In Bed With the Badge by Marie Ferrarella

desperate man searching for a lifeline. “You’ve got a big family, right, McIntyre?”
    “I do now,” she qualified. Before the wedding, there had only been her brothers and her sister. Now, of course, besides the huge entourage she’d gained, there were also her siblings’ better-halves to take into account. The size of her family had grown astronomically in a very short time. “Why? Are you thinking of trying tosneak Lisa in, hoping everyone just thinks she’s part of the under-five-foot group?”
    “Not exactly, but close,” he admitted.
    Riley shook her head. “Desperate doesn’t look good on you,” she told him, then smiled. “Don’t worry, it’ll be all right.” A note of kindness entered her voice as she added, “And you’ll have backup.”
    He would have preferred just handing off Lisa. Not because he was indifferent, or because having Lisa around would cramp his style—cute kids were known to attract women, not repel them—but because he didn’t think it was fair to the little girl. She deserved to be raised by someone who knew what he was doing, not a father who would be stumbling around in the dark.
    “Right,” he muttered. He told himself to focus on work. “Okay, let’s just table this for now. We need to get to this house before Barker has us shot.” He opened the door on the driver’s side.
    After getting in, Riley found herself coaxing a reluctant seat belt to extend. On the way to Brenda’s, she’d sat in the back with Lisa to make the girl not feel any more isolated than she probably already did. Riding shotgun in this case had its disadvantage.
    “Want to sit in the back?” he proposed as he started the car.
    “No,” she bit off. She wasn’t about to be defeated by a safety device.
    It took her two hard tugs to properly extend the belt to the length where she could secure it around herself.Holding onto it tightly, she slipped the metal tongue into its slot. That out of the way, Riley glanced at Wyatt.
    He really did have one heck of a profile. No wonder he had to all but beat women off with a stick. The man was just too good-looking for his own good.
    Or hers.
    The thought surprised her. Riley searched for a safe topic, something to redirect her mind onto more neutral territory. She decided to ask about her new boss even though she could have just as easily asked one of her siblings, or her mother.
    “How long has Barker been in charge of the department?”
    Sam made a sharp right at the next light. The freeway he needed was just a block away. “For as long as I’ve been there.”
    That meant at least for the last five years. “Tell me, has he always had the personality of a piranha, or is that something new?”
    Sam laughed, then felt duty bound to defend the man, at least a little. “Oh, he’s a decent enough person—on his good days.”
    Neither yesterday nor today came under that heading. “These good days, do they happen with any kind of reliable frequency?” she asked. “Or are they like Brigadoon ? Making an appearance once every hundred years?”
    The reference she’d made meant nothing to him. He had no idea what or who Brigadoon was, but he let it go. “His wife left him a couple of years ago. It really tore him up.”
    “And he’s been taking it out on everyone ever since?” she guessed.
    Just making the light, Sam guided his vehicle onto the freeway. With rush hour over, traffic was flying this time of the morning.
    “Something like that.” He needed to focus on something other than his present situation. Maybe if he didn’t think about it, a solution would eventually occur to him. “Did the lieutenant give you any details about this new case?”
    Before leaving to find him, she’d gone back to her new superior to ask for any more information. The man had seemed annoyed and then tolerant. He’d spared her a few crumbs. She was glad now she’d asked. Though they knew each other, she and Wyatt had never worked a case together. She didn’t