Alexa was perched on the fire escape right beside the half-open window. It was a hot summer evening and the people inside the small apartment had left the window open in the hope of getting a small breeze. All it really did was give Alexa the opportunity to listen in.

The gun holstered at her side was digging into her hip from her crouched position. Her strawberry blonde hair was pulled back in a tight bun to prevent it getting in her line of sight. Alexa had always known that she wanted to be a police officer. The injustice she saw in the world was enough to make her want to become a superhero, and the closest she could come to that, in her mind, was a police officer. Maybe it was because of how pristine her childhood had been, that she was overly sensitive to the fact that so many had not had the same kind of life.

Now, she was perched outside the smoke-filled apartment, listening to the grunts and curses of a few dealers divvying up their profits. She was waiting for the signal from her partner that the bug she had planted had recorded enough incriminating information to go after the boss.

As she waited for the signal, she was treated to some very colorful language.

“Shit, this looks like the best take yet,” one of the men muttered.

“It's a good pull,” another nodded. “But, it could be better.”

“Better how?” a third dealer inquired.

“The Death Adders pull in the biggest bank from the jobs they do,” the second man replied. “I've never seen anyone make more than them.”

Alexa narrowed her eyes at the mention of the motorcycle gang they had been tracking for quite some time. They were the most successful gang in the area, and incredibly evasive.

Alexa had worked a few cases involving the members fr
om the gang, and found they seemed to be impossible to crack. They would sit there with their mouths shut and not say a word, no matter how they were threatened or what evidence they had against them. It was as if their loyalty ran so deep there was nothing that anyone could do to crack it. That was the real point of this stake out. Sure, they would take down a few dealers with it, but what they really wanted was information on the Death Adders.

"Man, I'd kill to find out their secret," the third guy
said with a shake of his head. "Could retire on it."

"Yeah well, you'd more likely get killed trying to find out," the second guy said. "They don't play any games, you know, they're out for blood if somebody even thinks about turning on them. I've seen them tear apart one of their own just for sniffing at a cop's ass, let alone even speaking."

The two other men grunted their approval and none of them knew what was coming to them. For a few more minutes, they could live in heaven, enjoying their riches and dreaming of what they would do with it. But soon, they would be in handcuffs or dead.

Alexa sighed as she glanced down at her radio to make sure it was on. She was tired of waiting, she was ready to take these fools down. They didn't have any real information about the gang, she could tell, and she wanted them out of the way so that they could focus on the bigger fish they needed to fry.

"All right, it's a go," her partner's voice sounded over the radio. Alexa counted to five, the seconds it would take for the other officers to get from the stairwell to the front door of the apartment, and then pushed the window the rest of the way open.

The pounding on the door had alerted the three men to the police being present, and they were scrambling in panic. Two of them were stuffing money into their pockets and down their shirts, while the third was grabbing a few bricks of heroin to smuggle out the window with him. None of them expected to confront Alexa as they lunged for their escape route.

"Shit!" the first man cursed when he saw Alexa waiting for him.

"Oh, it's just a lady cop," the second one said with a chuckle.

"Grab her, we can use her as a hostage," the third man commanded. All three had their weapons drawn and all three were well over two hundred pounds, but that didn't phase Alexa at all. She lunged through the window and into the apartment with her own gun already drawn.

"Put it down girlie. I don't want to hurt you," one of the men said
mockingly..

Alexa's gun was fully loaded, she knew she could take down all three before they even thought about pulling the trigger, but that's not what she wanted to do. Alexa had a tendency to enjoy the physical aspect of her job.

She swept one leg against the legs of the first man in the line and when she knocked him off balance she grabbed the arm of the third man, dragging him toward the man in the middle. What resulted was a pile of fools on the floor, their guns knocked from their hands, and their pride as bruised as their bodies. She landed a swift kick or two in the sides of the two men on top, and then whipped out the cuffs.

By the time the other officers flooded into the apartment, Alexa already had all three men subdued.

"Damn, Alexa," said Matthew Passin, her partner for over three years. He was always a little startled when the slender and petite woman managed to take down multiple criminals while barely breaking a sweat.

"Good job," he mumbled and then helped the other officers get the criminals to their feet. "But all you really need
ed to do was wait for backup," he admonished her, his dark blue eyes locking with her fiery, cinnamon gaze.

"I did," she insisted. "They were late," she shrugged, as if that was not her fault. She had of course not counted to ten as she was supposed to and always went at five. It was more fun that way, and no one got to witness the silly grin she was left with when the men were piled up on the floor beneath her. Her love for spreading justice was something she preferred to keep to herself, as pesky things like psych evaluations always came up when she confessed the adrenaline rush she experienced during those few moments when she was not sure if she would survive the situation.

"I got the job done, didn't I?" she asked with a smirk. Matthew just shook his head as he led one of the criminals out the door. He was used to Alexa's behavior by now, but he still didn't exactly approve of it. As they walked away, Alexa found herself recovering from the adrenaline rush. Her heart was pounding, her mind was racing, and her body was aching. It was strange how there wasn't a part of her body unaffected by a good take down, not a single part was exempt from the rush that she felt.

Chapter 2

Alexa did not hang around the police station long enough to get the usual lecture from her boss about her reckless behavior. She had heard it too many times before and could recite it by heart. So instead, she would often leave a note on his desk stating he could consider her lectured. Were she not one of the best on his team, she would never get away with this kind of flippancy but because she was, he let her slide. In fact, her collar rate tripled most of the other officers she worked with.

The only one who could come close to competing with her was Matthew, and that was only because he was constantly trying to keep up with her. Matthew was about ten years older than her, and though he had a lot of respect for her, he would often tire of the risks she took. She could understand why, as sometimes those risks put him right in the line of fire. Matthew had a wife and child at home to think of, something Alexa was not familiar with at all. It was not that she didn't think about having a family, it was just one of those abstract concepts she didn't really spend any time dwelling on. She assumed it would happen one day, but she was in no rush to reach that place
, and would be perfectly satisfied if she didn't.

Her life was not about romance, especially not with other officers. She despised dating cops. She had done it a few times and discovered that it was basically like bringing work home with her.

Try convincing your date that you actually want to eat a salad without being interrogated, or demanding that you have some space, the whole time knowing that the person across from you can run a deep background check and know everything about you. Add to that, the awkwardness of wanting to use handcuffs in bed, and it just did not work for Alexa.

So
, most of the time, after a solid take down with the adrenaline still pumping through her veins, she would head to a bar just outside out of town that catered to the more shadowy type. It was an opportunity to blend in, or fade away, for her not to even be considered a cop.

"Can I get a...
" she started to say as she sat down at the bar, but before she could even finish her question, the bartender Mary, had placed a cold bottle of her favorite beer down in front of her. Alexa winced as she realized she was becoming a regular.

At the bar, she wore her hair down. With it down it reached almost to the waistline of her short black skirt. She had a trim but muscular frame that was not the willowy figure of many of the women she knew, but still seemed to attract enough flies to the honey. It was not really just her body that drew attention though, instead it was her striking features. Men had mentioned before that her eyes were like weapons, she contained the force of her emotion within their vibrant cinnamon shade that varied in depths and darkness, depending on the intensity of what she was feeling. This, combined with high cheek bones and full lips gave her a European air, even though in truth, she had no idea if she had any European heritage.

The only feature she was a little vain about, was her hair. She had been told to cut it many times as it could be a vulnerability in a combat situation, but she refused. In a sense she relied on it to remind herself of her feminine nature. She was always so physically aggressive, and made exercise a hobby. Her body was hard and her attitude was stern, so seeing the softness of her hair tumbling down over her shoulders reminded her that she could be gentle, she could be tender.

As she took a sip of her beer, she turned around to drink in the prospects. She would often just observe. She could put off a pretty clear vibe that she wasn't interested if someone tried to approach her. On most occasions she went home alone but on some occasions she found someone she could have a little fun with
. However, on no occasion was he ever still around in the morning.

Tonight, as she swept her gaze across the people in the bar, she found herself focusing in on the back of a thick head of dark curls. She had never seen such luxurious hair on a man before, it was downright silky. All she could think of was running her fingers through it and how soft it might feel when she did. He was sitting with a few other men at a table, and each of them was more muscular than the last. His arms were exposed by the thin white t-shirt he was wearing, and she could tell that he had a few tattoos underneath the material.

Alexa was not usually into the rough and muscular type, but something about this particular man attracted her. When he glanced over his shoulder, his eyes met hers, and for the first time she realized she had been staring. She quickly looked away and drew a sharp breath at the impact of the visual connection.

Either the take down earlier that day had left her still racing with adrenaline or this guy had a huge impact on her
, because her heart was pounding. When she dared to look back up, he had already looked away, back at his buddies at the table.

She figured this was an indication that he wasn't interested.

"Another," she gestured to Mary, and Mary nodded, setting a bottle in front of her.

"You know anything about those guys?" Alexa asked curiously.

"Bad news," Mary said sternly as she wiped a cloth across the bar. "That group you don't want to get mixed up in."

"Why are they bad news?" Alexa asked, but Mary had gone silent, her eyes wide, as she looked up.

BOOK: Protected (Divided Loyalties)

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