Talia stood there taking customers orders and couldn't get the kiss that Ryker gave her off of her mind, even though it was short and sweet every once in a while she would smile and would start tracing her lips. "You're thinking about him aren't you?" Andrea said quietly as she walked past her.

She turned around and put her hand on her hip "No, what makes you think that?"

"No reason." She said with a smile. She was glad that she told Ryker where he could find them, and that he had shown up. She really wanted Talia to get her mind off the jerk that hurt her, and wanted someone fresh to show her that there were more fish in the sea. Luckily enough this hottie was single too.

Talia helped Andrea make drinks while waiting for the next customer to come in, Andrea leaned closer to her "I saw him give you a kiss last night, if that was me I would have given him a better kiss than what you gave him." She mocked with a smile. The front door chimed and Andrea looked over Talia's shoulder "Speak of the devil."

Talia quickly turned to see who walked in and her stomach dropped "Take his order for me..please?" Talia whispered to her trying to walk away, but was stopped as Andrea pulled on her arm. "Don't be a chicken shit, go take care of him." She smiled "In more ways than one." She giggled as she quickly walked away from her.

Talia took a deep breath and walked nervously to the register to take his order. She wasn't sure why she felt nervous, but seeing him again brought back the feeling of being in his arms from the night before and how good it had felt.

"Well hello there, we meet again." He said lowly with a smile, he leaned closer to her and whispered "Where's that nice smile of yours that I know you have?" He gave her a wink and stood back up with a smile when she gave him the smile that he was looking for.

"Are you having the usual, or do you have another big order again?"

"Just the coffee today." He pressed his hands on the counter and leaned closer to her, getting close to her face he stared into her eyes and smiled that caused her breathing to hitch as she looked back into his sexy green eyes. The longer they stared into each other's eyes the more she felt like gumby, trying to control herself she had closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.

She felt him caress her cheek softly and slowly opened her eyes "You should let me take you out sometime." Her heart dropped when he asked her out, she felt giddy and excited about it after all he was pretty sexy, without saying a word she turned around and grabbed his coffee, smiling as she poured his coffee she thought about what he had asked.

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea." She says handing him his hot cup of joe, ignoring his response she took care of the next customer. She wanted to take him up on his offer, she liked how he made her feel when he kissed her and how her insides felt just from a soft peck on her lips. But was it because it was a kiss from him and that it felt so genuine or was it because she had never had a kiss that made her feel that way before.

She felt confused, so many things started to run through her mind, she didn't feel like getting hurt again and figured that as sexy as he was that he could have any woman that he wants. Why would he want me? She thought to herself.

"What are you afraid of?" He asked her quietly, he looked up at the clock and knew he better hurry up when he noticed the time.

"Nothing." She whispered back.

Andrea overheard them talking and shook her head when she heard Talia turn him down, she honestly thought that he would be perfect for her. "Just one date, I promise that you won't regret it." Ryker said quietly to her when the customer had stepped away to wait for their order.

"I'm sorry, I just can't right now."

"Well I have to get to work, will you at least think about it?" He asked her giving her the please give me a chance look, he felt a little satisfied when she gave him a nod, but figured it wasn't promising.

He left bummed that she refused a date with him, after the kiss that he gave her he really thought that she would go out with him. "I should have given her a bigger kiss than what I did." He mumbled as he got in his car.

Looking over at the seat next to him he opened his briefcase and got his gear out, making sure nobody was around he quickly put them on then headed over to see if he could find out anything on this guy that had been defrauding the state.

Ryker sat in his car outside Justin Thompson's home waiting for him to leave. He had his notebook in hand and looked back at his notes, as he was reading through his notes, he happened to look up to see him walk out of his home. He quickly turned on his cameras and waited to see what he would be doing next.

The man got in his car and left. Ryker left to follow him, trying to stay as far back behind without being noticed. He followed him to a doctors office. Justin finally stepped out of his car and started to walk in. Ryker noticed he had on a neck and back brace, something that he didn't have on when he first left his home.

While waiting for him to leave, he wrote down the date, time and some notes as to what he saw so far. He then followed him to another place, a tavern near his home.

Ryker made sure he was wired up and that everything was working before walking into the tavern. He was going to see if he could have a conversation with him, and possibly see what he could get out of him.

"What can I get for you?" The bartender asked, he looked at his watch pretending to look at the time "I'll just have a small beer please." He looked over at Justin and smiled inside, he knew he could probably befriend him after seeing that he was drinking whiskey on the rocks.

The man started talking to Ryker, so he picked up his glass of beer and moved over to him, reaching his hand out he shook his hand "Almost too nice out to be sitting in a bar today." Ryker joked while shaking his hand.

"Yea it is, I should be at home getting yardwork done before the wife comes home, but a drink sounded better." Justin smiled as he raised his drink up and took a sip.

The two sat there talking for a while, Ryker slowly sipped on his beer, trying to make it last as long as he could. "You must be a slow drinker." Justin laughed "Can I buy you another one?"

"I don't know, it's not going down to well today." He says shrugging his shoulders.

"Girl problems?"

"I guess you could say that." He then thought about Talia and smiled as her face came to his mind.

"I hear ya, my wife would have my ass if she found out what I've been up to for the last couple months."

Justin sat up a little straighter and cleared his throat, he figured this was the perfect time to get everything out of him. "Oh that doesn't sound good. You must be out having an affair, I can see where she would have your ass then."

"No not that, I would never do that. I do love my wife." He smiled reaching for his wallet he pulled a picture out and held it for Ryker to see "This is my beautiful wife."

"Very nice." Ryker smiled, thinking that she was young and very beautiful with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Justin quickly pulled the picture away, placing it back in his wallet. "She thinks that I work all day, I haven't had the heart to tell her that I lost my job nearly six months ago."

"Six months?"

"Unfortunately yes, I got a little hurt at work, at first I refused to go to the doctor thinking that I would be fine and I didn't want to get my employer in trouble for unsafe conditions at the time, they then let me go, so to get them back for releasing me I went to the doctor faking my injuries, and filed for workmans compensation."

"Why would you do that?"

"To make them pay, I felt humiliated for getting fired. Granted I wasn't wearing the safety belt when it all happened, but you would think they would have worked with me."

"Well they still would have paid for your doctors visit."

"They did the first time I went, then refused to pay the rest when the doctor came back and said everything was fine, so I went to another doctor and have been seeing him since."

"I guess I don't understand." Ryker says sounding confused "How could you be still going to the doctor if everything is fine?"

"I just fake how I'm feeling and act like I'm in a lot of pain."

Ryker's eyes widened "Wow, that's crazy man, I would be nervous to get caught."

Justin waved his hand "I'm not worried. I've mastered it pretty good. I just hate lying to the wife about it."

Ryker couldn't believe how easy it was for Justin to open up to him, a stranger "I better get home before the wife gets home, thanks for the talk."

Ryker got to the office, and replayed the tape and footage. In a way he felt bad for the guy, he seemed like he was reaching out, but the law is the law and this guy was definitely committing fraud. While he was writing up his report he couldn't get Talia off of his mind and was hoping that she would reconsider and go out with him.

"Can I come in?" Ryker heard Marcus ask as he heard the door open. He lifted his head and waved him in.

"I got him to talk." Ryker said smiling pointing to the TV. "He admitted to everything, I figured that it would be easy but not this easy."

Marcus stood there watching what Ryker came up with "How the hell did you do that so quick, I was for sure this one would take a while."

"The guy just opened up to me while he was having a drink. He's afraid of what his wife will think once she finds out what he has been up to."

"What an idiot."

Ryker chuckled as he thought about how easy it was. "I better get this to the boss."

"So tell me... were you able to get that girl to go out with you yet? She's a pretty girl." Marcus said grinning.

"No... But I'm not giving up on her yet."

Ryker stood up and grabbed his report and evidence, placing them in the labeled bags. "What did you need anyways?"

"The boss wanted to see you."

"For what?"

Marcus shrugged his shoulders and placed his hands on his hips. "I'm not sure, but I have an idea that he wants you to take a case that nobody else can do or wants to do."

He snapped his head towards Marcus and gave him a curious look "Which case is that one? He didn't ask you to take it?" 

"Not sure.. he never asked me either."

Ryker curious as to what the boss wanted, grabbed his report and evidence and delivered his findings. He then went to see what the boss wanted.

He knocked on the door and entered when he was told to come in. "Ryker.. nice to see you, please sit."

The boss handed him a case file once he sat "I need you to look at this case, look it over and tell me that you'll take the case. You're my best guy for this job."

"I heard nobody wanted this." He says as he opened the file.

"How could anyone want this when I haven't even brought this case up to anybody, this was just handed to me this morning."

Ryker looked it over and took a deep breath when he saw what kind of case it was. "I'm the best one for this?"

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, please remember to comment and vote.🙏🙏🙏🙏

Hopefully I can get this story going, having a bit of a hard time with this one for some reason, but I think once I get it going it will be alright.😉😉😊😊

I don't want to disappoint you!!❤❤❤