Booth held up his hands. “Would never.”
Yeah, right.
I tilted my head. “Just know that when this is you and you finally get your head out of your ass, I’ll return the favor.”
Booth scowled. Bourne, on the other hand, started to laugh.
My brows rose. “You honestly think that it’s funny that your brother can’t claim his girl? You? Really?”
I didn’t know why I was all of a sudden pissed. But the idea of Calloway being hurt in any way literally tore my guts to shreds.
Bourne scowled.
I pushed past them both and headed for my girl who’d woken up when I’d raised my voice at Booth and Bourne.
She sat up, her face soft and sleepy, and her hair a tangled mess around her face.
Most of it had slipped the bun that she’d haphazardly styled it in, leaving it a beautiful mess that made me want to sink my fingers into it.
I grinned as I walked toward her, extending my hand. “You up for dinner?”
She looked around me at Beckham who had her phone pointed at us, then at Booth and Bourne that likely still had scowls on their faces.
“Are they going?” she asked curiously.
There was a lull in the silence as Booth and Bourne contemplated the question, then a sudden shriek of excitement filled the air as Asa came barreling down the hallway.
“Aunt Beckham!” Asa screamed loudly. “You’re here!”
Beckham nearly dropped her phone as Asa hit her so hard that she went backward. It was only Booth’s grip on her wrist that kept her from hitting the floor.
“Oh, Asa! You’ve grown an entire foot since I last saw you!” Beckham cried, wrapping the little boy’s head up in her arms.
Asa let go of her then and turned, bypassing his father and heading straight for the office.
At first, I thought he was going to bypass us straight for the candy I knew that Luke kept it in his desk for him, but he turned at the last second and threw himself at Calloway.
“Callie! I missed you, too,” Asa said.
Calloway laughed and let him go. The moment she did, he turned, punched me in the thigh and headed for the locked desk.
“It’s locked!” Asa whined as if he couldn’t believe it.
“I got it.” Calloway pulled her purse from beside the couch and walked toward the desk.
We all watched her break into the chief of police’s desk with her lock-picking kit.
“Please tell me my future daughter-in-law isn’t breaking into a desk that belongs to the chief of police.” My mother—when had she arrived?— said with humor filling her voice. “Because I’m gonna have to go distract him if that’s the case.”
“Too late,” Luke said. “I’m here.”
Asa and Calloway both looked up with handfuls of candy in their hands.
Caught red-handed indeed.
“And none of you stopped them?” Luke asked with amusement.
Calloway shoved her mouth full of the candy, then practically sprinted across the room toward my mother, who was holding Beckham’s son, Kase.
My mom handed him over with a laugh, then walked to me and hugged me tight.
I returned the hug and pressed a kiss to her head. “Where’s Dad?”
“Someone decided to try to smack my ass as I made my way into the police station. Your father is having a stern talk with him.” She rolled her eyes.
I grinned down at my mother, then turned to watch as Calloway carried Kase to where Asa was still eating the M&M’s.
Taking Luke’s giant seat, she pulled Asa into her lap, then showed Kase to him.
“I want another baby,” Asa declared, looking up at his dad. “Can we have another baby?”
Booth opened his mouth, then closed it just as quickly.
Bourne slapped him on the shoulder. “Yeah, Dad. When are you having another baby?”
“You have to have one, too,” Asa declared. “So that they’re not lonely. I mean, I have Papa, but the baby can’t have Papa. Papa’s mine. The baby will have to have another person. That’s where you come in.”
Bourne went silent for a long moment, then shook his head.
“I don’t even know what to say to that,” Booth said.
“Hey, Uncle Louis. Doesn’t Callie look so pretty with a baby?” Asa asked.
I narrowed my eyes at the kid.
“What are you doing here, kid?” I asked curiously.
Asa grinned. “Did you know that by next year, all of you will have babies? My Papa said that the third generation of SWAT is starting.”
He was right.
Rowen and Dax had already started the third generation.
Ford and Ashe were adding to it.
And I wasn’t disinclined to add to the generation myself. The only thing I had to do was convince my girl of that.
And by the starry look in her eyes as she stared down at my nephew, I might have a chance.
Suddenly, that became my goal. To get Calloway to love me enough to have a baby with me.
That sounded like heaven.
“Well, as nice as that is, buddy,” Booth said as he walked into the room, running one knuckle down the length of Kase’s nose. “We need to go.”
“But Mama is waiting for you outside. She needs to talk to you,” Asa said.
Booth rolled his eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me that before?”
He looked sheepishly at Beckham, who was grinning wildly. “I got distracted.”
Chuckles filled the room as Calloway pulled the baby back into her ample chest, allowing Asa to wiggle free.
“Mama just wants to talk to you because she has a date,” Asa said loudly, his feet stomping on the hardwood floor. I looked over at Bourne just in time to see his entire face go blank. “She wants you to watch me on Friday.”
Booth winced. “I work on Friday. Aunt Delanie can’t watch you?”
“Aunt Dillan is going out on a double blind date with Mama. She can’t watch me. Did you know they’re going out with twins?” Asa asked, unaware that he now had both Pena men freaking out.
“I’ll go out with you,” Bourne said. “I can watch him Friday.”
Luke chuckled darkly as he made his way over to the desk where my woman still sat.
When he neared, he looked at his open desk drawer and frowned. “You know, I have some sensitive stuff in my desk. If I’d known you were going to break into my stuff, I would’ve woke your ass up and forced you to leave.”
Calloway stood up and gently placed the baby into Luke’s arms.
Luke instantly lost most of his tension as he looked down at the baby.
I grinned down at Calloway when she made her way over to me.
“Smooth, giving him the baby.” I laughed.
She grinned unrepentantly.
“I meant to lock it back up before he got back.” She paused. “Can you grab my kit off his desk? I’m scared to go back over there.”
I patted her on the ass and dropped a kiss on her mouth, causing her to grin wickedly at me.
My cock stirred in my pants, but I willed it to take a fucking chill pill as I reluctantly let her go.
When I made my way over to Luke, he was still busy looking down at Kase when I pocketed the kit and picked up Calloway’s purse.
“Luke, you joining us for dinner?” I asked curiously.
My dad and Beckham came up and joined the small huddle, and before either one of them could take Kase, I did.
Kase felt so fucking small in my hands, and still he’d grown since he was born a few months ago.
Looking down at him, I quickly realized that I hated missing so much of his life.
My sister should be here.
Which only pissed me off all the more because not only was I missing a lot of his life, but so was his father.
The sad thing was, I couldn’t find a damn thing out about him. From the limited information that I had, I kn
ew him to be either active military or undercover FBI. I knew that he’d been in contact with Beckham. I knew that he knew he had a kid.
But that was all that I knew.
Because Beckham wouldn’t tell anybody anything. And the one time that she almost did just before the baby was born, he’d abruptly had to cancel. Then he’d disappeared.
Needless to say, when the day came that I met Kase’s father, I hoped that I would be able to control my temper.
“So, Olive Garden?”
I blinked, unaware that my family had turned and had started trying to figure out where we were going to eat.
Luke was gathering his shit and was nearly all the way out of his office.
Calloway was looking at me in concern, and my dad was looking at me like he was losing his patience.
“I don’t care,” I said. “As long as the place where we go has good sweet tea, I’m down.”
“Well that means no Olive Garden,” Calloway said as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Hey, lock this door as you leave, please,” Luke said as he disappeared into the hallway, leaving the room now empty except for my family.
“What about Texas Roadhouse?” Beckham asked, her eyes pleading.
I chuckled. “That’s fine… though I’m gonna have to go run eight miles tomorrow to work off all the rolls I eat.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Dad said, glaring.
It was then I realized that he wanted to hold Kase.
Reluctantly, I handed him over, causing my dad to grin.
“Thanks,” he said.
My mom, who’d been quite quiet up until now, leaned over and pressed her face against my dad’s shoulder, staring down at the baby in his arms as if she couldn’t believe that he was real.
Beckham sniffled, and I rolled my eyes before pulling her in tight to me.
“So what happened with Romeo?” Calloway asked worriedly.
“We hold him until Tuesday morning until he can get in front of the judge,” I said. “His brother finally got wind that he was here, and he’s not happy. But there’s nothing that he can do. Romeo refused the lawyer his brother tried to get for him, too.”
“Sick.” Calloway shook her head. “What the hell? What did I ever do to him?”
My thoughts exactly.
I wasn’t sure what Calloway had ever done to him but be nice. Which, with the way Romeo was wired, might’ve been all that it took.
Reaching forward, I tugged her into me, too.
Beckham and Calloway giggled and wrapped their arms tightly around me, squeezing as hard as they could like they used to do when they were kids.
They were a little bit stronger now, but definitely not anywhere near as strong as me, even together.
I laughed and pulled them in tight, causing squeaks to leave their mouths. “Call your dad, Callie. Let’s go eat.”
Chapter 12
Have you ever wondered what Peppa Pig looks like from the front?
-Louis’ secret thoughts
Louis
“Unit 523, I have a possible house fire on the corner of Simmons and Fuller Road,” the dispatcher said. “The neighbors think it’s coming from the barn, but they’re not sure.”
I groaned as I looked at my watch. My shift literally ended in five minutes.
Of course I would get a call. Son of a bitch.
I flipped on my lights and sirens and headed in that direction.
It took me all of two minutes to get over there, and when I pulled up, the barn was indeed smoking.
And the most god-awful racket was sounding from the barn, causing me to grimace.
Animals.
There were animals in the barn.
Son of a bitch.
Calling my arrival and my intention of entering the barn into dispatch, I started off at a jog for the barn.
The moment that I got the door unlatched, four horses came running out, nearly taking me out.
I cursed and gained my footing, then nearly threw up as I took in a lungful of smoke.
Dropping down low where the air was clearer, I made my way to the peeling screams of what I could only assume were piglets.
Luckily, I didn’t have far to crawl. They were in the first little stall.
Unluckily, there were a fucking lot of them. Over ten, but they were all moving around so fucking fast that it was hard to get a clear count. Not to mention the smoke was becoming thicker.
I cursed when I realized that I wouldn’t be able to get them all at one time. Then turned around to stare around the barn and hoped I could find a way to get them out without them getting lost in the fucking barn only to burn to death.
I spotted a trash can that was half filled with trash and made my way to it.
A goat popped his head out from beneath a stall door, causing me to curse.
At this point, I just opened up all the stall doors because I didn’t think I had enough time.
The fuckin’ roof was now on fire.
Once the stall doors were open, I yanked the trash can toward the stall with the pigs, tossed it over, and then slipped inside.
The next five minutes were spent inhaling smoke, hoping the roof didn’t collapse on top of my head, and wrangling fifteen very pissed off piglets.
Once they were all caught, I hustled outside, dragging the exceptionally heavy trash can and coughing so hard that I was having chest pains.
The moment I got outside, Booth pulled up in his cruiser.
I inhaled a deep lungful of air and promptly coughed up my right lung.
Booth made his way to me, his eyes on the trash can that was thrashing beside me.
“Well…” he said. “That’s interesting.”
He bent down and picked one of the piglets up, causing it to screech in protest.
“Don’t think he likes that,” I panted.
Booth grinned like a fool.
He was just about to put it back into the trash can when a farmer came rolling up in his truck.
I drug the trash can to his truck and pointed at it.
“You may want to let these loose in the back of your truck or something,” I said. “They’re practically smothering in here.”
The old farmer dropped his tailgate, and Booth and I hefted the trash can up into the back.
The farmer closed the tailgate, then unceremoniously tipped the trash can over, causing more squeals.
I could only laugh at this point.
Booth cursed and jumped backward, and I looked down to see the goat from earlier nibbling on his shoelaces.
“Scared the fuck outta me,” Booth muttered.
“Thanks, son.” The farmer held out his hand. “I really appreciate you doing this. I see that all the horses and most of the goats made it out.”
I nodded. “I don’t know if they all made it out, but I opened up all of the stalls.”
I followed that statement up with a great big cough that caused black gross stuff to come hacking out of my lungs.
Booth stepped back as he said, “Ewww.”
I rolled my eyes and wiped my mouth. “You have a kid. How are you going to say ewww? You’ve dealt with worse stuff.”
“Yeah,” Booth agreed. “But he’s my kid. There’s a difference when it’s your kid doing the eww stuff and it’s someone not from your loins.”
The farmer chuckled. “That’s true. My kid shit on me once. It went all the way down my chest and into my underwear. Even got around my balls. If it’d been anyone else but my kid, I would’ve murdered them.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
But they did have a point.
Shaking my head, I looked at my watch.
“Shit, I gotta go,” I said as I looked at my watch. “Calloway is meeting with that dude from the motorcycle club, and I kind of don’t want him in the same room with my girl alone if I can help it.”
Booth smirked at me. “Better hur
ry. It takes ten minutes to get there, and you said that she was meeting him at five.”
I grimaced and slapped Booth on the back.
“Will do.”
The farmer held out his hand. “Thank you so much, officer.”
I took it, shook it twice, and was just about to take off when none other than the fire truck and ambulance pulled up.
“Son of a bitch,” I groaned.
A few firefighters got out, eyeing the blaze that was fully engulfed now.
A few new paramedics followed them from the ambulance.
Their eyes went around the scene as if to see what and who was around them that might need help.
“Better run,” Booth said to my explicative.
The farmer stepped back, grabbing hold of the goat’s horns when he went to follow me to my cruiser.
“I’ll take care of the paperwork,” Booth said. “But you owe me.”
I gave him a fist bump and took off toward my cruiser only to come to a bone-jarring stop at the driver’s side door.
“Mr. May! Mr. May!” a woman from across the street called. “Can you give us a statement? Why did you save those piglets?”
Why did I save the piglets?
“I like bacon, what can I say?” I muttered as I practically fell into my cruiser.
The woman started to write furiously into her little notebook in her hand, thankfully not following me or moving any closer to block my way.
The drive to Calloway’s place took less than ten minutes, but the entire drive I had to pull over every couple of miles to hack up more black stuff.
Luckily, she was close, meaning even with my stops, I had no problem making it there fast.
When I arrived at the house, it was to see the man whom I assumed was Laric and Calloway standing out on the front porch. Calloway looked worried.
I got out of my cruiser and made my way up the front walk, making a mental note to pull out the lawnmower and weed eater this weekend to take care of the yard again.
The damn yard was the nicest thing about her place.
I was just about to climb the steps when the look on her face registered.
Calloway’s worried eyes went wide with alarm.
“Louis! Why are you so dirty?” she asked, ignoring the man at her side and making her way down to me.
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