Bang Switch

by Lani Lynn Vale

  Downy wasn’t the one to answer the door, though. It was Miller, who still had a sheepish look on his face.

  “I said it was okay,” I shook my head.

  Jesus, he wouldn’t let the wall debacle drop.

  I knew he didn’t mean to!

  “I know,” he responded, holding the door wide for me to come in.

  My father was sitting at the bar with a bottle of beer in his hand, and a look on his face that said he wasn’t sorry at all that he was there.

  I didn’t think he would be. He was like that.

  He made no apologies, which I’d found was a normal for any alpha-like man. Cops. Dixie Wardens. Firefighters. Military. They were all the same. They did what they wanted and made no apologies for it.

  “Daddy,” I said, giving him a look that said I wasn’t happy with him.

  His eye twitched. “Baby.”

  I just shook my head. “Did you get what you were looking for?”

  He nodded. “Yep. Except I could’ve done without knowing you were over there fucking ten minutes ago.”

  I choked on my own spit, eyes squeezing tight as embarrassment flooded me. “Shit.”

  Foster and Miller laughed. Downy, however, didn’t look sorry in the least.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, trying to change the subject. Fast.

  “I wanted to meet this man that you couldn’t take the time out of your day to come see us for,” he said evenly.

  I just shook my head. “Daddy, you know I was in school. In fact, I missed two days by the both of you faking a sickness. You know you could’ve used the flu as an excuse. Seizures are scary. I was nauseous the whole way home.”

  My daddy, the hardest man I’d ever seen, looked down at his feet in defeat. “Would you have come home?”

  I bit my lip. No, I wouldn’t have.

  I was still mad at him, even two years later. I was mad that he was always so high handed with everything. Mad that he never gave me anything. Mad that when I gave him something, he took and took until I had nothing left to give.

  “Daddy,” I said, not knowing what to say. “I’m sorry.”

  He nodded and stood, walking towards me.

  When he got within arm reach, he pulled me into his arms.

  I went, relishing the feeling of his warm, muscular, familiar arms wrapped around me.

  My daddy always made me feel safe and loved.

  That wasn’t the problem, though. It was too much of that feeling when all I wanted was to live my life.

  “You’ve got to let me have my own life. I think I know by now how to pick out a man that knows how to treat me right,” I said crossly.

  He rubbed his whiskers against my face, as he’d always done when he was thinking. “I know. I just had to see. I knew this one was different.”

  He said it so quietly that I doubted that any of the other three men in the room had even heard.

  I looked up into his eyes. “What do you mean?”

  He smiled. “You’ll see, baby. When you see, you’ll understand exactly what I mean.”

  With that, he gave me a peck on the lips, offered his hand to each man in the room, and walked straight out the door. No doubt to start the long ride home.

  “Daddy,” I said, stopping him before he closed it.

  He stopped, but didn’t turn around. “Yeah?”

  “I love you,” I said, putting my whole heart and soul into those three words.

  “Back ‘atcha, baby girl,” he rumbled. “Keep her safe, boy.”

  With that, he left, leaving me a gushy feeling in my stomach in his wake.

  ***

  I flopped down into the chair once Miller and Foster left to go on shift, and I raised my eyebrows at Downy who was sitting across from me.

  He was looking at the TV, though, too entranced with the show we were watching to notice my silent question.

  “Downy,” I said finally, drawing his attention to me.

  “What?” He asked.

  I leaned forward. “What did he have to say?”

  He sighed and flipped the television off before leaning back and putting his feet back on the table.

  Crossing his arms, he said, “He’s worried about you. He’s worried that you’re making bad choices. He thinks you’re living in this ‘shithole’ out of spite, and he doesn’t think he likes me very much. Oh, and the sex we had earlier didn’t go unnoticed by him, but that was what flipped the scales in my direction. He said, and I quote, ‘My baby girl knows men. She wouldn’t be with you if you were a no-good motherfucker.’ End of story.”

  I blinked in surprise. “You know, if he’d just be blunt like that, and talk it out with me, I’d never have left. Instead, he’s so freakin’ high-handed and sneaky, putting GPS chips on my car and having his men follow me around. Jesus, I felt like I was getting smothered there.”

  He raised his brow. “What makes you think he hasn’t kept doing it all this time?”

  I sat forward suddenly. “You think he has another chip on my car?”

  He shook his head. “No, but I think if he was actually really ‘sneaky and high-handed,’ he’d have kept doing it once you left. He hasn’t, so he’s at least trying. He seemed lonely to me. I think all the threats were more of an ‘if you hurt her, I’ll kill you’ variety.”

  That made me think.

  Was I being too hard on my dad?

  I didn’t think I was, but then again, I was the one who’d left without getting his true feelings on the matter.

  Was there something more to it all?

  Question after question poured through my brain as I thought about what Downy had just said to me.

  Downy, at some point, had turned his show back on and continued watching from the exact part he’d stopped at, and I stared blankly at the TV. Uncomprehending of the show nor its plot.

  The only thing I kept coming up with was…why?

  Chapter 10

  If all else fails, take a pointer from your dog. Kick some grass over that shit and move on.

  -E-card

  Memphis

  “What’s that?” I asked, pointing at a stack of files on Downy’s bed.

  He sat down on the edge of the bed and started to strip his boots off his feet. Then he went for the socks, his pants, and his shirt before answering.

  “Old police reports about people’s dogs being stolen,” he grunted.

  I blinked and walked to the stack.

  “How far back do these go?” I asked as I opened the first file.

  He sighed and fell stomach first onto the bed, grabbing the bottom file and flipping it open.

  “We only pulled the ones in the last six months. That’s about the time when the most dogs started to go missing,” he explained.

  I nodded and scanned through the first file. This one was about a Golden Retriever named Mufasa, who’d been stolen out of his owner’s yard while he’d been playing outside.

  The next was more of the same. And the next. And the next.

  “This is really horrible,” I muttered.

  He nodded, looking at a list in the last folder.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “These are the dogs that were stolen from the shelter. Twenty two of them in all,” he replied gruffly.

  My stomach hurt, and my head was pounding.

  “Is there any doubt about what’s going on?” I asked.

  He shook his head, flipping over the next page. “This is a list of dogs that were taken at the dog park. Seven in total.”

  Dog after dog, sheet after sheet.

  I read over thirty five individual reports, paired with the dogs taken from the dog park, as well as the ones taken from the shelter, it totaled sixty four dogs taken total, in a six month period.

  “Holy shit,” I breathed, my eyes not comprehending what I was reading.

  He grunted in reply, his eyes scanning one of the reports I’d already looked at.

  “Why do you have these?” I asked curiously
, turning my head to look at him.

  He shrugged. “Nobody else was looking into it. O’Keefe’s been doing what he can, but a dog going missing is a lot lower on the totem pole compared to murders and missing people.”

  “Hmmm,” I hummed. “That makes sense.”

  I dropped the files to the bed and used the TV remote that was lying on the bed between us to flip through the channels.

  Downy started to play with my hair that was falling down my back as he read and I watched old episodes of Cops.

  “Do they actually run like that?” I asked, as one particular man bailed out of his car and started running down the street.

  The suspect was quick, but the cop was faster, throwing his cruiser in park before he hauled ass after the guy.

  The suspect had gotten a good lead on the cop, but the cop ate up the distance as if he’d been in a sprint relay competing for an Olympic medal.

  He laughed. “Every fucking day of the week.”

  “That’s just sad,” I admitted.

  He grunted, going back to his files.

  “What about that?” I asked as one of the men threw something out of the car. “What happens when you see them throw something out of the car? Does another cop go and get it?”

  “Uh-huh,” he said distractedly. “There’s a button on the camera that lets us mark the spot where the evidence was dropped. We can follow the coordinates to the exact location it was dropped.”

  Huh, that was interesting. I’d never heard of that.

  “Do y’all wear those personal cameras like they are?” I asked, not bothering to look at him.

  It felt too good to have him running his fingers through my hair to move.

  If I could purr, I’d be doing it right at that moment.

  “No. KPD isn’t able to afford them, although they’ve been mentioned before. With all the attacks on the police officers around the country, it’s better if a police officer were to have viable proof as to what happened. That way they can’t say that the suspect wasn’t doing anything wrong. The body cameras are for our benefit, not the public,” he explained.

  “Hmm,” I muttered, thinking about what he’d said.

  I’d never thought about it from that point of view before.

  Of course I’d worried about my father going out there and getting hurt in the line of duty, but I’d never thought about the law being turned around on him as Downy was explaining.

  Which was an eye opener, because I’d thought that I was okay with Downy being a police officer. I guess I’d never really understood the sheer amount of things that a cop had to do to defend himself against people while he was at work.

  I closed my eyes in thought, thinking about all the times my father had been threatened.

  Had Downy had any of those cases?

  “Downy?” I asked.

  “Hmm?” He replied.

  “Your job scares me,” I admitted.

  He tugged on my hair lightly, acknowledging that he’d heard me. “You’ll get used to it.”

  “And if I don’t?” I asked with a wee bit of annoyance.

  “Then I’ll fuck it out of you,” he growled. “Remind you what you’d be missing if I wasn’t around anymore.”

  Sadly, I could do nothing else but agree.

  I didn’t really know what kind of future Downy and I had right now, but I couldn’t wait to see where it led.

  ***

  The next morning, at four seventeen, Downy’s alarm went off and he groaned, rolling out of bed in exhaustion.

  “Where you goin’?” I asked half asleep.

  He stretched, lifting his arms up high over his head. “To work out.”

  His voice was sleep roughened and sexy, making my girly parts flutter slightly.

  However, they weren’t excited enough to wake up fully, yet.

  Not when we’d gone to sleep at nearly one in the morning.

  I didn’t bother asking him why he was working out this early. It was more than obvious that he’d had to do quite a bit of working out to get a body like he had.

  He trailed his hand down my exposed leg as he walked past my side of the bed into his closet, causing me to smile.

  “Night,” I said before drifting back into sleep.

  I woke, once again, for real, around nine in the morning when my alarm went off, alerting me that I had a little over an hour to get my clothes on and get to school.

  I’d most likely be late, but that was okay. Today was only a lecture, and I’d listen to the recording for the first half later if I had a need to.

  It was when I was showering that I heard a knock on my door.

  Well, more like a pound.

  Peter started barking furiously, as well as what sounded suspiciously like Mocha.

  Why hadn’t she gone with Downy?

  Turning off the taps, I threw a towel around me, and then a robe over that.

  Slipping my feet into slippers, I walked to the door and looked through the peephole.

  My brows lowered as I opened the door to a beautiful woman with long red hair. “Yes?”

  She smiled fleetingly at me. “You’re Memphis?”

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  She wilted visibly. “I…I need a favor from you.”

  Turning my head I asked, “Who are you?”

  She looked embarrassed for a few moments. “I’m sorry. I’m Downy’s sister, Ridley.”

  I blinked.

  Downy had a sister? Since when?

  Shouldn’t the woman that’d been warming his bed know that he had a sister?

  “Uh, yeah. Come on in,” I said, opening my door wide.

  Mocha and Peter, curious, walked up to Ridley and licked her hands.

  She smiled slightly down at the dogs, but enfolded her arms up, keeping them out of reach.

  She looked incredibly uncomfortable, but not more than me standing in my kitchen talking to my lover’s sister, while I was practically naked.

  “So, how can I help you, Ridley?” I asked her.

  She sighed. “My father and my brother are going at it outside, and he told me to come up here. Said to knock on your door and you’d let me in.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, sure you can come in. What’re they fighting about?”

  I asked that as I walked around the island in my kitchen and started a pot of coffee.

  She followed me, taking a seat at the island, and said, “The land. What they always fight about.”

  She sounded tired. Really tired.

  “Does this happen often?” I asked in concern.

  She nodded. “At least once a week. My father works for Downy’s neighbor, Ronnie Prescott. Prescott wants the land that Downy was given when his father died, and my dad makes it his business to try to convince Downy to sell.”

  “Hmm,” I said.

  I didn’t really know what to say to that. That seemed kind of trivial to fight over, in my opinion.

  At least Downy’s father wasn’t trying to keep track of his every move like mine did.

  “Ronnie hates Downy since he looks just like his dad,” Ridley explained.

  “Just like your dad? Why would that matter?” I asked, handing her a cup of coffee.

  She took it and started dumping the milk and sugar into it the moment I placed it next to her.

  “My father isn’t Downy’s father. Downy’s father died when he was fourteen, of an accident at his oil rig,” Ridley explained. “Our mother was seeing Ronnie when she met Alec, Downy’s father.”

  I blinked. Wow, like a freakin’ soap opera. The next thing she was going to tell me is that her father is Downy’s father’s brother.

  “Mom married my father when Downy was sixteen. Downy and dad never really saw eye to eye, and he went into the army at seventeen; they were really only around each other for less than a year,” Ridley expounded.

  “What’s the big deal about the land? Seems like he’d give up if it’s been going on for fourteen years now,” I asked.

  I poure
d my own coffee, using my favorite mug in the world that said, ‘I like big cups and I cannot lie.’

  “Ronnie and my mother bought the land when they were together. The judge made them split it down the middle when they broke up. Ronnie’s still bitter about it, and never lets Jackson forget it,” Downy said, surprising not just me, but Ridley as well.

  We both gasped and turned to find Downy standing just inside the door, closing it quietly behind him.

  “Shit,” I said, slapping my hand against my chest. “You just scared the crap out of me.”

  “You should keep your door locked,” he said, coming in and grabbing himself a cup of coffee.

  He had on a pair of track pants, a long sleeved gray t-shirt that was soaked all the way down, and a pair of tennis shoes.

  He had sunglasses on, as well as a ball cap.

  Pairing that with his beard, and he looked breathtaking.

  Did I mention sweaty? He was that, too.

  “How far did you run? You look like you’ve just lost half your body weight in sweat,” I teased, slipping around the counter and walking straight up to him.

  I stopped when my toes met his, contemplating the merits of getting a good hug to how much I wanted to retake my shower.

  He saw my indecision, and his eyes twinkled with suppressed laughter.

  I went with giving him the hug.

  I could retake the shower. Especially if he was in it with me.

  He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me in close.

  I kept my head off his chest, trying not to grimace when he rubbed his scratchy, covered in sweat, beard on my cheek.

  I giggled and pushed away from him, smacking him on the arm. “Yuck,” I giggled.

  He winked and turned to his sister, studying her for a few long seconds before he said, “Your father’s waiting for you.”

  I noticed how he said ‘your father.’ Obviously, he claimed no relation at all to the man.

  Was he close to his sister?

  Ridley grimaced. “Yeah, we have to go pick up Jonah from band practice.”

  “Jonah?” I asked, raising my brow at Downy.

  “Brother,” he muttered to me before turning back to his sister. “Tell him I said hi.”

  She nodded and walked towards him, raising up to give him a peck on the cheek.

  Downy bent down, allowing the exchange before he opened the door for her and escorted out.