He opened his mouth in anger. Maybe he wasn’t so eager to see the passionate version of this woman after all. She may think the laws were frivolous, but they were there for good reason. He stood by every ticket he’d ever written. He stood by the laws behind them.
She held up a hand before he could respond, her expression all mock outrage. “Wait. Did you never get my thank-you note? I so wanted to express my gratitude for you putting a stop to my life of crime.”
“Well here’s your chance to thank me,” Luc said, ignoring her sarcasm. “It would also be a good time to apologize for physically assaulting an officer of the law.”
Okay, so assault was a strong word. But she’d touched him. He definitely remembered her touching him.
Her eyes narrowed. “Never happened. You’re confused. Must be the sugar-high from too many doughnuts.”
“You shoved me,” he exaggerated. “And I seem to remember a threat…”
She cut her eyes over to Luc’s boss. “Did Officer Moretti hit his head when he dove into the river to save that little girl? He seems to be disoriented.”
Disappointment spiked through Luc at her reference to that damned river incident. She’d seen the damned YouTube video. And if she’d seen that one, she’d probably seen the other.
Luc froze as realization rolled over him.
That’s why she was here.
The pieces fell into place slower than they should. Had he not had a half-mast boner he would have caught on earlier. She was here for superhero Moretti, not parking-ticket Moretti.
Three years ago, Ava had obviously been a hungry-for-the-story journalist, but if her prissy clothes were any indication, she’d moved up the ranks quite nicely. Luc was guessing that these days, Ava Sims spent a lot more time in hair and makeup than she did chasing after fund-raiser photo ops.
Brinker took a sip of his coffee before dropping the bomb that confirmed Luc’s fears. “CBC wants to run a special on you.”
Luc didn’t even hesitate. “No.”
Ava’s eyebrows lifted. “It’ll get national coverage. You’ll go from being locally famous to being a household name across the country.”
Her tone implied that Luc should be doing cartwheels at this development. She had no idea just how wrong she was.
“Oh well, in that case!” Luc said, letting his voice go excited before dropping back down to a monotone. “No fucking way.”
Ava Sims didn’t even flinch.
Captain Brinker broke in. “Listen, Moretti. You know that if it was up to me, you’d be doing the Bronx beat where maybe that pretty face of yours would see some action, not being paraded around like you’re the best thing since Batman. But this directive is above me. The order’s coming all the way from the top.”
Pissed, Luc shook his head. “This isn’t what the NYPD is about. We don’t grandstand.”
“You do when a cop with a Hollywood-heartthrob face can’t resist putting himself in front of a camera,” Ava said, checking out her manicure.
Luc resisted the urge to snap that he didn’t want those fucking cameras capturing his every move. That if he could go back in time, some sort of dire accident would have happened to every one of those damned camera phones.
“We need the good publicity, Moretti.” Captain Brinker’s tone was serious now, and Luc knew why.
The NYPD wasn’t exactly in good standing with the people recently.
Three months ago, an officer in uniform had shot an unarmed homeless man. The officer had claimed self-defense and mistaken identity of a weapon, but it wasn’t enough to stave off the damage.
Trigger-happy cops made people nervous.
The officer had been suspended, and the NYPD had made promise after promise to implement additional training, but it hadn’t done much good. Cops were getting a lot more boos than accolades these days.
Apparently, the higher-ups had just found the ultimate form of damage control.
And Luc was the sacrificial lamb.
“Shit,” Luc muttered, realizing there was no way out of it.