After what seemed like forever, a car pulled up. I couldn’t see anything about it, except its engine was hot. A man got out. He was warm, too. I guessed he hadn’t put the air con on. He went inside the house and I lost his heat signature.
Sometime later, a van parked near the car. Someone got out. They were out of range of the device.
“Sheriff, I have a visual on the perps. They’ve entered the building,” Rick said.
“Copy that. Move in on foot, all units, over.”
Everyone except me got out of their vehicles. I wasn’t allowed to participate because there was a good chance Mr. Freeze might be armed, like last time, and I had no training in how to handle that. I wanted to know what was going on, but I really didn’t want to get shot, so I stayed where I was.
The cops covered the front entrance to the house and I couldn’t see what happened next because the van was in the way. There was shouting, then a gunshot, then silence.
My heart was in my throat. I hoped Rick hadn’t been shot. I didn’t want to sit here while he lived his final moments bleeding out on the ground somewhere. I was about to get out of the car to go check when everyone appeared, with two cuffed men. As Rick got closer, I opened the back door for him, and he pushed Mr. Freeze inside.
“We got them. What about the dogs?” I asked.
“There was only one, this time. Sean’s driving it back to the station,” Rick said. From his tone, I knew it wasn’t Duke. I really hoped Rick found his dog.
When we got back to the station, Sheriff Bob and Mike got the other perp out of the back of their car and my jaw dropped.
“You?” I just stared, unable to believe what my eyes were telling me.
Avery
Nope. My brain was struggling to make any sense of this. I was looking straight at the guy in custody between Mike and Sheriff Bob, and I couldn’t believe it.
“Avery, tell ‘em I’m innocent,” my dad said.
I just looked at him with contempt and disgust.
“Stealing dogs?” I demanded. “You’re despicable. You’d better tell them what you did with them.”
“This is all your fault,” he retorted over his shoulder as they led him inside. “If you’d lent me that five hundred bucks, I wouldn’t have had to resort to desperate measures.”
I followed him in, absolutely refusing to take any blame for this.
“That doesn’t even make sense! You must have already been stealing dogs before you tried to blackmail me into giving you money! That’s what you were doing that day when I saw you at the gas station, wasn’t it? And I thought you’d come to find me.”
“You’ll bail me out, won’t you?” he asked.
I decided it was time to reflect all those years of “tough love” back at him.
“No. You made your mess. You lie in it.”
“You’re no daughter of mine! Abandoning your own father! This is a police stitch-up!”
“You’re disowning me? Best news I’ve had all day. Have fun in jail.” I had to stop yelling at him when Rick put a hand on my shoulder and shushed me gently.
“C’mon, babygirl, let it go. He’s facing a pretty long sentence.”
I was too mad. “He whipped me with his belt buckle for stealing as a kid. I still have scars.”
Rick growled and glared at my dad.
“Avery! Rick! The law will prevail!” Sheriff Bob barked. We both looked at him. He had a forceful glare aimed straight at my dad.
“Yes, sir,” Rick said.
“Sorry, sir,” I added.
“Avery, take Rick to your dad’s place. You still have a key, right?”
“Yes,” I replied, unsure what difference it made.
“Then you wouldn’t need a search warrant to walk into your own home, and if you happen to find a ton of missing dogs, call it in. Phoenix police can go get them immediately.”
Bob was a genius. It got me and Rick doing something productive as far away from my dad as possible. And I needed not to be in the same building as that gigantic asshole.
“I’m so, so sorry my dad stole your dog,” I said to Rick as we got back into the squad car.
He didn’t reply. He seemed so pissed. I hoped this wasn’t the end of things between us.
Rick
I buckled my safety belt then just looked out of the windscreen for a long minute.
I was mad at Avery’s dad for so many things. This red haze was descending over me and it was hard to keep a lid on it. Bob had sent me and Avery out to Phoenix. The drive would usually help me clear my mind, but I wasn’t alone. And more than anything, I needed alone time. I needed to sit on my deck and stare out at the mountains and glare at them until they yielded answers.
What kind of a screwed up asshole beat his child like that? I imagined Avery as a child. She was probably in clothes that didn’t fit her and with a mouth full of sass for anyone who dared to trouble her.
The sort of kid who needed her mom but never admitted it.
Instead she’d been left, alone, to deal with a drunken bully. Knowing, now, where her scars came from, I was shaking with fury. What kind of a man did that to a child?
The red haze wasn’t rational. It didn’t know when to stop. If I’d stayed, I would have punched him. Not once. I would have punched and punched and kept hitting until... until I didn’t know what.
Bob was right to get me out of the precinct.
I couldn’t look at Avery. Couldn’t talk to her. It wasn’t just the rage. It was shame for the things I wanted to do. Things no decent man ought to even think. I hated where my mind was going. The stench of my anger made me feel dirty inside. Instead of being the impartial law-keeper, I wanted so badly to kill that bastard.
She would never forgive me. Even now, when she looked over at me, I felt the future disappointment.
I started the car and began the trip to Phoenix without really taking in the surroundings or listening to a thing Avery said. She didn’t say much, anyways. Could she hear what I was thinking? Did she know what I wanted to do to her father?
When I’d worked at Phoenix precinct, I’d heard of other cops getting this rage when they were faced with a situation that people just weren’t made to deal with. Violent crimes. Animal cruelty. That sort of thing. In my career, I’d never really attended anything serious enough to bother me on a cellular level. Until tonight. This man stole dogs and hurt kids.
When we got to Phoenix, those dogs had better be there. Especially Duke.
Avery
Driving down the street I’d grown up on was surreal. I’d only been away a week, but it already felt like a lifetime ago. Rick parked outside my old house. My dad was in jail right now, an hour’s drive from here, but the ghosts of the past still haunted me. Fear gripped my soul. I didn’t want to come back. What if this was how the dream ended? What if I woke up and had to return to my life pre-Rick? What if he’d never even existed?
“C’mon. We need to get this done,” he told me in a gruff voice.
Expression blank, I nodded. Threw the car door open and got out. Moving toward the front door was like trying to walk through thick syrup. My legs just wouldn’t go very fast at all. Rick seemed impatient, but I couldn’t will myself to go any quicker.
“You got your key?” he asked.
I nodded. Fumbled in my pocket for it. Stuck it into the lock. It slid in with a shudder and stuck a little as I turned it. I didn’t want to go inside. I couldn’t shake the feeling my dad was waiting behind the door, ready to jump out at me like he did in my nightmares.
But I didn’t want to show any weakness, either, so I sucked it up and went in, feeling for the light switch as I did.
The drab hallway seemed smaller today than it had been last week. The paint flakier. I’d never noticed how dirty our house had been until I lived somewhere else.
A dog was whining from further inside. The kitchen? I opened the kitchen door and put the light on. Covered my mouth with my hand.
“Oh my God!” Cage
after cage of dogs lying down, not moving, except for one very small dog which was awake and whining. My dad had done this. Rick already had his phone out and was taking pictures. “Are they dead?” I asked out loud, because I was scared it might be true.
“I think they’re drugged,” he replied. He went from cage to cage until he found Duke. “He’s here. I need to call this in.”
I could only imagine how frustrating it was, finding his lost dog and not being able to touch him in case of interfering with evidence. Rick stepped out and made some phone calls then everything seemed to happen very quickly. I don’t know what he’d said, but three police cars showed up, then a big van. The Phoenix cops did some crime scene stuff like taking photos, then they loaded all the dogs onto the van.
In the space of an hour, Rick and I were left standing outside my childhood home, the door sealed off with police tape. I didn’t know what to say or do. I’m not sure Rick did, either.
The sun was coming up. Soon, the city would awaken and our shift would be over. I’d never wanted to sleep more in my life.
Rick
My instinct was to push Avery away and be by myself for a good, long time. Instead, I drove us home, brought her upstairs to my bed, and held her through the day while we slept.
When I awoke, my mind still swirled with turmoil. I didn’t want to lose her. She’d never look at me the same way again if I gave in to the red mist and hurt her father. She might be mad at him, but he was still her dad. Putting her in a position where she had to choose between him or me was unfair. She’d already distanced herself from him. I had to let that be enough.
I’d just about got my fury under control when another thought popped up. If we got married, would she want him at the wedding? And if we had kids, she would probably want them to see their grandfather.
“Avery?” I whispered.
“Yeah?” She was awake.
“Would you want your dad at our wedding?”
There was a pause, and I wondered if she’d heard me.
“Avery?”
“Are you proposing to me?”
Oh. Oops. I should have done that at some point. Now I was in a corner. Either I said no, this was a hypothetical, then if she told me how she felt about her dad before I decided to propose or not, this would end up being about him instead of about us. Or I said yes, I was proposing, and took a leap of faith that I wasn’t stuck with that jackass of a deadbeat father-in-law for the rest of my life.
I realized his presence in my life was inconsequential compared to the idea of spending the future without Avery.
“We’ve only known each other a week,” I pointed out. “It would be pretty crazy to get engaged so soon.”
“So you’re not proposing?”
Screw it. I was proposing.
“Will you marry me at some point in the future?” I asked, and realized I was supposed to have a ring.
“For real?” she checked.
“Yeah. For real. Yes or no?”
“Yes. A thousand yesses. But not right now. Let’s take the engagement real slow. And I doubt I would want my dad at the wedding.”
“Oh, good. So I don’t need to punch him on our big day.”
I was walking on air for the rest of the day. When Bob called to say Phoenix had released the dogs to Snake Eye, and that they could all be returned to their owners, I felt even better. My life wasn’t complete without Avery and Duke, and screw any asshole who tried to take that away.
Avery
The visit to Mrs. Vanderhosen was the hardest thing I’d done in ages. Bob had my dad transferred to Phoenix to avoid any allegations of a conflict of interest between Rick and my dad. It was best for everyone. Now there was just Mrs. V. to take care of.
With Tootsie in a pet carrier in my left hand, I rang the doorbell with my right while Rick locked the car. The bell played a different, long, kitsch tune, maybe it was ABBA or something. I wondered if Mrs. Vanderhosen changed the tune on certain days or if the bell just automatically played pre-set jingles. Through the frosted glass, I picked out the old lady shuffling to the door. She opened it, looked at the plastic case in my hand, saw her dog, and squealed the shrillest noise I’d ever heard.
“Tootsie! You’re okay!” Before giving me a chance to balance, she was pulling at the door to the carry case, and Tootsie jumped out as I tumbled backward and landed on my butt. “Oh, sorry, hon,” she added as I got back to my feet.
“No problem. Listen, may we come inside? We have another case we need to talk to you about.”
To respect her privacy, I didn’t want to say too much on her doorstep.
“Sure. Come in. But first, mama’s gonna get her little Tootsie a Twinkie.”
Rick gave my arm a squeeze of encouragement and we went inside.
Sitting on the couch, I got out all the papers I’d photocopied at the precinct. After spending several minutes making a lot of fuss over her dog, Mrs. Vanderhosen joined us.
“We’ve made some progress on your husband’s killer,” I began.
“Progress? You caught the guy?”
“We know who did it,” Rick explained.
I held out a couple of pieces of paper.
“His name was George Reginald. Brother to Dwight Reginald,” I explained. “At least, they grew up in the same house. You see, George was adopted. He was born George Griggs. Two years older than Derek.” I paused.
“That means... he was related?” Mrs. Vanderhosen asked.
I nodded. Oh, boy, this was hard. “He was Derek’s half-brother. His mom got pregnant and gave birth in a home for unmarried women, and they put the baby up for adoption. They sent the baby to Clifton Orphanage. The old Clifton place, just out of town, and he was adopted by the Reginalds, who had been trying for a second baby for years.”
“If they were related... why did he kill Derek?” she asked.
It was a good question. “I think I figured that out,” I told her. “You said in your witness report he’d been yelling that the farm should have been his. We believe he figured out Eileen was his mother. He was angry that his younger brother inherited the farm, and angry that his mom had put him up for adoption. He hoped to get the farm if Derek was dead, except, of course, the murder meant he could never come forward to claim the farm without incriminating himself as his half-brother’s killer.”
“So you’re gonna arrest him?” Mrs. Vanderhosen asked.
“George Reginald died two years ago after a long battle with bowel cancer,” Rick explained. “He’s buried in the graveyard over at Why Not, where he lived after he left home.”
“He’s dead? I’m free?” she asked.
“Yes. We’re sorry the police were unable to catch him before now,” I added.
The old lady giggled with delight and shook her head.
“The bastard that killed Derek died a slow and painful death, that’s justice enough for me! How did you find out?”
“His brother, Dwight,” I explained. “He filed a report that his car went missing two days before it really did. He couldn’t have done that unless he knew he was going to need to.”
“We’ve arrested him as an accessory,” Rick added. “The District Attorney is optimistic that he’s going down for a long time.”
“Thank you,” Mrs. Vanderhosen said, and when I looked at her, there were tears in her eyes. “You’ve made the world a little better, today.”
I smiled and gave her a single nod. “Just doing my job, ma’am.”
I’d always wanted to say that.
Rick and I said our goodbyes then disappeared into the sunset. The law had been upheld for another day. All but two of the missing dogs had been reunited with their owners. Mike was headed to California to track down the others. Life was good.
Epilogue
Two months later.
Avery
Rick had cooked us both a delicious dinner of tender fried steak and long thin vegetables with names like asparagus and tender stem broccoli, all swimming in deli
cious butter. Dessert had been a light, fluffy lemon cake. We’d had chit-chat while the food went down. Then, when we were no longer groaning under the weight of our full stomachs, he had summoned me to his bedroom.
“Knock on the door and wait for me to call you in,” he had told me.
I rapped my knuckles on the white-painted wood and stood in the hallway feeling like I was in trouble over something.
“Enter.”
I wrapped my fingers around the door handle and pressed it down. I stepped inside. Rick sat on the bed in just his underpants. His toned, tanned body looked incredible. I wanted to run my hands over every peak and valley between his hard muscles.
“Stand here.” He indicated a spot between his legs, where my face was inches from his. In this position, I was taller than him, but he was still completely in control. I had no idea what he was planning to do.
He wrapped his hand around the back of my head and pulled my face to his. Our noses brushed for a second. The sensation in the tip of my nose lingered. Then he turned his head slightly sideways and our lips touched.
Electricity crackled between us. He parted his mouth. Mine fell open. He pulled my face against his, crushing my lips into a kiss of possession. His tongue entered my mouth and claimed it. I yielded to him.
“You’re mine now,” he told me. “The future Mrs. Porteous. And I get to keep you all to myself.”
“All yours,” I murmured.
“Have you been wearing the plug like I told you?”
When he mentioned it, a shameful blush stole across my body. It was so naughty to remember what he’d told me to do.
“Yes, sir,” I replied.
“Good. Now get over my knee, I want to redden that naughty ass of yours.”
He guided me over his knee. I hadn’t broken any rules, lately, but that didn’t mean a break from spanking. His hand caressed my twin mounds. I sighed as delicate sparks zipped across the surface of my skin.
His hand was lifted from my ass for a moment. It landed accompanied by a loud crack that echoed around the room. A sharp burst of pain radiated out from his hard palm and I sucked air in through my teeth.
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