In the Line of Duty (First Responders 2)

Chapter One

It had been a long night, and Constable Kendra Givens was ready to clock out and collapse in bed when a call came through twenty minutes before her shift ended. And it couldn’t be a run-of-the-mill call either. Oh no. It was a break-and-enter at Jake’s Pub. Just who she wanted to deal with this morning—Jake Symonds.

She pulled into the empty parking lot and sighed. The pub was the newest watering hole between Wolfville and Kentville, and she was no stranger to calls from the staff. Sometimes things got a little heated as the night wore on and the drinks flowed freely. Luckily, the majority of calls dealt with throwing a local in the drunk tank for the night to sleep it off.

Most of the time she managed to avoid talking to Jake, with his thickly lashed hazel bedroom eyes and crooked know-it-all smile that met two ridiculous dimples. He was too confident. Cocky, even. Just the kind of guy that rubbed her the wrong way and tried her patience.

As she shut off the cruiser he appeared in the door of the pub. The sun was already up and cast a golden light on the shrubs and trees around the barn-like structure. It was August, and she should be just getting up to enjoy the summer day rather than wanting to go to bed. She should be looking forward to an afternoon at the beach rather than sleeping in her hot apartment with no air conditioning.

Instead she was face-to-face with cocky Jake Symonds. Perfect.

She slammed the door of the car and strode to the pub entrance. It’s your job, she thought. Just get it over with and then it’s beddy-bye time.

Jake was waiting for her at the doorway, wearing faded jeans and a button-down shirt that was, thankfully, buttoned but left untucked. His eyes looked sleepy, and the shadow of a day’s whiskers stubbled his jaw. Dammit. She might not like Jake, but she couldn’t deny he was a looker. Especially now, all sexily rumpled and without his trademark half-smile. He looked pretty grouchy now that she thought about it.

For some reason the idea gave her pleasure. The day was looking up after all. Perhaps this time she’d have the upper hand. Because normally Jake had a way of staring at her that made her feel about four inches shorter and about ten years younger. With pimples. And braces.

“Jake,” she greeted, keeping her voice curt. She was here to do a job, and the sooner they got through it the sooner she could be out of here.

“Constable Givens. Pleasure as usual.”

Annoyance flared at the ironic tone in his voice. She suspected getting under her skin was his goal anyway, so she ignored it and looked blandly into his stupidly handsome face. “Heard you had a break in.”

“Looks that way. Woke up when I heard the car doors slam, but I was too late. Got a make and partial plate for you though.”

“Great. Let’s go in and get this over with, shall we?”

Jake stood aside and let her open the door. Her cheeks heated as she realized he’d deliberately let her do it herself. Not that she expected a man to open a door for her everywhere she went, but she knew with Jake it was deliberate. He didn’t do anything without a purpose. It had always been that way, she suspected.

The inside of the pub was dim with the lights off. The smell of alcohol from the previous night still lingered in the air, mingled with the scent of frying grease and French fries. Kendra’s stomach let out a low growl, but in the silence of the open room it was embarrassingly loud.

“End of shift for you, I expect.”

“Yes, just about, so let’s get this done so I can go home, yeah?”

He moved past her and his scent followed, something fresh and slightly spicy, and she realized suddenly that Jake had showered before bed. None of the smells of a night tending bar were on him. She swallowed thickly as an image—quite unwanted—flitted through her brain of Jake underneath the hot shower spray in the middle of the night.

Was he as beautifully built as he used to be? She imagined so. She swallowed. She’d been a newbie officer, and he’d been home on leave before being deployed overseas again. That was before he’d opened his own place. Back then he’d taken to frequenting the other establishments in the area. And on that particular night, he’d been the one in trouble for public drunkenness and she’d been the arresting officer who’d had to put him in the tank to cool his jets.

Right after she’d made him put his clothes back on. The memory of that evening still made her squirm uncomfortably. His eyes had laughed at her, all green and impish and knowing.

She probably hadn’t needed to cuff him, but she had anyway to prove a point. Of course, Jake being Jake, that had opened the door to a whole other level of innuendo. Suggestions he’d felt free to make during the whole drive.

Now he was supposed to be all respectable, a business owner in the community, blah, blah. Kendra frowned at his back as they made their way to the back entrance of the pub. She should be able to forget it, right?

But she suspected a woman didn’t easily forget the sight of nearly naked Jake. And what made matters worse was that he knew it.

“They broke the back door frame,” he explained, showing her the splintered wood. “Guess I’ll be replacing it with something a little tougher.”

“The door and frame were probably as old as the rest of the place.” The previous owners had used it as a furniture-building shop, but they’d put it up for sale just over a year ago when the business had gone under. Kendra had rolled her eyes when she’d heard Jake bought it and was turning it into another drinking establishment. Like there weren’t enough of those in the area already. The only good thing about Jake’s was that she rarely had to deal with the college crowd this far out of Wolfville. It was mostly locals who kept him busy.

“It was the original door, yes. I always kept it locked and dead bolted, but clearly it wasn’t enough.”

She looked around. “So what’d they take? You’ll have to make a list for the insurance company too, you know.”