Legal Beagle Read Online Free Page B

go down, sending more protection. I nod, murmuring a good morning to them both. Wright’s greeting is a grunt, echoed by the grinning officer.
    “Sadie.” Wright leans into me as we walk to my chambers.
    I know what he’ll say, what all my former lovers have said. Wright will beg me to “just this once” put my safety first, but there’s never a “just this once” as I’m a judge, and my job’s always dangerous. Those other lovers couldn’t handle the risks, and they’re no longer in my life. I thought Wright was different, but he isn’t, and that hurts. “I won’t be influenced, Officer.”
    Wright stops, placing his hand on my arm. “I know that, Sadie. It is one of the reasons you’re such a damn good judge.” He scowls at me, his blue eyes glittering with that spark of danger I love. I love. Hell. I love the big cop, and he is okay with who I am and what I do.
    “I want you to carry this.” He hands me a lady gun. It is heavy, loaded with bullets and ready to be shot.
    “Wright.” I open my robes, tucking it into my waistband, the steel cold and foreign against my skin. “Do your job and that’s it.” I can’t tell him to let me die, as he has as much honor and professional pride as I do, but I don’t want him to take unnecessary risks to save me. “No superhero stuff. The city needs good officers like you.”
    A loud snort comes from behind me. I turn. A scary-looking officer emerges from an alcove. I don’t see Officer Drake very often in my courts because, partnered with Wright, they go after the biggest, baddest perps, and those type of criminals normally end up dead, rather than arrested.
    “Officers like that jackass” -- Drake hooks a thumb at Wright -- “can be replaced. What the city really needs is more fuckin’ honest judges, and we’re not about to lose any damn ones we do have.”
    This sounds like a vow. I stare at Wright’s bad-tempered partner, overwhelmed with emotion.
    “I thought you were sipping margaritas.” Wright grins.
    “Do I look like I sip margaritas? Fuckin’ sissy drink.” Drake shakes his head. For all the cussing, there’s obvious affection between the two officers. “I’m here ‘cause Sarge told me my partner is about to get his incompetent ass waxed by a bunch of bloodsuckers. Hell, you and your new girlfriend” -- his gaze settles on me, and my cheeks heat up -- “are the talk of the precinct. Everyone is all abuzz.” He waves his fingers, rolling his eyes.
    Oh, lord. “Does everyone know…?”
    “I’m a cop. You’re a judge.” Wright’s casual tone is belied by the nervous tick in his cheek. “We couldn’t have kept our relationship secret for long, Sadie.”
    “Especially when you fuck in a courtroom full of security cameras, screaming your fool heads off. They have audio, jackass.” Drake chuckles as he strolls away.
    I push away my embarrassment to process what this means for my career. “So he’s here because I’m your lover.” The decades risking my life on the bench, upholding justice, means nothing.
    “No. Drake doesn’t blow smoke up anyone’s ass, even one as fine as yours.” Wright tugs my robes closed, fussing over me with a caring I haven’t felt in years. “The boys are protecting you because they respect you. Our relationship doesn’t change that.”
    Our relationship went public, and the cops still respect me. I place my hand in Wright’s, hoping I didn’t use up all my good luck for the day.
     

 
     
     
    06 Wright’s Blog
     
    We enter a courtroom divided by color. The vamps gunning for my Sadie are decked out in black leather, and standing behind their nutjob boss. The police are in uniform, the blue looking downright cheery alongside the bleak black. They’ve volunteered their precious off-duty time to protect the judge they respect and the woman I love. If I was a girl, it would bring a tear to my eye.
    But I’m not a girl, so I grunt and tell them they’re all fuck-ups and advise them to