AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Remy had noticed my mood and had become tired of it, and he ordered me to report to the Outreach—a community compound that served the needs of the Strip. They did everything from feeding the low-income and unhoused of the city to medical treatment from volunteers to even a full kitchen that served three meals a day. He’d told me I needed to find something outside my job as Captain of the Homicide and Cold Case Units. I was warned that Boss Sharp, the organizer, expected me and would inform Remy if I didn’t show up. Boss was married to the S.W.A.T. Commander, and I wasn’t in the mood to be attacked by tactical and detectives in some half-assed intervention. I wasn’t even sure how the hell I’d made it onto their radar, but I knew well enough they were capable of some epic bullshit.
I pulled my SUV into the packed parking lot, pulled the handle, and as I pushed the door open, I grabbed my keys. As I crossed the parking lot, I combed my thick fingers through my wavy silver hair. That morning I’d taken a good look in the mirror. Noticed the deepening of the lines on my face, no pepper remained in my hair, and my belly was more rounded.
There were those rare moments of comparison to the man I was in my twenties and thirties, the one who’d slowly turned bitter and disillusioned with the atrocities of the human race. Half a century in law enforcement, you see the worst acts committed by humanity, and you begin to internalize them because you don’t want to bring that home to your partner. In the name of protecting my ex, had I alienated him?
I roughly shook my head and pushed the front door of the Outreach open and walked directly into chaos. Children squealed from every direction. Laughter and the murmur of voices. The scent of dinner cooking. Everything was colorful and clean, happiness infused the air, and I could feel it.
“Captain Tyson.” Boss yelled my name and extended his arm as he approached to greet me. He was a short man, built like a tank, his bald head and face littered with scars that told a story. “It’s nice to see you again under better circumstances.” Our paths had crossed several times since my days in uniform and mostly ended with the older man in handcuffs.
I shook his hand. “Please, call me Wyatt.”
“Wyatt, how hard did our Remy twist your arm?”
“Not as hard as he probably wanted to. As he said, I’ve become insufferable.”
“When we lose someone we love, whether that’s death or divorce, there’s always a mourning period. I mourned my first one for almost thirty years. Dolan helped me see that I wasn’t exactly living anymore. Since this is your first time here, want a tour? Ask some questions and see if you want to commit to the insanity?”
“Sure. Every time I see this place, it seems you’ve expanded.”
“Unfortunately, our community’s needs haven’t lessened. We spend too much time thinking about self than our fellow humans, but I won’t get into the lecture. I’m told I’m good at it.”
“I remember you quite well,” I said as he grinned and shrugged.
“I’ve always been good at making an impression. Whether that’s good or not is up to other people.”
As we stepped into a hallway, I heard the clatter of pans and a booming, guttural voice. “Chance Hastings, behave yourself. I will put you in the corner.”
Chance was a S.W.A.T. Lieutenant and married to Bart, the kitchen manager. As with most of the men I knew, he was as much of a menace in a cute, blond, blue-eyed form. Boss burst out with laughter beside me, and I turned to watch him shake his head.
“Chance is pushing his husband’s buttons tonight.”
“I think that’s his usual M.O., or at least that’s what I’ve heard.”
“We’ll skip the kitchen tour. I don’t want to get into that mess. Let’s go to my office for a few minutes.”
That wasn’t something I was going to argue against. A little less time around my men or their friend group would do me good. I followed him through the maze of hallways and into an office with walls almost completely covered in picture frames. Crossing the room, I started to scan them and recognized a lot of the faces, especially some of the people who worked for me.
One of them was Remy, and I pointed at it. “That’s not what I pictured Remy like younger.”
“No one does. I think he was eighteen or nineteen then. I swear, for being the most beautiful young man I’d ever seen, he would turn into the beast of a man he became. But in that picture, he wasn’t healthy. He was bordering on malnutrition.”
There were a lot of rumors about Remy, but I never listened too closely because his past wasn’t my business. He was one hell of a cop, even though he had a bit of an anti-establishment streak, but I thought that was what made him such an outstanding detective. He never looked at a case and made judgments of the victims of the crime. He worked a case just as hard for everyone while the bitterness made others do half-assed jobs and ask stupid fucking questions.
“You do amazing work here, Boss.”
“Thanks, but it’s a community effort. There’s no way I could keep going without my team. Every expansion I mention, they just ask how they can help. Was there anything you were interested in volunteering to do?”
“I have no clue.” I pushed a sigh through my compressed lips and made a trip around the room, checking out more pictures before I took the seat Boss motioned to. “Remy said I need more than work, and if I’m being honest, I do. Being alone makes me ask myself too many questions about what I did wrong. We were together for twenty years, and I thought he was it, ya know?”
“It happens. That’s the danger of having a job that’s not nine-to-five. Am I excusing you? No, because I don’t know if you fucked up. That’s for you to decide.”
“No coddling from you, huh?”
“Never good at it. Being brutally honest is part of my charm.” His smirk was pure Brat, and I could see why he and Remy had been friends for so long. “We have some drives coming up, clothing, food, and a few fundraising events. We can always use people for those.”
“To be honest, assign me anywhere. Issue is, my schedule might make things difficult, but I’ll do my best.”
“Most of our events and drives are weekend things. Our volunteers all have regular jobs or have childcare difficulties. On the weekends, they can take them to the daycare, or the older kids can learn a trade to keep them busy. With Summer coming up, we do a lot more food drives to supplement our community grocery. Later we push for winter clothes, a lot of jackets and clothes. That’s a huge expense for our people.”
