Fool Me Once (Codie Snow #1): A Romantic Suspense Series Read online

  Fool Me Once

  (Codie Snow #1)

  Jade C. Jamison

  Fool Me Once

  Something’s gotta give...but Codie Snow doesn’t know if it needs to be her non-committal workaholic ex-boyfriend attorney Slade Sheppard or her unsatisfying job as a nursing assistant. Because even though the chemistry with Slade is off-the-charts hot and the job is a necessary evil, she doesn’t know that she wants either.

  Enter Pete Olsen, bad ass cop in charge of serving and protecting the town of Dalton, Colorado. Codie goes on a ride-along with Pete and sees the seedy underbelly of her town, witnessing the gamut—from an amusing domestic dispute to a frightening meth lab explosion—and she decides that law enforcement is not for her.

  But Pete just might be.

  When Codie learns that a supposed suicide Pete investigated on the ride-along is actually a murder, she poses as a religious fanatic in order to gain access to the controlling cult where the dead woman was discovered, hoping to find the truth. But has she instead set herself up to be murdered—and will she uncover the killer before she becomes the next victim?

  Codie drew Pete’s tongue in her mouth for a deeper kiss, all while realizing it would be smart to call a halt to this action right now. She knew she would now have a hell of a time riding in his police cruiser, thinking about him in not-so-nice-girl ways.

  Yeah. Really naughty thoughts.

  Oh, hell. They had to stop. Right. This. Second.

  When the kiss ended, she slid her right hand from his neck to his chest and then gently pushed against him. Their lips broke apart and she said, “Pete, maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”

  There was that all-American grin, reminding her just how much she’d adored him as a young man. “You seemed to like kissing me just now.”

  She let out a small breath, unable to stifle her own smile. “I liked it too much.”

  “There’s no such thing. Come here.” His hands around her waist pulled her close once more and he laid his lips on hers again. This time, though, he allowed his fingers to drift down as his hands slowly cupped her ass and pushed her more into him—if that was even possible. Her eyes closed and she let herself enjoy the kiss again. When he stopped, he let her go slowly, teasing her once more, and he even took a small step back.

  It was weird. Even though there was now a gap between their bodies, she could still feel his warmth.

  And those stupid sweatpants. She could feel them trying to fall off her slender hips again. She grabbed them with one hand and caught her breath, trying to solidify her thoughts. Before she could speak, though, Pete said, “Okay. Lunch, I guess, and then back to work.”

  Codie blinked. “So that’s it?”

  Another captivating grin. “What do you mean?”

  She could feel her eyes grow wide. “You get me all hot and bothered and then that’s it. Back to work?”

  It was almost imperceptible, but she could see how he cocked his head slightly. Hmm. She knew he was confident to the point of being cocky, but was he signaling that he couldn’t read her? How was that possible? This guy—a cop, trained to read people—was having a hard time sensing her emotions? How could he not know?

  “That’s what you’re here for, right? The ride-along? And, besides, you said kissing you wasn’t a good idea.”

  She pursed her lips to stifle a smile and then said, “Jesus, Pete. It doesn’t matter what I said...”

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2016 by Jade C. Jamison

  Cover design © Mr. Jamison

  Cover image © bofotolux via Shutterstock

  Cover font: Belligerent Madness by P.D. Magnus via Fontsquirrel

  All rights reserved.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author. Characters and names of real persons who appear in the book are used fictitiously.

  Thank you for choosing this Jade C. Jamison title!

  If you have received this book for free from any source other than a reputable online bookseller, you have received a pirated copy. Please consider buying a legitimate copy from a reputable online bookseller or consider making a donation through PayPal to [email protected]. Thank you for respecting my hard work.

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter One

  CODIE SNOW CHOMPED on the ragged thumbnail that had been bothering her the better part of an hour. She was on a ride-along with five-year veteran cop Pete Olsen, the former star quarterback from her hometown high school.

  A guy she’d dated in high school.

  That hadn’t stopped him from pursuing her once in a while since when he was sans girlfriend, but Codie’s on-again, off-again boyfriend put the stop to a good many advances from Pete. Right now, she and Slade Sheppard, said boyfriend, were once more off-again, and she was considering the cop.

  She could see Pete approaching the glass door from inside Dalton’s one and only McDonald’s, paperboard tray in hand, two cups of nuclear hot coffee coming right up. He also held a brown paper bag, even though he hadn’t mentioned food when he’d gone in.

  Damn. He looked good in that uniform.

  Codie would have spent the last five minutes on her phone, either checking out Instagram or Facebook or even just taking a selfie in the squad car, but Pete had told her no phones. They weren’t allowed on ride-alongs.

  “Why?” Codie had asked, even while she’d been handing it over to the desk lady.

  “Because, Codie,” he said in a firm voice, but his dimples belied the seriousness of it all, “if something serious happens, something you shouldn’t be privy to, I can’t have you spreading it all over the internet before we’ve had a chance to do our jobs.”

  “But you have dashcams, don’t you?”

  He’d raised his eyebrows in mock irritation. “Yeah, our dashcams. Look, do you wanna go on the ride-along or not?”

  She’d reluctantly handed over her phone, but Pete had been right. She’d been wanting to do this for a while. Now that she was a quarter of a century old, it was time to get serious about her life. No more messing around. No more waiting for something cool to happen to her. She needed to take control of her own destiny.

  Through her open window, Pete asked, “Can you grab that?” Without waiting for her answer, he handed her the tray with the two coffees.

  “Oh, yeah, sure.” She rested it on her lap while Pete walked around the front of the car toward the driver’s side. Yeah…her mind was definitely going there, checking out his ass, his broad shoulders, his—

  Popping open the door on his side, he said, “One of them’s for you.” Codie was mesmerized for a couple of seconds as she took him all in—drop-dead dimples, light brown hair, sparkling green eyes that seemed to say, I kn
ow all the bad things you’ve done. Question is if I approve of them or not. She wondered if he’d be agreeable to using his handcuffs for off-duty activities.

  Codie sucked in a breath, hoping her thoughts weren’t apparent on her face. “Thanks.”

  “Caffeine’s okay, right?”

  Codie stifled a giggle. “Um, yeah. It should be illegal to serve coffee without it.”

  “Couldn’t agree with you more.” He pulled open the bag. “You still like cherry pie?”

  Oh…with its evilly decadent sweet crust and wicked flavoring? All that shit was bad for her. Then again, Pete probably was too. “Yeah. Why not?”

  “Why not? A girl after my own heart.” He handed her a hot rectangular box and asked, “Mind putting two packets of sugar and a couple of those creamers in my coffee?”

  “Sure.”

  She doctored his java while he turned on the car and began backing out. His radio that seemed to have a constant white noise pouring out of it started blabbering more coherently again. Codie wondered how Pete could identify which calls were for him and which he could ignore, but she had to admit that, deep down, she was impressed.

  And she apparently had missed something, because Pete said, “Hang on.” He grabbed the mike and said, “Eighteen on route.” Codie heard a boop but no full-on sirens, even though she could see the reflection of flashing blue-and-red hitting buildings and cars as they whizzed by. She felt her body sway to the right as Pete maneuvered a turn and the seatbelt cinched her torso tightly.

  And the coffee she’d been doctoring sloshed over the side, though the tray, and onto her lap. She muttered an Ouch! but knew that if someone was in trouble or danger, Pete didn’t need to worry about the girl with the burning legs in his car. She placed the lid on top of the cup and made sure it was snug and then clenched the tray as Pete made another turn.

  Part of her felt nervous as they whizzed past one building after another, block after block disappearing behind them, wondering if they were going to hit somebody or something because they were flying through town. Codie had never realized they could make it across Dalton so quickly.

  One more turn and a pothole and Codie’s coffee cup made like a geyser, liquid erupting from the openings on the lid. Ha. That was nothing compared to the dulling ache from Pete’s coffee. It made her wonder how often Pete spilled drinks in his car. Didn’t seem like the best idea anymore.

  Pete slowed the car as they got close to what Codie assumed was some sort of crime scene, stopping on Main Street in front of one of the bars where three cop cars had already taken up residence. All the flashing lights made the street look like the inside of a dance club and made Codie wonder just how bad this was going to be. Pete shifted the car into park and said to Codie, “Stay here.”

  She didn’t have time to reply as he slid out of the car, and she watched him walk over to where another cop stood, looking at the entrance as if guarding it. Sitting there, Codie started to grow irritated. If sitting in the car simply watching Pete do stuff through the glass was law enforcement’s idea of a ride-along, she could give them her evaluation now. Lame. She could think of a hundred better things to do at midnight. Sleep, for instance. At this point, sleep seemed preferable.

  So there was no way she was going to sit in the cruiser like a good little girl doing what she was told. She opened the door and strode up to the two cops. They stood talking, Pete with his arms crossed over his chest. As she got closer, he gave her a glance and said, “Ray, this is my ride-along.” The guy nodded as if he’d find a poem stitched in needlepoint more interesting. That too just made Codie fume underneath, but she tried to smile sweetly, relieved that Pete hadn’t scolded her for not doing what he’d asked.

  Two seconds later, just as she got ready to say a greeting to Ray, two guys burst out of the front of the bar, yelling, and one of them was waving his fists. He was moving too quickly for Codie to tell if he was holding a weapon, but she froze when she realized that they were heading straight towards her.

  Chapter Two

  AS IF THEY were an orchestrated team, Ray and Pete were on the two guys storming out of the bar. Good thing, too, because both were angry, even though they were unarmed, and Codie was pretty sure they were ready to exchange blows. Pete gave Codie a look that urged her to back up a little, for her own safety if nothing else, and she complied, walking back to the police car and leaning against it, straining to hear while Pete questioned one of the guys and Ray the other. She couldn’t hear much over the strains of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Led Zeppelin flooding out of the bar and the radio chatter that continued ad nauseam, but she managed to piece most of it together. Apparently, the Dalton Devils were out partying away from their club—meeting another motorcycle club, it sounded like—and tempers had risen. The guy talking to Ray kept trying to head back inside, and Ray finally cuffed him and threw him in the back of the car. The guy talking with Pete finally shrugged and lit up a cigar, walking to an ashtray the requisite fifteen feet away from the entrance.

  Pete returned to Ray and the two men talked quietly for a few minutes. Codie debated rejoining them and decided against it. She was a little concerned about her instincts to react, because she’d frozen in the face of danger. She imagined that cops who did that didn’t live to see thirty. Maybe they were trained for that. She’d have to ask Pete later what kind of training she’d have to have if she chose this profession.

  Soon, they were back in the cruiser, Pete explaining that Ray said they had things under control. As if to affirm it, while Pete tapped in a quick few notes into the tiny notebook computer, several cops exited the bar—along with a crowd of bikers Codie figured had been told to leave. While pulling away from the scene, Pete said, “Don’t be surprised if something else happens tonight. Angry drunk bikers either go home and take it out on their old ladies in a number of ways or they continue their business elsewhere until they’ve resolved it to their own satisfaction.”

  Codie was trying to soak up any little gems of wisdom she could glean from Pete’s words. “I can’t imagine either scenario is preferable.”

  But Pete didn’t hear her. She knew it because, even though his eyes were looking forward (and even though it wasn’t bright as day in the car), she could tell he’d tuned her out. She got ready to act irritated by it, but then she could tell he was paying attention to the chatter coming from the radio. He picked up the small mike attached to the dash and held it up to his mouth. “Eighteen. Go ahead.”

  “Report of a possible domestic violence situation. Suspect reported to have left the area. Victim in need of assistance.”

  “Roger that.”

  “1752 Yucca Drive.”

  “On my way.” As Pete set the mike back in place, he asked her, “You buckled in?”

  Codie couldn’t remember but a quick glance down confirmed it. “Yeah.”

  “Hang on.” Before she could even fully register what was happening, Pete was making a U-turn and then flying down the road again and, in spite of the fact that she was secured to the chair by seatbelt, she could feel her body swaying back and forth with each turn.

  They were hauling ass.

  In less than five minutes, they arrived at the front of 1752 Yucca. Codie felt some comfort knowing that Pete hadn’t wasted any time, and now she knew that a cop could make it halfway across town quickly. If she were truly in danger and needed the police, they could be there in a flash.

  Pete muttered something unintelligible into the radio and unbuckled his seatbelt. Codie followed suit but he said, “No, you stay here.”

  She felt her brow furrow. She did not come on the ride-along just to score a free cup of coffee and a cherry pie. This—what was happening right now—was what she’d signed up for. “But this is the good part.”

  Pete’s eyes grew dark. Codie could tell that even inside the cruiser. “This is the dangerous part, Codie. I can’t endanger you when there’s a potentially hostile situation. You can roll the window down if you want.”

  O
h, yeah. Great idea. “Pete, I can take care of myself.”

  “I said no.” And that was all there was to it. He was out of the car and striding up to the door before she could ask again.

  Damn. He did have a nice ass. And she had to admit that part of her tingled at the way he’d grown all bossy and commanding of her.

  She took a deep breath and shook her head. The radio continued to chatter with multiple voices and things Codie had no possible way of translating. She watched Pete knock on the door and a woman opened it, inviting him in. Codie sighed and looked at the white house—it must have, at one time, been the pride and joy of its owners. Now, though, the rusted wheelbarrow in the yard full of overgrown vegetation made her believe that the owners didn’t care much about the place.

  But it was quiet. She couldn’t hear any yelling coming from the house and there was definitely no action like there’d been at the bar. See? No danger. “Potentially hostile, my ass.” Codie opened the passenger door and got out, breathing in the cool evening air, and then began walking up to the front door. As she began traipsing up the sidewalk, though, she could hear a female screeching inside the house.

  That couldn’t be good.

  She knew she should head back to the patrol car and wait it out for Pete, but it wasn’t like he was her boss. Her need to know trumped everything else. Besides, if Pete was angry with her for disobeying, maybe she could tease him and tell him he needed to punish her after work. Encouraging herself into further defiance, she took her time approaching the house. The windows at the front were open, so she could hear everything as she got closer, and it sounded like the woman inside had completely lost her shit, but Codie could also hear Pete talking, and it sounded like he was doing a fine job de-escalating her.