Cocked And Loaded (Lucas Brothers Book 4)

by Jordan Marie

  “I’m glad to have met you,” I tell Petal, which sounds weird as hell—but, what do you say to the wife of a man you wanted to boink all night long!?!?!

  Besides, I am glad I met her, if not I would have slept with… a married man. “I hope your… husband feels better in the morning,” I tell her, and I do… I want him to feel great… right before I kill his sorry ass.

  “Uh… I’m sure he’ll be right as rain tomorrow,” she says, but she’s looking at me very strangely at this point and so is my father…

  I guess I didn’t keep the anger out of my voice like I wanted.

  “Goodbye, Mayor… Adelle…” Petal says, leaving with her children. She looks back over her shoulder at me and damn, I can tell she’s wondering what’s going on. Then… so is my father.

  “Princess are you okay?”

  “Sorry, Dad. I just started feeling sick to my stomach all at once.”

  “Maybe we should skip the dipped cone and go home?” he says just as they call our number to pick them up. I turn to look at the hard-coated, cherry confection and wish Black was here so I could dump it on his head.

  “I’m sorry,” I whisper and I can’t figure out if I’m telling him I’m sorry for ruining our night or sorry that I ever laid eyes on Sheriff Parrish.

  “It will be okay, Princess. It will be okay,” he says pulling me into him.

  I let him lead me out of there and I hear what he’s saying, but suddenly it feels like nothing will ever be okay again.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Black

  “It’s a shame you moved away, man. We miss you around here,” Gary tells me while opening the door to what used to be my home. I could have kicked her out—after all, Linda and I weren’t married. It wasn’t like she got the home in a break up. The truth was by the time I was really done with Linda, her crazy had bled over into so many aspects of my life that I just wanted away. I tried to kick her out and she kept refusing. I finally said fuck it and when I realized I was going to have to go to court to get custody of Kong, I had my attorney have the court file a paper, transferring my lease over to Linda and making her responsible for all payments. As fucked up as this has all been, I guess I’m lucky the judge didn’t order me to continue making those for Linda. I’m sure it was a near miss, because I’m almost positive she was sleeping with the judge too. If my lawyer hadn’t been female, I would have thought they were banging nightly too. Hell, I’m still not too sure they weren’t. Shit, with the way Linda liked to spread the love—and her legs—I’m sure old Gary here has sampled her.

  “I’m settled back home. I’m good there.” Really good.

  A few days ago that would have been a lie. I was getting restless. Since meeting Addie, as crazy as it sounds, I’m glad I’m back home. If I weren’t, I never would have met her.

  Or I would have met her while investigating a hit and run involving a lawnmower here in Dallas.

  I find myself smiling and how that’s happening when I’m back here, dealing with the remnants of the shit storm that was Hurricane Linda, is beyond me.

  But I am.

  “Interesting,” I hear my Mom whisper beside me and I look up quickly and she’s staring at me. She’s caught my smile. Fuck, her eyes say that she’s caught on to a lot more than that. I feel sweat break out on my brow. Christ. I know better! Mom’s like a damn blood hound and when she catches scent… Shit. Shit. Shit.

  “Well, here you go. I’m supposed to stay in the house with you while you get your stuff, but I know you, man. I can stay out here—”

  “No, it’s fine. I’d prefer you stay close that way you can see exactly what I do and I can’t get blamed for anything I didn’t do,” I tell him.

  “Let her try to say you did something. She thinks she can cause a firestorm? She hasn’t even had a taste of me. Which is your fault, Black. If you had told me what was going on—”

  “Let it go, Mom.”

  “I’d have rained fire on her damned head. That’s all I’m saying,” she mumbles and again I smile. She would have, there’s no denying that. My brothers and I had to hold her back as it was, when she did find out. I smile, almost regretting not letting the wrath of Ida Sue rain down on Linda’s head. Lord knows that Mom would have made her life hell.

  The smile quickly disappears however, when I see what’s on the couch—the same couch I paid a hell of a lot of money for. It’s solid Italian leather and was in excellent shape when I left it here. Now however, it looks like shit and I swear there’s duct tape acting as a band-aid and joining torn strips of the leather together. I walk to it, letting my fingers move over the tape—inspecting it. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to discern that someone has taken a knife to the leather. So much for taking the couch with me. The back has letters spelled out with duct tape. On closer inspection the word has been carved into my sofa, and repaired with the duct tape so I can see the word without guessing. B-A-S-T-A-R-D

  Bastard.

  Well I’ve been called worse. Still this is going above and beyond. Linda is nothing if not thorough.

  “Jesus she really is coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs,” Mom says, and I turn slightly to see her looking at the sofa. “Think of the Hamburger’s that were sacrificed to make that sofa,” she says adding a mournful sigh that makes me shake my head.

  She can eat steak like no one’s business, but the woman wants to boycott anything made of out leather.

  “It’s Italian leather, Mom.”

  I don’t tell her to point out the difference in expense, I merely want her to understand I didn’t buy and set on Hamburger’s long lost cousin.

  “Italian cows have feelings too, son. Besides my Hamburger is one quarter Italian stock,” she boasts.

  “He is not.”

  “I’ll show you his pedigree when we get home,” she says with a wave—as if she’s tired of fooling with me. I don’t respond, there’s really nothing I can say. She probably does have her damn cow’s DNA. It shouldn’t surprise me.

  I look across the room at Kong’s empty bed. I don’t want that, I bought him a new one. Kong is my English bulldog that I’ve had since he was a pup. He’s three now and I’ve missed him so much. I didn’t realize how attached I was to the big lug until I couldn’t see him every day. I hope we don’t have any problem bonding with each other again. I know we won’t on my part, but he may think I deserted him. Pets are finicky creatures and he has no idea the hell I’ve gone through to get him back.

  “Kong?” I yell through the apartment, more than a little worried. Even if Kong was upset with me, it’s not like him to not be at the door inspecting guests. “Yo! Kong! Where you at boy? Come give Daddy lovin’!”

  “Daddy? God’s toes, my grand kid is a dog,” Mom mumbles. “Moving to the city destroyed you, boy.”

  “Kong!”

  “She said she’d have the dog in the bedroom. He can get destructive when she lets him run loose,” Gary says. “She had to replace all of the area rugs last month before she sent him for training,” he adds and Gary definitely knows way too much about Linda’s business and my damn dog. He’s definitely caught a ride on Linda’s free train.

  More power to him.

  “She sent my dog to training?” I ask, thinking that’s weird as fuck because Kong has had the best training around. I called in a favor from the canine handler with the P.D. here in Dallas to get that for him.

  “Yeah, it made a world of difference in the little guy.”

  Later, when I look back, I will know that I should have listened to Gary closer. I should have paid more attention to exactly what he said and what those words implied.

  I didn’t.

  So I wasn’t prepared—and when I say that I really wasn’t prepared.

  When I open the door a small—tiny—extremely tiny—like fit-in-the-palm-of-my-hand tiny—dog, with his entire lower half tinted pink, comes running at me with a high pitched yap. He immediately starts biting on my ankles, but I ignore him. I’m looking desperately around
the room for my Kong, my bulldog, my best friend… I barely notice that the damn Chihuahua is now busy humping my damn leg like I’m the first female he’s seen in the last one-hundred years. To be fair my pants are the same color as his skin—the part that’s not pink—because he has no hair. What kind of dog doesn’t have hair on his body? At least short hair. Kong had a beautiful coat—”

  “Damn he’s hornier than a one-eyed sailor on leave during dollar night at the whore house,” Mom mumbles.

  “One eye?” Gary asks.

  “That way it looks like he’s got twice as many women,” Mom explains, as I bend down to pick up the dog.

  “I don’t think it works that way,” Gary whispers, clearly not having been around my mother much at all.

  “Where in the hell is Kong?” I growl, holding the damn Chihuahua, who is now shivering in my hands.

  “But that is Kong,” Gary says and I jerk my head around to look at him.

  “It fucking is not!” I yell and the dog bites my hand and I jerk it away looking at it while it growls back at me. “Shit!” For such a little mongrel, it has sharp-ass teeth.

  “But it is. I hate the thing, but Linda said you insisted on getting rid of the bulldog and finding a pet that she felt safer around. Which made sense. Your bulldog hated Linda…” Gary answers.

  “That’s because he was smart,” Mom says as I use my thumb to turn the tag on the Chihuahua’s collar. Sure enough Kong is engraved on it.

  Motherfucker.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Addie

  “Things didn’t go so great today, and I’m having a bad night. Sorry I didn’t text sooner.”

  It’s midnight when I get Black’s message. I know because I’m lying here in bed staring up at the ceiling wondering how I could have been so wrong about him. It’s stupid because I barely know him, and we’ve had what establishes as one date—but, I really liked him. The more I was around him, the more I liked him and I loved being around him. Plus, he was the first guy in forever that had me excited to be a woman—or just had me excited in general.

  I think about not replying at all. I’m going to confront him tomorrow, I’m too damn tired tonight. Besides some things require a face to face meeting. I’ve never allowed any man to play me like a fool and I’m not about to start now.

  “Guess you’re sleeping, goodnight Princess Addie.”

  I read his second text and frown. To think that I actually liked that nickname before makes me sick to my stomach now.

  “You could have called.”

  I text him, thinking of only goading him on. I mean he doesn’t know that I'm aware he couldn’t call me because of his wife!

  “I thought you might be sleeping.”

  “Heading there now. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “You promise?”

  God. I hate him. I literally hate him. Asshole texts back you promise like he really misses me and is anxious to see me or something. Prick!

  “Trust me, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  I make sure my text goes through and then I turn my phone off before he can respond. I can’t hold onto my temper much longer and I don’t want to call him out on his lies until tomorrow.

  Tomorrow I’m going to take Sheriff Luka-Everyone-Calls-Me-Black-Parrish down a few notches—and I’ll do it in a way to make sure his unlucky wife finds out!

  I toss my phone on the nightstand, pull the covers up tight and burrow my head into the pillow. I let my anger free, I nurture it, because if I don’t… I might cry and Black doesn’t deserve my tears.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Black

  I rub the tension at the back of my neck. It was a rough night and I slept like shit. I was hoping to hear Addie’s voice—for some reason, I thought that might help. That didn’t work out and I know it was just a text, but something seemed different with her. I shrug it off. After the hell of yesterday and reminder of just what kind of hell a woman can put a man through, I’m just being paranoid. Just because Linda was certifiably insane, it doesn’t mean Addie is.

  Addie is completely different from Linda. She’s sweet, funny, and completely drama free…

  “I thought I’d find you here.”

  I jerk my head up quick to see Addie standing at my desk and she’s mad… No. She’s pissed. Her face is even red with the emotion. That should be enough to set off alarm bells, but instead I find myself looking at the way the dress she’s wearing clings to her curves. It’s a summer dress in white and lilac and rather simple to be honest, but damn she makes that dress look good. I try to get my head in the conversation though, because if there’s one thing I know, it’s a woman who is upset is a dangerous thing to behold.

  “Well, this is where I work, Princess Addie,” I tell her with a grin, though I’m holding back on the charm because she looks like she wants to punch me.

  “Don’t you do that!”

  “Do what?”

  “Call me that! My name is Adelle and you can’t call me that either.”

  “Addie, I’m not sure what’s going on here—”

  “I said my name is Adelle!”

  “Well, Adelle, maybe you’d like to explain what’s got your panties in a bunch—”

  “I said you couldn’t call me that!” she screeches. “And don’t talk about my panties. My panties have nothing to do with you anymore! They never did!” she looks around the room—which is way too crowded for this shouting match, but there’s not much I can do. At least five of the other deputies are in the office. Not to mention Luka and the Mayor are in his office. Correction. They were in Luka’s office. The door just opened.

  Great… just great. When will I learn that women destroy a man? The last thing I need is the new Mayor witnessing this shit. It’s not going to end well. I’m sure he doesn’t want a deputy on the force that causes drama like this in a public office.

  “Addie maybe we could talk about this out—”

  “I said, don’t call me Addie! You lost that privilege! And just so everyone knows, he never got into my panties!”

  I hold my head down and pinch the bridge of my nose, thinking I should have skipped cereal this morning and went straight for the Jack Daniels.

  “Princess? What’s going on?”

  My head jerks up and this time I’m eyeing the Mayor. Princess? Motherfucker, does she have every man in the world on a string? I really know how to pick them. I’m going to move to Tibet and become a freaking monk. That has to be an easier life.

  “Crap. You’re here? Why are you here? You said you were going to a business meeting this morning!” She sounds flustered, and I guess I can take solace in the fact her sugar daddy has caught her fooling around on him. No wonder he keeps her on as landscaper. She’s obviously trimming more than his hedges.

  “I do,” he responds. “With Sheriff Luka—”

  “Well, you’ll just have to get in line. I have some things to say to him and they can’t wait.”

  “You do?” Luka asks.

  I say nothing. At this point, I’m just being quiet, waiting for this shit-show to end.

  “I do! You’re such an asshole! How could you do this?” Addie asks, only this time she’s not looking at Luka, she’s looking at me. I start not to answer, but really I’m grieving the loss of my dog. I have Tani looking at local shelters and faxing pictures of Kong to them, but so far she’s come up with nothing. Linda is deranged. She probably had Kong put down. If I didn’t feel so broken, I’d want to kill her. Right now, I just want to make it my mission never to see the bitch again in my lifetime. If I do, I’m not sure I can be held responsible for what I’d do to her.

  “It’s been a long fucking night, Princess, and so far the day isn’t getting much better. So maybe you could explain to me what in the fuck you think I’ve done to you exactly?” I literally growl the words. I stand up too, because I’m done with letting women stand over me and scream. Linda pulled that shit all the time and I let her get away with it. I’m done with t
hat too. I don’t know how much more I’m supposed to take, but I’ve had it with women.

  Completely had it.

  “Oh, you know what you’ve done!” she yells. I’ll be surprised if they don’t hear her across the street at the diner.

  So much for trying to get out of this with a little dignity.

  “No, I actually don’t, so enlighten me,” I invite.

  “You’re really going to play dumb?”

  “He doesn’t normally have to play too hard,” Mom chimes in helpfully.

  The moment I hear my mother’s voice I want to leave. Nothing good—absolutely nothing—can come of this.

  “I—” Addie stumbles on her next tirade to look at my Mom. “Who are you?”

  “Black’s mother,” she replies and fuck she’s brought that damn Chihuahua. I look at the little dog and he instantly snarls at me.

  “Is that your dog?” Addie asks, momentarily sidetracked.

  “No, it’s Black’s. Ain’t he cute?” Mom asks petting it like it deserves to be praised. Damn thing curls into Mom’s hand like it doesn’t have a care in the world.

  “That’s your dog?” Addie asks, her eyes round.

  “Do you want to tell me why you hate me? Or am I just supposed to guess?” I ask her instead, but then my head jerks back to Mom.

  “Mom! Did you dye that damn dog’s skin pink again? I told you to take that shit out of it!” I growl, wanting nothing to remind me of Linda at all—if I can manage it.

  “What? Of course not.”

  “Then why is—”

  “It has to wear off. Besides, I think it makes Kong look adorable.”