May Contain Wine

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  I’d seen the camera, of course. It was kind of hard to miss.

  But I’d written it out of my mind when I’d seen the dog.

  It hadn’t even occurred to me that she might be able to see what was going on without me being there to protect her from what she saw.

  “I’ll call her and get the password. Sign in on my phone,” Bennett murmured.

  Bennett did just as he said, eyes on the dog as he placed the call.

  While he was doing that, I downloaded the app and waited for the sign in information.

  Seconds later, Bennett passed it over to me with an eye roll when he saw that I’d downloaded the app.

  I signed in, then handed him my phone as I held my hand out for his.

  We switched phones and I placed Bennett’s to my ear.

  “Don’t look at it please,” I said softly.

  There was a soft sigh.

  “I won’t. I understood you didn’t want me to the moment you made us leave,” she said softly. “But you’ll tell me?”

  Not all of it, but some.

  “Yes,” I promised.

  “Okay. Also, I get notifications every time that it’s set off. But my phone died at some point last night and I didn’t remember until this morning. I never got a notification,” she told me.

  Thank God for that.

  “Okay,” I said, eye twitching. “I have this meeting that I have to get to afterwards. They postponed it until eleven. It shouldn’t take long. But we have to go over what we didn’t last night.”

  “Okay. Will you bring lunch? You have a very short supply of food here,” she whined.

  I snickered—something I didn’t think I could do when I was standing in front of such carnage directed at my woman—and promised that I would.

  Just before we hung up, I said two words. “Love you.”

  Without giving her the chance to reply, I hung up and handed the phone back to Bennett who was busy going through my phone.

  “Wore a mask,” Bennett said as he took the phone. “But he has an identifying tattoo on his hand right here.”

  I looked at the tattoo and immediately realized where I’d seen it before.

  “This kid,” I said, pointing at him. “We saw him last night. He was leaving at the same time that we did. He was at the kids’ hangout across the parking lot from the bar. It makes sense that he would’ve been around when the dog was, too.”

  “You know the kid?” Luke asked.

  “Yep,” I said. “Kid’s a real creep. Visits Calloway’s office three times a day if he can. Mom never comes and picks him up when he’s ‘sick.’ Things like that. But the thing is, Calloway had a date with the brother of this kid a few weeks ago. During the date she found out that this kid was her blind date’s brother.”

  “Interesting,” Dad said. “Let’s go get this kid.”

  Bennett looked over at me.

  “Let’s go get this meeting taken care of while they bring the kid in. I find that I want to hear what the kid has to say,” Bennett murmured.

  I looked over at Bennett.

  “While they’re bringing the kid in, why don’t you go get Calloway? She’s going to want to be in on this,” I said. “And she’ll be pissed as hell if she finds out I kept her in the dark.”

  Bennett grinned. “I’ll go get her.”

  Chapter 10

  I wish I was Felicia. She’s always going somewhere.

  -Coffee Cup

  Calloway.

  I took a shower.

  I knew that Louis wanted me to stay just the way I was, but when my dad had called about twenty minutes ago saying that he was picking up lunch then coming to get me to bring me to the station? Yeah, there was no way in hell I wasn’t freshening up.

  Five minutes after getting dressed in my old jeans, and a tight pair of Louis’ boxer briefs, I was standing in his closet with only my bra and contemplating my options.

  My shirt was dirty, and there was no way in hell that I was wearing that.

  I was just yanking down a black tee when I heard the knock at the door.

  Thinking that it was my dad, I shrugged the tee on and went hurrying toward the door.

  Yanking it open, I blinked when I realized that it wasn’t my dad.

  “Beckham!” I cried, throwing my arms around her. Beckham laughed and caught me up in a hug just as fierce as my own. “What are you doing here? Where’s the baby?”

  Beckham was away at college. She was getting her masters in Adventure Education.

  Pretty much Beckham was going to school to be a glorified park ranger.

  But she was doing it in fucking Montana.

  Which was hours and hours away from us.

  “He’s with my mom. Where have you been?” she cried. “I called my dad, my brother, Ares. I went to visit you at school, and that was when Ares told me that you played hooky!”

  “Not playing hooky.” My dad laughed from behind us. “She was skipping because Louis found something on her porch that was concerning. And he didn’t want her at the school, which was a really good thing.” He paused and swept Beckham up in a hug that was just as fierce as the ones he gave me. “Missed you, girl. How long are you here?”

  She smiled brilliantly. “For the summer. School just finished for the semester, so I’ll be here for about two months.”

  I smiled wide. “Does Louis know that you’re here?”

  She wiggled a hand in the ‘sort of’ way. “I asked where you were because I wanted to talk to you. But he seemed distracted, so I’m not actually sure if he knows I’m here-here, or if he just assumes I wanted to talk to you but didn’t want to bother you at school. So… you and my brother.”

  I laughed and stepped back, gesturing for her to come inside.

  My dad, however, interrupted us. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we have some important stuff to discuss. Beckham, you’re more than welcome to stay, but we need to go down to the station.”

  My brows rose. “So whatever was on my porch was that bad?”

  My dad’s pity-filled eyes met mine. “Unfortunately, yes.”

  I grimaced and gestured to my feet. “I have to go find my shoes.”

  He nodded. “Grab a sweatshirt. We’re gonna be there a while.”

  I did just that, leaving Dad and Beckham talking quietly

  When I grabbed the first sweatshirt I saw—a rather large SWAT hoodie that practically swamped my frame—I slipped my feet into my tennis shoes and walked back out into the living room. When I got there, it was to see Beckham showing photos of her son, Kase, to my dad.

  I walked over to look at the newest ones that I hadn’t seen on Facebook today.

  “Awwww,” I cried. “He’s so cute. And boy, does he look like his daddy.”

  Bennett’s eyes came to me. “You’ve met him?”

  I opened my mouth to say ‘absolutely not’ but nothing came out.

  I tried really hard not to talk, to lie to my father. Really, really hard.

  And I didn’t want to lie now.

  I looked at Beckham with pleading eyes, and she sighed.

  “Yes, she’s seen a photo of the father,” Beckham replied. “But, Uncle Bennett, you have to promise me you won’t say anything.”

  The circumstances behind Beckham’s pregnancy was something that she didn’t discuss. Not even with me. Or her brother and father, which had caused a huge strain on their relationship.

  The thing was, she had a very, very good reason for keeping it all secret.

  One that I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone—not Louis or her father or even my family.

  When she’d said that it was that important that I didn’t, I’d requested that she didn’t tell me at all.

  I loved Beckham, she was one of my best friends, but the problem was that I loved her dad and brother just as much. It was a hard place to be, that was for sure.

  There was one point over the Christmas h
olidays that the family was supposed to meet her baby daddy and everyone had liked him. Then something had come up, and baby daddy had disappeared.

  Though, Beckham had been privy to where he’d disappeared to.

  But what it looked like to Beckham’s family was that he was a runner and a terrible father.

  Needless to say, all I’d ever really gotten out of Beckham was a picture of him, and that was it.

  “I don’t want to know,” Bennett said as he scrubbed his hand over his face. “Just… you should clear this up with your dad. He hates this guy. If he ever sees him…”

  If he ever sees him, he’s going to kick the guy’s ass.

  At least, that was what it felt like he was going to say.

  “Yeah,” Beckham said softly. “I’m ready. I’ll drive behind y’all.”

  Dad’s eyes met mine. “Ready, Freddy? I’ll explain what’s going on during the ride.”

  I nodded, snatched the keys that Louis had given me on the way out the door today, and headed out with them.

  Beckham veered off toward a brand-new Audi that made my eyebrows climb to the top of my hairline, and got in.

  It started up with a purr, and both my dad and I looked at each other with surprise.

  “I feel like there’s so much that I don’t know,” I murmured. “When do you think I’ll know?”

  “I don’t think that Foster’s going to be able to let it lie much longer,” he admitted. “With her here…”

  With her here, he’d be unable to help himself. Unwilling to let it go any longer because it was breaking everybody’s hearts.

  “Louis hasn’t talked about it at all. It’s like he’s ignoring it,” I murmured.

  “Louis is pissed that she’s shutting him out,” Dad said as we got into his old truck. “It’s easier for him to ignore it and not talk about it, than to admit that it hurts that his best friend and sister isn’t telling him something that’s hurting her.”

  I buckled my seatbelt and looked over at my dad as he scanned his surroundings before backing out of the driveway.

  “Tell me what’s going on,” I ordered.

  Dad sighed.

  Then he went about telling me exactly what had been on my front porch that Louis had kept me from seeing.

  I felt immediately sickened.

  “We found the kid. Romeo,” he murmured. “Watched it all happen on your camera. It was… there was so much rage in that kid.”

  I scrubbed my hand down my face.

  “What a nightmare,” I murmured. “Is there… can they even do anything?”

  I wasn’t sure about the law when it came to animals. I knew there was an animal cruelty law that prevented the inhumane treatment of animals. I also knew that there were very few that they could charge him with.

  And God, I wanted to throw up at the photo that my father had painted.

  God, that poor dog.

  To think about what it went through made my heart shatter into a million tiny pieces.

  “We’ll find something to pin on him,” Dad promised.

  That didn’t make me feel better. It just made me feel sad.

  Why would someone do something like this? And what had I ever done to deserve it?

  “Did Louis tell you about the cat that I found, too?” I asked.

  “He did,” Dad confirmed. “The boy is being brought in for questioning. Might already be there.”

  I groaned. “That kid really does give me the creeps.”

  “Your sixth sense has gotten you out of a lot of sticky situations,” he said. “You’ve always been like that, you know.”

  I had.

  There had been times over my life that I’d just had bad feelings about people.

  One time, my father had brought one of his friends by the house. I’d been around ten or eleven at the time and had been fairly convinced that this guy wasn’t the kind of guy that my father would normally bring around us. There’d been something about him that had just given me the creeps.

  So I’d stayed away from them and would leave the room every time we’d run into that particular man.

  My father, having sensed my discomfort around the man, had stopped bringing him around us.

  It was years later that we found out that that man had been involved in some heavy-duty drugs.

  It hadn’t been anything overtly terrible to anyone but himself, but my dad had been flabbergasted that he’d been bad. Normally my father’s judgment had been on point.

  Had to be with the line of work he was in.

  “I know,” I said softly. “I just… this sucks.”

  “It does.”

  When we arrived at the station, Dad took Beckham and me all the way back to the interrogation observation room.

  When we arrived, it was to find the entire room practically filled. Old and new SWAT officers alike.

  Beckham went to her father and hugged him.

  I stayed next to mine and squeaked through to a front row spot. Bodies shifted to allow us entrance.

  The first thing I saw was Louis and another man that was a detective in the room with Romeo. Louis was standing near the door, arms crossed, leaning against the wall. The detective was at the table in front of Romeo, hands clasped on top of the table.

  Romeo was sitting there, looking defeated.

  “The dog was already dead, though,” Romeo promised. “I saw it happen. I didn’t do anything but bring it to her house and put it on her porch.”

  “And the note?” the detective asked. “Why the note?”

  Romeo paled.

  “Uhhh,” he said. “I don’t know anything about the note.”

  “Where’s his lawyer?” I asked curiously.

  “He declined one,” Luke rumbled from beside me. “He’s eighteen, so he’s allowed to do that.”

  Interesting.

  “We have it on video that you wrote the note,” the detective murmured.

  Romeo’s shoulders slumped even further.

  “I wrote the note,” he agreed. “I just… I… I needed to warn her.”

  Louis straightened up off the wall.

  “Warn her about what?” Louis asked, no longer looking bored.

  He looked like he was on high-alert. As if something Romeo had said had caused him to become interesting.

  “I…” Romeo croaked. “I can’t tell you.”

  The detective opened his mouth to continue to push him, but Louis held up his hand. He gestured for the detective to hold on and moved around the table so that Romeo could see him more clearly.

  “Are you protecting someone?” Louis asked Romeo.

  Romeo’s eyes widened. “I don’t… no, of course not.”

  An hour of questioning later, we were still no closer to the truth.

  The moment that I met Louis in the hallway, I walked into his arms.

  He wrapped them around me and pressed a kiss to my hair.

  “I don’t like it that he’s covering for whoever he’s covering for,” he muttered.

  I was sure that was directed at my father rather than me, but I acted as if he was talking to me.

  “He’s going to be here for a few days, right?” I asked. “With today being so late, and Monday a holiday. He’ll have until the court hearing on Tuesday afternoon. We have time to figure it out.”

  Louis tightened his hold on me and was about to reply to what I’d said when his sister’s voice had him whipping his head around.

  I grinned when he left me and headed in her direction.

  The moment that he was close enough, he hauled her up into a bear hug and buried his face into her hair.

  I smiled as I leaned into my dad. “He misses her.”

  “Yeah,” Dad said as he wrapped his arms around my shoulder. “I called your mom. Foster called his wife. We’re going to do dinner today instead of Sunday. Or maybe as well as. I’m not sure. We’re meeting at Foster’s place around seven.”
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  I wrapped my arms tight around my father’s waist.

  “We’ll be there,” I said.

  He squeezed me a bit tighter.

  “Stay with Louis. I’m going to get your place cleaned up so you can go home and get some clothes to change into. Bring that dip,” he ordered.

  That ‘dip’ was actually a buffalo ranch chicken dip that was to die for, and fattening as hell. I didn’t make it all that often, despite it being really freakin’ good. But I made it for my dad because he liked it. Even though I wouldn’t get any of it since we were going out to eat.

  “I can do that,” I said. “I just have to stop and get a rotisserie chicken.”

  “I’ll go get that,” he said. “I’m not sure when you’re gonna be out of here. I’ll leave the chicken on your counter.”

  He pressed a kiss to the top of my head and left, and I took a seat in Luke’s office while I waited for Louis and Beckham to finish their reunion.

  Luke’s office had a rather large couch, and soon I found myself lying down and burying my face into a pillow.

  Moments after that, I fell asleep.

  Chapter 11

  Some days she’s a princess. Others, she’s the devil.

  -Louis’ secret thoughts

  Louis

  I looked around for my woman, not finding her anywhere.

  “Missing something?”

  I looked over at my dad who was grinning at me.

  “Calloway,” I said. “Did she leave with her dad?”

  An amused voice sounded from behind us.

  “Actually, she’s in my office snoring on my couch.” Luke chuckled. “I had to end a call because the county commissioner kept asking what that racket was in the background.”

  I started to laugh.

  “She’s not really snoring that bad,” I said as I made my way to his office.

  The moment I got into the hallway where Luke’s office was, I heard the dull roar of her snores.

  “Oh, man,” I said as I saw Booth and Bourne standing in the doorway laughing. “She’s going to kill them if they took a video.”

  “I would never allow them to do that,” Beckham said from the other side of Booth, her phone out and pointed at who I could only assume was Calloway’s sleeping form. “But I, on the other hand, can.”

  I took her phone out of her hand and deleted the video, then glared at Booth and Bourne. “Don’t you fuckin’ dare post anything.”