Free Take One With You by Oak Anderson Page B

enable a quick draw of his duty weapon, and he pulled it out and fired just as the big man jumped.
    ***
    “Jesus Christ, Thane.”
    Thane Parks, the man who’d seen the derelict rip off the kid at knifepoint after leaving the liquor store, shrugged his shoulders and smiled tiredly at his boss, the chief of detectives. Myers always showed up whenever one of his men discharged his weapon, even if it was inconsequential, which this was decidedly not.
    Behind them, paramedics were loading the big man into the back of an ambulance.
    “And where you’re headed, holy shit.”
    Thane laughed, a slightly less evil-sounding version than what had set off the derelict, and his boss reluctantly joined in. “I know, I know.” Thane looked past Myers where a female officer with a pretty decent rack was talking to the kid with the candy. He was divorced, his ex-wife was a bitch, and he definitely wouldn’t mind tapping that ass before the ceremony.
    But he also needed to talk with that kid. Thane had told the boy to go home before he dragged the big man into the alley, but somehow he’d either been too scared or too curious and apparently had seen and heard a little too much for the detective’s taste.
    Thane noticed the female officer didn’t have her notebook out, which was good, but she’d be handing the kid off to social services soon, or maybe his parents if they were around, and that couldn’t happen without a few words in private.
    “Speaking of which, Lieutenant…” Thane said, and Myers nodded.
    “Yeah, yeah, get the hell out of here,” he said. “I’ll see you there.”
    “Thanks,” Thane said, and walked towards the kid as Myers went to talk to another officer who was taking notes by flashlight next to the pile of trash.
    As he approached, the boy’s eyes grew wide and the officer turned to see Thane. She stood up and for a moment Thane thought she was going to salute him or something.
    Rookie, he thought. Love to bang the newbies.
    Thane looked her up and down. She looked even better up close.
    Wedding ring. Fuck. On second thought, even better. No commitments.
    “Detective Parks?”
    “Yeah, that’s me,” Thane said, his eyes rising to hers and then back down to her tightly packed tits. “Officer Hellstrom.”
    She flushed. It was clear she had thought he was staring at her chest and he’d sufficiently covered by pretending to search for her nametag.
    “Yes, hi.”
    Thane smiled. “Hi.”
    There was a brief moment of silence as Thane just waited for her to speak. He liked the fact that she was slightly uncomfortable and off guard.
    Thane Parks enjoyed watching people flounder.
    Finally he put her out of her misery, but filed away her reaction for another time. He liked watching her flounder all right, but he’d really like to feel her wriggle.
    “You mind if I have a word?” he asked, and nodded towards the boy, who was still staring up at him, eyes wide.
    “Oh, sure,” she said, stepping to the side. “Do you sign?”
    For a moment, Thane thought she was asking for his star sign like they were in some 80’s singles bar, and then he realized that she meant the kid was deaf.
    Now that is fucking beautiful. The only thing better would be if-
    “He can’t speak, either,” the officer said.
    Thane was about to upbraid her about assumptions since the kid might be in shock, but gently, so as not to ruin his chance for a future piece of ass, when he noticed that the kid was holding one of those cards that deaf mutes hand out for donations. He’d caught one or two scammers with those cards before, but this kid looked a little too young for that.
    Looks like my lucky day.
    He reached down to touch the kid’s shoulder, but the boy cowered behind the female officer, wrapping his arms around her waist.
    Kid may be dumb, but he’s no dummy.
    Thane smiled as warmly as he could at the kid, and ran his eyes back up Officer Goodbody’s good body. “Poor little guy’s seen a lot, tonight,” he said,