How About No (Bear Bottom Guardians MC 3)

If I hadn’t come out when I had, Bayou would’ve likely slammed his fist into both of their throats.

The chief sighed. “I understand, but to be honest, half the men in this department can’t pass that test. It’s an impossible feat for an everyday officer. We’re not all Navy SEALS.” I nearly rolled my eyes at that.

He would say that.

Especially considering he was one of the ones that couldn’t pass it.

Lucky for him, people on desk duty no longer had to pass physicals. They implemented that requirement after he’d already passed his physical before he became the chief.

They only had to pass the psychological tests once every six months.

“Listen,” I said. “Until that changes, I have no choice but to follow the rules.”

The chief sighed. “Which brings us back around to what I really needed to talk to you about. You’re officially on desk duty until your leg is healed. I know you wanted to come back, but since you yourself couldn’t run the course, we’re no longer able to keep you on patrol.”

I felt my stomach bottom out. Being on desk duty was the worst form of torture. But, I’d also heard it from my sergeant the day before, so it wasn’t that much of a shock.

I’d be relegated to desk duty at the front desk, and I’d have to actually talk to the public who came into the department with their petty little complaints. I don’t actually hate doing it, but I so wanted to be back doing the job that I loved.

“I can pass the test,” I pointed out.

And I could.

Despite my leg being in pain, I could—and did—pass the test.

“I know that you ran it this morning to prove a point to the other officers,” the chief sighed. “But you haven’t been cleared by the doctor, and as per department policy, you have to have that to be cleared for active duty.”

I growled low in my throat. “I can do the job.”

I needed to do the job.

Having to deal with petty crime reports would literally kill me.

“That may be true,” my chief agreed, sounding tired. “But until you’re back on your feet officially, and have a release from a doctor, you’re on desk duty. You’re also on vacation for the next two weeks. Go home.”

Knowing when I wasn’t going to get what I wanted, I stood. “Fine. But don’t expect me to be nice to these people that come in here thinking that they’re gonna play tattle on Tommy, their neighbor who let their dog shit on their lawn.”

With that, I left the chief’s office and went out to my truck, annoyed all over again that my officers were a bunch of pussies.

I knew when I signed up to be the sergeant of all these little twits that it was going to be tough. I just didn’t realize how tough.

God, they were the whiniest bunch of grown men I’d ever had to deal with.

To make matters worse, I was supposed to return to work in two days before meeting with the chief. Now I have two more weeks before I can return.

It’d been a week since Hoax had called to tell us that Landry’s place—the one that we’d built when we were three months into our marriage—had burned to the ground.

And during that time, we hadn’t made any progress in finding out who did it. At this point, we were leaning toward a gaggle of teenagers that’d been caught setting fires to mailboxes a few streets down from our home.

But, after listening to their confessions, I couldn’t see them doing it.

They were scared and adamant that they hadn’t been on that street.

Of course, if I’d heard that the house burned down after I had set the mailbox on fire, I would’ve denied it, too.

My gut, however, told me that there was something more going on than I was aware of, and I planned to find it out what it was.

Starting now, seeing as I was still on medical leave, I would have plenty of time to do whatever the fuck I wanted.

But first…I wanted to go see Landry.

Stopping by her favorite place to eat, I grabbed two street tacos and a basket of fries for her along with five street tacos and a basket of fries for me, and then headed to the daycare.

When I pulled up outside and shut the bike off, I marveled at how good it felt to be able to stop by here with lunch again. Hell, this used to be something I did almost daily seeing as I almost always got an hour for lunch, so why not spend that hour with her since she had to eat, too?

We’d take our lunches to the park bench across the street from the daycare, and we’d watch all the ducks swim and fish jump while we spoke about nothing and everything.