Happily Ever Alpha_Until Falco Read online

  “What happened to them?” Jackie asked.

  “Dey die in traffic accident. Da state, dey move me to foster homes—three different ones. Da Cohens, dey foster me four months ago. We move to here.”

  “I’m sorry about your parents,” Jackie said, embarrassed that he even asked. “What about relatives in Russia?”

  “I have no one,” she said. “I like it here in the US. I wish to stay, just not with foster parents.”

  Jackie thought about all the times he had seen her look at him and smile, and all the times he turned away from her. He thought about the times he saw her, sitting by herself at lunch, or up in the bleachers during recess, with no one near her. This poor girl has been alone since her parents died, he thought. He felt awful for her.

  “Do you like your new foster parents?”

  She shook her head, no. “Mah new foster mahder, she make me do da cleaning, cooking and laundry for her all da time. My new foster fahder, he . . .”

  She paused, beginning to tear up.

  “He what?”

  She sniffled and composed herself, drawing a breath, “He ees sometimes mean to me but today, he go away on bidness trip. I like eet better when he ees gone.”

  “Are we close to your house?” I asked.

  “I live dere,” she said, pointing to a small house on a rundown street. She froze when she saw a car in the driveway. She released Jackie’s hand as though it had suddenly given her an electric shock.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “My foster fahder, he ees home. He no go on da bidness trip like I think.”

  “Is that a problem?”

  She turned to Jackie, instinctively hiding behind him, touching his elbow, “Maybe we go to your house for a while. I meet your mahder?”

  “It’s starting to get late, Irina,” Jackie replied.

  “Please,” she pleaded. “We go to your house, ok?”

  Jackie looked at her face. He could see the fear in her eyes. It seemed to Jackie to be far beyond the ‘Oh, shit dad’s not gonna like this,’ look he had himself on occasion.

  He nodded, “Ok then, sure. Let’s go.”

  “Irina!” a husky male voice barked. “Where have you been? Get your ass over here, now.”

  Irina pulled her hair behind her ear and looked to the ground. Her hands were trembling. She rushed toward the big man without saying anything else.

  “Who is this?” the man demanded, looking toward Jackie.

  “Ees just a boy in school, fahder,” she replied. “He ees nobody. He jeest walk me home. Is ok?”

  Mr. Cohen looked at Jackie suspiciously. His look was cold.

  “You have something for your daddy?” he asked Irina.

  She nodded and offered a nervous smile, trying to mask her fear. She reached up and offered him a hug around his neck. He kissed her right on the mouth. Jackie saw his hands on her back, how he touched her, how he moved his hands. It looked far too . . . familiar . . . Just watching the man touching her gave him chills.

  “You can go on home now, boy,” the man said to Jackie.

  The next day at school, Jackie did not see Irina until lunch. Manny and Billy had not walked to school with him like normal and seemed to avoid him during homeroom. At lunchtime, Jackie got his milk, carrying it and his sack lunch into the lunchroom.

  He saw Billy and Manny sitting at their usual seats. He looked toward the back of the room and saw Irina, sitting alone as normal. Jackie sighed and walked right past Billy and Manny to her table. He could feel the eyes of some of the other kids, mostly girls, following him, judging him. Chi Stanton and her chick posse glared in his direction. He heard snickering.

  Irina was looking at him with her mouth agape, almost as if to say, ‘Are you sure you want to be doing this?’

  “Would you like some company?” he asked.

  She took in a breath and smiled, “Yes, please,” she answered, scooting over a bit to give him room.

  Jackie sat, noticing that more than half the students in the lunchroom were looking at them. He heard more snickering from Chi and some of the girls with her. Others looked at him in pity, as if they were looking at a sick boy with gray eyes dying slowly of cancer.

  Jackie opened his lunch, PB and J with carrots, ranch dip and some chips.

  “Are you ok after yesterday?” he asked her, quietly.

  “Yes, my fahder come home early from business trip,” she replied. “That ees all.”

  “No, I mean . . . the whole . . . panties thing at the station,” he said.

  “Yes, ees ok,” she said, making him believe the experience with her father returning early was more traumatic for her than Billy’s sexual assault. “You saved me. I deen’t even thank you. You are my . . . American hero.”

  “Well, I wasn’t going to sit back and let Billy . . . you know . . .”

  “Grab my cooch?” she finished.

  He chuckled, “Yeah. That or worse. How about your father? He didn’t seem too pleased.”

  “He is . . . scary man, mean man. I do not like him, Jackie.”

  “I can see why. He kissed you on the mouth. He was touching you in a way . . .”

  “Jackie, you and me . . . are we . . . friends, now?” she asked.

  He looked up at the students, many of whom were still looking at them together like they were staring at two lepers.

  He smiled at her, “Yes, we are.”

  “Good,” she said. “I like to be your friend.”

  Jackie reached into his brown paper lunch bag and pulled out a yellow flower with a purple bulb in its center. His mom always put something special in his lunch each day to remind him of how much she loved him. Today it was a yellow and purple flower. His mom called it a Blackeyed Susan. He handed it to Irina. She smelled it and smiled.

  “What is this?” she asked.

  “It’s a symbol . . . of our friendship. We will be friends . . . always.”

  She smiled and leaned over, giving him a very light kiss on the cheek. Jackie smiled, oblivious to the gasps and giggles resonating in the room.

  ______________________

  CHAPTER ONE

  ______________________

  FALCO

  November 3, 2018

  This was the day I’d been waiting for—it had finally arrived. I was now officially a Metro Police Officer for the Nashville PD. I walked into the conference room for the morning briefing, feeling like a fish out of water. I knew no one, really, except my new partner, Angie Hicks. Hicks and I had gone through the police academy together. We hooked up for a while. The sex was hot, but not as hot as her disposition. The sexual relationship didn’t last long, but we somehow managed to remain friends.

  After a period of awkwardness, our relationship became business as usual. Our friendship grew. We complimented each other well and always teamed up for the physical exercises in the academy. We made a great team. I still lusted after her body every now and then and caught her checking me out on many occasions, but I somehow managed to keep it in my pants from then on out. After graduation we went our separate ways . . . until now.

  Hicks was an amazing cop from everything I was told, and I didn’t mind at all that the captain had put us together. She was a five-foot-five stick of dynamite, not classically beautiful in the physical sense, but pretty hot nonetheless, in an earthy sort of way. Time since the academy had treated her kindly. She was still solidly built with great tits and a tight-looking ass. She wore no makeup and her hair was a curly, moppy mess, tied high on her head.

  She had a reputation for being a good cop, a tough cop. I’d been told by the captain she had become a no-nonsense, no bullshit enforcer of the law, one who sometimes got a little rough with the perps, especially those that gave her lip or indications they thought less of her because she was a female cop.

  Barely anyone seemed to notice me sitting quietly in the back row as the captain went through his laundry list of shit that had gone down the day before; i.e. B and E’s, assault’s, car
boosts, domestic violence cases—nothing too major, just the usual shit we needed to be on the lookout for. At least my first day appeared to be a normal one without too much going on.

  Captain Dick Paulson was just finishing his morning briefing. He led the South Precinct of the Nashville Police Department. Paulson was a wily veteran who’d been Captain of the precinct for over ten years. He was tall with a gray crew cut, a paunch on his belly and smelled like cigarettes.

  He concluded the meeting with, “One final thing. Everyone knows we are three officers down, but we are working on it. I’d like to introduce a new face this morning. Officer John Falco is the newest member of the South Precinct. He’ll be taking over for Will Gillispie, who all of you know has been transferred into VICE as a detective. Officer Falco comes to us from the Franklin PD with three years of experience on the street. He’ll be reporting in to Nico Mayson, who is on loan to us while we are getting our ranks back up to speed. Falco will be working a beat right away with his new partner, Officer Angie Hicks.”

  “Lucky me,” Hicks jibed. “I get the new guy.”

  The rest of the room had a chuckle at my expense.

  “Falco and Hicks will be covering Brentwood to Global and north to Nolensville Road. That’s all. Let’s move people.”

  Only a couple of the men in the room came up to me as the meeting broke up, introducing themselves. Most of them just left. I sat back, waiting for my new partner to shake free. I noticed a black female officer was heading for her. I decided to hang back but didn’t take my eyes off Hicks. She looked hotter today than she did yesterday.

  “You don’t want to fuck her,” I heard a voice calling from behind. It was Nico Mayson, the man assigned to be my mentor. The first time I saw Nico I was blown away. He was not real tall but was built powerfully and looked like he could make short work of any man twice his size. He had even more tattoos than I did, and I was pretty well tatted out on my arms, back and chest. Still, when I wore a blue uniform, they were pretty much unnoticeable. Nico was tatted pretty much all over. He was good at his job, damn good. His reputation preceded him and I knew it well, all the way to Franklin.

  I decided not to share the fact that Hicks and I had already been there and done that in the whole fucking department, “Oh yeah, is that so?” I replied. “You’ve never slept with your partner before?”

  “That’s not the point,” Nico said. “Unless Hicks turns out to be your boom, leave it be, man. If you fuck her and dump her she’ll make your life miserable. That particular woman takes no shit from anyone.”

  “My boom?” I asked. “What is that?”

  “That one woman you meet who you can’t live without,” he said. “The one you think about morning, noon and night—who changes you forever. You know . . . your boom.”

  “I’ll never have a boom. I like my variety,” I told him. I’d fucked a dozen women this past year alone. Two dozen in the years before that. I never stayed with any one woman for very long—six months, tops. The idea of one woman for me reminded me of that guy in the movie, The Martian, who was forced to live on only white potatoes. That was not for me.

  “You have a boom, boss?” I asked.

  “I do indeed,” he said.

  I chuckled.

  “You think that’s funny?”

  “Sort of.”

  “Well, I won’t be riding along with you,” he told me, getting back to business. “You have three years on the street and there’s another new guy coming on with much less experience. I’ll need to hold his hand for a while. Your boss said great things about you. I will be reviewing your day with you at the beginning of each morning and of course, I’ll be getting reports from Officer Hicks.”

  “Sounds good, boss,” I said.

  “Don’t call me boss, Falco,” he said. “I work for a living.”

  ______________________

  CHAPTER TWO

  ______________________

  HICKS

  The only other female officer in the room besides me was a tall, forty-ish black woman, Shawna White. She made a beeline for me the moment the morning session ended. Shawna was the horniest woman I’d ever met. I knew exactly what was on her mind. I’d seen her checking out my new partner during the briefing.

  Falco and I had already decided to keep our previous relationship between just us and to my knowledge, no one knew that he and I had once been an item.

  “Woo hoo,” Shawna called out lowly to me. “Hot damn. You scored this time girl. That boy is fine. Look at those shoulders and arms. His biceps look like they are going to split right out of that uniform. Can’t you just picture yourself running your fingers through all that brown hair while he is dining at the ‘Y?’”

  My face turned red as I offered a nervous chuckle.

  “You are incorrigible,” I managed to say.

  “Hot . . . damn, he is to die for.”

  “Give it a rest, Shawna,” I said. “Yeah, he’s hot, but I’ve been dating Todd for over three months now. Things are good. Besides, I’ve been there and done that in the past with a partner or two. It's not worth it, let me tell you.”

  “Oh, but it would be worth it with him,” she spouted back. “Check out those tight blue pants. You know damn well that man is packing heat. I’ll bet his meat is the size of your forearm, baby.”

  Hicks chuckled, “You’re a piece of work, you know that? It's not going to happen."

  “What’s the big deal?” Shawna said. “He’s single. You’re single . . .”

  “. . . and in a committed relationship,” Hicks added.

  “Oh, please, you don’t owe Todd jack shit, girl,” she said, dismissively. “Besides, I’ve known Todd longer than you. That man can’t possibly be doing any damage in the bedroom.”

  “Fuck off. You don’t know a damn thing.”

  “Tell me I’m wrong, then,” she insisted. “Tell me Todd doesn’t pull it out of the middle of his silk pajamas once a week and give it to you missionary style for a minute and a half before he starts snoring.”

  I didn’t answer.

  She chuckled as if my silence made her answer right. In this case, of course, she was.

  “We don’t live together . . . not yet,” I told her.

  “Well, it you aren’t gonna tap into that gorgeous hunk of man, do you mind if I take a run at him?”

  “Suit yourself,” I whispered. “Just shut up. He’s coming this way.”

  Falco was approaching me with a small smile. I couldn’t help but size the guy up a bit on his approach. Shawna was right. He was certainly hot—damn hot. He was hot when I knew him in the academy but now he was more mature looking, a man, a real man, a real hot man. Perhaps six-feet-two with a golden complexion and brown hair and big dark eyes. He had obviously shaved earlier in the morning but she could see remnants of a dark stubble. His uniform looked a tad too small, but it accentuated broad shoulders, thick arms and tight waist. I was not about to complain.

  “I haven’t met you yet,” Shawna jumped in as he approached. “I’m Shawna White.”

  “John Falco,” he said, extending his hand to her. “Everyone calls me Falco.”

  “Well, you can call me ‘tonight’ if you want,” she said, cackling in her typical loud laugh. She brushed her hand across his arm as she laughed.

  Falco chuckled, “Well I just might do that. I’m new to town. Franklin is not that far away but my job kept me pretty busy, so I never made it to Nashville all that much. I don’t know many people here.”

  “Oh, trust me, you’re gonna hit it off just fine here,” Shawna replied. “Did you bring your girlfriend to town with you.”

  I felt myself turning red, hoping he wouldn’t notice. I wanted to kill Shawna or at least stuff a sock in her mouth.

  Falco smiled but froze just a little at the forwardness of the question. He seemed to recover quickly, “No . . . uh, no girlfriend.”

  Shawna raised her eyebrows and smiled broadly. She looked at me. I couldn’t help it. I could feel m
y face turning red.

  “Ah ha,” she said. “Well, now isn’t that interesting.”

  “Shawna, I think your partner is waiting for you,” I said.

  “Oh, you mean needle-dick?” she asked. “He can wait.”

  “Don’t you need to head out, now?” I insisted.

  She gave me a look that let me know my face was indeed turning red, “Yeah, I’ll leave you two to it. You both be good now. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  Falco smiled at Shawna, “I get the feeling there is nothing you wouldn’t do.”

  Shawna cackled again, “You know, you’re right about that. Alright, now, have a good day, Falco. See you later, Hicks.”

  “Yeah,” I replied, allowing some of the exasperation I was feeling to filter through.

  Shawna walked away, swinging her ample ass back and forth trying to draw Falco’s attention. I shook my head, wanting nothing more than to put my foot up that ass at the moment.

  I turned back to Falco, feeling my face beginning to return to normal.

  “Well . . . shall we?”

  “Let’s hit it,” he said.

  “I’m driving,” I told him.

  ______________________

  CHAPTER THREE

  ______________________

  FALCO

  My first morning began smoothly and uneventfully. Hicks drove me the full length of the beat, describing each community, letting me know what the major businesses were, and where the chronic offenders hung out.

  The small community of Brentwood, Tennessee, a southern suburb of Nashville, had the most appeal to me. I was living in a temporary apartment there, just until I got a feel for the territory.

  Brentwood was flanked to the south and east by beautiful rolling hills. It was, in fact, one of the wealthiest towns in the US relative to the population’s cost of living, and that was a deterrent on a cop’s salary. However, at first glance, a simple efficiency or one-bedroom apartment did not seem all that ridiculously priced, and the community undoubtedly had the nicest restaurants and the hottest bars around.