Join the Club (SWAT Generation 2.0 Book 7)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  He was in nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs.

  I slowly caught the covers and pulled them up over his body, covering it with a sadness that bordered on ludicrous.

  The man was beautiful, pure and simple.

  Built. Lean. Tan. God-like.

  So out of my league that it wasn’t even funny.

  There were times that I thought about how we fit together that I wondered just how in the hell I’d lucked out and gotten a man like him.

  Leaving the covers half pulled up over his back, I went to the bathroom and took care of my nightly routine. Brushing my teeth, combing out my hair, applying deodorant, washing my face and then applying my nightly serums to my face.

  The one thing that I could say when it came to my dad, was the benefit of skincare.

  He’d always taken care of himself, applying sunscreen every time he thought he would be outside for a long enough amount of time. And nightly, he’d apply skin creams to his face.

  That had to be why he always appeared so clean and put together.

  I’d taken to the habit when I was two years post-pregnancy and sporting bags under my eyes that could rival suitcases. After realizing the benefits of good skincare, I’d never stopped. Even though the nightly routines were somewhat expensive and probably didn’t need to be done just yet.

  But it was a luxury that I’d started and hadn’t really wanted to stop.

  Speaking of my father, we’d gotten served a letter today that my sister had signed for. One that was from my father’s lawyer requesting visitation with my son.

  One that I now needed to go talk to a lawyer about to see if there was anything legally I needed to do.

  Sighing, I finished up in the bathroom, then went to my bedroom where I laid down as gently and as quietly as I could next to the man dominating the bed.

  The moment my weight dipped the bed beside him, he shifted onto his side and moved until his arm was stretched high over his head, his bicep pillowing his face.

  I reached for the bedside lamp and switched it off, then carefully maneuvered myself under the covers.

  Once there, I scooted closer and closer until my entire body was pressed up against Bourne’s.

  There I lay for a solid five minutes reveling in his heat.

  It was as my eyes were drooping closed that I felt his hand circle my waist and pull me impossibly closer.

  I woke instantly when I realized that he, too, was awake.

  “Hey,” I said, voice scratchy. “You okay?”

  He buried his face into my chest, showing me without words that he wasn’t the least bit okay.

  His mouth went to my neck, his hand went to my sleep shorts, and I gasped at the way he ripped my shorts off.

  In between one breath and the next, I was shortless, he was between my legs, and he was slipping inside of me.

  He rotated his hips, his cock searching for a way in, but I wasn’t ready for him.

  He had to work for it.

  One delicious inch at a time, he slowly worked himself inside of me.

  All the while, his mouth found mine and he kissed me breathless.

  “Bourne,” I breathed, my hands going to his face. “Yes.”

  He growled and caught my bottom lip, biting it just enough that a sharp pinch of pain jolted through me.

  I moaned into his mouth, my fingers tightening on his face so that my nails dug into his cheekbones, causing him to growl.

  I let him do what he wanted, though, not complaining in the least with the way he filled me up and rotated his hips, letting me feel that fullness.

  “Missed you,” he said against my mouth.

  I licked at his lips, gasping when he pulled back all the way and slammed back inside.

  “Fuck, you’re so tight like this,” he groaned.

  ‘Like this’ I decided meant ‘unprepared’ because we’d been in this position before.

  The only difference was I hadn’t been expecting him to wake up and pounce on me.

  “Maybe you’re just abnormally large,” I suggested.

  “Maybe,” he agreed. “Or maybe I’ve just got the tightest pussy on the planet available to me.”

  I would’ve rolled my eyes, but he used that time to punctuate his sentence with a sharp thrust inside of me. Followed by another. And another.

  Soon the headboard was slapping hard against the wall, and he was taking me so fiercely that short gasps of air were leaving me on each thrust of his hard cock inside of me.

  Soon he was rearing up, positioning my legs up high over my head, and slamming inside of me at a better angle.

  Shortly after, I was coming.

  Hard, loud, and excitingly fast.

  This Bourne was the one that I loved when he came out to play.

  I wasn’t sure what it was about him when he was so fierce and hard, but it excited me. Made me shiver.

  When he lost control…

  He cursed and stiffened, his cock slamming inside and coming to a halt.

  Seconds later he started to jerk inside of me, signaling his release as well.

  Then, just as suddenly, he was collapsing back on top of me and rolling so that I was lying on top of him, still sheathed fully inside of me.

  I ran my hand over his strong bearded jaw and pressed a kiss to the underside of his chin.

  Then I just lay there, waiting.

  If he wanted to talk, I would be there for him and listen. If he didn’t, well, I’d still be there.

  Which reminded me.

  “I love you, Bourne.”

  He stilled, then drew in a shaky breath. Holding him close, I told him everything that had happened that day. Ending with the legal papers from my father.

  “We’re going to have to do something about him,” I vowed. “He’s not going to leave this alone.”

  He ran his hand down my bare back.

  “No,” he agreed. “He’s not.”

  Chapter 14

  Sometimes I wish I could just ram my fist down someone’s throat for fun. And when they asked why, I could tell them that I was tired of listening to their smartphone going off beside my face, and maybe next time they should be more considerate when watching videos in public.

  -Text from Bourne to Booth

  Bourne

  “Bourne?”

  Ellie.

  “Hey, Ellie,” I said softly. “How you doin’?”

  There was a small sniffle on the end.

  “I just wanted to call and give you some information that I found,” she said softly. “I just… I know that you’ve done a lot for Jason and me over the years, and I wanted to give you this. He said that you needed it?”

  The information that I’d asked Jason for before he’d died.

  I swallowed hard. “Ellie…”

  “I heard what was going on through the grapevine,” she murmured. “He’s pressuring you. I want to help. Jason called that day before he… you know. He told me to start digging. And I’d already started working on it when I was informed of his accident. Then this morning, I remembered and found myself working on it again. I heard about it from one of the cops that came to check on me. I’m… I want to help. I dug some… how deep do you want me to go?”

  The shit she’d been hearing through the grapevine was a couple of us moving everything that we could get out of Delanie and Dillan’s house in about a day and a half’s time.

  After our argument about David not being listed on the deed, we knew that he’d come back with paperwork saying he was listed on the deed.

  In the time that it took for him to do that, we’d taken everything of importance and moved it.

  Delanie was now moved in with me, and Dillan was now fully moved in with Booth.

  Asa’s belongings that were at Delanie’s place were now in my spare bedroom.

  As for all of Delanie’s dogs, they were now at my parents’ place in the air-conditioned shop that Booth and
I had helped build a few weeks ago.

  This weekend I would work on something more permanent, and it was under discussion whether we should start building.

  But… for now, we were making it.

  I cleared my throat.

  “If you have anything,” I said, “I’d love to have it. I don’t want you to stress yourself, though.”

  She cleared her throat. “I’m not pregnant.” She paused. “I think that I’m both happy and sad about that. Happy that I don’t have to raise a baby without him, and sad that I don’t have a piece of him to keep with me for always.”

  I felt my belly tighten.

  “I’m sorry, Ellie,” I murmured softly.

  She cleared her throat.

  “So as for the digging that I did,” she said. “I have financial reports, some basic background history. Names, birthdates and birthplaces. Family information. All that regular fun stuff that I could find. I haven’t found anything super interesting just yet. I found one single blemish on his career, though. It happened last year. It was the death of one of his subordinates under his command. Nothing that would make him get reprimanded or anything, but I went ahead and noted it all the same. I’m going to have these papers sent to you, okay?”

  “How about I drop by and get them?” I suggested, looking at my watch. “I’m on my way to my place to pick up Delanie and Asa, but I can run by there first and…”

  “I’m heading out right now, actually,” she said. “I was going to leave them with my secretary to take. If you want to come get them, that’s perfectly fine. If not, I’ll have her bring them to you on her way home from work. Y’all are staying at your duplex, right? She’s in the next subdivision over from y’all.”

  I grinned. “Well, if it’s not far for her, then I’d love to have them delivered. It makes me feel all special and important and shit.”

  Ellie chuckled. “All right. I’ll have her bring them.”

  Smile dimming, I said, “If you ever need anything, Ellie, don’t hesitate to call, okay?”

  She made an agreeing sound, and we were just about to hang up with each other when she called out my name.

  “Hey, Mr. July?”

  I groaned at Ellie calling me that.

  Jason never missed a chance to do that any time that he talked to me. It honestly kind of made me smile a bit.

  “Yeah?” I croaked.

  “I want an invitation to your wedding.”

  With that, she hung up, and I was left smiling.

  I arrived at my place to find Delanie and Asa outside with Moses and the one single dog that she was working with today.

  She’d decided to hold off on any more therapy dogs until she had somewhere more permanent for the dogs she already had to stay, and before she took in any more that she could train.

  The moment she saw me pull up at the curb, she grinned.

  I got out of the truck and she started running full tilt toward me.

  I stopped with both feet planted on the grass and braced myself, grinning wickedly when her body hit me full on.

  I scooped her up, hands on her ass, and lifted her to me.

  She wrapped her legs around my waist and dropped her mouth onto my grinning face before I could tell her what I wanted.

  “Hey,” she whispered when she was done kissing me.

  I grinned at her. “Hey.”

  “I missed you,” she said.

  My grin got wider.

  “So when are y’all going to announce that y’all are officially together?”

  I looked over to see Dillan on the porch swing next to Asa who was looking at us with a disgusted look on his face.

  “You mean,” Delanie said, “how you told me that you and Booth were together? I was going to tell you, but I thought it’d be cooler to find out how long it took you to say something and call me on it.”

  I rolled my eyes and patted Delanie on her ass.

  When she went to put her feet down, I clenched her butt in my hands and walked up toward the porch steps.

  When I got up them, I turned for my own swing and sat down with Delanie sitting easily in my lap.

  Everybody was off today despite it being a school day. They were all attending Jason’s funeral with me this afternoon, which I assumed was why Ellie was trying to make herself busy.

  She didn’t want to think about what was to come today and instead had buried herself into work.

  “I got a call from Ellie,” I said softly.

  “Ellie?” Dillan asked.

  Booth came out of his front door.

  “Ellie was the wife of the police officer that just died,” Booth said as he picked Asa up and placed him into his lap as he wrapped his arm around Dillan. “How you feeling?”

  Dillan scrunched up her nose. “Less pukey than twenty minutes ago, but no less pukey than I normally feel lately.”

  Delanie snorted and rested her head against my shoulder. I bent my neck and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

  When I turned back straight, it was to see Booth staring at me with deliberation.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” he said. “Just wondering if I need to have a talk with you about hurting my girl’s sister.”

  Delanie snorted beside me. “He’s never going to hurt me, at least not intentionally. It’s more likely you need to have a talk with me because I’m the emotional one.”

  Booth’s eyes turned from me to Delanie. “Don’t hurt him either. How about that?”

  Dillan snorted and pulled her legs up so she could curl her arms around them.

  “There will be no hurting anywhere by anyone.” She paused. “Do you hear that, Asa?”

  Asa looked at her lazily.

  “Hear what, Aunt Stepmom Dillan?” Asa asked.

  That’s when we all burst out laughing.

  It would be the last time we laughed that day.

  The last time we did some laughing for quite a long while, actually.

  ***

  “…it says in this one that Dad is in debt up to his eyeballs.” Delanie handed the paper over to me. I scanned it and saw the same thing she saw. His financials—the most current ones—glaringly obvious.

  “What the hell?” I asked. “If he didn’t have any money, why the hell would he go out of his way to buy your house?”

  “Because he didn’t have anywhere else to live,” Booth said as he shoved some more papers toward me. “He got out of the military, and his housing allowance stopped. He had to find a place to live, and why not one that his daughters already so graciously got for him? He used the last bit of his savings and 401K to purchase it.”

  He passed over the paperwork that he’d been looking at, but I ignored it.

  Putting the paperwork down, I had no idea what all of this meant.

  “You have to get it,” Dillan said. “Being a governor means he gets paychecks for life from now until whenever he feels like dying. This is his ticket out of whatever hole he’s dug himself into. There’s no rule saying that you have to be rich to be governor. And, even better, he gets to be someone of power. One of his favorite things. Plus, don’t you get to live in the governor’s mansion when you become governor?”

  I had no idea, but that might explain a few things.

  “The real question is how all of his money disappeared,” someone pointed out.

  Asa.

  Why was Asa in this?

  “Where did you come from? I thought you were in bed,” Delanie said, standing up.

  “I was, but I came out and got a drink of water.” He paused. “Uncle Bourne, are you still picking me up from school tomorrow? Remember, it’s early release. Twelve-thirty.”

  I nodded my head. “I am. I’ll be there. Don’t worry. But, just a reminder, you have a doctor’s appointment, too.”

  Tomorrow was the last day of his school session for the summer. He would start regular school back up in August.

&nbs
p; I could tell that he was excited to be spending some more time with his family.

  “That’s a very good question indeed,” Delanie said as she picked him up. “But something that you don’t need to concern yourself with.”

  Asa sighed. “It kind of concerns me when I’m the one he wants to hang out with. I don’t want to. He seems really weird.”

  I couldn’t agree more.

  Priscilla had called earlier to tell us he had some weird people coming over to the house. Ones that she got a really bad vibe about.

  But, since there was nothing that we could do about that for now, we would just have to note it down as odd behavior and file it away in ‘things we didn’t like about David.’

  “Tomorrow when you meet with the lawyer.” I yawned hard halfway through the comment. “Make sure you mention these things to him.”

  “I will,” Delanie murmured.

  “I will, too,” Booth said. “Rowen is sure about these two?”

  Rowen was a lawyer in town. But since this was a type of law that she didn’t normally deal with, she’d suggested a friend that had recently moved to Dallas. Dillan, Booth, and Delanie would all be going while I got some of my hours in at the gym that were required of me to stay on the SWAT team that I might or might not have become a bit lax about lately. Then, when it was time for Asa to get out of school, I’d be picking him up and taking him to see a movie he’d been begging to go watch.

  “We’ll figure this out,” Delanie sighed as she came back into the room sans Asa. “In the meantime, I’m dead on my feet. Let’s reconvene tomorrow on the way to Dallas. We have plenty of time to go over it then.”

  Dillan and Booth stood up, but Dillan snapped her fingers. “Can I borrow that top of yours that you said was a bit too tight? I want to wear it underneath this new flowy maternity top I got last week.”

  Delanie shrugged. “It’s in the bottom of Bourne’s closet, next to his boots. I have a small pile of things that aren’t fitting so well lately.” She paused and looked at me. “We need to stop going out to eat.”

  My lips twitched. “It’s not my fault.”

  “It’s so your fault when you bring the food home and expect me to have the self-control not to eat it.”

  I grinned wickedly and watched out of the corner of my eye as Dillan grabbed her purse and started walking toward my bedroom.