Join the Club (SWAT Generation 2.0 Book 7)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  I leaned forward, pressed a kiss to her satiated lips, and stood.

  Tucking myself still wet with both of us back into my underwear, then further into my uniform, I watched her.

  “What’s a 10-59?” she asked again, not bothering to even raise her head.

  I grimaced. “A murder suicide.”

  When I left thirty seconds later, I knew that she watched me go the entire time.

  And even though she was in the doorway as I got into my car, I refused to allow myself to look at her.

  This was a really bad idea.

  I shouldn’t have done it.

  Yet, I couldn’t make myself regret it.

  ***

  Delanie

  As I watched him go, I knew that it would be our last time together.

  There was something about the way that he refused to make eye contact with me that made me realize that we’d overstepped the imaginary line that he’d drawn in the sand. And to get me back where I belonged, he had to use his self-control to make sure we didn’t overstep again. Because it was more than obvious, when it came to Bourne Pena, that Delanie Davidsdottir didn’t have any.

  Chapter 4

  I look normal, but believe me, I talk to dogs.

  -Delanie’s secret thoughts

  Delanie

  Two months later

  My heartbeat stuttered as I rounded the corner of my kitchen and saw two people there fastened in a lip lock.

  “Uhh.” I paused, unsure what to do.

  I needed some water.

  Like, stat.

  I’d dry swallowed two pills—I’d been having headaches galore for the majority of my life, and I could feel the one that was pounding behind my temples was gearing up to be a bad one—and they were currently stuck in the back of my throat.

  I had to get some water.

  There was no other choice.

  Especially since the longer they stayed there, the more I wanted to gag.

  Ignoring the amorous couple, I walked to the cabinet beside them, pulled down one of Asa’s color changing cups, and walked to the fridge that was making a very suspicious groaning and vibrating sound.

  Likely, the fridge would go out while I was gone, and we wouldn’t notice because Dillan had been spending her days at Booth’s place.

  I filled the cup up halfway, then swallowed.

  The pills stayed put.

  I tried again and was relieved when they went down smoothly.

  When I sighed and turned to leave the room, it was to find both of them staring silently at me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You need to go to Austin.”

  I blinked.

  “Um, what?” I asked.

  “You need to go to Austin,” she repeated. “This is a great opportunity for you.”

  I wasn’t quite sure how the next few minutes happened, but every single argument I made they had a solution for.

  Before I could so much as understand what, exactly, had gone on, I was now scheduled to ride with Bourne all the way there.

  An hour later, I was set on canceling, when I got a single text message.

  The number was Bourne’s.

  After he’d left that last time and didn’t come back, I’d deleted his number from my phone in a fit of annoyance.

  Not that it really mattered. He had the easiest number in the world, and I knew it by heart. I could sing it in my sleep.

  With it being one digit off from a very infamous number that most people born and raised in the 80s could sing by heart.

  867-5301: I’ll be there tomorrow at eight to pick you up.

  Annoyed already with him, I immediately texted him right back.

  Delanie: I have to get Asa to school tomorrow. I’m taking him to the book fair. I can be ready by ten.

  Or never, if you prefer.

  Not that I would tell him that.

  Telling Bourne that I didn’t want to do it would let him know that I didn’t think rationally when it came to him.

  And I definitely wanted him to think I was rational.

  Meaning, I’d sucked it up and agreed even though I thought it was a terrible idea.

  867-5301: I’ll be there at nine-thirty. We can take him to the book fair together. Then we’ll leave straight from the school.

  I hated that he had a plan that made sense. I couldn’t refute it in any way.

  So I didn’t bother responding.

  Instead, I spent the next couple of hours waiting for Asa to get off the bus by working the dogs.

  When Asa’s bus pulled around the corner and headed our way, I had a huge smile on my face.

  When the bus pulled to a stop, Asa started running down the stairs at full speed to get to me.

  I braced myself before he could get to me and pulled him up into my arms, waving at the bus driver seconds later.

  Asa’s tiny little arms went around me, and he squeezed me tight.

  God, I loved the kid.

  More than anything.

  “How was school, baby?” I asked, squeezing him lightly before letting him go back to his feet.

  Asa was small for his age, but still, he was getting huge. And there was going to come a point one day that I wouldn’t be able to pick him up any more like I’d just done.

  “I learned how to write my name in cursive,” he said. “And, I ate a huge burger. My friend dared me to put ours together and make one. I almost choked, and the teacher told me I was messing around. So I only got one bite of burger before she threw my entire lunch away. You know that the burger is the only food I’ll eat at school, but she wouldn’t let me eat it.”

  I felt my eyes narrow.

  “Well,” I said, trying not to get too mad. “I don’t even know what to say.”

  I could see reprimanding him, but throwing his food away?

  “Don’t worry about it. She’s mean,” he said, dismissing my worry with a wave of his hand.

  Now I was worrying even more.

  “What do you mean that she’s mean?” I asked, grabbing his hand and leading him into the house, bypassing everything on the way to the kitchen.

  “She’s really mean to me. I’m not sure why, but I just ignore her,” he said.

  I let his hand go and he dumped his backpack in the middle of the floor, just like he always did.

  “Tell me the kinds of things that she does that you consider mean,” I replied gently, hoping that it wouldn’t make it seem like I was as pissed as I was.

  He pointed to the counter where I kept the dog treats, and I rolled my eyes and handed him four.

  He loved giving the dogs treats, and he was an amazing helper that all of the dogs just loved.

  He disappeared to the kennels where he gave each dog a treat, and when he got back, I had him a peanut butter sandwich with no crusts made.

  He started eating it before I reminded him of my question before he’d left.

  “She doesn’t like me,” he repeated. “She’s my computer teacher. And she helps out in the STAR lab when I get sent there to take tests.”

  Since Asa had skipped ahead a grade, he normally took his tests in the STAR lab to avoid any problems. I wasn’t sure why, but I wasn’t going to argue when it had my baby’s best interest at heart. At least, I thought it did.

  Knowing that this chick didn’t like him made me semi-annoyed that he had to see her every day.

  “What’s her name?” I asked.

  “Ms. Greeley,” he answered around a bite of food.

  My lips tipped up at the corner.

  My father would’ve had a conniption if he’d seen one of us doing that.

  I couldn’t tell you how many times we’d gotten a belt to the ass for something similar.

  That was why, although it wasn’t technically showing good manners, I never corrected him.

  “What does she do?” I pushed, shooting off a text to Booth.

  Delanie: H
as Asa ever talked to you about a Ms. Greeley?

  He replied immediately.

  Booth: Once. About her refusing to open his ketchup packets at lunch. Why?

  “Sometimes she makes me stand up in STAR lab.” He shrugged. “And other times, she skips over me at lunch when I need help opening my ketchup. I don’t even ask for help anymore.”

  Anger started to boil away inside of me.

  “Is she mean to any other students?” I asked casually.

  “One other student. His dad is a police officer, too.” Asa shrugged. “But he’s bigger and can get his own ketchup packets open. She does give him detention a lot, though. For talking. He never talks during lunch anymore. Neither do I. Except, Ms. Greeley was all the way across the cafeteria today when Oliver and I decided to stack our hamburgers. I didn’t think she could see.” He paused. “Last week she made me get out of line and go to the end because I was talking. We’re not allowed to talk in line.”

  My hands fisted at my side as I listened to him explain more and more and more.

  Once the dam was broken, he just provided us with tons of things that had me seeing red.

  I looked at the clock, upset that by the time that I got all of that out of him, it was well past when I would think the teachers would still be at school.

  To help cool myself down, I walked back outside and started to water my plants, hoping that would get me under control.

  Except, it didn’t.

  When Nico, Bourne and Booth’s father, pulled into Priscilla’s driveway ten minutes later, I marched right over to him, pissed as hell.

  He saw me coming and got out, his eyebrows lowering.

  “What is it?” he asked worriedly.

  I looked back at the house to make sure that my son wasn’t anywhere close. Then I burst out crying.

  “Someone’s being mean to my baby!”

  ***

  Bourne

  I bypassed the mom with the screaming toddler that was pissed he didn’t get a cookie at the fuckin’ book fair, then went in search of the front office.

  I found my destination and marched inside.

  Normally, this would be Booth taking care of this.

  Actually, he was supposed to take care of this.

  After we listened to everything that was being said last night that Asa had been dealing with when it came to the computer teacher from hell, Dad and I decided that Booth was likely too close.

  And so was Delanie.

  Which was why I found myself walking into the office that I hadn’t been in in years.

  “Oh, hello,” an older, smiling woman said. “You’re Asa’s dad, right?”

  Some of the perks of living in a small town was that everyone knew you. Some of the drawbacks of living in a small town was that everyone knew you.

  “Um, no,” I said. “I’m Bourne, Asa’s uncle.”

  Her eyes widened. “Two sets of twins. That’s amazing. Can I help you?”

  I looked past her into the long hallway behind her, which was likely where the principal’s office was located.

  “I’d like to speak to the principal,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

  “Oh.” She frowned. “Well, he’s in with a student right now. Can I take a message?”

  I shook my head. “No. And this needs done in the next twenty minutes. Why don’t you go get him so I can speak to him?”

  The older lady frowned. “That’s… that’s not possible.”

  “It is,” I said. “Because you’re going to go in there and get him, and he’s going to want to see me. Trust me on this.”

  Principal O’Malley was my principal once upon a time, too.

  My dad had saved his life once during a traffic stop.

  Needless to say, O’Malley knew me. And he would talk to me.

  “Please,” I added as an afterthought.

  The old lady blinked, obviously perturbed that I was making her get out of her chair to do my bidding.

  But I didn’t care.

  I was pissed.

  After hearing all that had gone on last night from my dad, I’d decided to make a little visit by the office before heading out with Delanie. Who would be here in twenty minutes or less.

  I knew that she was going to come in here and talk to the principal on her own. I just wanted to beat her to it.

  The old lady disappeared down the long hallway, and I watched her shuffle along.

  Long moments later, O’Malley came hurrying out, completely scooting around the old biddy who had wanted to deny me his time.

  “Bourne! Booth? Shit, I can never tell y’all apart,” O’Malley said as he held out his hand.

  I grinned. “Bourne. It has to do with Booth’s son, though.”

  O’Malley blinked. “What’s wrong?”

  I then told him everything that had happened and explained what we’d learned from Asa.

  O’Malley, angry now, turned to the old lady. “Dorie, look up where Mr. Asa Pena is right now.”

  Dorie did, flipping through her book. When she found what she was looking for, she typed in a number on her phone and placed it to her ear.

  “Mrs. Cooper? This is Dorie from the office. Can you tell me where Asa Pena is right now? Okay. Thank you!” Dorie hung up the phone.

  “He’s currently taking a test in the STAR lab,” she said.

  I looked at O’Malley.

  “Perfect. Let’s go see.” O’Malley jerked his chin at me and ordered me to follow him.

  I did, falling into step easily.

  He led me through a maze of hallways that didn’t look the least bit familiar despite my spending years here when I was younger and came to a stop outside of a room that was right next to the lunchroom.

  He gestured for me to look inside, and I did.

  What I saw brought my blood to a boil.

  O’Malley soundlessly opened up the door, and we watched as the teacher, likely the one that Asa had complained about, stood over Asa with a ruler smacking against her thigh. Not touching him, but definitely intimidating him.

  Every single time the ruler smacked against her thigh, Asa’s cheek would twitch as if he was just waiting for her to slap it against him.

  I gritted my teeth and looked at O’Malley.

  He nodded without once looking away.

  “’Scuse me,” a young boy around Asa’s age whispered.

  And before either O’Malley or I could move, he squeezed between us and walked to the spot directly across from Asa.

  Only, Ms. Greeley didn’t move once from where she was standing over Asa.

  “Hello, Tom,” Ms. Greeley greeted the young boy.

  Tom, the young boy, grinned at the teacher and went to work.

  Another student squeezed past us, his head down and his shoulders hunched.

  He walked to the spot directly next to Asa and took a seat.

  The boy was older. Way older. He looked to be about eight or nine years old to Asa’s five.

  “Mr. Sallow,” Ms. Greeley cooed. “How surprising that you’ve come to STAR lab today. Couldn’t get your math homework done again? Are the numbers still ‘switching’ in front of your eyes?”

  She said that last part as if she didn’t believe him at all.

  Only, you didn’t make that shit up.

  You didn’t want to have to walk out of class, especially at that age, and show any signs of weakness.

  It was embarrassing.

  “Yes, ma’am,” the student replied under his breath. “I just can’t…”

  “Save it,” she said. “How long did your teacher say you had to take the test?”

  The boy swallowed hard. “Thirty minutes.”

  “Get your work done. You have fifteen minutes, go.” She snapped the ruler harder, nearly hitting Asa on the upswing, and I’d had enough.

  I marched into the room, announcing my presence.

  The teacher looked up as if she
’d been caught, but quickly tried to slide a polite, ‘I didn’t do anything bad’ smile onto her face. It didn’t work. I was pissed before I’d entered the school. Now I was downright irate.

  “Ms. Greeley,” O’Malley growled. “May we have a word outside?”

  “Uncle Bourne!” Asa cried out, standing up.

  I pointed at him. “Finish your test, buddy. We’re going to go to the book fair once you’re done.”

  Asa nodded his head in excitement and went back to his test, leaving Ms. Greeley to walk carefully and slowly out into the hall.

  This time, there was no nervous tic on Asa’s face. His shoulders weren’t slumped. And he had a smile there that definitely hadn’t been there before.

  I turned my back on the room and walked out into the hall.

  “…I don’t even know what to say to you right now.” Mr. O’Malley touched his forehead, as if what he saw wasn’t registering. “I… how do you think that’s acceptable?”

  Knowing that O’Malley had this, and there was something weird about the situation in there, I walked back inside the room.

  “Asa, buddy?”

  Asa looked up.

  “Can you move to the corner over there? I want to talk to this boy.” I gestured toward the kid who looked like he was about to puke. And not because I was in the room. Because he was looking at his test as if it were a monster.

  Asa immediately got up and ran to the corner where there was a beanbag.

  I had an idle thought that there were probably thousands of germs on there, and Delanie would probably have a conniption if she knew he was sitting on it.

  I smiled and let him stay, turning my head.

  The kid that had come in second was working away on his paper, as if he was used to talking, so I let him be and went to the older one.

  I dropped down onto my haunches and looked at the boy.

  He looked familiar, but I didn’t know why.

  The moment the kid’s eyes looked up to meet mine, I knew instantly.

  His father worked with me at the KPD. He was a police officer. A detective, actually. Neal Sallow.

  “You’re Neal’s kid, aren’t you?” I asked, grinning.

  The kid looked up at me and his eyes widened. “Yes, sir.”

  “You look like him. Your eyes, especially.” I tapped my temple right at the corner of my eyes. “Can’t hide the resemblance with those peepers.”