Free The Officer Breaks the Rules by Jeanette Murray Page A

figure that out when he got back to his apartment.
     But he wasn’t about to let this moment pass him by. This subconscious, glorious moment
     that gave him the perfect idea for a murder.
    Who found her? He wasn’t quite sure.
    Where was she? That much he knew, without a doubt. And he grimaced as he wrote.
    In the shadows, the unlit areas behind the O Club. The place where he and Madison
     first kissed, so many months ago. Where he got his first taste of the forbidden fruit
     and realized it was sweeter than he’d ever imagined. And now that he knew, he would
     crave the one thing he couldn’t have like it was oxygen.
    Finally, his hand started to cramp and he sat back to shake it out. Writing at the
     office wasn’t something he made a habit of. But with nothing to do and nowhere to
     go until the supply guy called, he didn’t feel guilty for taking five minutes to jot
     down some plotline notes.
    He checked his watch.
    Okay, fifteen minutes.
    He stood and walked to the kitchen area down the hall to grab a bottle of water from
     the main refrigerator. As he walked back down, he saw someone slip into his office.
     Walking up, he watched as Tim circled the desk for a minute and started to shift through
     papers.
    “Looking for something?”
    Tim jolted at the sound of his voice, startled rather than guilty. “Yeah, I wanted
     to see if your supply guy got back to you yet.”
    “No, I’m still waiting for the…” Jeremy’s throat closed up as Tim’s hand hovered over
     his notebook with his plot notes. Shit. What the hell…
    “If you wanna head back to your office,” he said casually, pausing to take a sip of
     water and wash the dust from his throat, “I’ll call down at you when I get word.”
    “I can wait here. Nothing going on back there.” Tim walked back around and fell into
     one of the chairs opposite his desk. “I hate feeling useless. The longer this year
     goes on, the more I feel like a desk jockey and not a real Marine.”
    As his friend settled into the seat, Jeremy breathed his first full gulp of air in
     minutes.
    “Yeah, I know what you mean. No action and all paperwork makes Jeremy a—”
    “Crab ass?”
    He lifted a brow at that. “Close enough.”
    “Then what’s the difference when you are getting some action?” Tim laughed a little.
     “That came out wrong, but I guess it amounts to the same.”
    Jeremy’s hands shook a little and he balled his fingers into fists. Keeping his steps
     calm and unassuming, he went to his own desk chair and sat down. Then, as if just
     now noticing how messy his desk was, he started collecting papers seemingly at random,
     piling them all together.
    Naturally, the notebook ended up on the bottom of the pile, well hidden by the rest
     of the forms. Funny how that happened.
    Tim grimaced. “How the hell you get any work done around here when your desk looks
     like that, I’ll never know.”
    “Easy there, Mr. Clean. Your stick is showing.”
    Tim just rolled his eyes as Jeremy laughed, the last of the tension seeping out of
     his shoulders and gut.
    Tim was known for being anal, even earning the nickname Lieutenant Stick in TBS—for
     having a stick up his ass about regulations and rules. He’d relaxed considerably since
     his marriage to Skye, but he still had his moments of compulsive organization and
     super-cleanliness. But his wife usually eased those rough moments, and he’d become
     even more easygoing in the last few months.
    “Are you all ready for your week out in the field?”
    Tim grunted. “It’s action, at least. A little notice would have been nice, though.
     I feel like we’re always playing catch-up around here.”
    “Nature of the beast.”
    “Hurry up and wait,” they both intoned at the same time, then chuckled together.
    “I’m ready,” Tim went on. “I just hate not having a warning. Forty-eight hours isn’t
     much.”
    “That’s not exactly uncommon. We rarely have that much notice before heading out to