Fries Before Guys

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  With that, I went back to my seat and disappeared back into the shadows.

  There was a long silence and then people started to clap.

  I looked down at my lap, suddenly overwhelmed with emotion.

  Today was a bad day.

  ***

  “What are you thinking about?”

  I started, surprised to find that Derek was still wide awake.

  “Uhh.” I swallowed. “I was thinking about my dad’s funeral.”

  He moved until he had an arm hooked around my waist, then hauled me backward across the bed until I was in his arms.

  “Who do you think it is, Avery?” he asked then. “Do you think it’s Rachel?”

  I had no idea anymore.

  The more I thought about it, the more confused I got.

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “But this has been happening for years between me and Rachel. She’s never even gotten violent before the time she pushed me. And even then, it was due in part to an accident. I have a feeling she would’ve never pushed me at all if she knew what would happen.”

  “But…” he urged.

  “But,” I continued, “she’s been very vocal on how much she dislikes me. She’s also gone out of her way to let me know that she hates me. And she is now being charged with attempted murder. She might very well be pissed off enough to hit me with a car.”

  He made a grunting sound of agreement, sliding my hair back over my shoulder so he could get to the bare skin of my neck.

  His lips ran against the skin, from shoulder to shoulder, as he ran his palm up and down the length of my outer thigh.

  I squirmed until I was pressed fully against him, causing him to growl.

  “I don’t know what is going on,” he said. “But I have some people working on it. And Lynn’s working on it. From what my dad tells me, Lynn’s got his own sources that even he can’t touch. But… I would like to go talk to this woman that used to date your dad. I’d like to hear it myself what was happening with the insurance. Something’s missing here.”

  I agreed.

  But I had a feeling I wouldn’t find out what.

  If she didn’t want to talk about it, there was no way that I could make her.

  I sighed deeply into Derek’s neck. “This is a mess,” I told him. “Are you sure that you want to enter into this with me?”

  I’d been teasing, of course. I knew that Derek wouldn’t let me go on my own now. He cared about me.

  “Yes,” he answered simply.

  His voice sounded lazy and drowsy, as if he was fighting sleep just because I was awake.

  “Go to bed, Derek,” I ordered.

  He chuckled, his chest rumbling with his amusement.

  “I’ll go to bed just as soon as you do,” he teased.

  I turned around in his arms, moving until my face was pressed into the divot of his chest where his pectoral muscles separated.

  His chest hair tickled my nose as I pressed a kiss to the skin there.

  He gathered me in closer, his hand on my neck.

  “I’ve loved you for a really long time, you know,” I said softly. “Even though I’m good with details, I can’t pinpoint an exact time that it happened. One day, I just woke up, and I knew.”

  His heart started to pound.

  I could feel the hard, fast beats against my lips.

  “I…”

  His phone went off, signaling a SWAT call.

  My heart started to race for an altogether different reason then.

  He groaned and rolled over onto his back, taking me with him.

  I laughed and pushed myself up, using his chest as I did.

  “You better go,” I said, voice not quivering a bit even though I was now scared as hell.

  No SWAT call was good in the middle of the night.

  He cursed and then rolled until he was on top of me, his body in between my legs.

  “I’ll be back,” he said.

  Then he was up and moving, getting dressed in his black cargo pants, black SWAT t-shirt and grabbing the SWAT sweatshirt that I’d been wearing non-stop for days.

  “That’s probably gonna smell like me,” I felt it prudent to point out.

  He grinned in the glow that the bathroom light was casting over the room.

  “I don’t care.”

  I knew he didn’t.

  But I still had to tell him anyway.

  “Be safe, Derek,” I said softly.

  Derek winked at me, shut the bathroom light off, then left quietly out of the room.

  I listened hard for the front door to sound, but it didn’t.

  I waited.

  And waited.

  And waited.

  And waited some more.

  Eventually, I got up and walked out to the living room to see his large, dark figure standing at the front door with his hand on the doorknob, door wide open as he let all of the air conditioning out.

  “Derek?”

  Derek didn’t answer, causing me to frown.

  “Derek, what’s going on?” I asked again.

  Still he didn’t answer.

  I flipped on the light that was just on the inside of the door frame that I was standing in and froze at what I saw.

  Chapter 17

  Meh. No thanks. Ugh.

  -If Valentine Hearts said what we really think

  Derek

  I cursed myself as I walked out of the bedroom, thinking that I should’ve said ‘I love you, too’ back to her.

  I should have, but I hadn’t.

  Why?

  I was so buried in my thoughts that I didn’t pay attention to what I was doing as I walked to the front door.

  In fact, I was in the process of turning around when a shotgun was racked in front of me, causing me to freeze.

  “Move back,” she hissed.

  Rachel.

  I could see her silhouette and the sheen of the streetlight illuminating her face and one arm.

  I could also see the black outline of a shotgun in her hands as she aimed it straight at my chest.

  I didn’t move. I didn’t breathe.

  I couldn’t.

  Not with Avery defenseless in the bedroom beyond where I was standing.

  “Are you deaf?” Rachel hissed. “Move! It’s time to finish off the family.”

  “No,” I denied, speaking calmly and quietly. “I’m not moving.”

  “Derek?”

  I closed my eyes at Avery’s soft call.

  Still, I didn’t move.

  Couldn’t.

  “Derek?” Avery repeated for a second time.

  I wanted so badly to turn to her. To tell her to run.

  Yet, I stayed completely still, blocking Rachel from entering and using that shotgun on Avery.

  “Derek?” Avery said a third time.

  This time it was followed shortly by her flicking on the lights.

  I blinked, my eyes adjusting fast.

  Rachel, on the other hand, blinked rapidly for a few long seconds.

  I chose to use that as my chance and moved, taking one giant step into Rachel’s direction.

  Rachel backpedaled, hoping to stay out of my reach, but didn’t accomplish it.

  Well, she accomplished staying out of my reach. She didn’t accomplish not falling on her ass.

  Out of desperation, she aimed the gun and fired at me, missing by a mile.

  At least, she missed me by a mile.

  She didn’t miss Avery, who had followed me out.

  “Avery!” I bellowed.

  Avery went down hard, her entire body hitting the side of the duplex. With brutal force.

  She bounced off and slid to the side of the porch steps, into the roses.

  More lights turned on, dogs started barking, and I kicked Rachel in the head.

  Rachel’s went lights out, I took the gun from Rachel’s hands, and I ran to Avery who was face down
in a pile of dormant rose bushes.

  “Derek!”

  Rowen.

  “Rowen, call 9-1-1!” I screamed.

  Avery lay still, unmoving, and I was terrified of what I would find when I moved her onto her back.

  When I finally did, I was dismayed to see blood.

  Everywhere.

  ***

  Dax

  “Where’s Derek?” Foster asked, eyes taking in the entire room that was filled with eleven members of the SWAT team.

  Ford, who was the man that shared the other half of the duplex with Derek, frowned.

  “I saw his cruiser’s light on as I was leaving,” he said, frowning. “Pretty sure that I saw him inside of it, actually.”

  “He didn’t follow you?” Foster asked.

  I thought back to it, frowning.

  “I…” I started but was interrupted by one of the dispatchers running into the room.

  Royal, Justice’s wife.

  “Umm, y’all,” Royal said, panting. “Something’s going on at Cop Row.”

  ‘Cop Row’ was what everyone was calling the duplexes. Apparently, there were only cops living there with their spouses, or family members of cops. It was owned by cops. So, of course, the women of the office named it accordingly.

  “What?” Foster snapped.

  Thank God this was all a drill, or we’d have our hands tied.

  We wouldn’t have had the time to wait and question why Derek wasn’t there.

  And we wouldn’t have been here to realize that things were going wrong at ‘Cop Row.’

  “I just got a 9-1-1 call from Rowen Tremaine.” Royal’s eyes met mine. “She said that someone was shooting at her brother.”

  The team didn’t take long to assemble after that.

  “Let’s go,” Foster ordered.

  Chapter 18

  Having a weird mom builds character.

  -T-shirt

  Avery

  I blinked my eyes open to see my mother and father staring at me.

  I frowned.

  “What are y’all doing here?” I asked. “Together?”

  Dad grinned, as did my mom.

  “We’re married and we love each other, sweetheart.” My mother rolled her eyes as if what I’d just said was the silliest of questions. “We may have done some funky things during our marriage, but what we did made us happy. We’re adventurous. Don’t you like adventures?”

  I frowned, knowing that I needed to ask them something.

  But I didn’t know what.

  My brain was foggy, and I couldn’t make it work right.

  “Mom,” I said. “How are you?”

  My mother smiled, placing her hands underneath her chin as she smiled down at me with happiness.

  My dad nudged my mother to the side and curled his arms around me. “You’ve made us really proud.”

  My eyes filled up with tears.

  “I’ve missed you,” I whispered to them. “You have no idea how much.”

  “We have an idea,” Dad said. “Because we’ve gone just as long without you.”

  I felt my throat swell as tears started to burn in the backs of my eyes.

  “You need to wake up, though,” Mom said. “It’s not time.”

  “What’s not time?” I asked, so confused it wasn’t even funny. “I don’t want to leave.”

  I wasn’t sure why seeing them was so important, but I felt like my entire heart was once again whole.

  “You can’t stay here,” Dad said, squeezing me even tighter.

  “I want to stay here, though,” I said.

  “What about Derek?” my mother asked, wrapping her arms around me, too.

  My chest restricted, this time because of realizing that Derek wasn’t here with me, not because my parents were now squeezing me to death.

  “Oh, Derek,” I said. “I need Derek.”

  “It’ll be okay. I promise.” Mom squeezed me tighter.

  And tighter.

  And tighter.

  And tighter.

  It felt like I couldn’t breathe.

  “Dad,” I croaked.

  “It’s okay, baby. You can go,” were my dad’s final words.

  I hadn’t realized that I’d closed my eyes until I heard my name being called urgently.

  “Avery, baby. Wake up,” Derek ordered gruffly.

  I blinked open my eyes and stared at the man I loved. Like really, really loved.

  “I love you, too,” he said to me, grin taking over his face. “You’re beautiful.”

  I felt like my chest was still constricted tight, but I couldn’t figure out why.

  “My chest hurts,” I said to him.

  He blew out a deep breath.

  “The gun that Rachel stole out of my police cruiser was a bean bag one,” he said. “Your chest hurts, and you were knocked unconscious, but you didn’t actually get shot with a shotgun. You might have a broken rib. Or ribs.”

  “I have her tied up with zip ties,” Rowen said as she walked into view. “Wow, you look rough, girl.”

  I would’ve smiled if everything didn’t hurt.

  I wanted to sit up, but when I tried, Derek held me down.

  “No,” he said. “You’ve got a lot of blood all over you, and you have thorns everywhere from falling in the rosebushes. You need to lie still until the ambulance arrives.”

  The ambulance did arrive, hot on the heels of the entire freakin’ SWAT team.

  They all piled out just as Rachel started to stir on the ground.

  “Did you shoot her?” I asked curiously.

  Derek looked sheepish for a few seconds, then shook his head. “Ummm, no. I might have kicked her.”

  “Where?” Booth asked as he hunkered down next to the zip-tied woman. “In her head?”

  Derek shrugged. “She’d shot Avery, and I just… I fucking knocked her out the fastest way I could think of. And that might’ve been by way of kicking her in the head.”

  “Nice,” Ford said as he looked down at her. “She’ll be okay, though.” His eyes turned to me. “You?”

  It was then that Derek cursed. “I told you to keep lying there.”

  I rolled my eyes at his overprotectiveness.

  “I’m getting up, Derek,” I said as I stood.

  He helped me stand, then cursed when he realized that I was standing half naked in front of the entire SWAT team.

  He was lucky that I was in a bra and sweatpants. It could’ve been worse. I could’ve walked out here in just his t-shirt like I’d contemplated doing.

  But then I’d thought, what if he’s not alone? I can’t go out there scantily clad and chance seeing one of his teammates.

  So I’d put on clothes. Hell, I’d even put on a bra.

  “Derek,” I said, patting his hands that were now trying to cover me. “It’s fine.”

  Derek sighed and shucked his sweatshirt.

  He pulled it over my head in the next moment, causing me to smile.

  “Thanks,” I drawled.

  He winked at me then turned to Foster and started explaining what had happened.

  I leaned next to Rowen and said, “These bean bags really hurt. I think my boob is bruised.”

  Rowen snorted.

  “I heard the commotion and turned on the lights,” she said. “I didn’t come out because I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on. So I peeked through the blinds and saw it all happen. I’d already called 9-1-1 before Derek told me to.”

  “You’re fuckin’ lucky you stayed your ass inside,” Dax growled.

  Rowen rolled her eyes, then leaned her head against the man’s chest.

  “That was scary, Dax,” she said. “I never thought anyone would be able to get in here so easily and break into a police car.”

  “She had a key,” Louis, also known as our calendar’s Mr. May, said. “None of it is broken into. Not a single thing.”

  ***
/>
  Derek

  Each cruiser was equipped with a lockable gun safe in the back hatch area. There was a code that was needed, and a key. That’d been why I hadn’t brought the gun inside.

  Not that that particular gun I’d left in there was lethal.

  If it’d shot actual bullets, it would’ve for sure been brought inside.

  But, having been looking down the end of a shotgun barrel, I hadn’t realized that she’d grabbed my shotgun that shot beanbags. I’d just seen a gun, and I’d not thought past that.

  “I’m not going to the hospital.”

  I looked back at Avery to see her shaking her head at the medic.

  “It hurts, but I can tell nothing’s broken,” she said. “My neck hurts more than anything.”

  Terror rolled through me as I thought about her neck.

  “We’re going,” I barked.

  She shook her head. “Derek, trust me. Nothing hurts. My neck is sore, just like it’s been all day. If it hurts any worse tomorrow, then I’ll go. But I’m not that bad. I promise.”

  I looked away, seeing Foster staring at me with amusement on his face.

  Rachel moaned and rolled over, her eyes blinking open to see twelve police officers standing around her in a loose semi-circle.

  “Oh shit,” she breathed, dropping her head to the ground in defeat. “What’s it going to take for you to fuckin’ die?”

  Oh shit indeed.

  Two hours later, I was once again in bed with my woman.

  “She confessed to hitting my sister.” I paused. “It was only after she’d done it that she realized it wasn’t you. She’d gotten a text from one of her friends saying that you were at the prom.”

  Avery groaned into my chest.

  “It was my fault.”

  I squeezed her just a bit tighter to me. “It wasn’t. It’s not your fault that Rachel’s got the crazy gene.”

  Avery was snuggled up next to me, her hands moving up and down the length of my back.

  My mind drifted off again, no longer thinking about my sister. No, my attention was one hundred percent focused on Avery.

  “Derek,” she said. “What is it?”

  I couldn’t stop playing the sight of her taking that shot to the chest, and then falling into the rose bushes, through my mind over and over again as if on repeat.

  I felt like I’d failed.