Keep It Classy

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  I just bet he would.

  The creeper.

  “All right, have a good day, Jeb.” I nearly choked on the nice words as they came out of my mouth.

  “Oh, I will,” he said silkily.

  I almost gagged.

  “Bye.” I hung up, then stared at the walls of my living room wondering if I could get out of the thing I had to do next—contest my ticket. Sighing, I grabbed my purse and headed for the courthouse.

  I’d originally planned on just paying the damn thing, but then I’d seen the fine for the ticket and had then talked to my insurance company who had decided that since it would be my fourth ticket in a year, they’d be upping my insurance—considerably.

  And since I didn’t want to pay anything more on my insurance than I was already paying, I chose to contest the ticket.

  I’d been in the middle of my old chick’s hair—an old chick that happened to be dead since that was what I did for a living, dead people’s hair—when I’d gotten the call that my court date was today, and not to be late.

  Which had then moved my phone meeting with Jeb up, meaning I hadn’t finished my client for Jubilee.

  Which also meant that I was now in a bad damn mood because I then had to go back and do it tonight instead of working on my other job.

  Which pissed me off because that wasn’t how this worked.

  They didn’t get to call me and tell me that today was my court date and expect me to show up.

  Sighing in frustration, I got out of my truck and slammed the door closed, beeping the locks with the keyless entry before practically stomping inside.

  And wouldn’t it just be perfect if the first person I saw was none other than the reason I was there in the first place.

  Chapter 5

  She believed she could, but she was tired, lazy and would also rather stay at home with her iPad. So she didn’t.

  -Text from Turner to Castiel

  Castiel

  She looked pissed.

  Her curly auburn hair was bouncing around her face with each stomp that she took in my direction.

  Then again, I’d be pissed, too, if I’d gotten the call that the court date to contest my ticket was moved up to an hour from now.

  Why had that happened?

  Because I’d been assigned to work on the case of the sex website serial killer with Easton by my chief, and to not work on anything else until I was no longer needed.

  Meaning all my court cases were either rescheduled or dropped.

  However, instead of this one being dropped, this one was rescheduled for today, and woooo boy, did she look pissed.

  “Hello, Turner,” I said carefully, wary of her angry mood.

  She turned her pale green eyes in my direction, then narrowed them.

  “Hendrix,” she practically spat.

  Her cheeks colored, and I wasn’t sure if that was because she was angry, or because she was embarrassed.

  Whatever the reason, it was adorable.

  She was dressed in a black Black Sabbath t-shirt, black sweats, and black socks.

  Her hair was also falling out of her bun in all directions, making me want to tuck the strays behind her ears and back up into her ponytail.

  And there was one lone ringlet right in front of her eye that was bobbing back and forth with the wind.

  I couldn’t help myself.

  I tucked it behind her ear.

  Then we both jumped as the alarm on the truck that I’d seen her get out of in the parking lot started to go off.

  “Shoot,” she said, whipping around and fumbling with the keys that were still in her hand. “Turn off!”

  I took the keys from her hand and pressed the unlock button, effectively shutting off the panic mode she’d managed to enable when I’d touched her hair.

  “Here.” I handed her back the keys.

  She snatched them from me.

  “Nice truck,” I said, trying not to sound bitter.

  She’d had a brand-new car when I’d pulled her over and given her a ticket, though. And now she had that?

  What the fuck?

  “Thanks,” she said. “My dad gave it to me.”

  I felt my stomach lurch at that announcement.

  The fact that it was something that my ex-wife, Cher, had gotten from her own father while we’d been together wasn’t lost on me.

  That’d been a rather large bone of contention when we were married.

  I’d wanted to give my wife stuff that’d I’d provided for her. I didn’t want to compete with what Daddy could give her.

  Which made me frown ferociously.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked curiously.

  I felt my face go devoid of emotion as I shrugged. “No reason. Do you want to follow me since we’re going to the same place?”

  She shrugged and stayed two steps behind me the entire way.

  I was laughing internally the whole time.

  ***

  I wasn’t laughing at all an hour later when the judge, a diehard NASCAR fan, was reminiscing with Turner about her father’s skills on the track.

  I was fairly sure that the entire courtroom didn’t know what to think when the normally unflappable Judge Hideaway lit up from the inside out at the mention of the man who was Turner’s father.

  And it wasn’t because Turner had brought it up.

  It was because Turner, who was apparently a skilled driver herself when she chose to drive, was recognized by the judge the moment she entered the courtroom.

  The ticket had been tossed out over ten minutes ago, and now the two of them were talking about a race that had taken place a few weeks back where the truck I’d seen Turner arrive in had been given to her father as a congratulatory present on his big win. His eighteenth of the season, and his two hundredth of his career.

  “I just can’t believe it,” Judge Hideaway said again. “Hendrix, did you know that you were giving a NASCAR legend a ticket?”

  I shook my head. “No, sir. I just knew that she was driving fast in a part of town that normally had kids in it at that time of day.”

  Granted, it’d been a holiday the day I’d given a ticket, but it was unlikely that Turner had known that at the time.

  “It was a school holiday.” Turner turned her glare on me. “Which you damn well know.”

  I waited for Judge Hideaway, who usually hated coarse language, to rip her a new one. But the old fucker laughed instead.

  Son of a bitch.

  I gathered my things to go, seeing as there was no reason I was still here, and waited for him to dismiss me.

  It took him another ten minutes of reminiscing to realize he was holding up the court.

  “Well, I guess I better let you go,” the judge said. “I hope you have a good holiday. And tell your dad good luck at the next race.”

  Then his gavel banged, and I was up and on my feet.

  I didn’t waste time marching straight out of the courtroom and to my police cruiser.

  I’d just gotten to the door, and had my hand on the door handle to unlock it, when I saw Turner out of my peripheral vision high-tailing it to her truck as well.

  I didn’t wait to make sure that she made it, though.

  Instead, I got inside my own vehicle and started it up before I could give Miss Fancy Pants a talking to.

  Chapter 6

  What inspires me to get out of bed in the morning?

  My bladder, mostly.

  -Castiel’s secret thoughts

  Castiel

  Needless to say, my mood that day wasn’t the greatest.

  So when I got to The Gates, a club recently acquired by the Bear Bottom Guardians, I wasn’t in the partying mood.

  However, since it was a celebration for Zee and Jubilee’s upcoming marriage, I was going.

  They were getting married the next day, and tonight was the night we were celebrating their upcoming nuptials. The
y would all be gathered in the back room.

  I was likely the last to arrive, and that was due to me spending the entire day trying to clear my schedule of everything but what I was about to start working on with Easton.

  Easton who, despite his pretty boy looks, was a slave driver and knew his craft well.

  I’d been doing this detective business for going on eight years now, but Easton had been doing it for going on fifteen, and you could tell.

  He knew his shit.

  Even more, he was a fucking whiz at the computer and could do things I hadn’t even heard of.

  If I had to share my office with someone, at least it was him.

  I would’ve fucking hated having to share it with someone that didn’t work.

  “Yo, fucker,” I heard from behind me.

  I turned to find Liner there leaning against the side of the building I’d yet to go in.

  “Hey, what’s up, man?” I asked, walking over to him and offering him my hand.

  He took it and shook it once before letting it go.

  “Nothing much,” he grumbled. “Thinking about how bad next week is going to suck.”

  I frowned. “Why?”

  “There’s a storm coming, and they expect it to be pretty fucking bad.” He groaned. “Tornados in goddamn November. Who the fuck knew?”

  I thought about that.

  “They did say in the Farmer’s Almanac that this year would be colder and wetter. I guess that could be the truth.” I shrugged. “But, even if it wasn’t ice, it’d still be a storm.”

  He grunted out an agreeing sound.

  “You got that right,” he said. “I’d be out in that storm no matter which way it went.”

  “True enough,” I said as I gestured to the door. “Why aren’t you inside?”

  “There was a lotta squealing going on when Jubilee got some presents, and I got a bitch of a headache,” he said, eyes scanning the parking lot behind me. “And I thought I saw someone in there that I knew. Came out here when she did and…didn’t find her.”

  “Who was it?” I asked, curious.

  He shrugged. “No one.”

  Uh huh.

  No one.

  Sure.

  But I wouldn’t pry. If he didn’t want to tell me, who was I to say that he had to?

  “Coming inside?” I asked curiously.

  “Nope.” He paused. “I’m going to give it a few more minutes. Maybe I did see her. Maybe I didn’t. I just want to know for sure.”

  I gave him a thumb up.

  “I’ll see you inside then,” I said.

  He nodded once. “Sounds good.”

  But when I got inside, the first thing I saw was her.

  She wasn’t in anything I’d ever seen her in before, either.

  She was wearing a dress.

  A skin-tight dress that showed off some of the best assets I’d ever seen on a woman before.

  I’d seen her in tight clothes, of course.

  I’d seen her in tight pants. Then I’d seen her in tight tops and sweats.

  Hell, I’d seen her in a dress before.

  But goddamn. I hadn’t seen her in one like that.

  She took my breath away and, I was ashamed to say, made my dick so hard that I found it increasingly hard to think.

  I practically forced myself to look away from where she was standing next to Zee and Jubilee, and found the first waitress I could catch and ordered a beer.

  I would’ve gone for something a little bit stronger had I not been needed back at work the next morning bright and goddamn early.

  “What’s that look for?” Bayou asked as I came to a stop next to him.

  He was holding another member’s daughter, Astrid. Astrid belonged to Rome and Izzy. At a quick glance, I didn’t see a single one in sight.

  “Where’re her overprotective parents?” I asked, reaching for the rare gift.

  It was very rare indeed to find the little girl without one or both of them hovering close.

  “Bathroom,” he said, sounding amused as he gave up the treasure.

  “I highly fuckin’ doubt that they’re both using the bathroom for its intended purposes,” I said as I curled the baby up against my chest.

  She was much bigger than the first time I held her, but she still felt tiny in my arms.

  A pang of longing went through me as I wished for the impossible, but I quickly shoved those thoughts aside.

  They wouldn’t get me anywhere, and since I couldn’t fix the past, I’d have to stay in the future.

  Especially since the past needed lots and lots of alcohol to maneuver the minefield that was my memories.

  “Hey, let me hold her!” I heard a whine to my right.

  I looked over to see Wade holding out his hands as if I would give her right up.

  “You can fuck right the hell off,” I said as I snuggled the sleeping girl closer. She wrapped one of her tiny arms partially around my neck and flipped her head so that she was drooling down my neck, melting my heart. “I just got her.”

  “But I never get to hold her,” he said.

  I grinned and offered him my free hand. “How’s the leg?”

  I hadn’t seen him in quite a few weeks. He and his wife and newly-adopted children had gone home to visit with their parents early before the holiday, celebrating because Wade’s parents had decided to go on a month-long cruise around the world for the majority of the next three weeks.

  It was weird, because I usually saw Wade more often, but lately with all he had going on, I hadn’t had the opportunity.

  He wasn’t only my friend, but a good buddy that I counted on to be one of the go-betweens for inter-department cooperation. He worked for the Bear Bottom Police department, and he and I shared information that connected with multiple cases.

  “It’s doing great, actually,” he admitted.

  I studied his face and realized that he was, in fact, doing great.

  A while ago, if I’d been doing the same thing I was doing now, I would’ve realized he was lying.

  Yet neither one of us would’ve called him out on his lie.

  Because I was hurting just as badly as him, but in a completely different way. Who was I to call him on his shit when I wasn’t even acknowledging my own?

  “That’s good to know, man,” I said, eyes going around Wade to look for his wife. “Where’s that woman of yours?”

  He gestured with his chin in the direction of the bathrooms. “One of the kids needed cleaned up after having some cake.”

  I snorted, which caused the little girl in my arms to shift and start to stir.

  She sat up sleepily and blinked, unsurprised to find herself in arms that weren’t either of her parents’. She wasn’t picky about the club brothers or their wives, but that was where the line was drawn. If they weren’t her tribe, then they weren’t allowed to hold her.

  Lucky for me, I was part of the select few that she allowed the privilege.

  Her smile was heartwarming when she saw who was holding her.

  After taking a few long blinks, she threw her arms back around my neck and stayed there, causing me to nearly weep.

  I missed this.

  God, did I miss it.

  “She being good?” Rome’s voice came from behind me.

  I turned slightly to see Izzy darting away to the food table, and Rome walking closer and closer to us, his eyes on his daughter and nothing else.

  “Yep,” I said. “I’ve had her for all of two seconds, though. You can’t have her back yet.”

  Rome grinned as he arrived and ran one finger down the line of his daughter’s spine, causing her to giggle.

  She didn’t let me go, though. Only tightened her hold around my neck.

  She didn’t realize it, but she was giving me something that I wanted badly.

  I closed my eyes and relished the way it felt to have tiny arms around my neck again, laughing in my
ear, and when I opened them once more it was to have three men looking at me like they knew my secret.

  They did know it, of course.

  That was one of the deciding factors as to why I was allowed into the MC at all.

  I wasn’t sure what brought me to Bear Bottom.

  Hell, I’d just driven away and hadn’t looked back that horrible day.

  I wasn’t sure why I stopped in Bear Bottom. Hell, I wasn’t even sure why the hell I’d done what I’d done in leaving in the first place.

  I should’ve fought. Should’ve made it to where Cher had a fight on her hands.

  But I didn’t want that for my nephew. I didn’t want him to have to fight between two people, one that really did only want the best for him, and one that only felt an obligation.

  The day I’d left had been the hardest day of my life. Literally, walking out that door and getting on my bike had been seriously wrong and foreign. I felt like I should turn around every single mile that had spread.

  Which had partially been why I’d landed in Bear Bottom.

  At the time I’d arrived and pulled up a chair in a diner in a town that I hadn’t even looked at the name of as I’d entered the city limits, now I felt the town’s name was fitting. I really was at the bottom. Seriously, there was nowhere else that I could go but up from that point…at least that was what I’d thought.

  And that had been where I’d found the motorcycle club, the Bear Bottom Guardians MC.

  They’d been sitting at the table across from me, talking and laughing.

  I’d spent ten years in the military. Five years as a police officer for Kilgore, Texas. And I’d left it all behind because she had asked me to. Cher, the homewrecker.

  The men of the club? They looked like they had all their shit together. They looked like they enjoyed life.

  And I hadn’t realized that I’d even garnered their attention until I’d been sitting on my bike after lunch, wondering where to go from there.

  “Oh, shit,” I heard a voice curse, interrupting my inward musing. “Dude, he almost decked her.”

  I turned in time to see Turner on her knees, staring up at some man that was rearing back for another punch.

  Only, before he could finish the downward arc of his fist, Turner reared back herself and arrowed a line drive, ramming her fist straight into the man’s balls.