The Lawman's Runaway Bride

“Bring him to an interview room.”

“Not a holding cell?” the officer asked.

“You heard me. An interview room. And...” He stepped closer to the man and lowered his voice. “Be a bit nicer, would you?”

Officer Gillespie blinked, then nodded, and nudged Randy toward a hallway.

“And you—” Chance’s voice was tight, aloof.

“What?” she demanded. She regretted the attitude that oozed out of her tone, but she was angry, and it couldn’t be helped.

“You are not a police officer. You have no right to give orders in this station. I’m the boss here, and what I say goes. Don’t you ever try and throw your weight around on my turf again.”

Was he really intimidated by a woman half his size? She shook her head. “He was out of line, Chance!”

“He’s my trainee to deal with,” Chance retorted. “And that’s Chief Morgan, to you.”

The officers in the bull pen stared at them in silence, and she immediately saw her mistake. She’d been angry, and for some reason she was still having trouble seeing Chance as police chief around here. He’d never been boss when she knew him, and it looked like a whole lot more had changed than she’d realized. She swallowed hard, feeling the heat rise in her cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” she said, lowering her voice. “It’s just that I know Randy, and I know it’s been a few years, but that boy has a good heart.”

“We all know Randy,” he retorted.

“That officer was about to break his arm!”

“Do you really think I’d let a teenager get roughed up on my watch?”

Perhaps not, but he wasn’t listening to what she was saying anyway. She knew this boy—or she had known him—but that didn’t matter right now, at least not to Chance. It had been a knee-jerk reaction, and it hadn’t been her stand to take. Except Chance had been taking his sweet time in intervening—

“Now, if you don’t mind, I have a kid to talk with in the interview room.” Chance turned to the receptionist. “Call his mother at the grocery store. Tell her to come down to the station at her earliest convenience.”

The receptionist nodded and immediately picked up the phone, but not before casting Sadie a sidelong look. She hadn’t made any friends here today, it seemed.

“Chance, I’m—” She swallowed the words and started again. “Chief Morgan...” It wasn’t easy to use his official title. It changed things between them—broadened the gap even more than it already was.

“Yes?” His tone softened.

“I’m sorry for stepping on toes. It won’t happen again.”

Chance gave her a nod. “I appreciate that. Now, I’ve got to deal with this, so we’ll have to reschedule our meeting. I’ll call you.”

He walked off briskly in the direction that Officer Gillespie had taken Randy, and Sadie turned back toward his office to collect her coat and bag. Chance was now police chief, and that changed more than she’d realized. They weren’t equals, and while she used to be able to cajole Chance into good humor or make demands where she saw fit, that wasn’t going to work anymore. There would be no more toes up on the dashboard of his cruiser, no more inside jokes between them. He was no longer her fiancé’s twin brother, and he most certainly wasn’t family. Chance was the commander of the entire force here in Comfort Creek, and he called the shots.

Working with Chance was going to be harder than she’d anticipated, because more than having to apologize for her actions five years ago, she’d also have to swallow her pride. Saying she was sorry was hard enough, but calling her old buddy “sir” would be a whole lot harder. And it looked like Chance wasn’t going to make that any easier for her, either.

She buttoned her coat as she headed out the front doors of the station and didn’t look back. She’d wanted a place to belong in Comfort Creek. She just hadn’t counted on that position being lower than Chance Morgan’s.

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