I was trying to remember if I’d ever seen or heard of her, but nothing was coming to mind.
“Hey, didn’t she come—” Kai said, stopping when Kap elbowed him in the gut. “Wow, look at the detail on that door.”
Both Judd and Ned looked at where the door was, but DB was done talking and made it known.
“Okay, we have a possible second location for King Kirkwood. I think we need to split up. Palmerstown can go to his main residence, and we’ll head to the second place. I’ll text the map to Judd to pass out to the Palmerstown officers so you can come help us if nothing turns up at his house.” DB stopped and looked around all of us.
“While you’re there, you’re not just looking for him and Lord. You’re looking for anywhere that you think Jordy Watts’s murder could have happened. The crime scene techs have gone over where Ashesh’s body was buried, but the wet mud is causing problems, so they’re free to assist if you can pinpoint a location.”
Then, looking at Judd, he held out his hand. “I want to thank you for what you’re doing for us. This has moved much quicker with your assistance, and today was a day I never thought I’d see in our town, but it helped to have your team working with us.”
Shaking it, Judd looked as pissed as we were about everything that’d happened. “Them putting the guy’s body on the boundary line between the towns opened a door for us, but there’s an agreement that dates back to the founders that joins the departments. I’d like to keep that agreement going for as long as I’m Sheriff, so we’re here if you need us.”
“And likewise. Now, let’s go and find him.”
Holding his hand up, Ned motioned over some of his men to wait a minute. “I’m headed to see Hurst and his family, but if you need anything, just shout.”
And that was it.
I didn’t want to let down my defenses and assume that finding Lord and King would be as easy as finding their father, especially after what had happened today, so I cracked my neck and starting walking toward my vehicle.
My phone had buzzed not long ago, so I took it out as I got into the cruiser and waited for Alex to get behind the wheel, seeing a text from Bex waiting for me.
Bex: Hey, so Ava and me have a ho-mance and wine. Get it? A ho-mance, like hoes and romance. Mace looks sad, though. I said he could join us and make it a ho-bro-mance, but he didn’t want to. Sad times!
Jesus, during all of this and what she’d gone through today, she was still able to make me smile and give me a boost. And just by a drunken text.
Texting her back to say I’d be a bit longer and that I hoped she was having fun, I texted Mace to say thank you for watching her for me.
Me: I’m not sure how the ho-mance came around, but thank you for keeping my girl safe. I hope you survive it.
Mace: Ava wanted to make sure she was okay and decided wine was the way to do it. I’m doing my best to listen out for anything, but that shit isn’t easy. They’re singing.
I was typing out a reply when Alex got into the car and started the engine.
“This is going to suck. I’ve got a feeling it’s not going to be as easy as their dad,” he muttered, falling into line behind the other cruisers as we drove out of the property.
“Garrett’s taking Dirk back to the station to process him, then he’s going to join us. I’ve got a feeling he’ll be doing some talking on the way there.”
“He sure as shit wasn’t saying anything except for throwing threats at us when we cuffed him.” Alex pointed out, then added, “Sorry, re-cuffed him.”
Looking back down at my phone, I hit send on the message.
Me: I hate to admit there’s a bit of jealousy in me that wishes I was there instead.
Mace: They’re discussing bananas now. I feel for you, man.
Me: Fuck’s sake.
Mace: She can’t even chew bubble gum and blow bubbles, it’s that bad. That’s gotta suck.
I groaned out loud, reading the message. Bex had an inability to put embarrassing things behind her, and I couldn’t even count the number of times I’d woken up to her moaning and pulling the cover over her head because she’d remembered one in her sleep.
The woman remembered embarrassing things she’d done while she was sleeping! That’s how big a problem it was.
Me: Christ, tell her to stop oversharing with everyone. She’s only going to regret it tomorrow and hide every time she thinks about it now.
Mace: Just be grateful I’m not recording them trying different things in her mouth to see what happens. She has a pickle.
It buzzed again almost immediately after I received his text.
Mace: No, wait, she had a pickle.
Me: Hide the wine.
Mace: They finished it all. By the way, your kittens are cute.
Me: You’re not having any.
Mace: I’ll take the tiny gray one if you don’t hurry the fuck up and save me.
Me: Noted.
“That’s some conversation you’re having there,” Alex mused as we pulled to a stop. Looking around us, I saw we were parked at the side of the road behind the other vehicles. “We need to go on foot from here.”
Patting down my vest and feeling along my belt, I made sure I had everything I was going to need. Maybe it was superstition, perhaps it was just to prepare me mentally, I didn’t know, but it felt like I had to do it tonight.
I was good, I hadn’t forgotten anything.
“Ava decided Bexley needed wine, so she took some over, and they’re having a ho-mance,” I told him as we waited for our instructions from DB.
“Poor bastard,” Alex chuckled. “What the hell’s a ho-mance?”
“It’s like a bromance, except with hoes. They invited Mace to join in, but apparently, he’s a party pooper.”
He wasn’t, but it wasn’t my story to tell. Mace was going through a lot, what with his dad in prison after being convicted of murder and all of the other shit going on in his life. I think at this point, the only things keeping him sane were Ava, his sister, his business, and his friends. Aside from them, he didn’t have a lot going on to make him laugh, and my heart broke for the guy.
Just then, DB sent a text out to us. We were going in.
And that’s when I made a mistake: I put my phone on silent and switched off the vibration notifications.
I just didn’t realize it was a mistake until I took it out of my pocket later.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Bexley
“Do you hear anything?” Ava whispered.
An hour ago, Mace had jumped up and put both of us both in the bathtub with a comforter over the top of us, and then he’d disappeared and come back with the kittens and Prince, followed by a pissed off Doyle. We hadn’t heard a thing since.
And I’d like to point out at this juncture that wine breath wasn’t nice, and I was stuck under a comforter in close confinement with Ava, who’d helped me consume two bottles of the stuff.
“No, all I can hear is the kittens and Doyle panting,” I said back as quietly as I could, then jerked my head away from the fumes of my breath. “Oh, jeez, that packs a punch, doesn’t it? It didn’t taste as bad as it smells.”
“I know. I keep trying to get away from it, but it’s following me,” she agreed, jerking her face as far back as she could.
Lifting the edge of the comforter, I almost moaned a the cool, wine breath and stench-free air hit me full on. Granted, I could smell the litter box that we had for Prince and the smell of the baby poop that needed to be cleaned out of their nesting box, but even that smelled better than wine breath.
Seeing my face, Doyle let out a faint whine and pushed his nose against me. “It’s okay, baby. You might not want to get too close, though. My breath will take the fur off your face.”
Did he heed the warning? Did he hell. That big bastard pushed his head under the edge of the comforter I was holding up and managed to move his bulky body so that he was sitting in the bath on our legs.
If someone opened the
door at that moment, they’d see a massive head under the blankets. Then again, if someone hookie was after us, seeing one of the covers from the motel’s beds over the top of the bath might be a giveaway anyway.
“Whoa,” Ava gasped, kicking me in the ass accidentally. “His breath’s as bad as ours.”
“I’m not certain that’s the truth,” I admitted, shifting to try and get comfortable, but it was impossible. Irish Wolfhounds were huge and weighed a ton, and Doyle’s ass wasn’t budging.
“Now what do we do?”
Keeping the edge of the blanket propped up so that we’d get some fresh air, I went with the only answer I could. “We have to wait. Whatever Mace heard, he knows what he’s doing.”
I knew they were having issues. Ava couldn’t tell me about what was going with Mace in his life, but she’d said he was shutting her out while he dealt with it.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t talking about it, he was disappearing for days, and then when he was home, he hardly spoke.
She’d given me an analogy of the relationship consisting of one living person and a statue. It was hard to picture, but I think I got it.
And I had to wonder how long a relationship could last when only one person was living in it.
“I love him, Bex,” she mumbled.
Reaching out blindly, I grabbed Doyle by mistake at first but then pushed my hand between his body and the back of the tub until I reached her shoulder.
“Remember how your grandmother used to tell us that all stains come out in the wash?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, this one might need a little bit of scrubbing, but it’ll go away.”
“You might—” she started, then stopped and was silent for a moment. “You know, when I look at how we got together, how impossible it’d seemed back then, I always think how lucky I am to have him. You might be right, and if I scrub at the stain, it’ll go away.”
Squeezing her shoulder one last time, I wrestled my arm back the same way I’d pushed it forward. “Atta girl. If it worked for Logan and me, it’ll definitely work for you and Mace.”
“Ain’t that the truth.” I heard her chuckling quietly but felt Doyle’s body moving with it more, seeing as how he was pressed tightly against me. “Y’all getting together was a miracle after all of that shit. Now look at you.”
“Yup. Sitting in a bathtub with you and my dog, breathing in wine and dog breath, with a comforter over our heads.”
Both of us started laughing, then groaned when it increased the smell under the cover.
“If you fart, I’ll kill you,” I warned her, doing my best to keep my mind off what was going on.
I’d had a shit day, and the fear I’d felt would probably never leave me. We train for it, we practice the procedures, but hearing it and seeing the scared faces of the kids… I wouldn’t forget it.
I also didn’t know what was going on outside or where Logan was and if he was okay.
I literally had zero control over anything at that moment, apart from warning Ava about the consequences of farting right now. It also lightened the atmosphere slightly, so that was a good thing.
It didn’t mean I wasn’t scared to death, though. That I definitely was.
And then I heard it, a bang just like we’d heard at the school today. All the kids’ faces came back into my mind and how terrified they’d been, as well as the knowledge that we were powerless and vulnerable yet again.
I didn’t have my phone, and I didn’t have a gun. I didn’t have anything to protect Ava.
Carefully and as silently as I could, I lifted the comforter and slid out of the tub like a baby elephant learning to do ballet. I needed to get the kittens and Prince, though, and make sure they were okay and not hit if the door smashed open.
Once I had the box in my arms, I passed it to Ava and got back into my position on the opposite end of the tub.
Then the crashing and yelling started, and we reached for each other, ending up with Doyle snuggled between two women who didn’t give one shit about how anyone’s breath smelled anymore.
But just to say, adding the smell of the kittens did give it an even more unpleasant edge.
At least I could say I did the best I could, though.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Logan
“You sure you’re okay?” DB asked again as he checked me over.
“Yeah, he got me in the fucking vest. Jesus, couldn’t they make these things better, so we don’t feel anything?”
DB, Carter, and Alex were staring at the bullet hole in my vest, all of them looking almost intrigued by it. If it was that interesting, I had no issues promising to shoot them in the same place so they could experience it for themselves.
Not looking away from it, Carter rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Probably feels better than it would if you weren’t wearing one.”
“Wanna try it so you can confirm that?” I snapped, wanting to take it off to check my stomach, but we couldn’t right now.
“Not really. I wonder what it looks like underneath?”
There was scuffling at the door, and then Garrett and Raoul brought out King Kirkwood and led him over to their vehicle.
“Do you think he’s telling the truth?” I asked DB, watching him closely.
When we’d gotten to the property, King had been on his own, counting money. Apparently, word of his Dad’s arrest and situation hadn’t hit him yet, so he hadn’t been expecting us.
We’d found piles of meth, cocaine, and all of the other things they were mixing into it, just lying out in the open. You could smell it in the air as you went in, so we’d masked up to protect ourselves from it.
The initial drugs we found hadn’t been prepared for distribution yet, but at the back, he had hundreds of full baggies carefully laid out for collection. It was unbelievable to see the amount just sitting there and knowing how far it could travel to do damage to someone.
Being around the drugs in an enclosed space had also messed with King, so initially, he’d smiled at us and waved a happy hello. Unfortunately, he’d also been waving his gun around as he did it, and his finger had hit the trigger, shooting a bullet into my vest as we all tried to move away from where he was pointing with it.
In my job, I hadn’t had the opportunity to come across a lawyer who was happy to see us, especially not one who was high, so it would definitely be a story I’d tell my kids when they were older. I might miss out on the piles of drugs scattered around him, though, at least until they were much, much older.
“I think he’s tripping out of his mind right now,” DB replied, turning back to us. “But we need to find Lord and—” His phone suddenly ringing cut him off. Pulling it out, he frowned at the screen and lifted it to his ear. “Naomi, we’re— What? When?” The way his eyes shifted to stare at me had me moving toward where our cruisers were at the end of the road. “Okay, we’ll be there as fast as we can.”
“Tell me,” I shouted over my shoulder, breaking into a jog with the others beside me.
“Shots fired at Hell On Wheels and loud banging. Hyacinth called it into Naomi and hung up after telling her she was getting her shotgun ready.”
“Didn’t Naomi tell her to stay on the line?” Carter snapped.
“She tried, but Hyacinth wouldn’t listen. She’s tried calling back, but there wasn’t any answer, so she tried calling Bexley and got the same there.”
Fuck. Fucking fuck!
Cutting across the group to get to the cruiser I had the keys to, I jumped in behind the wheel and started the engine. The passenger door opened, and Carter got in, slamming it hard enough to rock the whole thing.
“Go. Alex is going with DB, but he said you had the lead.”
As I drove, I thought about the last couple of weeks. Bexley was still grieving over her pops, and I’d never get the image of her on her knees beside his grave as they lowered his coffin into it.
She’d opened the doors to me that I never expected to have opened, and now
I had her beauty back in my life. I’d gotten more than that, I had all of her. Finally, after years of wanting her badly, she was mine.
What she’d been through today had been a nightmare, and it was still going on. Was she scared? Was she crying? Was she hiding in a closet? It hurt to even think like that, so I had to focus on how strong she was.
I had zero doubts in my mind that she’d be protecting Ava, the cats, and Doyle. She was a born protector.
I also had zero doubts that she was terrified—no one hears gunshots unexpectedly and isn’t.
I hated that she was going through even more on top of losing someone she loved.
But I had to be as rational as possible.
I was missing something, what was it?
Lifting my ass cheek, I concentrated on not pushing the pedal down to the floor with how I was balanced. “Hey, Carter, reach into my pocket and pull my phone out.”
“Which pocket’s it in?”
“Back right. Once you’ve got it, type in—”
He’d been reaching out but snatched his hand back again. “I’m not touching your ass. I’ll call whoever you need on my phone.”
“Just take it out,” I growled, relieved to feel a man’s hands on my ass cheek for once when he did it. “Now, type in zero-one-zero-three and look at the messages. Are there any from Mace, Bexley, or Ava?”
He hummed as he unlocked it, but then he said, “Yeah, there’s one from Mace. He says the girls are safe.”
That was it?
“That’s it? There aren’t anymore?”
“Nope, just the one saying they’re safe. Want me to text him and ask what’s going on?”
I didn’t reply because our radios suddenly came back to life as we moved out of the no-reception zone.
“Guys, I hope you can hear this. Mizz O’Hare has called in an update, and now we have a hostage situation at Hell On Wheels Motel,” Naomi said quickly. “I know we’re not meant to talk like this on the radio, but I’m freaking out. She said everyone’s got a gun, and I don’t know if she means the good guys or the bad guys. Can an eighty-three year old woman be a good guy?”
Eat Crow (Cheap Thrills Series Book 6) Page 25