LITMIR.BIZ

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you the brass?”

      “You know what I mean. We’ll find Darren. The place does tend to run without you, you know,” Tom added jokingly, and Jarod blew out a breath.

      “Fine. Keep me up-to-date on what’s happening?”

      “You bet. By the way, you put any more thought toward taking that captain’s position that’s opening up? You’re the perfect candidate. You’d have no problem getting through the interviews. I’d be happy to write you a rec.”

      Something nasty squeezed at Jarod’s temples, and he told Tom the truth. “All due respect, and believe me, being asked to fill your shoes is an honor, but I don’t know if I want that, Tom. I like where I am now. Too much paperwork comes with being a captain.”

      “Ain’t that the truth,” Tom agreed, laughing good-naturedly. “Still, there are more guys who can do your job, and not many as well suited as you are to this chair. You’re a natural leader, Jarod. And captains are still hands-on much of the time. Better pay, too. Maybe a chance of living a little longer,” Tom joked, having been in the captain’s seat for ten years before recently being promoted to assistant chief.

      Jarod knew Tom wanted him to take the spot, and it was getting harder to resist. “I’ll think some more on it.”

      “Think faster. This has to be decided sooner than later.”

      “Will do.”

      They hung up, and Jarod rubbed his eyes, feeling tired. A restless night’s sleep had done him no favors. He was going to have to make some decisions. His father wouldn’t be happy if he turned down the promotion, yet it just didn’t feel right. He should be excited, but for whatever reason, he wasn’t. He liked what he did, and had never really thought about climbing the political ladder. He just wasn’t ambitious that way.

      Shaking his head, he set the thoughts aside and sat back down at his computer, distracting himself by typing Lacey’s name into the search engine.

      His conscience pricked at him a bit, but what of it? He was going to be working with the woman, and he was curious.

      Surprisingly, he didn’t find much. Wouldn’t a person in her line of work have more Internet presence? Promotions, articles, displays of their work, a Web page? She did have a Web page connected to Bliss, but it was basic info, a few samples of her previous work—impressive—but most notably, no pictures of herself. Wasn’t that odd, for a photographer?

      He shrugged. Maybe he was off base. However, following an instinct, he accessed a database used by law enforcement to do background checks and paused before typing in her name. He had no call to do this, no professional reason.

      No, his reasons were personal. The lady had been seriously stressed about something. Jarod didn’t think for a minute that she was a criminal, but she was hiding something; he could smell it. And he wanted to know why she was so afraid, and of what.

      He wouldn’t dig too deep, only see if anything curious came up. Then he’d leave it at that. There was a fine line between curiosity and concern, and invasion of privacy.

      He didn’t know if he was relieved or not to find that on the surface query nothing came up. Not even a speeding ticket or a court date. However, Lacey Brown had changed her name to her mother’s maiden name, Graham, upon arriving in New York City. She’d renewed all of her official IDs, license, Social Security, etcetera, all at once.

      When she’d come here, she’d reinvented herself—it piqued Jarod’s attention as to why. It could be as simple as her not liking her last name for starting a new career, or perhaps she’d been married, and returned to her mother’s name when she’d left the relationship.

      Lacey Brown. He couldn’t see where that was such an objectionable name—why wouldn’t she want her father’s name? She’d sounded happy with her childhood from what Jarod could tell when he’d heard her talking about growing up on the ranch in Nevada, and so why the switch?

      Some people did business by adopting a business name, a DBA, “doing business as” but Lacey had changed her entire identity, officially. When someone took such a drastic step, there was usually a big reason why.

      The need to know was balanced by the need to stick to professional ethics. He’d already crossed the line slightly, and he wouldn’t pry any further, regardless of the temptation. Closing the database and the computer before he gave in to his baser impulses, he sat quietly, wondering.

      Other than criminal activity, the other obvious option was that she was hiding or running away from something or someone who scared her. It brought him to simmering anger to think about that, and he almost opened the database again, wanting to know. If Lacey was afraid of something, he could help. What would he find if he checked into Lacey Brown’s past?

      If she wanted him to know, she’d tell him, he reminded himself sternly. He had no compelling reason to pry into her business. None at all.

      Standing up, he headed for the shower, needing to get out of the room. He was meeting with Lacey in two hours, and he was looking forward to it a little more than he should be.

      IN GOOD TIME Lacey finished two of her interview consultations, one with a member of their own FDNY and another with a member of the California Highway Patrol. Things were moving ahead and a spirit of excitement was only dimmed by the black cloud of knowing Scott was out of jail. She’d barely slept all night, paranoid and stressed, and feeling like an idiot for how she’d acted with the Ranger in the pizza place.

      She glanced at Jackie, who was across the studio, but it was hopeless. Jackie was far too busy flirting with one of New York’s best to notice Lacey. Lacey frowned—Jackie was a free spirit and probably just used to playing the game at work, but it was hard to believe she was in much of a relationship if she was acting like that…

      And look at me, little Miss Critical, who hasn’t been near a man in months, Lacey chastised herself.

      To say she was feeling out of sorts was an understatement, her day full of surprises so far. The execs from Bliss had wanted her to walk them through the current setup, and though she’d tried to explain that it could change once she had all the early photos in, they had seemed happy, if not thrilled, with the early work.

      Her stomach turned; she needed them to be thrilled, ecstatic even, but Lacey was sure that the female exec in Marketing, Nina, would never like anything she did completely. There was an innate animosity there that Lacey didn’t understand, but it happened sometimes. Personalities clashed for whatever reason.

      Lacey was determined to do better than her best, and wow them no matter what.

      It wasn’t going to be a smooth morning by the looks of things. Jackie was busy and had messed up a few scheduling details. Assisting Lacey wasn’t her only duty at the magazine, so Lacey tried to be understanding. Now there was a very annoyed California Highway Patrol officer demanding to know why his appointment had changed—again.

      Lacey tried to placate him, but she just couldn’t fit him in at the moment, and needed to push his shoot back until she was done with Jarod. The patrol officer wasn’t happy about it. The guy was not Mr. Sunshine, and Lacey couldn’t blame him for being irritated, but there was nothing else to be done.

      Jarod was due here any second, and she needed time to prepare. She wanted to start by taking some studio shots of Jarod, to get a feel for him, so to speak. She’d thought about that in more ways than one the evening before, until the incident in the café had thrown her.

      She couldn’t help it, but seeing someone manhandled just brought back flashes of Scott. Seeing Jarod step in had been both exciting and frightening. She didn’t know what to think of it.

      Left to handle it all on her own for the time being, Lacey turned back to the disgruntled highway patrol officer and offered a friendly smile, hoping it would dim his temper. It did, maybe too well. She realized while she’d been looking toward Jackie, the guy’s eyes hadn’t moved from her chest.

      Great.

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