I settled myself into the backseat. Never—not once in my life—had I ever imagined ending up in the back of a police cruiser (no matter what the circumstances). I fumbled through my shoulder bag and found a notebook and pen, dug them out, and took ten minutes to write out a list of suitable questions to ask Officer Reibeck.
After ten long minutes passed in silence, I decided that there was no better time to get the information that I’d need for my report.
“Officer Reibeck,” I said formally, humoring him, though it sickened me to be so polite. It wouldn’t have bothered me so much had he extended some kind of courtesy back at the station. But if he wanted to be less than pleasant, I was all in.
I slid forward on the seat and leaned my face closer to the gate separating the front and back seats. “What’s your full name?”
“Luke,” he said, not taking his eyes off the road for a second. “Lucas James Reibeck.”
I scribbled his name at the top of the page. “How long have you been working for the Oakland PD?”
“Two years,” he turned onto Main Street. “I finished junior college right out of high school, went through nine months at the academy, and joined the force at twenty-one.”
“Did you always know you wanted to be a policeman?” I asked, still scrambling to get his previous answer on paper.
“Never doubted it for a second,” he said. “It’s in my blood.”
“Your father worked in law enforcement?”
“My mother,” he said. “My father owns a floral shop in the Historic District.”
I watched a smirk curve on his lips; I wondered if he found as much humor in his parents’ chosen occupations as I did.
“How long has your mother been active on the force?”
He didn’t respond. He simply ignored the question and made another slow turn on to Wiley Street.
“Okay,” I slowly looked over my notes. “How do you prefer to be addressed? Lucas? Luke? Trigger?”
A faint laugh came from the driver’s seat. “You picked up on that, then?”
“Charlie’s always been one for nicknames,” I said, “but when Detective Bruno—”
“It’s just something that stuck after an accident at the firing range last year.”
“What kind of accident?” I slid closer to the gate.
“Target practice,” he brought the car to a stop at an intersection. “All the guys were out at the range. I wasn’t focused, I got distracted, and my finger slipped on the trigger.”
“Did anyone get hurt?”
“One guy,” he said, but his expression didn’t show the least bit of remorse, “but it was a minor injury. Just a toe.”
“Just a toe?”
“He only lost a toe.”
I tried to restrain a laugh, but it was next to impossible. “Someone lost a toe?”
“Yes.”
“You act like that’s not a big deal.”
“Sure, it’s a big deal,” he said, “but it could’ve been worse.”
I shook my head and looked out the window. I knew better than to say anything else on the subject, but something inside of me felt inclined to take control of the conversation. “I’m surprised you’re admitting to that kind of mistake, especially since you were the one preaching at me this morning about all the rules that come with working on the force.” I crossed my arms in front of my chest to imitate him. “Always be on high alert. And I don’t use the word always loosely, Miss Little.”
“And how do you think I learned that lesson?” he glanced into the rearview mirror and looked at me for the first time since we’d gotten in the car. “There are some things you don’t learn at the academy, kid. Experience is a valuable asset in this position.”
He held my stare for a few long seconds. I wanted to look away, God, I wanted to. But I simply couldn’t bring myself to ruin the moment. For whatever reason, he seemed to be dealing with the same struggle.
Why was he letting his gaze linger?
“Next question,” I said, trying to ignore the sudden pounding against my chest. I had an obligation to keep my mind fresh and focused on the job at hand. The last thing I needed was a distraction, and Luke’s good looks alone were enough to keep me stalling. I didn’t need his lingering stare—that only complicated things. “What was the worst call you ever had to respond to?”
As the light turned green, he accelerated through the intersection and continued down the street, wearing a contagious smile. “The worst call I’ve ever had to respond to… I’d say it was the morning Chief called on me to cart his niece around town, only to be hounded with a half-dozen predictable questions.”
I glared at him through the mirror, hoping he’d look back and see that I wasn’t impressed. But he never did.
The hours went by slowly, much to my dismay. Four hours in the car with Luke…ha! Four hours too many. Though I questioned him for hours on end, he’d barely given me any insight into his life as an officer, and the ride-along turned out to be more uneventful than I could’ve ever imagined. When we reached the station in the early afternoon, Luke got out of the car and headed for the building, leaving me in the back seat—unable to let myself out.
“Hey!” I yelled, pounding on the window. I felt my face grow hotter. If he’d gained any kind of brownie points with me during the ride-along today, he’d just lost them in the amount of time it had taken him to lock me in the backseat and walk away. “Hello! I’m still in here!”
He turned back and stared for a minute, looking as though he’d completely forgotten I’d been in the car with him all along. He stood there and watched me for a minute, and all the while I seriously considered the fact that he might not come back for me at all. Honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if that was the case. But he reluctantly returned, opened the door, and leaned over the doorway to block my exit.
“Julie,” he said, cool and calm, and almost in a whisper, “it’s a job to take seriously, yes. But you’ll never make it far in this field without a sense of humor, kid. I promise you that.”
“I can’t believe you’re already halfway through your hours,” I stared at my cousin in disbelief.
Matt turned and smiled, “What can I say?”
“You can say, Gee Julie, once I’m done with my hours at the bistro, I’d love to come down to the station and help you out.”
“Speaking of,” he took a seat next to me at the kitchen island, “how’d your day with Dad pan out?”
“It would’ve been great had it actually been a day with your dad, but he dumped me off on an officer and sent me out on patrol all morning.”
“That’s not so bad,” Matt said. “You’ve been on patrol hundreds of times.” I rolled my eyes and looked away. “Did you see anything good?”
Other than that one little glimpse of Luke’s dark eyes shining through the rearview mirror, nope. Nothing.
“Not really.”
“Who’d he send you out with?”
“Luke Reibeck.”
Matt choked back a laugh and looked at me inquisitively. “You’re serious? He sent you out with Trigger?”
“You know him?”
He finally let out the laugh he’d worked hard to restrain. “I don’t know who Dad is punishing more, you or him.”
“Ugh, what’s that supposed to mean?” I pulled a fresh apple from the fruit basket on the counter. Surely he didn’t think that time spent with me would be punishment for anyone. Time spent with Luke, however, was a different story.
“Trigger’s a good guy, don’t get me wrong,” he said, “but he takes his job way too seriously, and you don’t respect what he does enough to earn you any of his admiration. The two of you are a deadly combination, Julie. And to be completely honest, I’d never want to be the poor sucker stuck in a patrol car alone with the two of you.”
Matt jumped down from his stool and moved over to the oven to check on the progress of our dinner.
“But then,” Matt said, turning b
ack, “maybe Dad knows what he’s doing. Maybe you and Luke will be good for each other.”
“Meaning?”
“I’m just saying,” he treaded softly, “ever since Liz and Stephen—“
“Careful,” I warned him, not in any kind of mood to discuss my parents.
“All I’m saying is that you haven’t been yourself since the funeral, Julie. And as much as I know you hate hearing it, we’ve all been waiting on the old you to make a big return. You keep distancing yourself a little more every day. It’s not healthy.”
Matt reclaimed his seat and put his arm around my shoulder. It wasn’t like him to talk about any kind of uncomfortable situation, and it surprised me that he was reaching out now, especially given the circumstances. I’d lost my parents, yes. But they were his family too. He’d lost something the night they died, just in a different way.
And while, yes, it hurt to hear my own cousin tell me how far I’d faded, even I had started recognizing some of the changes lately. Somehow I’d gone from being a fun-loving, carefree girl to a teenager who had no choice but to grow up far too fast.
“So,” Matt redirected the conversation back to our original topic, “what do you think? You think you guys will be able to make it work for another sixteen hours?”
I thought back on the first time I’d seen Luke standing behind me with no regret that he’d scared me out of my mind. Then there were all his rules, guidelines, and snarky comments. And, of course, the way he’d rudely locked me in the backseat of the patrol car.
I didn’t care for the way he acted. Nor did I care for the way he carried himself.
But then I was reminded of that moment—that one, single, solitary moment when he watched me from the rearview mirror, and it made me wonder, had me wondering for hours still, if maybe there was more to Officer Lucas Reibeck than meets the eye.
FOUR