Broken Heart (Broken Heart #1) (7 page)

Dave walked around the precinct and introduced me to everyone. Some people smiled and some people didn’t. Dave was the captain of the detective unit. He was the boss and he knew it. So did

everyone else. He walked tall and straight and his brown wavy hair shined underneath the fluorescent precinct bulbs. I was excited to start working and from the looks of it, so was he. We

walked down the corridor to his office, and he motioned with his hand for me to sit behind his desk.

“Okay kid…you’re the boss when I’m not here. I need these files placed in this cabinet. It’s really self-explanatory. I’m sure you won’t need any help, but, if you do, here’s my number. Just call me, if I don’t answer, text me. If

I don’t get back to you, go to the front and ask Cassandra…she’s the one that brought in the coffee…she could be a bitch…but otherwise, she is very helpful. She’s a cop and prefers to work

in the precinct. She’s the princess around here, obviously. Oh…and this is Nick.” I turned around and then took a step back.

“We’ve met.” He was dressed in his uniform, and his sandy blonde hair and stunning blue eyes shimmered at me. He was gorgeous. I lifted my head and smiled at him. He extended his hand to me, and I gracefully accepted. He looked so different out of uniform when he was bent over on the

sidewalk helping me collect my belongings. I guess it’s true what they say about a man in uniform. They are simply irresistible. 

“Yes we did…nice to meet you, again.” I smiled and stared at him for a moment, admiring his face and his beautiful blue eyes. I released my hand as I batted my eyelashes at him flirtatiously.

“Take it easy, Nick. Take care of her when I’m not around…I’ll. See. You.

Tonight.” He poked his finger into Nick’s chest while emphasizing each word, and then he winked at me and started to walk away.

“Oh…okay…are you leaving?” 

“Yep, gotta go, doll. You can stay and check out the space, see where you want to start off. We’ll talk tonight. And hey, good luck.” He grabbed his coat and did a swirl before leaving the room. He seemed really happy. He really needed the help. His office was a mess. The papers on his desk

were practically piled to the ceiling. He had cigarette butts and coffee cups in every corner of the room. 

“I’ll check it out tonight. Wait, I’ll walk out with you.” I followed him out to the front of the precinct, hailed for a cab, and went straight home. I thought he might ask me to share a cab with him as we both lived in the same building, but he walked in the opposite direction. I was excited

that I got the job, so I rummaged through my closet to find some outfits I could put together for the week.

I went into work that night, and I managed to clean up a quarter of his office. I used three garbage bags that were filled to the rim, and that was just with garbage only. I didn’t have time to go

through files and place them in the cabinet. Dave was nowhere to be found. As I piled the files on one side of the desk, I felt a presence in the room. 

“Hello, I’m Stevie.” A short white man with a large dark grey garbage can presented himself to me. He had really big, light brown eyes that lit up the very dark hallway. I always had a thing for

studying someone’s eyes. They say so much, even when you have nothing to say. My father’s eyes told me so many things. Hate, some more hate, and most of all…hate. The look of hate radiated

through his eyes at me all of the time. Regardless, I always loved him. Sometimes, I think I should’ve showed him I loved him more. I just want to know why he didn’t love me.

“Jenesis, nice to meet you.” He waved his hand at me as he stood in the hallway, his eyes outlining the room.

“Jenesis, Hmmm…straight out the damn bible, huh? Man, how can you work in here? This guy’s a fucking pig! I can’t imagine what the fuck his house looks like!” he said loudly as he shook his head in his disgust. He was loud and had shocked me a little.

“Sorry about all of the bags, I really needed to clean up a little.” I shrugged my shoulders. 

“A little, shit, if this is a little, I don’t want to be here when you clean up the rest of this goddamn mess!” He bellowed a laugh that came straight from his belly. 

“I’m gonna leave some extra bags for you, just in case you come back tomorrow.” He grabbed some bags from the side of the garbage can and handed them to me.

“What do you mean by that?” I grabbed the bags from his hand. My tone was stern.

“Why the hell do you want to work here? You’re beautiful, you could be a model, you look like you should be a teacher or a chef…yeah, a chef…that’s it.” A chef? What the hell was this guy on?

“Well Stevie, I need this job, and thanks, I will be here tomorrow night.” I rolled my eyes at him, not realizing I was being rude. I didn’t mean to, I guess I was just feeling defensive from not getting a warm welcome from everyone else in the precinct.

“Fuck if I care,” he said as he pushed his garbage can on wheels out of the room. I could hear him mumbling as he walked down the hallway.

I was waiting for Dave to return, it was almost ten to two. I didn’t feel like throwing any more garbage away so I started to look at the pile of files on his desk. The large file cabinet was vomit

green and old as hell. It had four cabinets and each of them had about twenty little dents in it. One cabinet had CASES written on it in black permanent marker. The second cabinet had COLD

CASES written on a white piece of paper taped against it. The third cabinet had misc. on it, I guess for miscellaneous. The last cabinet had nothing written on it. The files piled on his desk were cold

case files. I was really curious and wanted to be a snoop. The suspense was killing me, so I opened the first file and started to read it:

Cold Case incident# 15-98768: Homicide- Angela Hartnett, 18: Cause of death: Gunshot wound to the head, torso and stomach. 

I felt uneasy reading the file. It sent a chill up and down my spine. I couldn’t imagine someone so young, losing her life, let alone being shot three times, especially in the head? I slowly turned the

page, and as I looked up, I saw Dave standing in the doorway with his hand leaning against the entrance of the doorway slowly tapping his fingers rhythmically against the door.

“Are you looking for something?” he said softly.

“No, no…I was just cleaning up,” I said nervously as I closed the file rather quickly. 

“It’s okay to glance over it if you’re going to file it, but if you’re not, try not to read them, they’re confidential, plus they might give you nightmares.

I wouldn’t want you to go home and have nightmares, Jen,” he said as he grabbed the folder from his desk and placed it in the cabinet and locked it.

Little did he know…I had nightmares every night.

“Yes, of course, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry,” I said feeling guilty.  “It’s fine, don’t be so serious. It’s time to head home. I’m staying here. I have a lot of work to do.” He picked up the phone on the desk.

“Yeah, Nick, do me a favor and take Jenesis home, thanks,” he said as he hung up. I smiled internally, not letting Dave know that I was extremely happy that that gorgeous specimen was taking me home.

“Nick’s coming right now to take you home safe and sound. Thanks for the cleanup, Jen. It’s looking good in here already. I’ll see ya tomorrow night,” he said as he lit a cigarette.

Nick walked in.

“Hey, are you ready?” He gazed at me up and down, his sexy blue eyes gleaming at me. “Hey, read the sign lately, Dave?” Nick said as he kept his eyes on me, and then pointed at the sign on the door that read NO SMOKING.

“Let me grab my purse.” I gathered my things feeling embarrassed that I got busted looking through the files. I really meant no harm, I was just curious. 

“Yeah, yeah…Hey, Nick, do me a favor? Shut the fuck up and bring me a coffee…from that twenty-four hour McDonald’s down the block…

Black...got it?”

“Sugar? Boss?” Nick asked with a smirk on his face.

“Nope, drive safe, good night, Jenesis, or rather, Good morning.” He chuckled with a half smirk then winked at me. Then he got up and slipped me a white envelope. It was money. Money for a day’s work at the office. I placed the envelope in my purse and smiled gratefully at him.

“Good night, Dave, and…thank you,” I said appreciatively.

I did feel safe and I was so grateful that Dave had Nick take me home. I was so drained. We headed to the police car, and I felt like I was on an assignment. I couldn’t help but smile and think of the show COPS. The song playing over in my head over and over. Nick opened the passenger side for

me and slid in. He walked around the front of the car as I eyed him with his dark blue uniform. A gorgeous man in uniform. He took my breath away.

“So, you like New York?” Nick asked as he drove through every red light in the city like a raving lunatic.

“I do. Do you always drive like a maniac?” My face was hurting from the strain of holding my body in place, but I was happy to sit so close in proximity next to his gorgeous face.

“So, like, you lived on a farm or something?” “Something like that.” I giggled.

“You got a boyfriend?” He turned and stared at me, his blue eyes darkened a little with a hint of desire.

“No,” I said hesitantly. I swallowed hard as his eyes lit up. They were so intimidating.

“Why not?” he asked, prying, as he cocked his head to the side. 

“What’s with the twenty questions, Nick?” I said bravely as I looked out of the window holding on to the door for dear life. 

“Excuse me, just wanted to know. To be honest with you, ever since you dropped your purse outside, I can’t stop thinking about you, you’re beautiful, and I wanted to get to know you a little better, that’s all.” I glanced over at him and he let go of the wheel and reached over to gently touch

my hand. I slowly pulled away from him. “I’m sorry if I crossed the line,” he said apologetically. As we approached the apartment building, I let him drive by it.

“This building here.” I pointed to the building across the street from where

I lived. I didn’t want Nick to know that I lived in Dave’s building. He stopped in the front.

“Oh…okay, good night, and again, I’m sorry.” He raised his blue eyes at me, and I melted. I couldn’t leave without giving him a sincere, heart-felt smile.

“No need to be sorry. Good night, Nick, thanks for the ride.” I leaned in before I left the car and caressed his hand, trying to dismiss the fact that I pulled away from him earlier. He grabbed my hand gently, kissed my knuckles, and let go. My body shivered a little as he let go, and it forced

me to give him a hug and a warm kiss on the cheek before I exited the car, closing the door gently. I started walking, then turned around to see if Nick was still there. He was, and he waited until I

walked into the building. I started to ring random doorbells until someone buzzed me in. I waved at Nick and shut the door behind me. As soon as he left, I walked across the street to my apartment.

It didn’t feel right that I was deceiving Nick about where I lived, but Dave asked me not to tell…so I didn’t. I wasn’t used to working at night or getting in a police car with a complete stranger, even though he was a police officer, it didn’t make it any easier to trust him. He was gorgeous though,

and for a minute, I frightened myself when he held my hand and brushed his soft lips against my knuckles. I wanted to get to know him better, too. 

The following night at work was even more interesting. The same rude people didn’t look my way and walking down the dark corridor to Dave’s office frightened me. I sat at his desk for a moment scanning the room and looking at all of the garbage. It looks like Stevie came back and took the

garbage bags he gave me. I guess he didn’t like my response, so I walked to the front of the precinct to look for him.

Everyone was talking and eating and the usual night shift gossip grew louder as I approached the front desk. Cassandra saw me and approached me.

“Hi, how’s work?” She stood staring at me, checking me out from top to bottom. If I didn’t know better, I would think she was rooting for the same team. 

“It’s good. I was looking for Stevie. I need some garbage bags.” I tried to turn away from her so she would stop staring so hard.

“Oh…here I have extra. I’ll walk you back to the office.” Great, just what I needed. She walked with me down the corridor as she handed me the garbage bags. She came into to the office and sat down on the chair in front of the desk.

“Wow…this place is a mess,” she snickered as she picked up an empty coffee cup and tossed in the trash.

“Yeah it is,” I laughed. We stood talking to each other for a while. The conversation was awkward at first, but as soon as she started to talk about Dave, things became very interesting.

She happily volunteered information about Dave. She told me his previous secretary gave him sixteen years of service and then some. According to

Cassandra, they were having an affair. He was caught getting a blowjob in the men’s bathroom. The secretary, Danielle, was head over heels in love with him, but Dave didn’t love her…he loved his wife, Sophie.