I felt the ring that I got from my mom today burning a hole in my pocket.
“I wish y’all would’ve maybe held off a bit on the kid thing, though,” he winced. “I’m too young to be a grandfather.”
My dad, who appeared as if out of nowhere, slapped his hand against Torren’s back.
“There’s an official welcome to the old man club when the kid makes its arrival.” My dad laughed. “But you forget about being old when the baby’s in your arms. Or so I’ve been told. I’ll let you know in a couple of months.”
I grinned at my dad.
Oakley, my sister, and Pace, my new brother-in-law, would be welcoming their first child soon.
My dad was actually pretty excited about it.
He was excited about our soon-to-be child, too.
It felt weird that we were even thinking about this at all.
“Well,” Torren grumbled. “I guess I’ll take the promotion gracefully.”
I ran my lips along Ashe’s hair, inhaling her scent deep into my lungs, and allowed myself to think about being a father.
I just hoped I was as good of one as the two men currently standing in front of me.
I definitely had some big shoes to fill.
Chapter 20
Wanted: someone to handfeed me Doritos so my fingers don’t get orange. No weirdos.
-Text from Ford to Ashe
Ford
“I want to stop by and see Lacy,” she said. “See if she has anything more to say about what happened.”
I flashed a grin at her before returning my eyes to the road.
“I already called her parents before we left,” I said. “She’s up and walking around and ready to receive visitors. They’re expecting her to be discharged later this afternoon.”
She smiled, her eyes going heavy as she yawned loudly.
“Tell me something, Ford.” She fluttered her eyes at me. “What do you think about being a daddy?”
I felt my mouth curl up into a small smile as I glanced at her before returning my gaze to the road.
“I’m nervous as hell,” I admitted. “I’m not worried about it happening too soon. I’m not scared about being a failure or anything. I’m literally just nervous as fuck about raising the kid. I don’t want to fuck it up.”
She snickered. “Ford, we were both really bad kids. Do you know what my mother said as we left the party today?”
I grinned, not sure I wanted to hear the answer.
“No, what?” I wondered.
“She said ‘I hope your kid is as bad as you were.’” She slapped her leg. “Ford, we weren’t that bad, were we?”
I thought of all the times that we’d done stuff that we really shouldn’t have done.
“Do you remember that one time that we were racing Zach on that dirt road on our four-wheelers?” I asked. “We were racing, and I hit the gas instead of the brake? And we careened off of the side of the road and landed in a creek bed about fifteen feet down?”
She sighed. “We were that bad.”
“And you beat me back to the hunting cabin.”
Our families had bought some property out in BF Egypt, i.e., south Louisiana, and we went out there at least once every week. That weekend had been the very first weekend that we’d been able to ride the four-wheelers on our own. We’d been twelve at the time.
So Zach and I thought it would be a great idea to race the four-wheelers up the road.
Even with Ashe on the back of mine, I’d still won because Zach had been too scared to push it to go faster.
And when my tire had caught a divot in the road and pulled me roughly to the left, I hadn’t seen my life flash before my eyes. I’d seen Ashe’s life.
When we’d come to a stop, we hadn’t realized just how lucky that we were.
It’d only been when our parents had gotten down there with a truck that it’d finally clicked.
I’d ridden through a barbed-wire fence.
There’d been a fifteen-foot drop.
The four-wheeler had split between two trees—two big goddamn trees that would’ve probably killed us if we’d hit them.
We’d landed sideways in the creek, inches away from a deeper part that could’ve caused us to drown had we landed wrong.
Seriously, there had been so many ‘ifs’ that could’ve happened.
Yet, we’d miraculously been just fine.
We’d been lucky.
“I ran so fast that I beat you. I remember,” she snickered. “God, we could’ve died that day.”
We so could have.
Yet we didn’t.
We were alive, and we’d done such stupid shit when we were kids.
If our kid was even half as bad as we were… we were screwed.
“I’m not sure how our parents managed to raise us to be such decent human beings,” I admitted. “But yeah, I was thinking today that I hoped I could be half as good as our fathers are.”
She sighed. “Me, too. I’m honestly scared shitless.”
I reached for her hand and brought it to rest on the middle console between us.
“It’ll be just fine,” I told her. “But, just sayin’, until you have that baby, you’re not riding on the back of my motorcycle anymore.”
She glared at me.
“You’re a great driver, Ford,” she began.
I shook my head. “It’s not my driving that I’m worried about. It’s other people’s driving.”
“You’re not going to be overprotective all the time, are you?” she wondered.
I shrugged. “I don’t know what I’m going to be, to be honest.”
She groaned and moved until she was facing me more fully, her back to the door of my truck.
“What are we going to do, Ford?” she asked.
“We’re going to get you graduated,” I answered. “You’re going to keep working… though we’re going to have to talk to Luke about this. I’m not sure how you can do anything in the field at all. If you can’t wear your body armor, you can’t…”
She held up her hand.
“I actually just read this,” she said. “When I signed the paperwork with Luke, there was a bit in there about pregnancy and the female officers. Pretty much, once the second trimester hits, I’ll be working full-time ‘light duty.’ Light duty being desk work, cold cases, manning phones, and shit. And also pretty much what a detective would be doing. But since I’m already doing that, I don’t foresee anything changing for me. Other than not responding to any calls like I’ve been doing during emergencies.”
I felt immediate relief at her words.
Just the idea of her being out there, pregnant and still working like all of the other officers, gave me hives.
I knew that she was a capable woman and all, but Jesus. Talk about a heart attack waiting to happen.
“Thank God,” I murmured.
She looked at me with amusement on her face.
“I know,” she said. “And I’m sure it’ll just give everyone else that much more reason to hate me. I mean, get hired by my uncle, get pregnant, get a cake job. Etcetera.”
I snorted.
“You can still perform everything you were hired to do,” I said. “And if the people at the station don’t like that, they can come to me with their grievances, and I’ll set them straight.”
She snorted. “You will not be setting anyone straight, Ford.”
I refrained from saying ‘watch me’ by the skin of my teeth.
I might as well have, though, because when her eyes met mine, brows practically at her hairline, I knew she’d heard what I hadn’t said.
“You can’t protect me from that, Ford,” she said softly.
I shrugged. “I can protect you from anything that I want to protect you from.”
She shook her head.
“I know you think you can, but…” she started, but I interrupted her.
“You’re mine, Ash
e,” I told her bluntly. “You’re mine, and I’m yours. And that comes with certain things that I’m allowed to do when others are not. Telling people they can go fuck themselves is one of those things that I’m allowed to do.”
She gave me a laughing smile, then shook her head.
“Just don’t get me in trouble, okay?” she asked. “I don’t really want to have to work in a hostile environment.”
I thought about that for a long moment.
“You haven’t had much time with the detectives,” I pointed out. “Are they bad?”
I wasn’t close to the detective team. I knew of them, but all of them were veterans of the force and had quite a few more years of experience than I did. Not to mention, the SWAT team was in an entirely different building as them.
It was a rare occasion that we even interacted at all.
“Hobbs, Kershaw, and Hastings are great,” she said. “I don’t know about Tanney. I don’t know her very well, and when I do have a chance to speak with her, she always finds a reason to leave.”
“That’s because Tanney hates Luke. And you’re Luke’s niece,” I told her. “I’m not sure why, but she’s always been like that.”
I took the exit off the freeway and looked in my rearview mirror once before returning to our conversation.
“Tanney is about six months from retiring, anyway,” I continued. “Derek told me that. So don’t tell anybody else. I’m not sure if it’s public knowledge yet or not. But she’s going for her twenty years and then getting the hell out.”
“Meaning I’m kind of her replacement,” she sighed. “Figures.”
My lips twitched as I came to a complete stop at the stoplight.
“We have about an hour before visiting hours are over.” I paused. “Do you have time to stop and get some dinner? Or do you need to go home and study for that test that you’re trying not to worry about all weekend?”
She stuck her tongue out at me.
“I got a little studying done on my phone,” she admitted. “In between people telling me how awful their pregnancies were, as well as what kind of birth plan I should take, and whether I should breastfeed or bottle feed.”
My brows rose.
“They really went into that much detail?” I questioned.
“Yes,” she rolled her eyes. “I had one of the family tell me that she tore from her tailbone to her clit. And said that it took her six months to have sex again.”
I must’ve blanched, because her mouth turned up into a smile.
“I also had one tell me that her birth went so fast that she had the baby in the ambulance,” she continued. “And then there was my mother, giving me every gory detail known to man. I think she was doing it as punishment for not telling her that I was seeing you in the first place, though.”
I snorted.
“Your dad told me he would chop my dick off and shove it up my own ass if I ever hurt you,” I told her. “And my dad only laughed.”
She gestured toward the light that had turned green, and I accelerated through it just as it turned yellow.
“Whoops,” I murmured, looking in the rearview mirror at the line of angry drivers behind me.
She leaned forward and shook her hair out, pulling a ponytail holder off her wrist and then putting it up at the top of her head.
“I don’t know anything about birth plans, what I want to do after the baby is born, or anything like that. I’m glad I have some time once school’s over to really focus on that.” She paused. “But right now, I’m just going to enjoy being pregnant and leave it at that.”
I squeezed her wrist.
“You’re sure you’re happy?” I asked carefully.
“I’ll let you know when I’m not, then you can fix it,” she teased.
I snorted and let go of her hand to pull into the parking lot of the hospital.
“You know,” she said. “Life would be so much better if self-driving hover cars were a thing.”
I snorted and pulled into a parking spot that wasn’t anywhere near the entrance and got out.
Ashe met me at the front of the truck, and together we walked inside the building, hand in hand.
When we stepped off the elevators for the floor that Lacy was on, I was honestly surprised to see Luke standing there.
I frowned.
“What are you doing here?” Ashe asked Luke.
He grimaced and gestured toward the end of the hallway.
“It was found that Lacy was there willingly,” he murmured. “She and the boyfriend moved in together. Lacy told us today.”
I grimaced.
“Well that makes sense, I guess,” Ashe said. “I couldn’t figure out why she was able to drop cats off at the shelter, and come and go at will, without being noticed.”
“Me either,” I admitted. “But, saying that, stranger things have happened.”
“The parents want to press charges against the man anyway. Statutory rape charges.” He sighed. “I was talking with the parents and Lacy. Lacy doesn’t want to press charges. The parents do. It’s a clusterfuck of epic proportions. I think they’re going to defer to Lacy, though.”
“We could talk to her about it…” Ashe began but trailed off when something caught her eye.
A loud commotion had us all turning to survey the area behind us.
I frowned at the man standing at the nurses’ station, waving his arms frantically.
I stiffened and made my way over there, reluctantly leaving Ashe’s warmth behind.
“There a problem here?” Luke asked as he and I walked up at the same time.
“This man says that his girlfriend is here, and he wants to see her,” a frightened nurse said.
The man must’ve been the twenty-something-year-old boyfriend of Lacy.
Son of a bitch.
“Sir, we’re going to have to ask you to come with us.” I gestured to the end of the hallway.
But Lacy, being a crazy, hormonal girl, came barreling out of her room and headed straight for the man.
“Jeff!”
Ashe was there to catch Lacy before she could get too far, putting her body in front of Lacy to stop her from going to the boyfriend.
“Do you mind if we talk?” Luke asked, being polite, but rather obvious with the demand formed into a request.
Luke’s hand on the Jeff character’s chest had Jeff stiffening.
Which was about when everything went to hell.
“Jeff! I’m sorry! They won’t let me come back!” she called out.
Jeff tried to get around Luke and me, but we used our bodies to stop his actions.
“Go back to your room and let us talk with him, Lacy.” Ashe ordered. “We can’t figure out what’s going on like this.”
Lacy looked pissed then. “I lied about everything. He made me lie. But I didn’t want to lie. I want to stay with him!”
Well, wasn’t this a basket full of crazy.
Wonderful.
“Lacy!” Jeff fought to get free, but it wasn’t happening.
“This isn’t helping,” Luke growled. “You’re making it worse. Listen, man. Calm down and listen!”
Jeff, just all of a sudden, stopped.
He went from fighting one second to pissed as hell but not moving a muscle the next.
“Okay, okay,” Jeff said. “Okay.”
Just as I was thinking things were looking up, a gunshot sounded from behind us.
Dread pooling in my stomach, I looked behind me just in time to hear Ashe cry out and fall to the floor, her hand on her thigh as blood started to pool on the white tiled floor.
Lacy picked the gun back up again and aimed it at Luke.
“Let him go!” Lacy shrieked.
Luke stepped back, hands in the air, just as Ashe moved with lightning speed and tripped the girl with a leg sweep.
Another gunshot sounded, this bullet going high and embedding in the ceiling.
&n
bsp; Ashe moved until she was pinning Lacy to the floor, her bleeding leg held behind her while the other one pushed harshly into Lacy’s back.
She shoved the gun away just as Lacy’s parents tried to help.
“Get the fuck back!” Luke bellowed.
“Someone get me something to restrain her with,” Luke ordered.
I looked at the man staring in horror at Lacy.
“I don’t… I don’t…” He shook his head. “What is going on?”
I leveled him with a look that clearly said ‘stay where you fucking are’ and went to help my woman.
Chapter 21
I want a dog, but I don’t have time to manage its Instagram.
-A suspect to Ford
Ford
“Wait!” I said to the paramedic that was about to put on the latex gloves. “She’s allergic to latex.”
The woman on the stretcher in front of me snorted. “I would’ve told him, Ford. Calm down.”
I couldn’t calm down.
My pregnant girlfriend had just been shot.
In the thigh, yes. Sure, it was also in the fleshy part that didn’t have anything but fat, but still.
She’d been shot!
And I was freakin’ the fuck out.
“No, it’s okay,” the paramedic, one that I was beginning to know well, said.
I looked over at Tai.
“I thought you said you were retiring?” I asked, trying to get my mind off of the fact that Ashe had been shot. “And what the hell are you even doing here?”
He gestured to the break room.
“I was getting food,” he said. “Which they have on this floor for some reason. And I am retiring. In a year.”
I nodded numbly as he slipped on the gloves that better fucking be latex-free.
Tai then tore Ashe’s pants from crotch to ankle and exposed the gunshot wound to the world.
I felt lightheaded.
“Ford, for fuck’s sake. Sit down,” Ashe ordered.
“I’m fine,” I lied.
She scoffed. “You’re not fine. You’re about to pass out.”
I agreed. I was about to pass out.
I sat down and leaned my back against the wall, staring at her with horror in my eyes.
“I can’t believe that you were shot,” I found myself saying.
Maybe Swearing Will Help Page 18
