Joke's On You- To beta

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  She shrugged. “I didn’t like telling Kerrie everything about her. It was awful. I wanted him to see me, and he only saw her.”

  “So you started to call the health department on her,” I guessed. “Stopped showing up for your shifts on time. Pretty much, you made her life a living hell. All for a man that tried to strangle her. That’s how you knew he tried to strangle her, too. Were you there?”

  Moshe looked away.

  “I followed him,” she admitted. “But…” She narrowed her eyes then. “I didn’t see what happened. The alley was too dark, and he blocked her. I thought they were having sex. So I called the cops.”

  “That’s why they were there so fast,” I guessed. “You lied and said she was getting attacked when you thought they were having sex. You saved her life.”

  Moshe’s jaw clenched before she opened her mouth and started spewing more venom.

  “I hate her,” Moshe hissed. “It’s always, ‘Dillan, Dillan, Dillan.’ Do you know how awful it is to always be compared to a woman that is so high on this fictional pedestal of his that she’ll never be reached or equaled?”

  “Dillan doesn’t want to be on that pedestal,” I said finally. “And, sadly for you, you fell for Kerrie’s shit. All of it. You’re the one that’s going to go to jail now, not him. And for what? Nothing. Because he’s not going to come bail you out. He’s going to deny, deny, deny.”

  Moshe didn’t like my words.

  “He loves me.”

  “Does he love you more than he loves Dillan?” I asked seriously.

  Because, despite not liking to hear that Kerrie loved her at all, that was exactly what was going on here.

  Kerrie had some misguided love for Dillan—my Dillan—and this was likely never going to stop.

  The man needed to go to jail.

  “I want a lawyer,” she hissed.

  Fuck.

  All that hard work, right down the drain.

  “Fine,” I said as I helped her stand. “But, just sayin’, you might want to hire your own. A really good one. Because you’re going to need it.”

  When I handed Moshe off to another officer, I went back inside to survey the damage.

  The big batch of dough that Ken had been working on for the donuts was on the floor and ruined.

  The bags of flour that Moshe had attacked in her raging were in the process of being cleaned up by Ford, Hayes, and my brother.

  Foster was cleaning chocolate icing off the walls.

  And the rest of my SWAT team were helping Ken do whatever he asked them to do to make Dillan’s store open on time.

  It wasn’t until I arrived at their sides that I saw that they were fetching ingredients for him so he could make another batch.

  “I need a bag of flour,” Ken said. “If we need to mix and match between bags, we can.”

  Then we went to work, Ken our leader, and made the hell out of some dough.

  ***

  Four hours later, Dillan arrived to a pristine kitchen, and dough that hadn’t been ruined.

  Ken nodded at Dillan, who was frowning at everyone in her kitchen, and then turned straight to me.

  “Tell me exactly what the hell is going on. Right now.”

  Each word I spoke had her mouth falling farther and farther open until Bourne, who was covered in flour, said, “I’m not sure that you should be leaning on that table. It’s pretty dusty with flour still.”

  Bourne gestured at his messy shirt.

  That was when Dillan burst out crying.

  Since I’d managed to slip into something clean before she’d gotten here, I pulled her into my arms and dropped a kiss onto her forehead.

  “Why are you crying?” I chuckled against her hair.

  “I knew there was something going on. Everybody was too quiet.” She looked around the room in despair.

  I wiped the tears that were gathering under her eyes, much faster now.

  “Why’d you start crying before you even knew what happened?” Bourne teased.

  Dillan’s eyes widened at my brother.

  “I don’t know.” She paused. “I thought that you were here to help on my first day… it was really sweet of all of you. But now I’m crying because Ken nearly got killed.”

  “I didn’t nearly get killed, girl,” Ken disagreed. “I was allowing it all to happen so that you could put her in jail and throw away the key.”

  Dillan’s lips twitched. “Well… I guess I should say thank you then, shouldn’t I?”

  Ken wiped the rest of the flour off of his hands, then washed them in the large industrial sink that was brimming with dirty dishes.

  Seconds after that, I realized that he was done talking.

  Just like that.

  “Well,” Bourne said as he looked at the trays and trays of donuts. “Can I decorate one?”

  And that’s how the SWAT team of Kilgore Police Department served donuts to the citizens of Kilgore, Texas. In fact, it didn’t just stop at Kilgore, either. It was tweeted about ten minutes into the opening that we were there, and people started coming from miles around just to see us in action.

  Even if our donuts looked like shit, they still tasted good.

  Chapter 15

  You sound better with your mouth closed.

  -Booth to Bourne

  Booth

  The next day I found myself at a bar, carrying a baby gift wrapped in a yellow duck bag.

  The bartender, an elderly man who looked like he’d lived a hard life, grinned at my full arms.

  “They’re in the back.”

  I nodded my head in thanks and headed to the back where Dax was sitting in the middle of the room surrounded by a shit ton of presents.

  All the while, he frowned ferociously at the wall.

  I set the yellow gift bag down on the table in front of him, and he growled.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked curiously.

  “He’s mad because he has to open all this shit,” Nathan supplied helpfully.

  My brows rose. “And?”

  “And his wife was having contractions when he left, so all he can think about is getting back home,” Nathan continued.

  I understood that completely.

  “You do realize, right, that we live in Kilgore, Texas?” I said to him. “It takes five minutes to get across the whole fuckin’ town when you’re using your police lights and sirens.”

  Dax rolled his eyes.

  “It’s not even that. It’s the fact that I have to open all this shit, and then deal with it,” he muttered.

  I reached into my bag, pulled the gift out, handed it to him, and then folded up the bag and the tissue paper.

  Nathan, seeing what I’d done, did the same thing.

  Seconds after that, my brother walked in with an unwrapped car seat.

  He set the thing down beside the table, flicked open his knife, sliced open the box, and then pulled the entire damn car seat out of the box.

  “Now you can throw your shit in there,” he said as if he’d somehow heard the entire conversation even though I knew for a fact he’d been outside.

  He’d been talking to someone, who I assumed was Delanie, but couldn’t be a hundred percent sure since he was being so secretive about who he was talking to.

  We’d ridden together, and during that ride, he’d been extremely cautious about what he said.

  Which was very unlike my brother.

  Yes, he definitely had a thing for a certain sister.

  “Perfect,” Malachi, who’d walked in with eight bags of diapers stacked sky high in his hands, said.

  He dropped all eight boxes into the box.

  “Do you want me to install the car seat in your truck?” Bourne asked Dax.

  Dax sighed. “I’m an ass. But shit. I hate making Rowen do anything extra. The idea of having to do all this while running on three hours of sleep over the last forty-eight hours really wasn’t sitting well with me
.” He paused. “You know how to put car seats in?”

  Bourne nodded. “Come on. I’ll show you what you have to do.”

  Ten minutes later we were all crowded outside. Adam, Sammy, Malachi, Nathan, Saint—who showed up with a big ass box of his own and put it straight into the bed of Dax’s truck—were off to the side talking quietly.

  “What’s in the box?” I heard Adam ask Saint.

  “A pack and play or something. It was on their list at Target.” Saint paused. “The lady looked at me like she was scared to death. I think she actually muttered ‘help that dear sweet child’ while she was ringing me up.”

  Adam chuckled and continued the conversation, but it was lost on me when Dax asked a question.

  “Can you just use the car seat strap?” Dax asked.

  “You can,” I muttered. “But why bother when you have a new truck and the car seat anchors in it? Trust me, they’re fuckin’ amazing. And so easy to use. See that little silver thing right there?”

  Bourne was on one side, I was on the other, and Dax was inside the truck actually installing the car seat on his own.

  “I don’t think I had anything like this when I was a kid,” Dax muttered.

  “Shit’s safe now,” I said. “Things have even changed since Asa was a baby. Back then, you could turn them around when they’re one. Now they recommend waiting until they’re two. Which sucked because Asa gets carsick and rode way better the moment I turned him around.”

  “Don’t blame him,” Ford, who was in the front seat looking on, said. “I’d throw up if I had to ride backward, too.”

  “Amen,” Louis said as he watched the man install the car seat base. “This thing just clicks in?”

  Dax took the car seat from Louis and started to set it in.

  “The seat is backward,” I said. “Turn it around.”

  He did.

  It still didn’t fit.

  “Scoot it farther toward the seat and lean it back slightly,” Bourne said. “The seat’s in a reclining position. There. Perfect.”

  The seat clicked into place, and Dax crawled out of the truck.

  I had to move or be moved.

  I moved.

  We all trudged back into the bar after that to finish opening Dax’s presents. But only after Dax snapped a photo of the car seat in his truck and sent it to who I only could assume was his wife.

  Once everyone was inside, Dax started reaching for the presents again, but stalled out on mine.

  “What the fuck is this?” he asked as he picked the small box up.

  “A gift card,” I replied dryly.

  Dax rolled his eyes.

  “I mean what the gift card is taped to, dumbass,” he replied, flipping the blue box over and inspecting the writing. “What the fuck is a Nose Frieda?”

  I didn’t answer as he tried to make sense of the box.

  In fact, my lips were twitching.

  “What the fuck is this?” Dax asked again as he looked at the present in confusion.

  I pulled my phone out and found the video that I wanted to use for just this instant.

  “It’s my secret weapon,” I found myself saying. “I found it on Amazon. Here’s the video.”

  Dax holding the present in his hand, he watched the demonstration video on Amazon that a customer had posted in his review, and nearly gagged.

  “There’s no fuckin’ way in the world I’m suckin’ my kid’s snot out with this,” Dax said as he held the offending object up in his hands.

  I laughed and slapped him on the back.

  “Dax, my man,” I said teasingly. “You’ll find that there’s a lot of fuckin’ shit that you’ll do when it comes to your baby. Trust me.”

  ***

  I pressed redial, and the phone went to voicemail.

  Again.

  Rolling my eyes, I headed for home.

  “What’s that smile on your face for?” Malachi asked as he walked to his motorcycle.

  I gestured to my phone.

  “Going to voicemail,” I said. “She must be at the vet again.”

  Malachi chuckled as he threw his leg over the bike.

  “Guess I’ll see you there. They took him off the medication today that kept him sleepy. I’m headed there now to make sure he won’t bite my face off before I take him home,” he said.

  I saluted him. “I’ll see you there, then.”

  The moment that I pulled into the parking lot of the vet’s office, I saw her car, just like I thought that I would.

  Malachi got off the bike next to me and we walked inside together.

  I grinned at the night attendant who’d been letting my girl slip in here after hours. Hopefully when I wouldn’t know.

  She smiled back and waved me in.

  While Dillan had been doing her creeping around, hiding and sneaking, I’d been doing the same thing.

  Me and Bobo had come to an understanding.

  One that would hopefully mean he’d get the chance he deserved.

  Bobo was a tough sell, though. Each time that we visited, he was still his growly self, even in his ‘calmed’ state.

  I just plain didn’t trust the dog.

  He was intelligent, protective, and overall a really good dog.

  But I just couldn’t trust him with my kid. Wouldn’t.

  Which made me thankful that Malachi had agreed to take him in. I knew he’d be treated well, and Bobo would get the life he deserved.

  The next two minutes were sort of a blur.

  “Mr. Malachi, I have a few concerns I’d like to speak with you about,” the chick called.

  Malachi, who was obviously going to have to talk to the girl, waved me on.

  I went, winding my way down the long hallway that led to the back rooms.

  I turned the corner and frowned when I saw a kennel door open.

  My eyes were scanning the area at once.

  On the left there were the kennels, lined up in a long line. Concrete on the sides. Wire fencing on the fronts. And on the other side of the hallway was a long line of windows where there was an operating room, a showering station, as well as an exam table.

  Something shifting caught my eye, and I slowly dragged my head toward the opposite direction just as I rounded the kennel’s entrance.

  I walked to it, thinking that they were putting Bobo back in his kennel for the night, and nearly died right then and there when an iron bar came swinging right at my head the moment I ducked my head around the cage.

  Stupid, amateur thing to do.

  I knew better.

  Abruptly, I fell to my hands and knees, stunned by a blow to the head.

  The moment that I was down, I blinked rapidly, trying to clear my vision.

  But only ended up making it worse when the blood started to leak down over my forehead and into my eyes.

  I moved, sitting up, and hastily wiped at my eyes.

  “Stay put, little doggie,” Kerrie’s nasty voice said.

  That’s when I heard the gate slam closed and realized that I’d made an even bigger mistake.

  I swallowed hard.

  How had he gotten out without me knowing?

  The fuckin’ cops that I spoke with said that the monitor was tamper proof! Not to mention I hadn’t gotten a single alarm that Kerrie had left his humble abode.

  Confusion tinging my features, I forced my body to move toward the cage’s door, only to find it solidly shut.

  I stood up, using the chain links for purchase, and practically dragged myself upward so I could see over the half cinder block wall with the panel of windows above it.

  What I saw nearly dropped me back to my knees.

  Dillan, her phone in her hand, had her hands up high as she pleaded with Kerrie, who was walking toward her with purpose in every stride.

  Dillan’s back hit the wall just as Kerrie walked past Bobo, who was laying out on the exam table, looking ragged but awake. />
  Kerrie paused to press his gun against the dog’s head, but just when he was about to pull the trigger, the dog jerked.

  One second, he was lying on his side, and the next the dog was falling off the other side of the exam table.

  It didn’t stop him from taking a bullet, but it did save his life and kept him from taking one to the head.

  His side where the bullet had penetrated immediately started bleeding.

  Blood coated the white floor as Kerrie didn’t spare the dog another glance in his pursuit of Dillan.

  I kicked the fucking gate as hard as I could and only ended up falling on my ass for my trouble because I was still dizzy from taking the bar to the head.

  That’s when I patted my pockets for my cell phone.

  It wasn’t there.

  I stood back up, using the wall this time, and tried not to think about whatever was wet all over my backside.

  Instead, I focused on trying to see through the dizziness.

  I nearly hurled when I saw Kerrie nose to nose with Dillan.

  I screamed.

  “No!” I slammed my hand down on the fence. “Kerrie! Don’t fuckin’ do it.”

  Malachi would come.

  He would hear.

  This place wasn’t that fuckin’ big.

  Except my yells went unheard.

  I kicked and slammed my fists so hard against the chain link that the bolts started to rattle in the ceiling.

  Still, I was stuck inside.

  “Goddammit!” I roared.

  The dogs next to me started to howl right along with me.

  I took a step back and took a running kick at the gate, kicking as hard as I could.

  It didn’t budge.

  Tears of frustration started to leak from my eyes, and all I could do was hold on to the chain link and stare as Kerrie reached forward and wrapped his hands around Dillan’s neck.

  Her face immediately turned red as she tried to struggle and kick.

  “Malachi!” I screamed, hoping he would hear. Knowing it was futile. Doing it anyway.

  “Kerrie! Don’t!” I bellowed. “Let her go.”

  My pleading caused Dillan’s eyes to come to me.