Free To Protect & Serve by Staci Stallings Page A

behind him, and Jeff turned to see that backward turned cap. The paramedic, looking even younger than he had a few moments before, held out a fist, and Jeff hit the top of it.
    “I think I was more scared than he was,” Jeff admitted.
    “Well, you didn’t show it.” Then the paramedic held out his hand. “A.J. Knight.”
    “Jeff Taylor.” It was amazing the strength of a friendship formed in a crisis.
    “You with the department?” A.J. asked in reference to the little yellow letters on Jeff’s T-shirt.
    “Yeah, I just started last week.”
    “Cool, we need more like you out here.”
    “Just trying to help.” Then he looked over to Parker, who was now surrounded by the emergency crew but standing again. “I think I’ll just go over and see how he’s doing.”
    “I’ll go with you.” Together they turned and approached the little group.
    “Hey, Parker,” Jeff said when he got close enough to see the young man. “You good?”
    The only thing keeping the tears from falling from the young man’s eyes was the knot of men surrounding them. “Yeah.”
    “I’m glad you made it back, man.”
     
    The looks Tucker was giving her sent chills—and not the good kind—up Lisa’s spine Tuesday afternoon as she sat across the table for lunch with him and his grandfather.
    “It’s like this whole kid on the bridge thing,” Burke said, chewing on his steak. “That kid’s got no home life, no friends, the kids pick on him every day. What do we expect a kid in that situation to do? It’s either kill everybody else or kill yourself. Two choices and they’re both rotten. That’s the kind of kid I want to reach with this thing.”
    Lisa nodded, fighting to look interested even as her lunch crawled back up into her throat. One Luke a week should be punishment enough, but if she wasn’t losing her perceptiveness, another one was sitting right across from her at this very moment.
    “So, what did Anson say?” Burke asked, jerking Lisa from her karate fantasy.
    “Oh, he gave me the number for Vincent Fletcher. He’s like the police chief or something. I’ve got a meeting with him in the morning. As soon as I get him on board, I’ll go back and talk to Hayes.”
    “Fletcher’s tough,” Burke said, twisting his face out of normal. “Anson thought he would help?”
    “He thought it was worth a try,” Lisa hedged. She wished her gaze would just quit sending alarm signals to her brain. This was no time for that. She pulled herself up to her full height. “Besides I can be pretty tough myself.”
    “Yeah? Well, I hope so,” Burke said unhappily. “Otherwise Fletch just might chew you up and spit you out.”
    Terrific . The ones she wanted to talk to didn’t want to talk to her, and the ones she didn’t want to get within fifteen feet of, ogled her like a cat looking at the catch of the day. “I’m not worried. I’m sure I can handle Fletcher. I’ve handled guys far, far worse.” And she smiled sweetly at the cat sitting across the table from her.

Chapter 5
     
    “Options,” Lisa said as she sat across the desk from Vincent Fletcher Wednesday morning. “It’s all about options. We’ve got kids out there who don’t have options. They look around, and all they see is that they don’t have the options that the other kids do. It’s called learned helplessness.” She had read that several years before and had thought it was all a bunch of psychobabble at the time, but if it had a shot at getting through to the human version of Jabba the Hut, sitting cross-armed in front of her, it was worth a shot. “What Cordell Enterprises is trying to do is to show these kids that they have real options, and not just to be some hired hand working for minimum wage in some plant, but real options to lead and to make a difference in the community.”
    “And why would I want some minimum wage anvil joining my force?” Fletcher asked, clearly unimpressed.
    “Because you see, Sir, we’re all minimum wage