Tempted by the Badge Read online

  Proving her innocence...at all costs

  The exciting second book of the To Serve and Seduce miniseries

  Former Chicago cop Mingus Black is used to liars. So why does the PI believe a teacher who insists she’s being framed? Joanna Barnes is totally convincing...in more ways than one. The chemistry between Mingus and Joanna becomes perilously potent, but until he can find out who framed her for a heinous crime, everything they love hangs in the balance.

  “Suddenly I’m guilty before I’ve even had the chance to prove my innocence.”

  There was the faintest hint of sympathy in Mingus’s tone as he answered, “I know.”

  Joanna blew out a soft sigh. She took up her fork and began to eat. She suddenly paused, the utensil stopped in midair. “You said we’re going to figure out your brother’s next steps. What are you going to do? And what am I supposed to be doing?”

  Mingus narrowed his gaze, amusement sweeping across his face. “You are going to sit tight and stay out of trouble. And you’re not going to worry about what I do.”

  Her gaze skated across his face, trying to read the emotion staring back at her. She finally shook her head, rising from the table as she grabbed his plate and hers. “Well, I can tell you now, that’s not going to happen, so try again, Mingus Black. I need answers and I don’t plan to leave your side until I get them.”

  * * *

  Don’t miss future installments in the To Serve and Seduce miniseries, coming soon...

  * * *

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  Dear Reader,

  No lies! This story worked me! Hard! It was challenging from start to finish, the characters continually turning left when I was trying with everything in me to herd them right! But I absolutely love the final product. Once again, it was about family and the strength of their love and their commitment to doing right, when it would be so much easier to do wrong!

  I loved fleshing out Mingus Black. He’s a bad boy to his core and yet he’s a big softy when it comes to the delightful Joanna Barnes. The two are sheer perfection in all their flawed beauty. Together, they are fire! I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed writing their story.

  I really love this book! I hope you will, too!

  Thank you so much for your support. I am humbled by all the love you keep showing me, my characters and our stories. I know that none of this would be possible without you.

  Until the next time, please take care and may God’s blessings be with you always.

  With much love,

  Deborah Fletcher Mello

  www.DeborahMello.blogspot.com

  TEMPTED BY

  THE BADGE

  Deborah Fletcher Mello

  Writing since forever, Deborah Fletcher Mello can’t imagine herself doing anything else. Her first novel, Take Me to Heart, earned her a 2004 Romance Slam Jam nomination for Best New Author. In 2008, Deborah won the RT Reviewers’ Choice award for Best Series Romance for her ninth novel, Tame a Wild Stallion. Deborah received a BRAB 2015 Reading Warrior Award for Best Series for her Stallion family series. Deborah was also named the 2016 Romance Slam Jam Author of the Year. She has also received accolades from several publications, including Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and RT Book Reviews. With each new book, Deborah continues to create unique story lines and memorable characters. Born and raised in Connecticut, Deborah now considers home to be wherever the moment moves her.

  Books by Deborah Fletcher Mello

  Harlequin Romantic Suspense

  To Serve and Seduce

  Seduced by the Badge

  Tempted by the Badge

  Harlequin Kimani Romance

  Truly Yours

  Hearts Afire

  Twelve Days of Pleasure

  My Stallion Heart

  Stallion Magic

  Tuscan Heat

  A Stallion’s Touch

  A Pleasing Temptation

  Sweet Stallion

  To Tempt a Stallion

  A Stallion Dream

  Visit the Author Page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

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  To Kay Edmondson

  You are a joy and a blessing to know!

  Know that you are much loved and valued!

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Excerpt from Colton’s Convenient Bride by Jennifer Morey

  Chapter 1

  The noise level in the small classroom rose substantially as the door flung open and students began to parade inside. Joanna Barnes looked up from the papers she’d been grading, a bright smile pulling at her lips. Greetings rang out warmly as one student after the other found their way to a seat for the third-period history class.

  “Good morning, Ms. Barnes!”

  “Hey, Ms. B!”

  “Ms. Barnes! What up?”

  She twisted the cap back onto the red pen she was holding and slid it and the test papers from her previous class into her desk drawer. Rising to her feet, she returned the gesture, greeting each student warmly as she moved to stand by the door.

  “Mr. Parsons, good morning! Miss Hayes, how are you? Take a seat, please, Mr. Tolliver!”

  The energy in the room was palpable, everyone anxious about the test they would soon be taking. This was one of the honors classes, the students all exceptionally bright and especially motivated. Over half had already been notified of their early acceptance into college, with most of them headed to Ivy League institutions. They were considered the elite of their graduating class. They challenged Joanna to insure the curriculum was one that would not only boost their individual class rankings but also kept them interested; boredom was easily the kiss of death for any teacher.

  The test they were taking was on the early Industrial Revolution in England and Wales, with the emphasis on the plight of women during that time period. Joanna had no doubts most, if not all, would pass with flying colors. There were one, maybe two exceptions determined to buck the system, no matter where they were in life.

  The last student through the door was one of her more challenging pupils. Standing a foot taller than most of the class, Damon Morrow was one of their star athletes, playing varsity football and basketball in the fall and baseball in the spring. Keeping him off academic probation had become a full-time job all on its own and, despite his obvious intellectual genius, his was an issue of effort, or rather lack of. He was smart and talented, but he was lazy as hell. Damon Morrow was content to fly through life on his dashing good looks and the trust fund he would inevitably inherit when he turned twenty-one.

  “Mr. Morrow, good morning,” Joanna said warmly. “You studied, I hope.”

  The young man shrugged broad shoulders. “Do we have to take this
test today, Ms. Barnes?”

  “Yes, we do,” she said matter-of-factly. “Everything under your desks, please. And get your pencils ready.”

  Damon sat, still scrolling through messages on his cell phone instead.

  “Phones away,” Joanna said, tapping her nails lightly against the desktop. “If I see any phones during the exam, I will confiscate them. Your parents will have to come get them from me at the end of the semester, and I mean it.”

  Damon shot her a quick look. “Hey, Miss Barnes, did you hear?”

  She blew a soft sigh. “Did I hear what, Mr. Morrow?”

  “Everyone’s talking about it!” another student interjected.

  Joanna looked around the room, her eyes scanning their faces as she mentally took attendance. “Has anyone seen Mr. Locklear?” She gestured toward the only empty seat, going off topic for a brief moment.

  There were shrugs and looks of disinterest, no one seeming to care that one of their own was missing.

  She shook her head ever so slightly. “So, what is everyone talking about?” she asked, her eyes shifting back to the student staring at her.

  “One of the teachers is getting fired,” Damon stated. “Someone’s been giving it to a student on the side,” he said with a snide laugh and an inappropriate hand gesture. He slapped palms with the boy beside him. “I bet it was Coach Peterson. Which one of you girls has been giving it up to him in the locker room?” he quipped.

  Laughter rang around the room and the noise level rose slightly. Joanna winced, unable to fathom how any adult could even consider taking advantage of a student’s trust. That her kids were piqued by such an abhorrent rumor didn’t sit well with her. It didn’t sit well with her at all. She shook her head. “That will be enough of that, thank you.”

  “He’s serious,” a young woman named Shannon Heigl said. “One of the teachers has been having an affair with a student and the student reported it to the administration.”

  Another student added her two cents. “They’re going to press charges and whoever it is plans to sue the teacher and the school district!” she exclaimed.

  Joanna’s gaze skated from one face to the other, everyone suddenly looking at her to either confirm or deny the rumors she was hearing for the first time. A string of expletives suddenly rang through the air, Damon cursing as he continued to scroll through his phone. “This is so effed up!” he said with a snide laugh.

  “Mr. Morrow! Watch your mouth!” she chastised. She held out her hand for his cell phone. “I said no phones.”

  The young man eyed her sheepishly. “I was just shutting it off. I swear,” he said as he shoved the device into the top of his book bag and the book bag under his desk. He dapped the palm of her hand and gave her a wink of his eye.

  Joanna met the look he was giving her with a stern stare, her eyes narrowed. She shook her index finger in his direction. “You’re walking a very fine line with me, Mr. Morrow. You do not want to test my patience.”

  As she turned, she saw him leaning to whisper to the boy beside him. “The student is male! The teacher’s a woman!” he quipped, the two giving each other a high five as if that was something to celebrate. A titter of laughter and hushed whispers swept through the room.

  “All right, that will be enough,” Joanna said as she moved to the front of classroom and began to count off test papers at the head of each row. “Let’s focus on something useful, please. It doesn’t matter who did what to whom, regardless of gender—if such a thing happened, it’s wrong! Let’s not waste any more of our energy on unsubstantiated accusations. Spreading rumors only serves to hurt people unnecessarily. You all should want to be above that.” Her eyes connected with each student, finally coming to rest on Damon Morrow’s face. He was still grinning from ear to ear, his chest pushed forward arrogantly as he and his desk mate whispered one last time.

  “Take one and pass it back,” she said to the students at the front of each row.

  Minutes later their heads were down, pencils scribbling away as they diligently tackled question after question. Joanna moved back behind her desk and took her seat. She’d been teaching since forever at Riptide High School, the Chicago, Illinois, staple rich with history. She’d also been a student here back in the day, the senior class president of her graduating class and a cheerleader. Her parents had both been graduates, as well, and before them, her maternal grandfather, one of the first to integrate Riptide classrooms before it had been court mandated.

  Joanna came from a long line of educators, beginning with her paternal great-great-great grandmother, who’d taught other slaves on a Georgia plantation how to read and write. Her mother had taught English at Riptide’s rival high school for most of her career, only recently retiring from her assistant principal position to tend her beloved gardens. During the spring and summer, she grew the fruits and vegetables she intended to can in jars while catching up on her reading when the weather turned. Joanna’s father was a math professor at the local community college, determined to trek to his day job until they laid him in his casket. Both loved what they did, and so did Joanna.

  She had always known she would be a teacher, even preferring to play classroom instead of house as a child. Despite the challenges of students who were self-absorbed, more abrasive and less focused, she enjoyed everything about sharing her love of history with the students who came every September and were gone by June.

  And Joanna loved history. She found it fascinating that if you examined the past closely enough you could find a precedent for most current situations. She loved helping her students discover that for themselves. It was thrilling when she could show them a correlation between their own challenging academic environment and the courts of the Italian Renaissance, giving teens philosophies on how to survive in their dog-eat-dog world. When there were questions of integrity they studied Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Thomas More and people who, through the ages, epitomized the fight for what was right. When students bemoaned their home situations, she made them research life in the Middle Ages and its lack of comfort and convenience. There were lessons to be learned from the past and Joanna enjoyed everything about exploring them.

  The time passed quickly and when the bell sounded, announcing the end of class, a few of them jumped in surprise. Joanna stood. “Pencils down, please, and leave your tests in the basket on my desk on your way out. There is no homework tonight, so enjoy the break!”

  Chairs slid against the concrete floor and the noise level rose as the class marched single-file past her, sliding exam papers into the wicker container on the corner of her desk. As the last student made his exit, they were still spreading gossip, cell phone messages and social media updates being shared. Joanna couldn’t help but wonder if there was any truth to the allegations, but figured she’d learn more before the day ended. She had no doubt there were as many teachers gossiping as there were students trying to dig up information.

  As Joanna bound the test papers with a large rubber band and a sticky note detailing the class and time, her friend and associate barged into the room.

  “You’re on break now, right?” English teacher Angel Graves gushed, tossing a look over her shoulder.

  Joanna nodded. “I’m chaperoning fourth period study hall and grading these test papers. What’s up?”

  “Haven’t you heard? The administration is in an uproar and there’s been two police detectives in the principal’s office since this morning. Someone’s in some serious trouble. Mrs. Magee says it’s about to hit the fans!”

  Joanna shook her head from side to side. “Mrs. Magee gossips too much! I don’t know why you pay that woman any attention,” she said, referring to the office secretary.

  “I pay attention to her because she’s that inside line to everything that goes on in this school. You should give her more credit. Besides, aren’t she and your mother old friends?”

  “Which
is how I know she gossips too much!”

  “Yes, but she always has the best gossip!”

  Joanna laughed as they made their way out of the classroom and down the hall toward the other end of the school building. Their conversation was easy and casual as they maneuvered their way through the throng of students hurrying to their next period class before the late bell sounded. “So, who did what this time?” she asked.

  “It’s serious. They’re claiming teacher misconduct and inappropriate contact with a student.”

  “Are they saying who?”

  Angel shrugged. “Only that the student is a senior.”

  “I just can’t believe it. I know some of the men around here are slimy, but I can’t imagine any one of them doing such a thing. That would just be horrific!”

  Angel shrugged her shoulders. “You’re preaching to the choir! I wholeheartedly agree but you just can’t trust people like you used to.”

  Joanna shook her head. “I swear, if it’s not one thing around here, it’s another. Last week it was all about the district wanting to close our doors and sell off the building, and the week before that our accreditation was supposedly in jeopardy. It’s anything that will get the school board up in arms. That last school board meeting lasted an hour longer than necessary. I can just imagine what a scandal like this will have them ranting about.”

  “Yes, you can. They’ll revisit the dress code, insist on psychological background checks to detect predatory tendencies, maybe even contemplate a no-touch, no-tell policy. You know the drill.”

  “No touch, no tell! Now you’re being funny,” Joanna said with a soft chuckle.

  Angel laughed with her. “You have to have a sense of humor if you plan to make tenure.”

  “I already have tenure.”

  “Retirement, then. Either way, if you don’t laugh at foolishness like this, you’ll go crazy.”

  Their banter was suddenly interrupted by someone calling Joanna’s name loudly from the other end of the hallway.