Maybe Swearing Will Help

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  Lacy grimaced and looked at her frantically.

  “Hey, hey,” Ashe said when the girl started to fidget. “You’re okay.”

  “He’ll kill them,” she whispered. “You have to tell them not to come up here.”

  Ashe once again calmed the girl down.

  “Who will kill them?” Ashe asked. “Who did this?”

  Lacy swallowed. “Him.”

  “Who is him?” Ashe pushed.

  “He…” Lacy started to cry. Each tear that slipped down her cheek made my heart break for her just a little bit more. “He made me call him…” She swallowed really hard. “He made me call him Daddy. I don’t know what his real name is.”

  Anger tightened in my chest.

  “That’s okay,” Ashe said, wiping away a few of the girl’s tears. “What does he look like?”

  She gave us a description of nearly half the population of Kilgore.

  I saw Luke clench his fists, likely thinking the same thing.

  “How did you end up with this man?” Ashe continued, calm despite everything that had happened today.

  “I don’t…” Lacy shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “That’s okay,” Ashe said. “We don’t have to talk about anything that you don’t want to. Do you want to tell me about the cats?”

  Lacy nodded. “I… he brought them to me as gifts. He noticed that I liked one particular cat that kept walking by outside the window. My… room.” She paused. “And he brought me more. And more. And more. But when I displeased him… he’d…” She looked at Ashe. “He’d kill one.”

  “Every single cat that you brought me is doing great.” Ashe grinned. “They’re all happy and healthy. I even adopted a few of them out already. You’re going to be excited when you get to see their family’s pictures. I have one on my phone, see?”

  Ashe pulled out her phone and started going through pictures, stopping, I guessed, on the picture that she took of Hayes with the cat she’d pawned off on him during our training event.

  Ashe’s confidence nearly astounded me.

  Like a rock.

  I realized right then and there, this thing that she was doing with Lacy, was what she’d been training to do for the last couple years of her life.

  What she wanted to do.

  She was good with the kid.

  Even though I had a feeling that things ran a whole lot deeper than we’d been able to delve into at this point.

  Luke shifted to talk to someone outside, his low tones making it nearly impossible to hear what was being said.

  When he came back inside, he walked over to Ashe and whispered something in her ear.

  Ashe nodded at his words, then smiled at the young girl as Luke went back to his position at the back of the room.

  “Lacy, honey,” Ashe said. “Would you like to talk to your parents?”

  Lacy nodded. “But… they’re going to be so mad. They told me to stay away from him.”

  Luke’s eyes met mine, and he jerked his head to the hall.

  I understood what he was wanting seconds later as I slipped out of the room, being sure to keep my eyes on the girl and Ashe, for some reason feeling like I needed to do that.

  I didn’t bother to question my instincts.

  After what we’d found out before we’d come to the hospital, it was understandable that I would feel extra protective of her.

  The moment that I got outside and saw the parents standing nervously in the hallway, I gestured for them to come to me.

  They rushed over, their eyes haunted pools of exhaustion and fear.

  “You’re Lacy’s parents?” I asked.

  The mom and the dad both nodded their head frantically.

  I started explaining what had happened up until that point but stopped them when they tried to go in.

  “One other thing,” I said. “A few moments ago, she made a comment that I want to ask you about.”

  The mother nodded. “Okay.”

  “She said, ‘they told me to stay away from him.’” I repeated the words. “What does…”

  “Son of a bitch,” the father swore, his fists going tight. “I’ll kill him.”

  My brows rose.

  Not that I was surprised that the father was pissed, but that he actually sounded like he was going to go and do it.

  “Who are we talking about?” I pushed. “The faster we learn who he is, the faster we can get him behind bars.”

  The dad ran his fingers through his hair, looking exhausted and pissed.

  “A couple of weeks ago,” he said, “there was this new man that moved in down the street. He was young. About twenty or twenty-two? I don’t know. Young enough that it wasn’t weird for Lacy to talk to him, but old enough for us to know that it was too big of an age gap to have them anywhere near each other. She turned sixteen a month ago, and that day, she’d been driving around the neighborhood in the new car that we got her. That was the first time, I think, that Lacy started to really talk to him.”

  I gestured to a cop that was standing there.

  “What’s his address?” I asked the dad.

  The mother was the one to give it, and I turned to the cop.

  “I need you to notify the SWAT team,” I said. “Also, you’re going to need to talk to Foster and get him to get a warrant.”

  The cop didn’t hesitate. The moment he was gone, I turned back to the parents.

  “Anything more?” I asked.

  “The day she went missing was the day that I caught them talking and hanging out on his front porch.” He shook his head. “After catching them, we grounded her. She’d disobeyed my direct order to stay away from him. The only time she was allowed out of the house was to drive to school and come straight home. One day she drove to school, but the office said that she’d never arrived for her first class.”

  I nodded my head, then gestured toward the room.

  “We’ll have to get the rest of the story from her,” I said as I stepped aside.

  The mother and the father rushed in, and moments later, Luke and Ashe joined me outside.

  “I’m sure there’s a whole lot more that she’s not telling us.” Ashe sighed as she sagged wearily against the wall.

  I pulled her into my arms and dropped a kiss onto her head.

  She shifted and pressed her face between my pectoral muscles, closing her eyes and sighing.

  “I think,” she said, “that there’s nothing more we can do today.”

  I snorted. “We’re going.”

  She slid me an amused look.

  “Can we keep this secret?” she whispered.

  “Keep what secret?” Luke asked. “Because if you’re trying to keep y’all’s relationship a secret, I’m afraid that’s out of the bag. I talked to Reese, who immediately called your mom. And yeah, that ain’t a secret anymore.”

  Ashe leveled a glare at her uncle.

  “Uncle Luke!”

  He held up his hands. “It wasn’t like I was meaning to talk about it. But you kissed each other at a shooting scene. What exactly did you want me to do? That shit would’ve gotten to her eventually. And, just sayin’, but cops are a bunch of gossips. If my wife had found out that I hadn’t shared that information with her, she would’ve ripped me a new one.”

  “Ready?” I asked.

  She groaned. “Ready.”

  It was when we were almost there that I had a thought.

  “Do you want me to drop you off?” I asked. “Or do you want to come to my parents’ first, then yours?”

  She looked at her watch.

  “My dad is on shift today,” she answered. “And won’t be home until tomorrow. I’ll just stay at your parents’ house.” She paused. “But we have to stop by and see my mother. She won’t forgive us if we don’t.”

  I grinned and took the street that would lead to her parents’ place.

  Ten minutes later, we were
pulling up to their door.

  “Jesus Christ!” Ashe yelled, throwing up her hands in the air. “Do any of y’all wear any fucking clothes?”

  Tru, who had no pants on, narrowed her eyes.

  “You don’t wear any either,” she accused. “And you could’ve knocked. Could’ve texted to tell us you were coming. And, you can’t see anything.”

  Ashe sighed.

  But Tru was right. You really couldn’t see anything.

  “Ashe doesn’t wear pants at home either,” I found myself confirming.

  Tru’s eyes came to mine.

  “I’ve heard that.” She paused. “And you want to know what else I’ve heard?”

  I looked worriedly at Ashe.

  “That you and my daughter are now ‘doing it.’”

  My mouth fell open.

  “Mother!” Ashe yelled.

  “I’ve heard that y’all have been together for a while now,” Coal supplied.

  “I have, too,” Spencer added from the couch in his boxer briefs. “Mom, did you know that Ashe is pregnant?”

  My eyes widened.

  Ashe’s mouth fell open.

  Spencer laughed.

  Tru’s eyes lit on me. Then Ashe.

  Then she turned her head to Spencer.

  Spencer, though, looked at us, too.

  The laughter stopped.

  “I was joking,” he said, his eyes narrowing.

  Then he stood up, a pissed off look crossing his face.

  “You knocked my sister up?!” he bellowed.

  Ashe sighed and dropped her head into her hands.

  Tru made a squealing sound that pierced my eardrums.

  “I’m gonna be a grandma!” she cried out, clapping her hands. “Oh my God. Your dad is going to have a fucking cow!” She did a jig that almost made the long t-shirt she was wearing ride up over her ass.

  “Mom!” Ashe tried. “Ford doesn’t need to see your underwear! What will Dad think?”

  “When are y’all getting married?” Coal asked, his eyes going from me to Ashe and back again.

  “We’re not getting married!” Ashe growled at the same time I said, “We’re going to get married once she finishes school.”

  Ashe stared at her mother who was still dancing around, but now on the couch next to her younger brother.

  “I’m going to have to go by Grammy.” She paused. “Or Gamma. Or Grams.” She paused in her jumping. “This is a really important decision. I mean, I’ll be called this for the rest of my life. Shit, I have to call Viddy. We have to discuss this. We can’t both go by the same thing.”

  Ashe caught her mother’s hand before she could get to the phone.

  “How about you give us an hour or two to spend here, then we’ll tell his parents?” Ashe said, sounding resolute. “We’d like to do that in person. Not by a phone call.”

  Tru immediately nodded her head. “Oh, yes. Right. I can see exactly what you mean.”

  She was standing there, her hand practically vibrating to reach for the phone.

  “How about we go right now?” I asked carefully.

  Tru’s eyes lit up. “Oh, yes! That’s perfect. That’ll give me enough time to talk to your dad. Who, by the way, loves you but is going to hate this. Sorry, Ford.”

  I shrugged. “I kind of knew he wasn’t going to be too happy.”

  I made a note to go see him before the night was out. Though I knew heading to the fire station and seeing not just him, but Kettle and Sebastian most likely, would open a whole new can of worms.

  “Let’s go.” Ashe shook her head. “Mom, we’ll see you tomorrow for the party, okay?”

  Tru did another dance that had her hands over her head and her shirt riding up again.

  “Shit.” Ashe shook her head again. “Let’s go.”

  “Bye!” Coal and Spencer called.

  “Bye!” Ashe and I called back.

  We made it out to the truck more or less unscathed.

  “This is ridiculous,” she admitted. “I wasn’t going to tell anybody. I mean, we don’t even really know if it’s true.”

  I reached out and ran my finger along one nipple, causing her to hiss and pull away.

  “What the hell?” she asked.

  I gestured to her boobs.

  “Boobs don’t just get more sensitive,” I pointed out.

  She frowned.

  “And didn’t you almost gag when we stopped for gas on the way here?” I pushed.

  She stubbornly stayed silent.

  “And who was it that slept the whole way here and didn’t once wake up?” I teased.

  “Those things don’t just appear,” I told her gently. “You’re allowed to be happy about this. You’re allowed to be excited.”

  She sighed. “I don’t want to give anybody false hope. I want to make sure that this is true. I mean, what if they get all excited, and my period comes tomorrow?”

  Which reminded me.

  “Have you missed your period?”

  She scrunched up her nose.

  “Two.”

  My lips twisted into a small grin. “How did that not flash a big neon sign at you?”

  She shrugged. “I didn’t even think about it, to be honest. I was so focused with school, and work, and you, that I didn’t stop to think about anything else.”

  My lips pursed in thought.

  Then I pulled out my phone and dialed a number I knew by heart.

  “Who are you calling?” she asked curiously.

  “Zachary,” I answered.

  Her eyes went hopeful.

  Zachary was an OB/GYN. He was also the third of our trio. Our co-conspirator. The boy that turned into a man that turned into a girl doctor at first just so he could see more vaginas.

  But, just sayin’, that backfired on him because it turned out that he really liked the job.

  Oh, and he was a sucker for babies.

  “Hey, man,” Zach said as he answered on the third ring. “What’s up?”

  I hadn’t spoken to Zach in weeks.

  “I heard from Ashe’s mom that you’re home,” I said. “And that you’ve got a practice now.”

  I could practically hear his teeth grinding in the background.

  “I do,” he confessed. “Kind of. I decided to do reserves for the time being. Get my bearings. Figure out what I want.”

  Zach had spent his years before he joined the Army getting a bachelor’s degree in science. He spent his years in the Army becoming a doctor. Something had happened earlier this year to make him get out. Which, I assume, was why he was here now, trying out the civilian life while also keeping his foot in the door with the reserves.

  “You could’ve called and told us,” I grumbled.

  “I did call,” he hedged.

  I wrinkled my nose “You didn’t.”

  “You sound like a girl,” Zach muttered.

  I looked over at Ashe, who was listening to my side of the exchange with a smile on her face.

  “I need a favor,” I said.

  “Name it,” he replied immediately.

  “I need to bring my girl in. Get her checked out. She’s missed two periods, and she doesn’t want anybody to know until we know it’s official,” I said.

  I didn’t bother telling him who my girl was.

  I wanted to see the look on his face when he found out.

  Chapter 18

  I see no reason to act my age.

  -T-shirt

  Ashe

  “Are you sure about this?” I asked when we walked through the doors of Zach’s office. “He’s going to knock your teeth in.”

  Ford grinned.

  “He would never.” Ford paused. “Though, he’s going to think that I’m using you. And he’s also gonna think that I’m not serious about you. But I want you to know that I am. I so am.”

  I continued the walk into the doctor’s office, thinking it was incredibly w
eird to be in an office when there was nobody there.

  “This is like the ghost of gestating vaginas past,” I mumbled. “Like I know that there should be pregnant people here, but there’s not.”

  “There should be,” Zach said, coming into the waiting room upon hearing our voices. “But we’re not open yet. We have it pretty much done, but a few tweaks. And we have to hire office staff.” He paused when he saw both of us. “Where’s your girl?”

  I walked up to Zach, admiring how sexy he was like always, and he opened his arms for me to wrap mine around him.

  He squeezed me hard, and I squeezed him back just as hard.

  It’d been a long freakin’ time.

  And now I was crying.

  “It’s so good to have you back,” I blubbered.

  Zach’s dark rumble of laughter had me crying harder.

  I hadn’t heard that laugh in a really long fucking time.

  It was great to hear it.

  “You’re holding my girl,” Ford said to Zach’s earlier question. “The woman I want you to check out is Ashe.”

  There was a beat of silence before Zach exploded.

  That’d partially been why I moved into his arms the way I had.

  I knew with me right there, Zach wouldn’t lose his shit.

  But he surprised me.

  His explosion wasn’t of anger.

  It was of hilarity.

  He was laughing.

  No, correction. He was laughing so hard he was now crying right along with me.

  I stepped out of his arms, rolling my eyes as he went down into the tripod position with his hands on his knees and tried to draw in a breath.

  “Oh my God. This is rich. You and him. Together,” Zach wheezed.

  I only smiled.

  Zach really was sexy.

  He was tall, just like his father, Cleo. He had light green eyes the color of green sea glass. Thick, wavy black hair. Tanned, almost perfectly bronzed skin that every woman hoped to have by the end of summer. Full, plump lips. A perfectly shaped nose, and a perfectly trimmed beard.

  He had the type of beard that every man dreamed of.

  Even Ford.

  When we were growing up, Zach had been able to get his beard to grow in thick and full, while Ford’s had grown in patchy and scruffy. Even now, Ford had to work to maintain his beard. While I imagined Zach only had to keep it trimmed neat and tidy.