I nodded.

"Yeah, I'll do it now. I got a t-shirt on under this shirt," I pulled on the dress shirt I'd worn.

"Okay," Chief shrugged.

They got up, and I walked behind them as they led me out the back of the police station.

Our departure caught the attention of a few of the men sitting in a conference room, and they followed us out.

Luke led us to a field where a track was around a lot of equipment ranging from an old house made out of tin to a huge steel frame of stairs that I guessed to be the seven stories Chief Allen had said I'd have to come down with a dummy.

The track had seen better days, but I'd run on worse.

Stopping next to the table next to the track, I started to empty my pockets.

I debated whether to take the two guns off my hip and ankle, but chose not to, instead leaving them in place.

I didn't know these men.

Sure, they were officers, but I didn't trust my weapons with anyone.

Not even my own mother.

I did, however, get my keys and phone out.

As well as the few extra clips I always carried.

My wallet was the last thing to follow, and then I yanked my button down shirt up and over my head, instantly feeling better.

I hated dress shirts.

I was a jeans and t-shirt man.

Or a t-shirt and tactical pants.

I hated it when I had to get into my dress uniform.

Not that I would be doing that again if it was within my power.

"You want me to see if I can find you some shoes, man?" A guy asked from behind us.

I looked over to see six men behind me.

They were all dressed in SWAT gear, sans body armor.

At least what I could tell. Unless they'd suddenly invented some super-secret armor that didn't look like you were wearing it.

"No. These are fine," I said, looking down at my boots.

They were work boots.

Slip on boots that had steel toes and had definitely seen better days.

I could run in them, though.

Hell, I could do a goddamn lot of things in them.

Lift. Work on a car. Kick the shit out of someone. Fuck in them.

Not that I'd done that recently.

Hell, I hadn't done that since Masen.

I turned my brain off at that thought.

It wouldn't get me anywhere today.

Once I was in my t-shirt, I nodded at Luke who nodded back, pulling out a phone and holding up three fingers.

"Three," he said. "Two. One. Go."

I went.

The first lap was the one that I ran slower than the others.

You always had to get a gauge of the terrain.

Once I had that gauge, I started to run full out.

There was no other way to do it.

And I finished in less than five minutes.

"Four forty-eight," Luke said, stopping the timer on his phone.

Out of habit I checked my heart rate, watching the dials on my watch as I did.

Ninety-eight beats per minute.

Good.

"What's next?" I asked, panting slightly.

Chief Allen pointed at a dummy.

"That dummy has to get up to the top of the stairs and in through that window up there," he pointed.

I followed the direction of his hand.

"Okay," I said, picking up the dummy he'd indicated and started to climb the stairs.

"I was going to give you another ten minutes," he said, shouting slightly.

I waved him off.

"I'm good," I said, jogging up to the top.

Once there, I tossed the dummy in through the window.

"Ready," I called down.

They all stared at me like I was crazy.

"What?" I asked, mostly to myself.

Nobody answered.

The chief held up his hand long moments later, then threw it down.

I took that as my cue to go and grabbed the dummy, tossing it over my shoulder and going down the stairs two and three at a time depending on where I was at on the stairs.

I reached the bottom and tossed the dummy into the chair that it'd recently been residing in.

"He took the heavy one," one of the men muttered under their breath.

I didn't look up, instead focusing on my heart rate and getting oxygen into my lungs.

Not because I was actually tired, but because I thought I looked stupid panting when everyone else around me didn't have a drop of sweat on them, seeing as it was a cool fifty degrees out.

"What next?" I asked once my breathing was under control.

"We need to do CPR on that dummy," he pointed to an ambulance that was pulled up with a dummy on the gurney in the back. "You have to do that for twenty minutes, then sprint through that obstacle course with the dummy on your shoulder."

Sighing, I did as I was told.

Twenty-four minutes and thirty seconds later, I was putting my phone back into my pocket, along with the magazines for my guns.

"Did I pass?" I asked.

"You passed," Luke confirmed, sounding slightly amused.

Another of the men, the red head this time, started to laugh.

"Did you pass?" He asked laughingly. "Man, you obliterated nearly every man's record that has ever run this course. In work boots and slacks. With two guns, one on your hip and one on your ankle."

It didn't alarm me that they saw the ankle gun.

Any trained officer would.

What did alarm me, though, was that they were talking to me.

Was I expected to talk back?

I hoped not, but alas, I was surrounded by the men offering handshakes moments later.

"We're glad to meet you," one said. He was the one with the limp. "We've heard a lot about you."

They had?

From who?

The one with the limp grinned. "You were the hometown hero of the week last month."

Ahh, that made sense. I'd heard about that.

"Got it," I muttered, backing away.

"You need anything else from me?" I questioned the two men.

Both Luke and Chief Allen shook their heads. "No. Not today. My secretary will be in touch with the paperwork for your new hire. You'll have to go through a mandatory class on ethics and bylaws of the fire department."

I nodded.

"Okay," I said.

Luke offered his hand. "My secretary will be back with you for some paperwork, too. We'll need your peace officer's license, as well as your certifications."

I nodded.

"Fine," I said, then walked away from them all without another word.

Chapter 2.

You and me. Bed. Now.

-Masen to her cat, Jensen.

Masen "I hope these cookies taste okay," I muttered to Mia. "You know how I suck at baking. And these are being sold for this fund raiser bake sale that they are having for that burned firefighter. What if someone dies from food poisoning?"

Mia's eyes turned to me.