Free Cavanaugh's Bodyguard by Marie Ferrarella Page A

decision to allot extra manpower for a task force. This case is long overdue for a task force,” he added.
    Since the unofficial “meeting” appeared to have come to an end, Brian rose to his feet. Bridget and Josh quickly followed suit.
    “Thank you for filling me in on the case,” Brian said amiably, walking them to the door. “And don’t worry,” he added conspiratorially, “your names won’t come up.”
    Bridget paused half a second to look at him. For that split second, he wasn’t the chief. Instead, for the first time since she’d learned the startling news about her father and who they all actually were, Brian Cavanaugh was her uncle. He was family, family beyond the blue uniform that made them so.
    She nodded at his words. “I wasn’t worried,” Bridget told him.
    Brian smiled. There was a great deal about this one that reminded him of the way his daughter, Janelle, had been just a few short years ago. Dedicated and so very intent on hiding any uncertainties and insecurities that she might have. Bridget, apparently, had yet to learn that those insecurities didn’t diminish her and surmounting them was what made her the person she was.
    “I know,” he replied. And then he winked at Josh, as if taking him into his confidence, and told Bridget, “I was talking to your partner.”
    With that, he closed his door and returned to his desk. Before reaching for the phone to call Howard and inform the man that he wanted a task force set up and was making an allotment in the budget for it, he thought back to the partner he’d had even before he’d gone on to earn his shield.
    Best damn partner anyone could ask for, he thought, the corners of his mouth curving fondly. At the time, he couldn’t do anything about the way he felt. Both he and his partner, Lila, were married at the time. To other people.
    But if something is meant to be, it happens, and every day he thanked God that it had happened to him.
    Wouldn’t surprise him if Bridget and her partner wound up the same way. They had that look about them, even if they didn’t realize it yet.
    Brian dialed Howard’s extension and sat back in his chair.

Chapter 6
    “I’ d really watch my step if I were you, Bridget.”
    The word of warning, uttered in a raspy low voice by Gary Cox, one of three detectives who had been loaned out to her division for the duration of the Lady Killer investigation, had Bridget looking up from her computer uncertainly. Cox had paused by her desk on the pretext of searching for something in the file he was holding.
    “What do you mean?” she asked quietly.
    His eyes still down, Cox pushed his rimless reading glasses up on the bridge of his nose. It was a losing battle. “I’ve worked with Jack Howard before the guy was kicked upstairs and made lieutenant. Thinks nothing of throwing people under the bus if that somehow helps elevate him or gets him seen in a better light. I hear you’re the reason this task force exists. That can’t sit well with him.”
    “You know better than that, Cox,” Josh said mildly, coming up behind his partner and facing the other detective. “Cavelli is a detective, same as you and me. A lowly detective doesn’t have the clout to get a task force put together. That kind of authority has to come from on high.”
    Cox looked at them knowingly. “My point exactly. You went over Jack Howard’s head—not that anyone could blame you,” he added quickly. “Man’s a showboating jackass. But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s gonna be watching every move you make.”
    Bridget nodded, accepting Cox’s words for what they were: a friendly warning. “Then I’d better make sure that all my moves are entertaining,” she told him with a bright smile.
    Cox pushed his glasses up his long, thin nose again. “Yeah,” he agreed, an appreciative note in his voice as his eyes quickly gave her frame a once-over. “I don’t think that’ll be much of a problem for you. Right, Youngblood?” he