“I didn’t even know that the accident had happened until well after it’d happened,” I said. “I just…” I looked at the girl’s hair. “My girl runs on that road a lot. She also walks the dog. And she has the same build as your girl…”
“Juniper,” Zach finished for me. “Her name is Juniper.”
My chest jolted at the news of her name.
Why hadn’t I gotten that earlier? I would’ve remembered instantly.
My parents are flower children. They love ‘interesting’ names. You should hear all my sisters’ names.
“Does she work at the DMV?” I asked, hoping above hope that there was another Juniper in this town.
His eyes flashed up to meet mine.
“Yes,” he said. “Why do you ask?”
Well, now I wasn’t so sure.
Except… this couldn’t have been that much of a coincidence.
It just couldn’t.
“I went there the other day to get some information from her,” I said. “It was related to a friend.” I then went on to explain why I’d gone to the DMV.
“So she’s not really a friend, is she? Not anymore. She’s your girl,” Zach said, leaning back into his chair and looking at me with a raise of his brow.
I shook my head. “No. She’s not. She’s… mine.”
“So do you think that Juniper was hit because she looks like your girl? Or because she helped you?” Zach asked, his eyes assessing.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But Adrian Mastings is a little conniving shithead. I wouldn’t put it past him to do either.” I paused. “I’ll be having a look at all of his vehicles. I’ll also have one of the detectives with me to get his whereabouts at the time of the accident last night.” I looked at him, giving him the promise in my eyes. “I won’t let this go.”
Zach stood up, and it was then I noticed his clothes.
He was wearing black scrubs with black motorcycle boots. He looked like a badass.
I would’ve laughed had this situation been the least bit funny.
“I won’t let it go, either,” Zach promised. “Not even a little bit.”
I held out my hand to shake his, and he took mine.
Something—a promise maybe—crossed through his eyes.
If I didn’t do something about this, he would.
There would be no denying that.
My head nodded the tiniest bit. Admission acknowledged.
• • •
“What are you doing here?” the school resource officer asked.
The officer, his name was Bandile Mahone, had volunteered for the position.
He was a younger cop, barely about two years out of the academy, but so far, I could tell that he was doing a great job here. Especially after all the bullshit that the last one had put the school through.
But that was a story for a different day.
I walked up to Bandi and offered him my hand.
“Did you hear about the accident last night?” I asked.
Bandi nodded. “Yes. Why?”
I gestured to the detective that was with me. Her name was Anna Grand, and she was the most senior detective now that a few had retired.
“We have reason to believe that one of your students was involved in the hit and run last night after uncovering some evidence,” she answered. “I’d like to inspect the vehicle in the lot first. We’ve already looked at the family’s today, and we do have permission from the parents.”
Bandi gestured to the parking lot. “Have at it. Do you know which one is his?”
She nodded. “Not that we see it.”
Bandi held up one finger. “Give me a few seconds. I’ll go get his parking space assignment out of the shack.”
The shack was actually a small security office that the security guard occupied during school hours.
Bandi came out with the security guard, who was surprisingly a female.
She hustled behind Bandi and watched his ass the entire time.
It caused Anna and I to look at each other with amusement.
“It is a good ass,” she teased.
I grunted a laugh and raised a brow at her. “I wouldn’t know.”
She snickered. “And here I was thinking that you’d make a good detective with all the information you were able to lob at me this morning. Now, I’m not certain you’re so great for the job as I’d originally assumed.”
I would’ve flipped her off if the other two hadn’t arrived when they did.
“He’s actually right there,” the woman said as she pointed at the front of the lot. “The one taking up all four spots.”
“Did he pay for all four spots?” I asked curiously.
Literally, the truck was actively taking up four spots.
“Yes,” the woman said. “His family sponsored all four of them. Though, three of them were supposed to go to a few other people, but Adrian decided that he would just take up all four spots instead. He’s a little…”
“Jerk?” Anna supplied.
“Dick?” I said when the woman didn’t reply.
“Pissant,” the woman agreed. “Jerk isn’t even a strong enough word for what Adrian is.”
I could imagine.
The few dealings that I’d had with him were more than enough for me to realize that he was used to getting what he wanted, and when he didn’t, he would throw his little bitch fit and his parents would buy it for him.
“But you’re not going to find anything off of this.” She gestured toward the truck that was taking up all four spots. “It was delivered this morning and they took away his truck during first period.”
I growled out a curse.
“My sentiments exactly,” Anna grumbled.
“No wonder we had permission,” I moaned.
“Because they already took the other one into the shop,” she muttered, looking at the fucking rental truck that the kid had driven to school. “How about I stay and talk to the kid. You run to the autobody shops around town and see if you can find the truck.”
I nodded. I had a few friends that would be more than willing to help me.
Starting with a still slightly irritated Sammy.
He was my first call.
“I’ll start here. You go to the nicer ones in Longview. I doubt that, with their money, they would settle for anything but the best,” Sammy explained.
I believed him.
And that was why, an hour later, I most certainly did find the truck getting fixed.
Which made me wonder.
Why had they waited so long to get it done? Had he been planning this the entire time?
There were so many fucking questions that were swirling in my mind.
Sadly, none of them were answered.
Even more sad, the truck had already been stripped of any and all evidence.
“You normally work this fast?” I asked the guy that’d done the stripping. The fucking owner himself.
He shook his head as I looked at all the body parts that were now being sanded and ground.
“No,” he said. “We normally have a system. But this guy’s a friend, and he said that his kid needed his truck.”
I sensed something more than that but chose not to push it.
Not yet, anyway.
“What about all these other cars in line?” I asked, gesturing around at the seven or so cars that were in the garage.
“I’m working on this one since I said we could get it done,” he answered. “Why? Is something going wrong?”
I didn’t see the point in not telling him the truth.
“We believe this truck was involved in a hit and run last night,” he said. “And now, suspiciously, all the evidence that we would’ve had of that is now wiped away.”
The man’s face went white.
“You’re shitting me,” he said. “That… the kid? Adrian?”
I nodded.
“The kid’s a good kid. Sure, he can be a little much to handle sometimes with his me, me, me atti
tude, but overall, I’ve never seen him act with anything but decency when he’s around me. I think that you might have the wrong kid,” he said.
Oh, and he was lying.
His fucking eyes were bouncing this way and that, as if he wasn’t quite sure what the hell to think or say.
“I didn’t say it was the kid. I said that the truck was involved,” I said. “And, if you don’t mind, stop all work on this truck. You’ll have a legal notice in about ten minutes. Or, don’t. Not my problem, but you might want to look up the consequences of ‘obstruction of justice.’”
With that, I left the small work area he was in and didn’t look back.
Instead, I went back to work, and let Anna deal with it from there.
I was sure that I’d hear it from my supervisors soon, anyway.
It was about thirty minutes into my shift that I got a text from Sierra that significantly brightened my day.
Sierra: This place is sucky today. Bring me food and I’ll love you forever. Bonus if you bring everyone food. They’ll love you forever, too. I know you’re working but… please?
I checked in with dispatch, then told them that I was going on lunch, leaving me with enough time to grab the food that I’d ordered—which was a shit ton of it—and take it all up to the NICU where she worked.
I arrived with my arms heavy with food.
“Eeep!” Sierra clapped when she saw me. She pointed at the table set up outside and gave me a finger raise indicating one minute.
I put it all down outside the room and walked up to the glass.
I’d been here quite a few times before, but none of those times had been to visit Sierra.
Actually, they’d all been to visit Nathan and Reggie’s new baby, Dare.
Dare who was growing like a weed, and hopefully would get out soon.
“Is this Thanksgiving?” Reggie asked as she hustled out the door toward me.
Sierra was hot on her heels.
“Actually,” I said. “It can be. But no, this isn’t. I think we have what? A week left before it is?”
I honestly wasn’t too sure on the timeline anymore. I rarely paid attention to holidays after I got back. I ignored them and avoided them like the plague.
But again, Thanksgiving was kind of hard to miss seeing as stores put on sales, people started begging for money, then there were the fellow cops begging their comrades to switch days with them so that they had the day off with their family.
Which, inevitably, always happened for me—the day off thing. I always ended up having the day off for some weird, fucked-up reason. I mean, I never even asked for the fucking day off, and I got it.
Like this year.
I had the damn thing off.
Unless some SWAT call came up that I knew nothing about?
“Ten days, actually,” Sierra said. “That’s something that Mom and I are supposed to talk about today. Do you and Grans want to come to that? It’s a big event since it’ll have all of the Spurlocks at it, but it’s fun. And you can hide outside if you want. So I’ll have an excuse to go find you.”
“Thank you so much for the food, Malachi,” Reggie said, eyes turning toward me. “So you and Sierra, huh? And you don’t care at all that she’s pregnant?”
Sierra slapped Reggie on the ass. “Reggie!”
“What?” Reggie asked, looking at Sierra worriedly. “It’s a legitimate question. This is a big deal. And though you may not see that, it is. Like for real. You have an innocent little baby that’ll depend on you for everything here soon. I like Malachi, but I need to know if he’s going to protect you.”
“I’d protect her with my life,” I said to the woman in front of me. “And no, the pregnancy doesn’t bother me. Not at all.” I paused as I thought out my next statement. “I feel kind of like this baby was my idea, you know? Like I played a part in her conception. I feel like this kid is mine, even if it’s not really.”
“You do?” Sierra said, voice soft.
I looked at her.
“I do,” I confirmed, my eyes completely on hers. “Would you have done it had I not told you to?”
She thought about that, her tongue darting out to lick her lower lip, then she slowly shook her head. “No.”
“Exactly,” I said. “If it hadn’t been for my encouragement, I think you would’ve waited. But, saying that, I’m thinking of this baby as mine, now. It’s been a few days at most since we’ve decided to do this. I don’t know about you, but I feel like it’s been something for years.”
Her eyes were wide.
“This isn’t really the place I foresaw us doing this, but yes, I feel like that, too,” she whispered huskily.
“It’s the hunger. It does weird things to you.” Reggie laughed.
My eyes flicked to hers. “How’s Dare?”
Her eyes lit up.
“I’ll let Sierra tell you!” She clapped her hands. “She’s with him today.”
Sierra was with Dare every shift. Though Reggie was his mother, it’d been decided that while they were at work, Reggie wouldn’t provide Dare care. A, she wasn’t going to be the one to have to deal with the worst if the worst ever became a possibility, and B, Reggie needed to be productive at work. Having her own kiddo to care for might make that not as possible.
“He’s a little wiggle worm today.” Sierra smiled. “He’s pulling off wires left and right. And, as of today, he’s officially off any breathing machines. He’s doing it all on his own.”
I grinned wickedly. “Can I feed him yet?”
“Nathan hasn’t even done that.” Reggie snickered. “Though not for lack of trying to get him to. He’s just a scared little bitch.”
That caused all of us to burst out laughing, and eventually, even more of the nurses and doctors came in and grabbed a few bites to eat before heading back into the NICU.
I had fifteen minutes left in my lunch when Reggie asked, “You want to come in and hold him?”
I looked at Reggie with surprise. “Can I? I don’t have much time, though.”
“Sure!” she said. “Just wash up real good and grab a gown.”
So that was what I did.
And I even got to feed my first baby… ever.
“Oh, this is so going in his baby book.” Reggie smiled at the photo. “Daddy is a wiener and won’t feed his baby a bottle, but scary Malachi can and did.”
“I heard that!” Nathan rumbled from the front of the room.
I’d seen him come in. I’d also laughed my ass off inside when those words had slipped from Reggie’s mouth.
Sighing because I really did need to get back to work, I slid the bottle free of Dare’s mouth and placed it on the table next to the glass box that the ladies kept calling an incubator.
“Do I still have to burp him?” I asked as I looked down at the baby in my arms.
He was getting bigger. Much bigger than the first time that I’d seen him.
Though he was still small as fuck. He was about the length of my baton at this point.
“Yes,” Sierra said, not bothering to look up from her chart.
“Yes,” Reggie said from across the room where she was changing the bed linens of another patient.
So that was what I did.
Using the entire stretch of my hand, I propped Dare’s head and most of his body up using my fingers and carefully tapped him on the back with two fingers.
I was actually kind of terrified.
Which was what had Sierra laughing.
“A little harder, honey. You’re not going to break him,” she urged.
So I moved up to three fingers and patted him slightly harder, but not too much.
I didn’t care what she said. I wasn’t beating this kid on the back when he felt so tiny and fragile in my hands.
Seconds later, it came as a rather large surprise to hear him burp so loud he could’ve done a grown man proud.
“Wow,” I said in startled surprise and met eyes with Nathan. “It’s like he really is
your kid.”
Nathan, looking rather puny himself since he’d been injured, grinned. “Can I have that chair, man?”
I got up and gestured to it with my chin. “After you. And then you can stop being a little bitch and feed your baby.”
Nathan looked like he’d been handed a ball of snakes instead of his kid as I transferred him over to his father’s arms.
“He fits in the palm of your hand, man,” I said as I moved some wires around and then handed him the bottle. “Do it.”
Nathan took the bottle and looked like he wasn’t sure where to stick it.
“In his mouth,” I teased.
Nathan shot me a dirty look. “I like it better when you don’t talk.”
I laughed my ass off all the way to Sierra.
“Give me a kiss, woman. I have to get back to work,” I ordered.
She looked up from her paperwork and smiled. “Thank you for the lunch. It was delicious. And thank you for bringing it to us all. Today’s been a wild day.”
I pressed my lips to hers until she gasped lightly causing me to pull back.
“Call me when you head home?” I asked.
She’d be off for at least two hours before I was, so I wanted to make sure that she was all right after all the shit I’d had to deal with today.
“Sure,” she said softly. “I’ll call.”
I winked and waved at the rest of the nurses that I saw before heading out the door.
Once I shed my gear, I headed back down to my cruiser and got back to work.
All the while, though, I wondered what it would feel like to hold Sierra’s baby in my hands.
Would I wish that it was mine?
CHAPTER 16
I’m not needy. I’m wanty.
-Text from Sierra to Malachi
SIERRA
Gabriel,
It’s been six months.
I’m officially on the brink of panicking.
I really hope you’re okay.
Here’s my new address. If you need me, call me. Here’s my cell phone number.
Gabriel, God I hope that you’re okay.
Always thinking about you,
Sierra
• • •
I was nervous.
Not because I was bringing Malachi home to meet my family, but because I was worried that they were going to figure out that this all started out as a lie.
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