Carol Jordan is one of those?’ Sam shuffled up the bed and reached past Stacey for coffee.
‘I put an alert on her when I first started working for the MIT. It seemed… sensible?’
‘To spy on your boss?’ He giggled. ‘That’s brilliant. No wonder you’re always one step ahead of the game. Can you do the same for my boss? I know next to nothing about the bastard. And knowledge is power.’
Stacey pretended to frown. ‘And would you use your power for good or evil, Sam?’
He laughed and kissed her. ‘I’d use it for us, sweetheart.’ He looked back at the tablet. ‘That is fucking amazing. I knew she was drinking. I told Blake about it but he could never nail her.’
Stacey was shocked. ‘You told Blake the boss was drinking? Why would you do that?’
He gave her an innocent look. ‘Because I care about the job, of course. I didn’t want us to lose cases because she’d had one too many vodkas. She was my boss, not my friend, Stacey.’
Stacey was taken aback. ‘But she was a good boss, Sam. The best I’ve ever had. The work was interesting, she treated us fairly and she always fought our corner with Blake. Why would you go behind her back to the very person who was trying to destroy her?’ She desperately wanted him to come up with a valid reason; this early in their relationship, she couldn’t bear the thought that he might be less than she believed him to be.
He handed her back the tablet. ‘You make it sound much more melodramatic than it was. Like I said, justice came first. Plus I wanted to make sure Blake knew which side I was on when the chips were down.’ He reached an arm round Stacey and tried to pull her down on to him.
Stacey was struggling to make sense of her feelings. Carol Jordan had been the perfect boss as far as she was concerned. She hadn’t cared what Stacey did or where she sneaked in, as long as she delivered what the team needed when people’s lives were at stake. Carol had plucked her out of a pretty dull job and offered her the chance to make a difference, and she’d appreciated Stacey’s talent in a way that no other senior officer had before or since. Stacey suspected it was because Carol’s brother had been a geek too, that that had given her an insight into the world Stacey inhabited for most of her waking hours.
But Sam was the man she loved, the man she’d lusted after and longed for since the first day he’d walked into the MIT squad room and looked around with those assessing brown eyes that seemed to see inside her head and her heart. It had taken her a long time to admit even to herself what she felt, and it had been Paula who had finally pushed her into making her feelings known. Stacey still couldn’t quite believe he’d chosen her, and she wasn’t secure enough in his love to challenge him. Part of her despised herself for not sticking up for Carol the way Carol had always stuck up for her officers. ‘But she was always on our side,’ was all she said.
Sam nuzzled her shoulder, his mouth moving down towards her breast. ‘Never mind Carol Jordan,’ he said. ‘We’ve got better things to occupy us now.’
And so Stacey let herself succumb to his seduction, entirely unaware that with part of his mind, her lover was calculating whether there was any way he could use this new information to his advantage. When she’d said he didn’t deserve her, Stacey had been more right than she knew.
‘It’s been a while since I drove anything so primitive.’
She snorted. ‘You’re not exactly Jeremy Clarkson when it comes to wheels.’
Tony winced. ‘For which we should both be grateful. My Volvo might be close to clapped-out but at least it was built after synchromesh was invented.’ The easy banter as they drove up the moor edge towards the Bradfield road was a welcome relief to Tony after the fraught and sometimes tetchy evening they’d spent after their walk up the hill behind the barn. He’d feared she was going to lose her temper,
‘I put an alert on her when I first started working for the MIT. It seemed… sensible?’
‘To spy on your boss?’ He giggled. ‘That’s brilliant. No wonder you’re always one step ahead of the game. Can you do the same for my boss? I know next to nothing about the bastard. And knowledge is power.’
Stacey pretended to frown. ‘And would you use your power for good or evil, Sam?’
He laughed and kissed her. ‘I’d use it for us, sweetheart.’ He looked back at the tablet. ‘That is fucking amazing. I knew she was drinking. I told Blake about it but he could never nail her.’
Stacey was shocked. ‘You told Blake the boss was drinking? Why would you do that?’
He gave her an innocent look. ‘Because I care about the job, of course. I didn’t want us to lose cases because she’d had one too many vodkas. She was my boss, not my friend, Stacey.’
Stacey was taken aback. ‘But she was a good boss, Sam. The best I’ve ever had. The work was interesting, she treated us fairly and she always fought our corner with Blake. Why would you go behind her back to the very person who was trying to destroy her?’ She desperately wanted him to come up with a valid reason; this early in their relationship, she couldn’t bear the thought that he might be less than she believed him to be.
He handed her back the tablet. ‘You make it sound much more melodramatic than it was. Like I said, justice came first. Plus I wanted to make sure Blake knew which side I was on when the chips were down.’ He reached an arm round Stacey and tried to pull her down on to him.
Stacey was struggling to make sense of her feelings. Carol Jordan had been the perfect boss as far as she was concerned. She hadn’t cared what Stacey did or where she sneaked in, as long as she delivered what the team needed when people’s lives were at stake. Carol had plucked her out of a pretty dull job and offered her the chance to make a difference, and she’d appreciated Stacey’s talent in a way that no other senior officer had before or since. Stacey suspected it was because Carol’s brother had been a geek too, that that had given her an insight into the world Stacey inhabited for most of her waking hours.
But Sam was the man she loved, the man she’d lusted after and longed for since the first day he’d walked into the MIT squad room and looked around with those assessing brown eyes that seemed to see inside her head and her heart. It had taken her a long time to admit even to herself what she felt, and it had been Paula who had finally pushed her into making her feelings known. Stacey still couldn’t quite believe he’d chosen her, and she wasn’t secure enough in his love to challenge him. Part of her despised herself for not sticking up for Carol the way Carol had always stuck up for her officers. ‘But she was always on our side,’ was all she said.
Sam nuzzled her shoulder, his mouth moving down towards her breast. ‘Never mind Carol Jordan,’ he said. ‘We’ve got better things to occupy us now.’
And so Stacey let herself succumb to his seduction, entirely unaware that with part of his mind, her lover was calculating whether there was any way he could use this new information to his advantage. When she’d said he didn’t deserve her, Stacey had been more right than she knew.
‘It’s been a while since I drove anything so primitive.’
She snorted. ‘You’re not exactly Jeremy Clarkson when it comes to wheels.’
Tony winced. ‘For which we should both be grateful. My Volvo might be close to clapped-out but at least it was built after synchromesh was invented.’ The easy banter as they drove up the moor edge towards the Bradfield road was a welcome relief to Tony after the fraught and sometimes tetchy evening they’d spent after their walk up the hill behind the barn. He’d feared she was going to lose her temper,
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