s my daughter too.”

  “No,” Lisa countered, the rage of a mother hellbent on keeping her daughter safe fusing through her bones. “She is not your daughter, no matter what you think. What do you want, Paul? Money? Don’t make me call the cops.”

  There was a slight lull but even through the phone, Lisa knew her threats didn’t alarm him.

  “You and I both know that’s not going to do anything.”

  “If you think for a second that I won’t fight you to the death for my daughter, you’re sadly mistaken, Paul.”

  Her ex-husband grunted into her ear as if Lisa was becoming annoying and her mind raced wildly.

  If he has my home number, he must already know where we are. Dammit!

  That meant only one thing.

  Damn you, Paul. Do you know what you’re doing to our daughter?

  “Lisa, I’m not calling to scare you,” he told her reasonably. “I’m calling to tell you that inevitably, I’m coming for Melissa. You can’t keep her away forever.”

  “Watch me,” Lisa spat and slammed the cordless phone down onto the table, her hands trembling. She knew what she had to do now.

  “Mama? Mama, are you crying?” Melissa’s fair head appeared in the doorway of the kitchen and Lisa quickly blinked her hazel eyes to keep the unshed tears from falling to her cheeks.

  “Nope,” she lied. “I was just looking for something good to eat for dinner.”

  “Oh! Can we have pizza?” Melissa asked, her innocent face oblivious to her mother’s mounting fear. Lisa had become an expert in suppressing the tension which had followed them from Seattle to the east coast and finally to Ohio, where Lisa had hoped she had finally rid herself of Paul’s endless tail.

  But there is no escaping from him. He will continue to chase after us until I give him what he wants—Melissa.

  “You know what, muffin? We’re fresh out of pizza but you know who makes great pizza?”

  Melissa studied her mother with wide eyes. Even in her plaintive youth, the girl could sense something was wrong but she was far too ignorant to the ways of the world to know what was going on.

  “Papa John’s?”

  “No,” Lisa chuckled, despite the fear in her gut. “Chicago.”

  Melissa had no answer for that and her brow knit in confusion.

  “Never heard of it. Is it as good as Papa John’s?”

  “You haven’t had pizza from there yet,” Lisa assured her. “But that’s where we’re going. Chicago.”

  “Okay… Mama, are we moving again?” Understanding colored Melissa’s face slowly and Lisa felt a massive pang of regret as she nodded slowly.

  “We are, honey.”

  “Why, Mama? I like this house. You said we could stay here for a while.”

  “We will find a better house. A nicer house,” she vowed, but as she said the words, Lisa knew how many times she’d said that to her daughter in the last year and a half.

  We need to get out of the country. Paul won’t track us if we get out of the States, Lisa thought, but that was a pipe dream, at least for now. She hadn’t even had the means to procure new identification for them. It was a small wonder that Paul was able to find her without incident. In the age of technology, she couldn’t just escape, not the way one could twenty years before.

  We’ll get settled someplace where I can reach out to some people and find a way to get us to Canada or Mexico. That’s the only way to be done with this once and for all.

  But she was no criminal, no spy with underground connections. She was a college gra
d from Oregon who had married the wrong man.

  “Okay, Mama.”

  There was no argument in Melissa’s tone and guilt swept through Lisa in a torrent. She almost wished her daughter would fight, kick, scream.

  She’s only three and she already knows the feeling of adult-sized disappointment. Maybe I’m a terrible mother for doing this. Maybe Paul is right and I’ve got this all wrong. Maybe I should go back to Seattle.

  But as Lisa stared into her little girl’s intense grey eyes, she knew that she was doing right by Melissa.

  And I will protect her even if we have to spend our lives on the run like fugitives. I only hope she understands and forgives me one day.

  Chapter One

  Second Thoughts

  The car raced through the alleyway, hot on the trail of their chase, the noise of screeching tires filling Melissa’s ears.

  “LEFT! Make a—”

  Abruptly, the vehicle flipped over a curb, flying into the side of the building and exploding into a fiery crash.

  “That’s pure BS!” Melissa roared, tossing the controller onto the couch and scowling. “I had that!”

  Her roommate snickered and shook her dark head of hair.

  “Not even close. You can’t chase dealers like that. You’re lucky you didn’t get shot up like you did last time. I thought they taught you about restraint in that die-hard academy.”

  Melissa pouted and rose from her spot, realizing that her butt cheeks had gone completely numb after hours of playing video games.

  Good God, how long have we been fermenting in the apartment? she wondered, peering out into the darkened night. It had been bright and sunny when she’d last looked out the living room window.

  “I hope you’re better in real life than you are onscreen,” Cara teased and Melissa glowered at her.

  “Life isn’t Grand Theft Auto, you know?” she retorted, wondering why she was getting so defensive.

  You know why—Cara’s about to embark on an epic lecture about safety and stupidity.

  “Oh, I’m well aware,” Cara replied, flopping back onto the cushions dramatically. “Are you?”

  And here it comes.

  Their gazes met and Melissa was the first to look away, a frisson of indecision coursing through her veins. It wasn’t her first inkling of foreboding but she hoped it would be her last.

  It starts tomorrow and you have no time for second thoughts.

  “I know what I’m doing,” Melissa muttered, stalking into the kitchen. “I’ve been training for this—”

  “Your whole life,” Cara finished, exasperation coloring her tone. “I’m starting to wonder if you’re just saying that by rote or if you actually mean that anymore.”

  Melissa paused and cast the brunette a pensive look.

  “Why would you say that, Cara?” she asked and Cara shrugged instantly, lowering her gaze. “You don’t think my heart is in it?”

  “I’m not looking to start a fight with you, Liss. I’m just…”

  Melissa waited, not only for her friend to finish her thought but for a spark of annoyance to surge through her.

  It was mildly surprising when the irritation didn’t surface and Melissa wondered why.

  Maybe you’re becoming impervious to these pointless conversations, she reasoned, but she turned her attention fully on her roommate.

  “Well?” Melissa insisted. “Say what’s on your mind.”

  “It’s just…” Cara sighed reluctantly. “You promise you won’t get mad?”

  “Nope,” Melissa replied honestly. “But I will hear you out.”

  Cara gritted her teeth.

  “Liss, you’ve always wanted to be a cop. I know that, but lately, you seem… I dunno, on edge, like the closer you get to starting, the more you’re having second thoughts about the whole thing.”

  Melissa scoffed and shook her short, blonde head of hair in denial.

  “I am not!”

  “Okay,” Cara relented, throwing up her hands as if she’d already forsaken the idea. “Forget I said anything.”

  “I will,” Melissa agreed amiably, spinning back toward the kitchen. “Want a beer?”

  “Yes, please.”

  Melissa moved out of Cara’s view and opened the fridge, her mind on what her roommate had just said.

  Am I reconsidering this?

  It didn’t seem possible, not when Melissa had never wanted to be anything else.

  From the time she was a small child, she remembered playing “Cops and Robbers” with the boys at school, much to her mother’s chagrin.

  It had less to do with the unladylike nature of the game than the danger involved in handling make-believe guns.

  Perhaps it was the fact that they had moved around so much in her youth that Melissa had always been plagued with a sense of impending danger following them around, although from what and to where they were running, she had never been clear.

  As she reached her teens and was able to make sense of the fact that she and her mom were constantly on the move, she was presented with more questions than answers.

  Maybe if Lisa Stark had been more apt to divulge the truth about Melissa’s biological father, or perhaps if there hadn’t been such a shroud of secrecy entrenching her life, she would have sought a different career.

  But now I’m a cop. Or as of tomorrow morning, I’m going to be a cop. It’s a little late to change my mind now, isn’t it?

  The real question was, did she think she was ready or was it a dream she’d been hanging onto since childhood?

  She snatched two beers out of the fridge and slammed the door with more force than she intended, rejoining Cara in the living room.

  “So, what happens if you die out there?” Cara asked conversationally and Melissa snorted.

  “Aren’t you pleasant?”

  “I’m just saying, am I your next of kin now? Like, should I always have my cell on in case of ‘the call?’”

  “I’m not going to die!” Melissa gaped at her, half-awed, half-disgusted at the way her friend’s mind worked.

  “But if you do…”

  “You’re worried about my pension? You’re not my wife, you know.”

  Cara cast her a sly look and untwisted the cap off the beer bottle, taking a long swig.

  “Is there more in it for me if I marry you?” Cara joked and Melissa swatted at her. She knew Cara was just trying to lighten the morbidly dark mood that seemed to be sucking the life out of the room suddenly.

  She started it, Melissa thought childishly.

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re looking forward to me dying on the job.”

  The jesting smile faded off Cara’s face and she slapped the beer bottle onto the glass coffee table with so much force, Melissa was shocked it didn’t crack.

  “That’s not even funny, Liss. I may screw around but I think I’ve made it pretty damn clear that I wish you’d gone into another line of work.”

  “Like IT?” Melissa asked innocently and Cara grunted.

  “It might not be lucrative but at least I won’t be shot at,” Cara grumbled.

  “Not lucrative? You haven’t had a job in two months!” Melissa countered but she knew she was only using the argument to distract them both from the real issue.

  Tomorrow morning, I’m starting work as a rookie in one of America’s most dangerous cities. Cara has every right to be concerned. What would Mom say if she was around to see me right now?

  Shame washed through Melissa and she tried to shove the image of her mother out of her mind before tears began to burn behind her eyelids, but it was too late.

  She spent her life trying to protect me from something and I’m pissing on that memory, aren’t I?

  But that was a constant refrain in Melissa’s mind, the fear of dishonoring her mother’s memory, of the sacrifice that Lisa Stark had made for her before she passed away.

  “Your mom would be proud of you, Melissa,” Cara said softly as if she could clearly read her
roommate’s mind. “Even if she didn’t agree with your career choice.”

  “Would she?” There was a bitterness in Melissa’s question.

  Have I ever done anything in my life that I’ve been sure of?

  It seemed that no matter what she did, she was always plagued by a feeling of guilt which never went away.

  Guilt and longing. That endless, soulful longing. What the hell is that?

  “I didn’t know your mom well but I know she looked at you with the exasperation of a proud mother. Trust me, my mom never looked at me like that.”

  The women shared a half-smile but Melissa’s heart was aching.

  That’s enough of this shit. No more doom and gloom tonight.

  “You know what?” Melissa said abruptly, also placing her drink on the table. “We’re not going to sit around here tonight and have a philosophical discussion which will inevitably lead us to too much drinking and a deep depression. This is my last night as a civilian. Let’s go celebrate in rare form.”

  Cara looked at her warily. “I’m broke,” she reminded Melissa.

  “I know,” Melissa chuckled. “It’s a good thing we have rich friends, isn’t it?”

  Cara groaned aloud and shook her head. “Oh no…” she moaned. “Not the Waylands…”

  “Why not?” Melissa giggled. “Tomorrow I might have to arrest them but they don’t need to know that tonight.”

  Cara sighed but Melissa could read the approval in her eyes.

  “Fine,” she agreed. “But if I start making eyes at Louis, you’re getting me out of there.”

  “Deal,” Melissa conceded. “But the same goes for me and Andrew.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Portia was a speakeasy in the basement of a nondescript building on Milwaukee Avenue, not far from the Half-Day Forest Preserve. From the outside, it didn’t look like much but Melissa had been in the Waylands’ club before and she knew it was filled with debaucherous promise—if one was looking for such a thing.

  “Don’t mention that I’m starting at CPD tomorrow,” Melissa warned Cara as they slid toward the side entranceway in high heels and short skirts. “I don’t want them to tone down the fun on my account.”