In Bed With the Badge Read Online Free PDF

talking.
    “Wyatt, this is McIntyre. The lieutenant wants to know where you are. He wanted me to tell you that you’d better haul your tail in if you know what’s good for y—” She stopped abruptly as she heard the phone being picked up. “Wyatt?”
    “Yeah, look, I’m not coming in today. Tell Barker I’m taking a sick day.”
    He sounded pretty agitated. Big night gone bad? she wondered. “How sick are you?”
    “I’ve never felt like this before in my life,” was his vague response.
    Riley hesitated for a moment, not completely convinced that he wasn’t pulling her leg. But then, what if he really was sick? As far as she knew, he lived alone. Maybe he needed someone to pick up medication for him. As his partner, it fell to her.
    “Flu?”
    “No,” he bit off.
    It was the middle of October and the Santa Ana winds were kicking up, making half the population of California miserable by playing havoc with their allergies and sinuses. The partner she’d had before Sanchez was wedded to his box of tissues the entire time the winds blew. Maybe Wyatt had the same problem.
    “Sinus infection?” she guessed.
    “No.”
    This time, he sounded downright surly. Her patience was slipping away. “Then what’ve you got?”
    There was a long pause on the other end of the line. She was about to ask if he was still there when she heard him say, “I’ve got a kid.”
    “You’ve got what?”
    “A kid,” he repeated, doing his best not to shout. “Look, I’ll be in tomorrow.”
    The line went dead against her ear before she could press him any further.
     
    Sam let the receiver fall into its cradle and looked at the perfect little bit of humanity sitting on his sofa, politely pretending to be absorbed in the educational programming he’d turned on for her.
    Six years old, she seemed to have already masteredeverything the multicolored, furry, perky little creatures prancing across the screen could possibly teach her.
    From the moment he’d hit puberty and discovered it exceedingly to his liking, Sam had never felt at a loss as to what to do in any given situation.
    Except now.
    What the hell was he going to do with her?
    Nothing he’d gone through these last twenty years had prepared him for this. But “this” had definitely happened. And now it was up to him to deal with it responsibly.
    Oh, damn.
    Sam scrubbed his hand over his face, forcing himself to think. But rather than coming up with a game plan, all he could do was relive the morning’s earthshaking events in his mind. It sounded like a dramatic assessment to anyone privy to what had transpired, but as far as he was concerned, it was dramatic.
    He’d never been a father before.
    He’d always thought that eventually he’d like to be one. But he’d just assumed that the timing would be of his own choosing and only after he’d married someone he felt completed his world. Currently, no candidates qualified for that position. But he’d obviously joined fatherhood without first acquiring the required wife.
    What was he going to do?
    When the doorbell rang this morning just as he’d finished getting ready for work, the thought that it was his new partner had flashed through his brain. Not that he was expecting her—or anyone—but if it was goingto be someone, for some unknown reason, his money was on McIntyre.
    He would have lost. Big time.
    When he opened the door, there standing in his doorway was a woman he’d never seen before. She held the hand of an almost doll-like, perfect little girl. Petite, blond, blue-eyed, the girl already had the makings of a little princess. It vaguely registered that the little girl didn’t look a thing like the dark-haired woman whose hand she was holding.
    “I’m afraid you’ve got the wrong apartment,” he’d said to the woman.
    The woman appeared unwilling to leave. “Detective Wyatt?”
    His “Yes?” had been wary. Life on the force had made him privy to the world’s darker elements.
    “Sam Wyatt?”