Lord Have Mercy

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  While Camryn was changing into the sweatpants and massive T-shirt that was at least five sizes too big for her, I’d taken a look through the rest of her place. It looked unused.

  The desk was there. The shelves were lined with books. But the books looked unread.

  I flipped the channel to the History channel, stopping short when I saw the Vikings show my sister loved.

  Me, I didn’t see the big deal. Honestly, it was a good show, but I didn’t see the reason for the complete and utter devotion that so many women gave to it—least of all my sister.

  She would say, ‘But, Flint, look at all the beards!’ She had said that so many times before she had begun to annoy me.

  But, since I’d gone through the entirety of Camryn’s cable subscription and didn’t see a single thing I wanted to watch more, I set the remote down on the edge of the couch and shifted slightly once more.

  When she moaned and shifted, her hair falling into her face, I found myself moving without telling myself to.

  Her hair had shifted to cover her mouth and part of her nose, and I curled my fingers around the strands, surprised when I felt how soft it was.

  Enraptured now, I tugged lightly on her ponytail. Excitement and awe flowed through my veins as her hair tumbled out of the ponytail and fell to drape across my lap.

  A curl had fallen to run the length of my zipper, and I had a fleeting thought wondering what it would feel like to have her hair draped across my bare thighs.

  She’d be so fucking soft. I knew it.

  Unable to help myself now, I sifted my hand through her hair, tugging lightly to work the tangles out.

  I did this absently as I watched the rest of the show, and periodically looked down just to study her face.

  Once I got my fill, I’d return my gaze to the screen only to glance down just because I could.

  It was as the show was ending and the main character was screaming as they charged into battle that I glanced down and saw her eyes open and on me.

  They were soft, and she had a small smile on her face.

  “I like my hair played with,” she said. “I especially like it when I don’t have to ask.”

  I grinned at her. “Flint Stone, at your service.”

  She snickered. “That’ll never get old.”

  I didn’t doubt that it would. She was amused by the smallest of things.

  “I’m starving,” I told her, still playing with her hair.

  She rolled until she could see the clock in the kitchen, and then squinted.

  “It’s eleven at night…”

  I shrugged. “My stomach doesn’t care that it shouldn’t be eating. Are you hungry?”

  Please say yes!

  “Yes,” she answered.

  I tugged lightly on her hair to tilt her head back. “I can cook some eggs, or we can go to Whataburger.”

  She blinked. “What kind of question is that?”

  Chapter 8

  How do you measure how heavy a red hot chili pepper is? Give it a weigh, give it a weigh, give it a weigh now.

  -Tweet

  Camryn

  I was at Whataburger, at twelve in the morning, breaking my diet like a motherfucker, and enjoying every single second of it.

  I was laughing my ass off at some joke that Flint had just told me, and genuinely enjoying every second of my time with him.

  “Why can’t you fight a Tyrannosaurus Rex?” he asked.

  I sucked the ketchup off my fry and pursed my lips in thought.

  His eyes narrowed on my mouth.

  “I don’t know,” I admitted, bringing my sweet tea up to my lips. “Why?”

  “Because you’d get Jurasskicked.”

  I spit my tea all over the floor as I started to laugh.

  “It’s coming out of my nose!” I giggled, trying to stop, but unable to.

  Paper napkins were thrust in front of my face, and I took them, wiping myself up as I sat up straighter.

  Just as I did, I saw someone walk in the side door.

  I winced and returned my attention back to my food, absently picking up fries as I glanced surreptitiously out of the side of my eyes.

  Nivea didn’t see us at first. I had a handful of fries I was shoving into my mouth, and Flint was taking a massive bite of his burger when she finally turned and spotted us.

  The man she’d walked in with, another cop who was in uniform, stopped short when Nivea did.

  He placed his hand on her lower back to urge her forward so that he wasn’t stuck half in/half out of the door.

  Nivea went, but she glared at us with every step she took.

  “You know,” Flint said brightly, not missing a single thing. “I tried to get her to go here like four times, and each time she went she acted like she would gag with each bite of her salad she took.”

  I snorted. “That’s because you’re not supposed to get salads at fast food joints.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. But I didn’t tell her to order that shit. Unless it’s Chick-Fil-A salads, because those fuckers are actually really good. With the nuggets on it and all those juicy tomatoes? Yum.”

  The words ‘juicy’ coming out of his mouth made my stomach muscles clench.

  “I’ve probably gained eight pounds eating this,” I said, trying to distract myself.

  “No,” he said. “It takes like three thousand calories over your allotted caloric intake to gain a pound. What’s more likely to happen is you’ll gain weight, but it’ll all be water weight because of the influx in salt that you took in,” he said, gesturing to my French fries. “That’ll go away as you work out. Then you’ll be back down to baseline.”

  I licked my lips.

  “Isn’t it a little late for the two of you to be out?”

  I looked up to find the man that’d come in with Nivea standing at the tea dispenser filling up a massive cup.

  “No,” Flint said. “There was a game today, and it got done late. Then we went home and showered and changed, and decided we were hungry. What’s it to you, Schultz?”

  The Schultz guy grinned. “Why’s my sister mad as fuck right now?”

  Flint shrugged. “These two don’t get along.”

  Schultz’s eyes came to me. “So, she has good taste?”

  My mouth fell open.

  Did he just say what I thought he said?

  “Yes,” Schultz said. “I dislike my sister. She’s not an easy person to get along with. I’m still not sure why this one decided she’d be fun to date…I told him she was nuts.”

  I looked from Flint to Schultz and back.

  “I’m confused,” I admitted.

  “This is our obligatory weekly meeting,” he said. “I like to make it after my shift because it annoys her.”

  “Why do you have obligatory meetings?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking.

  “Schultz and Nivea share custody of their two nieces. Their sister went into drug rehab and the two of them got shuttled to Schultz,” Flint explained.

  “But then my sister threw a giant bitch fit and demanded that she be part of their lives. I agreed, and now I regret every second of it,” he explained. “Nivea and I hadn’t talked in years before the kids came into the picture, and now we’re having to talk, and interact, and make decisions that affect two little people’s lives.”

  I winced. I felt sorry for him.

  Terrible even.

  For anyone to be forced to deal with Nivea on a daily basis sounded like pure torture.

  “Ugh,” was all I managed to say.

  Schultz grinned. “I like this one.”

  Flint grinned back at him. “Me, too.”

  “Bummer,” Schultz replied.

  Before I could ask what was a ‘bummer’ about liking me, Nivea arrived with one of the bright orange triangles with her order number on it pinched between two fingernails as if it had germs that would jump out and infect her.

&nbs
p; “Can we sit and talk about this already?” she sneered. “The babysitter won’t stay there forever.”

  Schultz snorted. “It’s our mother. She’ll stay there as long as she needs to.”

  Nivea sniffed at him in disgust. “Well, then I would like to get this over with so I can go home and go to bed like normal people do at these hours.”

  She looked at us pointedly, and I didn’t miss the glare she aimed my way.

  I smiled at her. “Have a nice night.”

  Nivea walked away as Schultz silently laughed at her.

  “Have fun with that,” Flint said, nodding his head in Nivea’s direction.

  Schultz scoffed. “I’m sure that it’s going to be loads and loads of fun. Have a good night, man. It was nice to meet you, ma’am.”

  With that he left without another word, leaving me looking at Flint expectantly. “You slept with her despite being warned away?”

  “I can’t say that it was my finest moment,” he admitted. “Even Carmichael said it was a terrible idea. But you were—”

  He stopped himself from saying whatever he had to say next, and before I could call him on it, Nivea started to screech behind us.

  “You can’t do that!” she yelled.

  There were a total of eight people in the Whataburger. Four workers behind the counter, Flint and me, as well as Schultz and Nivea.

  Every last one of us turned to study the spectacle.

  “I can and I did since I pay for not only their schooling but the house as well.” He paused. “I did rent you a travel trailer you can stay in, though. You have two weeks to move your shit out.”

  “Schultz, how the hell are you going to watch the kids? Right now, you’re working until twelve in the morning. There’s no way in hell that you can watch them from the time they get out of school until you get home,” she countered. “Unless you’re going to change your shift.”

  “I already did,” he stated. “And Dad said that he would watch them on the days that I get hung up at work.”

  Nivea sneered. “You won’t get away with this.”

  Schultz leveled a look at her. “Take me to court. You’ve been threatening to do it for months. Shit or get off the pot.”

  Their food arrived, and both went silent as their trays were set down in front of them.

  I looked over to Flint.

  “Did he just fire her?” I wondered.

  Flint shrugged. “I’ll give him credit. He handled her shit a lot longer than I did. On the days that she ‘watched’ them, she hired babysitters, then used Schultz’s money to pay for it. I wouldn’t have allowed that to go on for very long, either.”

  I shook my head and shoved the rest of my fries into my mouth. They weren’t nearly as appetizing with Nivea and her skinny ass in the vicinity.

  I ate them anyway, though.

  Mama didn’t raise no quitter.

  “Ready?” he questioned.

  I nodded and stood up, gathering my trash and throwing it all away in the trashcan without once looking in Nivea’s direction.

  Flint followed me, pushing the door open for me before I could even reach the handle.

  He followed close behind me as we made our way to his police cruiser, and I smiled when I saw two teenagers from school taking pictures next to his door.

  “Hey!” Flint barked.

  The teenagers jumped and squeaked, looking back at Flint guiltily.

  “Why are y’all not at home?” he asked.

  I bit my lip to keep the smile from breaking out over my face.

  “Uhh,” the girl murmured. I’d seen her before, but I couldn’t place where. “We’re out on a date.”

  “Out on a date taking pictures in front of my cruiser?” he asked. “And Mabry, why are you not taking her somewhere classier than this joint?”

  Mabry flushed. “My mom gave me a gift card here. I couldn’t afford anything classier. Football takes up all of my time.”

  I swallowed a laugh.

  Ah, to be a teenager again.

  “Make her a picnic,” Flint said. “And take her to somewhere special. But parks close at ten, so make sure you do it before then next time you need ideas.”

  I looked at Flint in surprise.

  Honestly? It was quite possible that was the best date idea ever when you had zero money to spend on anything. Hell, I remembered going out to eat once with my high school boyfriend, and my boyfriend having to ask his mother for her bank card. Instead of giving it to him, she’d given him fifteen dollars, and we’d eaten on the dollar menu at McDonald’s.

  Sure, at the time it was romantic and all, but it would’ve been much better to spend that fifteen dollars on food at the grocery store and taking it to the park.

  “Oh, that’s a great idea!” the boy exclaimed. “I’ll do that next time. And I wasn’t doing anything bad. Just taking a picture in front of your cruiser.”

  Flint narrowed his eyes. “If I see a picture on Instagram of your face in front of my cruiser with anything but a respectful look plastered on it, I’ll have a little talk with Coach McDuff.”

  I snorted out a laugh, and Flint’s eyes came to me.

  Ezra would kick this kid’s ass during football practice to make up for his poor decisions.

  “Uh, yes, sir.” The kid swallowed hard.

  I had a feeling he was about to either delete the post he’d just made or delete the picture that he hadn’t had time to post just yet.

  Either way, he’d been thinking about doing something stupid.

  Then again, that was kids for you. They never were the best decision makers. Hell, even I hadn’t been at that age.

  I’d been a fairly good kid, too.

  I hadn’t snuck out. I hadn’t drunk. I hadn’t done anything that normal, typical teenagers did but lie to my parents and act like I was an asshole about eighty percent of the time.

  Hell, I hadn’t even gone out to a dinner that lasted past eight o’clock.

  My dates religiously had me home way before my curfew.

  “Have a good night,” Flint said. “And get her home safe, Breydon.”

  The kid, Breydon, nodded his head. “Yes, sir. I will, sir.”

  They both took off like a pack of hornets were following in their wake, and I turned to study Flint’s smiling face. “You enjoyed that a little too much.”

  “It’s harmless fun,” he admitted. “But with the way that the media perceives police officers nowadays, I figure it’s best to make sure we do our part when we can.”

  That was true.

  “You ready?” he asked.

  I agreed with a nod of my head. “Yes, I am.”

  He held out his arm to me, and I took it.

  “This is weird, us not at each other’s throats,” I admitted.

  He walked to my side of the cruiser and opened the door for me. When I stepped inside, I swung my legs around and then stared at him as he held himself in place for a few long seconds.

  “I’m not going to lie,” he said. “I’ve never been one to deny myself anything I want. I’ve always been the type of man to take what I want, and apologize for it later if it offends someone.”

  I stared at him in confusion. “Yeah?”

  He moved in closer until his lower half was resting against part of my thigh and the seat I was currently occupying.

  “Yeah,” he said. “And I’ve wanted you for a long time now, Camryn. When you’re ready, I’d like to pursue it.”

  Then he closed the door without giving me a chance to reply in any way.

  When he got into the cruiser, he turned the radio up.

  I got the message.

  He didn’t want to talk about what he just said.

  Which was bad, because it gave me time to think.

  There were a few very good reasons why I shouldn’t pursue anything with him.

  One, he’d just broken up with Nivea.

  Two, he’d annoyed the e
ver-loving-shit out of me more times than I could count.

  Three, he was a cop, and he had a dog. A dog that made me have a panic attack.

  But, on the other hand, I was highly attracted to the man.

  His dog was sweet as could be now that I’d stopped giving off a fragrant aroma of fear every time that I was around him.

  And he’d shown good taste in breaking up with Nivea.

  Honestly, there was only one thing that I could do, and that was that.

  Chapter 9

  Walmart better send me my W-2. I’ve been doing self-checkout all year.

  -Flint’s secret thoughts

  Flint

  Navigating the streets of Gun Barrel, Texas after one in the morning was quite easy.

  Other than the stray car here and there, there was literally no one on the road to hinder my driving.

  We got to Camryn’s place in such a short amount of time that I was almost upset. I’d wanted more time with her.

  But, since I had to go to work tomorrow early, I didn’t have much of a choice, despite wanting to stay with her.

  Then again, it was much too soon to do anything like what I’d wanted to do.

  Instead, as I pulled up to the curb of Camryn’s house, I got out and rounded the truck with the vehicle still running.

  I had every intention of leaving the moment that I’d walked Camryn safely to the door.

  Only, the moment that I arrived at her side of the car and opened the door for her, she swung her hips around until she was perched on the edge of the seat.

  I paused with my arm on the top of the door and stared at her as she struggled with something she wanted to say.

  I grinned at her. “What?”

  She blew out a breath, then said, “Fuck it.”

  Before I could ask ‘fuck what’ she was fisting my T-shirt and dragging me toward her.

  Granted, I didn’t put up much of a fight, but I was too startled by her assertive act to put up much protest.

  Before I knew which way was up, I was crawling into the seat over the top of her, pressing her into the center console and slanting my mouth down over hers.

  There was no way in hell it was comfortable, yet that didn’t stop me from continuing to take her mouth.

  It also didn’t stop me from putting one hand underneath her hips and pulling her up until her core was pressed to the length of my cock.