Just Kidding

by Vale, Lani Lynn

“Theo treated me like I was normal.” She smiled. “We had a little hiccup there when you actually came to a social function. But then you moved away, and it all worked out. Theo found out that he was going to be a father. Then we came home. But now you’re in our home. You need to leave. We can’t even get a duplex here, where he wants to live, because they rented out the last one to you. Why are you everywhere?”

  I had no idea how to proceed.

  With a normal, sane person, I might be able to accomplish it.

  But Jesus, she was neither normal nor sane.

  I’d realized that over the time that I’d worked with her the last year.

  There was no ‘normal’ when it came to Shondra.

  There was one time that she’d freaked out over a freakin’ pen that I’d borrowed.

  Like, full-on, fuming, ‘I’m telling everyone that I can that you’re a stealer’ kind of freaked out. I hadn’t stolen the pen. I’d picked it up in the hallway and given it to reception. When I’d come to sign some paperwork, the pen had been given back to me to do so. Shondra had walked by and freaked the fuck out, filed a complaint on me for stealing to the boss.

  Hell, if I hadn’t had video evidence—the moron boss of mine had at least had videos of the incident—then I would’ve had Shondra down my throat over a fucking pen.

  “I’ll leave. Right now,” I promised.

  “Oh, you’ll leave.” She raised her hammer, made contact with something over my shoulder, and then smiled.

  Everything went black.

  ***

  Dax

  “Hello?” I answered, unsure if I should or not.

  “Umm,” Rachelle said hesitantly. “I came by to apologize. To tell you… some things. And… well… there was a really loud bang in your house. You’re… you’re okay, aren’t you?”

  I frowned, my hands going to my thighs as I pinched the phone between my shoulder and my cheek.

  “I’m fine,” I stated.

  “Just… I think you should come check it out,” she said. “And hurry. Because the guy mowing the lawn next to your house is staring at me like I’m a rat, and I don’t want him to hurt me.”

  Derek.

  Or maybe Ford.

  I wasn’t sure which guy she was talking about mowing the lawn.

  He could be mowing Rowen’s place, and that would be Derek. But it could also be my neighbor on the opposite side of me, and that was Ford.

  Either way, I had no doubt that they were staring at her suspiciously.

  They knew who she was.

  Everybody did.

  I looked at my watch, then gave a heads up to Foster, our team leader, that I was leaving.

  Receiving the nod of ‘okay’ in return, I headed out the door and started down the steps that would lead to the cruisers in the back lot.

  Walking past Theo on my way out, I heard him talking on the phone. “Shondra,” he was saying urgently into the phone. “This is not fucking funny.”

  I stopped and stared at him. He sounded really stressed.

  He looked rough.

  He was pacing out in front of the police station, joints stiff, as he continued to speak softly into the phone.

  “Ughh!” he growled, yanking the phone away from his face.

  “Something wrong?” I asked, momentarily distracted from the loud ‘bang’ in my apartment.

  Honestly, I didn’t think that it was anything to be concerned about. The ‘bang’ was likely Rowen. I had a feeling that it was more likely Rachelle just wanted to talk. And I doubted it was to apologize.

  Theo’s eyes met mine as he scrubbed his face with his hands.

  “I’m waiting on your chief of police to get back,” he said. “I need to talk to him.”

  I looked at the chief’s spot, which was occupied by his police issued cruiser, and said, “Chief’s probably in his office, man.”

  Theo frowned and looked thoughtful.

  “Shondra just told me she saw the Chief and Rowen together at the diner in town eating breakfast,” he said. “She was just calling to tell me that they’d left.”

  I highly doubted that she’d seen them together at all. Not when it’d only been about twenty minutes since I’d left the duplex, and it usually took Rowen at least that to get ready to go in the morning.

  For not having hair, she sure did have a lot of stuff to do to get ‘ready.’

  Not that I was complaining or anything. I liked the end results for sure, even if I thought she looked just as beautiful without makeup as she did with.

  “Well, he’s in there,” I said, not bothering to tell him that Shondra was a lying whore. “I’m fairly sure that he’s in a meeting with the motorcycle patrol right now, though. So he might be a while. But he’s there.”

  Theo climbed the steps.

  “That’s certified personnel entrance only. You’re gonna have to go around,” I said.

  He frowned. “Can’t you buzz me in?”

  I was already shaking my head. “Sorry, but no.”

  Theo’s eyes narrowed, but just as he opened his mouth to say something, my phone buzzed.

  I pulled out my phone and read the text.

  Derek: There’s a woman standing at your door knocking on it and she’s not leaving. Want me to tell her to leave?

  Instead of replying to Theo, I walked to my cruiser and typed instead.

  Dax: No. I’ll be there in ten.

  Derek: 10-4

  Shoving the phone back into my pocket, I gave one last curious look at Theo who was staring me down as I left, then got into my cruiser.

  Pulling up beside the curb so I didn’t block Rachelle when she left, I put it into park and got out.

  “I stayed. Knocked again,” Rachelle said. “There haven’t been any more bangs but the one but… I swear to God, I saw those blinds move once. Someone is in there.”

  That someone could be Rowen… but her car was gone.

  But maybe she had snuck through our combined back yards and had waited until Rachelle wasn’t paying attention before driving away.

  Likely she didn’t want to deal with the confrontation.

  Likely she ignored the door and hoped that Rachelle would go away.

  Luckily, Rachelle hadn’t gone away.

  “Thanks,” I said as I pulled my keys out of my pocket. “I’ll go check it out.”

  “You don’t have a dog or anything,” she said. “Do you?”

  I shook my head. “No dog.”

  “Oh, ‘cause I heard whimpering, too. I thought I was upsetting them when I continued to knock at first, so I stopped,” she continued, obviously not leaving. “I really do need to talk to you.”

  I rolled my eyes and gestured for her to wait, then went inside.

  Closing the door behind me, I flipped on the lights in the hallway.

  Almost on auto-pilot, after finding Rowen’s car gone, I walked to the fridge thinking that she’d left me a note.

  I hadn’t heard from her since I’d left, and since she was just here and Rachelle was here, I would’ve assumed that she would’ve left me a note.

  Only, there was no note.

  Which was highly unlike her.

  She would’ve normally said something.

  I pulled out my phone and sent a text while I looked at the fridge in confusion.

  Half of the letters were on the floor, and there was only one real word that was on the fridge.

  ‘die.’

  What the fuck?

  I switched from texting to calling, and that’s when I heard the sound of my ringtone she’d programmed in for me ringing from the back bedroom.

  It was as I was turning to follow the sound that I saw the collapsed form behind the couch.

  I’d walked right past it on my way inside.

  “Rowen!” I cried out.

  Chapter 18

  Underestimate me. That’ll be fun.

  -Dax to Derek

&
nbsp; Dax

  “She has a severe concussion and a skull fracture,” the doctor explained as she pointed at the top of Rowen’s head where something—likely a hammer—had made contact with Rowen’s head. “We’re watching the swelling on her brain, but we don’t want to lie to you. It’s likely that this is going to require surgery. Swelling has already started around her brain. If it continues, we’re going to have to do surgery to relieve it.”

  “Will she be okay? If you do the surgery to relieve it?” Derek asked.

  Derek had been the first one to me as I’d come practically sprinting out of the house with Rowen in my arms.

  “Dr. Aviv?” A man came into the room, holding a piece of paper.

  Dr. Aviv, Rowen’s doctor, took the paper and scanned it, his eyes stopping on something before he looked up at me.

  “Okay,” he said, handing the paper back. “List it in her chart. This is going to change the meds I have her on.”

  The nurse nodded and received an entirely different med list, causing Derek and I to look at each other.

  When the nurse was gone, Dr. Aviv looked at me, then to Derek.

  “Ms. Roberts, it seems, is pregnant. Those were her labs.”

  Ten words that had the power to change my life.

  I opened my mouth, then closed it, unsure what to say.

  Pregnant.

  “Okay,” Derek took over the questioning. “What…”

  That’s when Rowen’s mom walked through the door, hurrying as fast as her legs would take her.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, her voice breathless. “What happened?”

  Derek looked at me, then looked at the doctor.

  “Dr. Aviv, this is my mother, Rowen’s mother. She’s…”

  Before Derek could finish, Luke filled the door.

  He didn’t come running in, but he definitely wasn’t walking, either.

  “Tell me what’s going on,” Luke ordered.

  His eyes weren’t on the doctor, though. They were on me.

  I opened my mouth to tell him what was happening—what had happened—but just then the sweetest sound on this Earth filled my ears.

  “Dax.”

  My eyes went from Luke’s wired ones to Rowen’s, and I couldn’t stop myself.

  I leaned down, dropping down to one knee, and brought her hand up to my face.

  Pressing a kiss to her palm, I said, “Rowen, you’re okay.”

  She smiled and rolled her eyes.

  “You’re here. I know that I’m okay.” She narrowed her eyes. “They shaved my head again, didn’t they?”

  I snorted. “No. They didn’t have to. But they might if…”

  “…hit her with a hammer,” I heard Derek say softly.

  Rowen’s eyes widened. “My head hurts. That’s why, isn’t it? Shondra hit me with a hammer.”

  Shondra.

  I looked over at Derek, who’d heard the words his sister had said because he’d paused mid explanation.

  “Derek.”

  Derek nodded and pulled out his phone.

  The doctor took over explaining to Luke and Reese what was going on, leaving me to look back at Rowen.

  “It hurts really bad,” she whispered, her eyes closing. “Can you turn off the light?”

  I didn’t hesitate to plunge the room into darkness.

  The doctor never missed a beat in his explanation, and I distinctly heard the words ‘she’s pregnant’ all over again.

  And, like last time, they still didn’t scare me or freak me out.

  “Better?” I asked softly.

  She nodded once. “Better.”

  “Don’t move your head if you can help it,” I suggested. “You have a skull fracture and a concussion.”

  She squeezed my hand. “What else?”

  I didn’t say the ‘P’ word, instead, I was about to tell her that we’d just learned who the person responsible was and hadn’t even considered any suspects up until this point.

  Except Katy, who I hadn’t realized was even in the room, said, “She’s pregnant?”

  That scream of excitement had Rowen closing her eyes.

  Then opening them right back up.

  Her eyes resembled those little emojis that she liked to use so much.

  The one with the wide eyes and the ‘O’ mouth.

  “Yeah, it’s kind of new for me, too,” I admitted.

  “She’s only about two to three weeks along, according to her blood levels,” the doctor said, explaining.

  “I’m going to be a grandma?”

  That from my mother.

  Another person I hadn’t realized that was there.

  “You’re already a grandmother, Peyton.” My dad laughed. “Don’t act all excited. Two weeks is very early.”

  “Would y’all shut the fuck up and get out,” I snapped.

  Rowen’s eyes were getting wider and wider. At this point, I could see her entire eyeball.

  The room went silent, and slowly but surely the entire thing emptied except for the doctor who came over to look down at Rowen.

  “You have a concussion,” he said, shining a light in her eyes.

  Rowen blinked.

  “Does your head hurt?” he asked.

  She swallowed hard and then said, “Yes, sir.”

  “I suspect that’s going to be the case for a week or two while this fracture heals,” he said, shining his light into the other eye. “As of right now, you’re doing as good as can be expected. I have the nurse coming in to see if she can get a visual of the baby via transvaginal ultrasound. But it’s too early to even see a heartbeat yet, so I doubt we’ll be able to tell much other than seeing implantation.”

  Rowen swallowed hard.

  “Okay,” she said.

  “If your brain starts to swell, we’ll have to take you into surgery,” he said. “Right now, I don’t know how it’ll look for you in a day’s time. It’s possible that you’ll be just fine. Won’t need any surgeries at all. But it is a possibility, okay?”

  “Okay,” she said.

  It was said so softly that I could barely hear.

  She was scared.

  God, I was scared, too.

  “You’re a lucky woman,” the doctor continued. “This could’ve been a whole lot worse than it was.”

  That was the same thought that I had.

  Had Rachelle not knocked on that door…

  “If you need anything between then and now, page your nurse. She has permission to give you pain meds. I’ll be in to check on you in just a little bit, okay?” he said.

  After Rowen nodded understanding, the doctor left, leaving me and her alone.

  I sat on the side of her bed, unsure what to say.

  “I was on birth control,” she whispered.

  Her promise had me grinning.

  “Sometimes it’s just meant to be, sweetheart,” I said. “Had this happened with some random chick, I might’ve been a bit upset about it. But you’re not some random chick. You’re my Rowen. My girlfriend. My soon-to-be wife. It’s okay.”

  She raised one brow at me, her eyes having met mine when I said ‘soon-to-be wife.’

  “Ummm,” she said. “I think you have to ask a certain question first before I can be your ‘soon-to-be’ anything.”

  I grinned.

  “Well, I have a feeling that you didn’t get a good look at the fridge today,” he said. “I’m assuming that Shondra got a go at it before you did and changed the letters before you had a chance to read it.”

  She blinked.

  “It said ‘I hope you die’ or something to that effect,” she said. “Why, what did you put on it?”

  I shook my head. “You’ll just have to wait until you can read it again.”

  She scrunched up her nose in annoyance.

  “Whatever,” she muttered. “That’s crap.”

  I snorted and ran my finger lightly down her no
se.

  “Would you like to tell me what happened from the beginning?” I asked. “I’ve pieced bits of it together, but I still don’t know exactly what happened. Hell, I had no idea Shondra was involved until you woke up.”

  She went through exactly what happened, starting with hearing the bang and ending with Shondra hitting her with the hammer.

  “She looked behind me,” she continued. “I thought she saw something outside. But when I turned around and looked, everything went black.”

  “Where were you standing when this happened?” I wondered.

  “In between the kitchen and the living room,” she answered. “My back was to the wall next to your entryway table.”

  Right next to the doorway that led into the front bedroom.

  A thud-thud had us both turning to look at the entryway to Rowen’s room.

  A woman appeared that had me grinning wide.

  “This isn’t going to be awkward or anything, is it?” Pru asked.

  I snorted. “No. Not unless you make it awkward.”

  Pru was the daughter of one of my dad’s best friends, and we’d all grown up together. She was a year or so older than me and liked to make sure I never forgot it.

  “I’d never make anything awkward.” She snickered as she made her way up to Rowen’s bedside. “Rowen, how are you?”

  After Rowen and Pru exchanged pleasantries, Pru got her ready for an ultrasound. An ultrasound that had a rather large wand covered in a condom going up my girl’s vagina.

  “Is there another way we could do this?” I asked, feeling uncomfortable for Rowen, as well as myself.

  “Not this early, no.” Pru apologized as she started to press things on the computer in front of her.

  It was about a minute and a half later that she was pointing at some blackish gray blob on the screen saying, “There it is!”

  ‘It’ being a circle with a bunch of gray around it.

  “That’s… it?” I asked.

  “That’s it.” Pru nodded. “Cool, huh?”

  I leaned down so that my face was close to Rowen’s ear and said, “I don’t see shit.”

  She turned her face into mine and started laughing.

  That laughing immediately turned to a groan.

  “Sorry, sorry,” I apologized, pressing both of my palms to either side of her face. “No laughing.”

  She smiled, despite the pain.

  “I don’t know shit about kids.”