Page 79 of Falling For You

"Congratulations, Detective Walsh."

"I'm not a detective yet."

He looked at me like he'd forgotten where we were. "I really want to kiss you right now."

"Please don't," I said, trying to fight a smile. "Later. When we get home."

He stepped closer. His hand came up to my face.

"Walsh."

Wyatt's hand dropped. Elliot was walking toward us from across the driveway, sunglasses folded into his breast pocket because it was past eleven and even he couldn't justify them.

"Look at you, Walsh. I knew you had it in you."

"Thanks."

He turned to Wyatt. "I always told Burns, there's a real benefit to having a girl like Walsh on the force. She's our girl."

"I'm not your girl, Handler."

The smile changed. The charm left his face like someone had wiped it off.

"Still, that was a good solve, Andy. I always knew that mouth of yours was an asset to the force." He paused. "In more ways than one."

I stared at him. I couldn't believe it. Both of our body cams were on and he had just said that to my face without flinching.

I was going to remind him, calmly, that what he had just said to me was explicitly inappropriate. That we were at work. That if he didn't stop, I would have no choice but to involve HR. I had the words lined up.

Wyatt's fist caught him square in the face before I got the first word out. Elliot went down between two cruisers.

"Wyatt! Stop!" I grabbed Wyatt and pulled him back, both arms around his chest. He was shaking. I could feel his heart slamming through his turnout coat.

Officers were already coming. They pulled him out of my arms and put him face-first onto the hood of a patrol car.

"No—"

Jeremy caught me. "Andy. Don't."

I watched them cuff him. Wyatt turned his head on the hood and found me. I stood there with Jeremy's hand on my arm and didn't know what to do with a single part of myself.

Two officers were trying to help Elliot up. "Don't touch me. Don't fucking touch me." He shoved them off, waving his hand at them. His nose was pouring blood. It was already swelling wrong. Wyatt had broken it.

Elliot got to his feet, one hand cupping his nose, blood running through his fingers. He looked past the officers, straight at Wyatt on the hood.

"You just threw your whole career away, Brooks."

They hauled Wyatt off the hood and walked him toward a cruiser. Jeremy still had my arm. I watched his head dip as they put him in the back seat and shut the door behind him. Through the window, he looked back at me like he wasn't at all sorry for what he'd done.

The cruiser pulled out of the driveway, and I stood there and watched it go.

CHAPTER 31

Detective Walsh

WYATT

They booked me at the Thirty-Eighth.