I looked up in time to see Dad take a swing at Asher. Asher easily dodged and stepped back and Dad wobbled, almost falling. I ran to get between them with Dakota hot on my heels. I stood facing my father with Asher at my back, as Dakota tried to get Dad under control.
“What is going on?” I asked, fuming.
“This boy you brought home disrespected me, Dylan,” Dad replied.
“I don’t care what he did. You don’t get to swing on my boyfriend, Dad. Ever.”
“Why the hell not? He comes to me talking about how he wants my blessing to marry you, and he can’t even stand up for himself. You gotta jump in and protect him.”
“First of all, Asher can defend himself just fine, but he’s not some Neanderthal, like you, so he doesn’t think with his fists and—” The rest of what Dad said sank in. Asher had come to ask him for his blessing. To marry me. Suddenly the clothes made sense. He’d dressed the part to approach my dad. I looked over my shoulder and asked, “Wait...what?”
“You heard me,” Dad said. “A boy like that doesn’t deserve you. You tell him, Dak.”
“I don’t know. He seems like a decent fellow.” Then Dakota turned his attention onto Asher and said, “You got my blessing, but you damn well better take care of her. I don’t care if you are some hotshot lawyer, you hurt her and there won’t be a city big enough to hide you.”
“Noted. I won’t hurt her,” Asher said. “You must be Dakota. Nice to meet you.”
“Pleasure.” They shook hands.
I was too in shock to move or say anything.
“Well, he doesn’t have mine!” Dad shouted. “You and your uppity family stole my girl from me and I’ll be damned if I give you my blessing for it.”
That loosened my tongue. “You can’t pin my moving on Asher or Addie. I didn’t even know them when I left. I just wanted out of here and away from you.”
Dad staggered backwards like I’d slapped him, but I was too pissed to care.
“Don’t you dare pretend like you’re some kind of victim in all of this. You say you love me, but we both know whiskey is the only thing you’ve loved since Mom died, and I could never compete with that bottle. It’s eaten away whatever heart you had left. And clearly your brain, too. I can’t believe you called me about the jewelry. What the hell were you thinking?”
He stiffened. “I wanted a recommendation.”
“You know, Dad, Addie and I are really good at what we do. Did you think we wouldn’t find out who did it? Or that I’d turn my head and let it happen?” I had to look away because my eyes were burning, but the feel of Asher’s hand on my back strengthened my resolve. “When I saw those videos... You put me in this position, and I will never forgive you for it.”
His expression changed, telling me he knew exactly what I was talking about. The worst part about it was he looked surprised that Addison and I had figured it out. He hadn’t expected us to solve the crime, and that hurt.
He looked almost sober as he raised his chin and said, “You don’t know everything, Dylan, and it’s not safe for you to keep digging. You and your friends should get out of this town before you stumble over what’s really going on.”
Not only did he think we were incapable, he refused to believe that we’d learned of his guilt through honest detective work. I glared him down. “We’re not leaving until this case is solved.”
He frowned, shaking his head. “I never should have brought you into this mess. I’m sorry.”
I had nothing more to say to him, so I grabbed Asher’s hand and tugged him away.
“So...your dad is the one stealing the jewelry?” Asher asked.
Nothing got past him. “Yes. Can we leave?”
“The fair or the town?”
Tempting. I shook myself. “The fair. I have to stick around and see this through.”
“You really don’t,” Asher replied as we walked toward the car. “Nobody’s paid you guys to investigate, and you’re not cops, so you have no moral responsibility...” He opened my car door and I climbed in and waited for him before arguing.
“Yes, I do, Ash. My father is stealing money from little old ladies. If Addie and I do nothing, he’ll get away with it. Nobody in this town will ever solve this case.”
“What about the cops?” he asked. “Can’t you just take whatever evidence you have to them?”
“You’re so cute with your justice and all that. Will you please drive back toward the motel? We’re going to take a detour, though.”
Asher pulled out of the fairground parking lot. “Dylan, I’m serious. That thing your dad said back there sounded a lot like a threat or a warning. Maybe you’re too close to this case. Perhaps it’s time to back off.”
“I would if I could,” I groaned. “Dad’s related to the DA and at least half the police force. I’ve known those guys my whole life, and I can guarantee you they will not make him pay for this. At the most, he’ll get a slap on the wrist. Hang a right here.”
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“The nursing home. You’re going to have the distinct displeasure of meeting my grandmother. Let me apologize now for anything she says. I was hoping to shield you from her forever, but the truth is...I need you beside me right now.”
He reached over and grabbed my hand. “Of course.”
I stared at our intertwined fingers, thinking about the conversation Asher had tried to have with my plastered father. Marriage. Asher wanted to marry me. At least, he did before my dad tried to beat him up. And now he was going to meet my grandmother. I wondered if he’d still be hearing wedding bells by the time we finally made it out of this town.
We arrived at the nursing home a little past six. Brandy was working. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened when she saw Asher, but I didn’t have time for her barrage of questions. “Brandy, Asher, Asher, Brandy. Asher’s my boyfriend. Yes, Dakota knows and gave us his blessing. So does Dad, and he didn’t. In a hurry, gotta see Grandma.”
She stood there, flabbergasted, as we rushed by. It was exactly the reaction I was looking for.
Grandma’s door was open, so I went right in. The nurse from Ms. Long’s room—Helen—stood by the bed with a little cup of pills and a glass of water. Grandma took her pills and washed them down, and then the nurse left. As soon as the door closed behind the nurse, Grandma spat her pills into a napkin and headed toward the bathroom with them.
“Grandma! What are you doing?”
She shushed me and kept going. I looked to Asher, who was chuckling, and shook my head. A toilet flushed, and Grandma reemerged.
“Gotta get rid of the evidence before those Nazis come in and force it down my throat.”
“Why aren’t you taking your medicine?” I asked.
“That nurse doesn’t give out medicine.”
It sure looked like medicine to me. “Okay, what does she give out?”
“Poison. Makes you think you’re losing your mind until you do. The folks in here are dropping like flies.” Her expression softened. “Today they got Martha.”
“Ms. Long?” I asked.
“Yep.” Grandma shook her head. “It’s a shame, too. I told her not to take those damn pills.”
Now probably wasn’t the best time to point out that Ms. Long was old and that the nursing home was a like a corral for people who were on their way to the big rodeo in the sky, so I decided to change the subject and introduced Grandma to Asher.
She looked him up and down and nodded. “You shacked up with my granddaughter?” she asked.
“Grandma! No. You know I live with Addison.”
“I sure do, and everyone’s talkin’ about it. I’d rather you live in sin with a man.”
“I told you she thinks Addie and I are lesbians.”
Asher’s eyes laughed, but his mouth did not. Chalking it up to lawyer skills, I turned back to Grandma.
“Well it’s good to meet you,” she said.
“Thank you, ma’am. You too.”
“Yo
u know, most of the girls Dylan went to school with are havin’ babies now.”
Heat flooded my cheeks and I shook my head. “I chose to go to college. And now I’m working and paying back my school loans. But I’m not here to talk about that. I need to talk to you about Dad.”
“I was older than I should have been by the time I had Chad. All my other kids were pert near grown and I didn’t know the plumbing was still working, if you get my drift.”
God, I did not want to get her drift, but I did. Cringing, I looked to Asher, who appeared to be enjoying himself, and fought to keep myself from kicking him. This wasn’t what I’d envisioned for our conversation about my father.
“It was like having an only child, and I was too tired to keep up with him. I let him get away with far too much.” She looked out the window. “I should have beat his ass good a hundred times, but I didn’t. Then your momma came along and made him behave. She was good for him until she up and died and left him worse off than he was before. A lot of this mess is my fault, Dylan, which is why I never told who was takin’ the jewelry. You know how things are around here, anyway. Nobody would have done anything about it. No sense alienating the last person who comes to see me.”
Oh, the guilt. “Grandma—”
She held up a hand. “I’m not blamin’ you. Gettin’ out of this town was the smartest thing you ever did. I know I never told you, but I’m proud of you. You made somethin’ of your life. None of us made it easy on you, but you did it on your own.” She smiled. “You get that determination from me.”
For the second time that night, I was speechless. I stared at my grandmother, wondering how to respond to her unexpectedly kind words.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that, and don’t pay me no mind, neither. I’m just an old woman tryin’ to get into heaven.”
“Thank you, Grandma,” I said, giving her a hug.
“You two go on and get out of here before you get the old folks’ stink on you.”
“Yes ma’am,” we said, turning to leave.
“Oh, and one more thing. Asher, you better not wait until she’s in her forties to put a baby in her belly.”
Just when I thought I couldn’t be any more mortified, Grandma managed to one-up herself.
Asher handled it like a champ, tilting the hat he’d just put back on like he was in some sort of western. “Yes ma’am. I’ll get right on that.”
Addison
WE PULLED UP to Trapper Dan’s Pawn and Loan twenty minutes before they closed. “We’re cutting this awfully close,” I complained.
“We’ve got plenty of time,” Jake said. I gathered my file while he walked to my side of the car and opened the door. “Let’s just hope this is the only place we need to investigate. I’ve got plans for us tonight.”
I grinned, climbing out of the car. “As long as it’s a full body massage, I’m good.”
“Absolutely.” He chuckled, leaning down to kiss me gently. “After I fuck you into submission.”
We headed inside, and I decided I’d let Jake do all the talking (my mind was on everything Jake had promised would come after...which made my nipples and nether regions tingle). A woman in tight jeans, wife beater (her bra showing around the edges...trashy), and her cleavage pushed up almost to her chin approached us, her gaze eye-humping my man as she approached. “Can I help you, handsome?”
Jake pulled out his badge. “Portland Police, ma’am. I’m here with my colleague.” He nodded toward me. “We’re investigating some stolen jewelry, and we have it on good authority several of the items are here.”
She raised an eyebrow. “A detective from Portland in our little town? Aren’t you way out of your jurisdiction?”
“This is true, ma’am, however, our investigation has led us here.”
“Hmm-mmm.” She eyed us suspiciously. “Do you have pictures of the missing pieces?”
“I do,” I said quickly and opened my file, pulling out pages.
She shuffled through them and frowned. “I had a feelin’ that lady was shifty.”
“Lady, ma’am?” Jake asked.
“Yeah. A woman’s been comin’ in about once a week for a little over a month pawnin’ various things. Danny decided not to put it out on display on accounta him thinkin’ she was off. He’s got a sixth sense about people. He even did some checkin’ with the authorities, but none of this stuff’s on any missing or stolen reports.”
“So, you still have these items?” Jake asked.
She nodded. “Yeah, honey, we got ’em. Come on back and I’ll give you what we got on her. I’m not givin’ you anything physical without a warrant, like the property you understand, but I’ll give you her name and you can see if what she brought in’s what’s been stolen.”
“We appreciate that, ma’am,” he said, and we walked to the back of the store.
“Bonnie. Might as well call me somethin’ other than ma’am...that shit makes me feel old.”
“Thank you, Bonnie,” I said, forcing down a giggle.
We followed her into a back room and she brought out a copy of the ID used to pawn the stuff, some woman named Stella Wheeler, her address in Klamath, and the box with each item neatly bagged and labeled. We cross-referenced the items reported stolen with the box of goodies, and everything missing from the nursing home was in the box except for two things. A ruby ring and a diamond tennis bracelet Ms. Long lost.
“She probably kept those for herself,” Jake mused, as he took photos of each item.
“It takes a special kind of a-hole to steal from old people,” I said.
“I agree,” Jake said.
I sighed. “I think I should pay for all this stuff.”
“Why? I can get it back once I get a warrant.”
“And where are you going to get a warrant from, Jake? Bonnie’s right. You’re way out of your jurisdiction here, and the DA isn’t going to go to bat for a Portland detective not on the job and get a judge to issue a warrant on a weekend. Remember how we couldn’t even do that when Dylan got arrested? I can’t imagine they’ll do it for some missing jewelry.”
He sighed. “Yeah, but it’s a lot of money, Addie.”
I riffled through the bags. “It’s less than ten thousand. I’ll buy it and you can keep record of it, so that we have some legal recourse if it needs to go to the DA. You can even take an official statement from Bonnie. At least we’ll have the jewelry and these old folks can get their treasures back.”
“It’s ‘less than ten thousand’ she says,” Jake ground out.
I smiled. “If you’re going to be with me, honey, you’re going to have to get used to me spending money. Especially for such a good cause.”
He studied me for a few minutes then shook his head. “It’s a good plan, Addison. Just wish I could come up with something better.”
I kissed him quickly. “Maybe next time.”
Jake muttered things under his breath, but I’d won this argument so I smiled and tallied up all of the items. In the end, my total was under two thousand because, as Jake pointed out, they could either get back what they paid or run the risk of legal action since they took possession of stolen goods. It really was a win-win, and even if I never got reimbursed, it was an amount that I could easily lose.
“I can’t believe how much places like this mark prices up,” I mused as we climbed back into the car.
“I can’t believe you’d walk into a place like that and pay the list prices.”
“My hero.” I giggled. “You’ve saved me money...I can’t wait to see what you do when you have to vanquish the dragon.”
“Quit gettin’ into things that require me to vanquish the dragon and we won’t have an issue.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” I challenged.
He chuckled. “Okay, let’s go check in at whatever this funky motel is and then I’ll take you to dinner. Once I feed you, I’m gonna fuck you, dirty-like.”
“And a massage, don’t forget the massage.” I rolled my shoulde
rs. “Bucky has made my body sore in places I didn’t know existed.”
“Bucky?”
“The horse we’re riding in the Roundup.”
“You gonna fill me in on this horse and why the hell he’s called Bucky?”
I giggled. “I don’t know that I can explain it. You’ll just have to wait and see on Sunday. It’ll be a nice surprise.” Plus, this way you can’t freak out and object to me riding a bucking horse.
That part I kept to myself.
“Why do I feel like I’m going to regret this?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Because you’re all alpha and need to protect your woman. But the truth of the matter is that you’re still working on leaning into the reality that said woman can take care of herself, so you’re dealing with an adjustment period. You’ll get there, honey.”
Jake laughed. “Well played, baby. Well played.”
We drove out to the Running Y and I smiled as we approached the lodge. “I bet this place is amazing when it snows.”
“Yeah,” Jake agreed. “Looks like something out in Montana.”
We pulled up and parked, heading inside to check in. A huge stone fireplace sat proudly in the lobby and the rustic furniture was placed around it for optimum enjoyment of the warmth and ambiance.
“This is so cute,” I exclaimed as we approached the reception desk.
Jake wrapped an arm around me and pulled me close.
“Welcome to the Running Y,” a young woman said. “Checking in?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
I gave her the confirmation number Dylan had texted me, and after getting our keys, we dropped our things off at the room before heading to dinner. We decided to eat at the lodge and, despite the funny name, the Ruddy Duck Restaurant was surprisingly wonderful.
After dinner, Jake took me upstairs and closed us into our room. “Gonna fuck you now.”
“Good. I’m feeling stabby,” I said, tearing at his clothes.
He chuckled and locked the door, still continuing to kiss me.
“Shower,” I panted out as he slid his hand under my shirt and cupped my breast.
Jake continued to kiss me as he guided me into the bathroom. After starting the water, Jake divested us of the rest of our clothes and we stepped into the shower. Unable to stop myself, I knelt in front of him, wrapping my hand around his cock and stroking gently before covering the tip with my mouth. As the water cascaded over us, I took him deeper and Jake threaded his fingers through my hair and squeezed my scalp. I gripped his length and pulled down as I took him further. He grunted as I continued working his cock with my mouth and hand. I cupped his balls, taking his length all the way to the back of my throat, moving my hand faster and faster, practically gagging myself. Holy shit, I’d never been so turned on in my life.
Throw Dylan from the Train (S.A.F.E. Detective Agency) Page 15