This interview of Rick Gray, the undercover cop hero of Deep Cover, first aired on the Craftie Ladies of Love Inspired Romance blog on September 18, 2011

1. Rick, tell me the most interesting thing about you.

I’m an undercover cop. I’ve worked a lot of different cases, some in which the paperwork took longer to do than the actual operation, and some, like my current case, that require me to become another person for weeks at a time. At the moment, I’m posing as a foreman on a construction project to gather evidence against the developer who torches buildings for the insurance money. Unfortunately, he’s also the uncle of a woman I care about, and the construction project is a group home for her mentally challenged sister.

2. What do you do for fun?

I shoot hoops with my fellow police officers. We work hard and then play hard. It helps relieve the stress of the job.

3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?

I don’t usually put off anything I’m at liberty to do. Telling Ginny who and what I really am is the one exception. For her own protection, fifteen months ago, I let Ginny walk out of my life believing I was the gang member I appeared to be. When that case was over, I could’ve told her the truth, and tried to win her back, but I convinced myself she was better off without me. I wish I could say the same for myself.

4. What are you afraid of most in life?

I have a dangerous job. I make enemies. That’s one of the reasons I tend to avoid relationships. I’m afraid someone close to me will be killed because of my work.

5. What do you want out of life?

I want to get criminals off the street. As my dad lay dying at the hand of a criminal he’d been scheduled to testify against, I made him a promise that I wouldn’t let the bad guys win. For that reason, and another that I’d rather not talk about, justice is really important to me. Let’s just say I owe it to my family to do everything I can to keep criminals off the street.

That said, when I’m not working I enjoy coaching kids’ sports teams at the local community center, trying to help them find something better than crime to invest their time in. It was enough, until I met Ginny. Now…I want the whole wife and kids and white picket fence thing. But it’s just not meant to be.

6. What is the most important thing to you?

Lies are part of my job. A character I play, like an actor. But sometimes to safeguard my cover for the sake of my case, I have to pretend I’m something I’m not to people I’ve grown to care about. It’s important to me that when they learn the truth, they see I’m a man of honor. I’m probably the only man alive who embraces the scripture verse, “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.” I long for the day that I can disclose my true life to Ginny. The day she’ll finally understand I work for a greater good. The day she’ll know I’m honorable.

7. Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book?

I read my Bible most days, but other than that, I don’t read much.

8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

If I could walk away from my job, I would. But I can’t. And Ginny deserves a better life than I can give her.

9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?

No, as an undercover cop, my schedule is too unpredictable to allow me to care for an animal. I have a fish tank screensaver on my laptop. Does that count?

10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?

I’d go to the backyard of my parents’ house—the day my older brother died. And I’d stay there, just as I’d been told. Remembering that day still rips through me as viciously as the bullets that ripped through my brother. I’d been too young to understand that gang members get a kick out of daring probies to take pot shots at a cop’s house. If I’d obeyed my parents and stayed in the back yard, Bobby never would’ve chased after me to keep me off the road…and run straight into the spray of gang bullets.