Free In Too Deep by Tracey Alvarez

newspaper. The
girl peeked over the sofa back, watching her approach with
twinkling dark eyes and a bold smile. Some of her foul mood
evaporated and Piper grinned back. What a sweetheart!
    Shaye leaned against the service
counter talking to a young Maori woman with a tribal tattoo poking
out from the sleeve of Due South’s signature turquoise polo shirt.
Shaye glanced at Piper’s face as she slipped onto one of the wooden
stools lining the counter and said to the younger woman, “Better
start on a chocolate milkshake after you’ve taken those drinks out.
Extra shot of syrup.”
    Piper slipped her sunglasses up
onto her head. “What are we, twelve?”
    “ That scowl on your face tells me
it’s a chocolate emergency. Lani, make it two shakes when you’re
ready. We’ll grab Kez and Zoe and sit outside.”
    The young woman fired Piper a
quick look before scooping up the tray of drinks and scooting out
from behind the counter. “On it.”
    “ Lani? As in Lani Hohepa?” Piper
whispered as the younger woman moved away. “She’s like a little kid
with freckles and posters of cute boy bands on her
walls!”
    “ Hon, that was nine years ago. She
can vote now. Drink. Have sex with hot guys like Kip, the
bartender.”
    “ Little Lani Hohepa is sleeping
with your bartender ?” Piper craned her neck
around.
    “ No, you nut. But she could if she
wanted to. Or if he did. He’s a hard one to figure out. Anyway, I
can see you’re in a snit, but since we’re eating with people who
don’t know you’re loveable under that scary bad-cop persona, you
can suck up some sugar and tell me later about what gigantic jerks
West and Ben are. Come and meet the girls.”
    “ I’m not in a snit. I don’t do snits .” Piper followed Shaye across the
restaurant.
    She was just indignant at West’s
behavior. Okay, so her one finger salute may have been a little
uncalled for, but she was a dive cop, goddammit. She’d been in
hairier situations. And she most certainly did not panic.
    Shaye tapped the shoulder of the
brunette with the newspaper. “Kez?”
    The woman’s dark gaze slid quickly
past Shaye, her wide mouth splitting into a grin. Kezia folded the
paper neatly and stood, her pretty floral dress floating around her
knees.
    “ This is my sister Piper, down
from Wellington,” Shaye said. “Piper, my housemate and friend,
Kezia Murphy. Her daughter Zoe’s got her head in the toy box over
there.”
    Without Shaye introducing the
little girl, the relationship between the two was obvious. They
both had the same hint of the Mediterranean in their bold features
and olive skin. And while Zoe was too cute in her tee shirt, so
yellow it stabbed her brain, her mother was a knockout. Something
all the local penis owners in Oban would’ve spotted. She should’ve
hated Kezia on sight for being everything she would never
be—petite, feminine and sweet.
    Then Kezia spoke, her voice
slightly accented and with a natural soft rasp that would drive men
wild. “If you need an accomplice to kick someone’s boy-bits, I’m
your girl.”
    Not so sweet. So maybe she
could forgive her for being small, and curvy, and with a voice of a
phone sex worker. “Got anyone in mind?”
    “ Whoever made you look like you
wanted to spit nails when you walked in, cara.”
    “ That would be Shaye’s boss. So
I’ll have to take a rain check.”
    “ Ah, well. It’d be a shame to
damage someone so pretty.” Kezia pursed her lips thoughtfully. “We
could hold him down while you muss up his hair.”
    “ That’d teach him,” said
Shaye.
    Piper laughed, but before she
could speak a little voice interrupted. “I’m Zoe and I’m
eight-and-a-half. Are you really a policeman?”
    Kezia’s daughter stood holding
loosely on to her mother’s arm.
    “ Hi, Zoe. I’m Piper, and I’m
twenty-seven-and-a-third and yes I am a policeman—well, woman
really.”
    “ Cool.” Zoe cocked her head, and
chocolate brown curls bounced. Piper bit her lip to prevent a