Join the Club (SWAT Generation 2.0 Book 7)

by Lani Lynn Vale

“Okay.” He paused. “What was it that you got to thinking? And how much longer do you have?”

  I looked at the fucking clock in the corner that the douchebag Sims had put there.

  “I have all evening, actually. Lights out at eight, though. Meaning I have a little over three hours to figure this shit out,” I said. “And you’re gonna want to figure this shit out.”

  There was a long pregnant pause and then Booth said, “Hit me.”

  “Okay,” I said. “So, Ellie sent me some paperwork on David a few days after Jason died. I gave them to you before I left, remember?”

  “Yeah,” Booth said. “I’ve gone through everything in there. There’s nothing.”

  “I know,” I said. “But anyway, that’s what I’m getting at. There’s absolutely nothing in there. There’s some stuff, yes. But not enough. I don’t think that she gave me everything she dug up on him.”

  I could practically hear Booth frowning over the phone line.

  “So what are you saying?” Booth asked. “That there’s more to this story? That she didn’t give it all to us?”

  “Exactly,” I said. “I’m not sure if she found something that she thought was too dangerous for me to have, or if she’s sitting on the information… but there was something there. I feel like I only got a bit of the report… and now that I have all this excess time to think and twiddle my thumbs, I’m thinking that there’s something there.” I paused. “And I think that whatever she found, she’s trying to figure it out on her own. Did Delanie tell you that she’s spending time with Ellie?”

  “Yes,” he answered. “I’ll look into it.”

  I knew he would.

  “Any news on the David front other than that?” I asked curiously.

  “None,” he admitted. “Absolutely none.”

  Sadly, after talking to Delanie once more, then Booth again, as well as my parents, we never found anything else out about what I wanted to know.

  The next week was more of the same.

  And the week after that.

  And the week after that.

  And, two weeks after that, when graduation was finally a day away, I was waiting anxiously for my woman and family to arrive.

  They didn’t disappoint.

  Once our superiors allowed us to go to our family, I couldn’t stop the fuckin’ jovial smile that spread across my face.

  Delanie found me before I found her, and she hit me like a small freight train.

  Wrapping her arms around me, she held on tight and pressed her mouth to mine.

  I might or might not have groped her ass before I pulled her in tight and returned the kiss with fervor.

  “Let’s not ever do this again,” she ordered, her hands going to cup my face. “When can you grow that beard back?”

  I chuckled as I stared deeply into her eyes. “I’ll have the beard back by our wedding. Don’t you worry. I know how much you…”

  “Don’t you dare finish that sentence, Bourne Pena,” my mother’s unamused voice filled my ear.

  I turned to see her standing there with Asa holding onto her hand, and a smile on her face despite her serious tone.

  Putting Delanie down, I gathered my mother into my arms and hugged her tight.

  She returned the hug just as tightly.

  “Now, let’s never do this again, okay?” she asked.

  I laughed. “You’re the second woman to tell me that in a matter of minutes. I’ll try my best.”

  Asa squeezed his way in between us, then tugged on my shirt until I looked down at him.

  “Uncle Bourne, can I hold your hat?” he asked, his eyes gleaming.

  I handed it to him. “Don’t lose it. I have to put it back on when I get outside.”

  He wore it like he was proud as fuck. Which made my fuckin’ heart do funny things.

  “I’m going to go into the Air Force just like you,” he announced.

  “Not the Army like your daddy?” Booth asked, sounding sad.

  Asa, very seriously, looked him in the eye and said, “The Army is for pussies.”

  Delanie gasped.

  Booth looked at his kid in shock.

  I couldn’t help it.

  I fucking laughed.

  Hard.

  In fact, I was still laughing my ass off when something interrupted me.

  My phone that I’d just gotten back, as well as Booth’s, went off. It was the SWAT call app.

  My brows rose.

  “What the hell is that?” our father asked curiously.

  I pulled away from Delanie only slightly then pulled the phone from my pocket.

  I read the words on the screen. Then re-read them.

  “Does that say what I think it says?”

  Delanie pulled out her phone and connected to Facebook.

  Seconds after that, she was watching fucking live stream—that Ellie was behind—and holding it out for us all to see.

  “…admit it, David.” Ellie’s angry voice came over the line. “You were the one responsible for paying the man to firebomb my husband’s truck.”

  My stomach sank.

  “I will do no such thing.” David shook his head. “I will not be held accountable for somebody else’s actions.”

  “You might not have done the actual deed, but I know that you paid that vagrant to do it,” she said, then turned the phone that she was holding in the direction of another man who was tied up on the floor. “Marco Pines, do you admit that this is the man that paid you to destroy the information that he’d obtained?”

  Tied up, Marco nodded his head. “That’s him. Though, he just said to torch the truck. I thought the guy was out of it. I’m so sorry. He even let me borrow a car.”

  Marco was crying.

  I would be, too.

  Especially if I’d done something as stupid as him.

  The phone turned and then Ellie was talking again.

  “You didn’t like that there was someone looking into your life. Someone who could expose all of your secrets,” Ellie said. “So when you realized that I was able to find the goods on you, pretty darn quick might I add, because you’re just that arrogant and thought that nobody would find out, you hired someone to destroy the evidence that was found. You are responsible for killing my husband.”

  David made the mistake of rolling his eyes.

  “I can’t help that some man did this,” he said. “It wasn’t me.”

  Ellie laughed humorlessly.

  Then she went on to explain every single dirty deed that David had ever committed.

  Some we knew. Some we didn’t.

  Some were surprising, others not so much.

  “You’re right, you know,” Ellie said as she walked over to the couch that I could see in the background and propped her phone up onto the arm. “You didn’t tell him to kill my husband. Only to take the information. You never intended for anyone to get killed.”

  David swallowed, sensing that something was about to happen, he just couldn’t figure out what.

  Ellie walked over to a bottle of liquor that was sitting on the coffee table, then ripped the top off of it. She picked up a white rag that was sitting next to the bottle, then shoved it down into the neck of the bottle before pouring the bottle upside down until liquid saturated the rag.

  Drops of liquor splatted onto the table, and she righted the bottle.

  Picking up a lighter off the table, she flipped it open and closed, then looked at the crying man on the floor.

  “This was my husband’s lighter,” she said to the man. Marco. “It was the only thing on his body that survived the fire.”

  She flicked it open one last time, then lit the rag.

  It flamed to life, and she stared at it in fascination before she turned to David. “You might not have done the deed, but you sure knew who did it, and you never came forward. You gave him the idea. The target. Now, you’re going to watch.”

  She tossed
the bottle then. Hard.

  The glass broke against the wall next to the crying man’s face.

  Then, on fuckin’ live video, everyone watched the man burn alive.

  “Holy…” I started.

  “…Shit,” Booth breathed.

  Epilogue I

  Fuck.

  -Things you shouldn’t think when you wake up in the morning

  Bourne

  Five months later

  “Are you sure that you want to do this?” I asked.

  Booth rolled his eyes. “You can’t ask that as we’re moving into the house, dumbass.”

  I grinned and picked up the box of shit that was labeled ‘Dillan’s shit’ and walked it into the house.

  Months ago, when we’d started this venture, I’d been hesitant.

  I mean, who wanted to live with their brother, his new wife, and their soon-to-be child when they were a newlywed themselves?

  The reason I’d suggested this was in the kitchen.

  After putting the last box down in Booth and Dillan’s room, I walked to the kitchen that we—Delanie, Dillan, Booth, their soon-to-be child, and Asa—would now be sharing as a family.

  Dillan and Delanie were making cookies at the counter.

  Delanie was rubbing her back, a look of pain etched on her face, and watching Dillan and Asa cut out cookies with the new cookie cutters that Asa had gotten Delanie and Dillan for Mother’s Day.

  Upon seeing us enter the kitchen, Delanie went from grimacing to smiling.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked as I walked up to her, my arm automatically going around her hip.

  “I just.” She grimaced as she rubbed her back again, pressing her head into my chest. “My back really, really hurts. Like, nothing’s touching it. I’ve taken ibuprofen, Tylenol, and even took a nap to see if that would help. But it’s only gotten worse.”

  “It’s the sympathy pains,” Dillan said as she rubbed her belly.

  I grinned.

  Delanie rolled her eyes.

  “I am not having sympathy pregnancy pains,” she growled.

  I honestly wished that she was.

  Why?

  Because I wanted her to have my children.

  But, sadly, that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

  Not if Delanie had anything to say about it.

  Delanie wanted to focus on Asa, the dog training that had hit an all-time high, and her new marriage to me.

  I couldn’t argue with her, because what she wanted was for me.

  She wanted me to feel special.

  She wanted me to have her love and attention.

  And I couldn’t complain about that.

  How could I?

  “I’m nervous as hell,” Dillan said as she rubbed her belly, her eyes getting a faraway look in them.

  “It’ll be fine,” Booth said as he walked up to his wife and wrapped his arms around her burgeoning belly. “Tomorrow’s going to go smoothly.”

  She looked at me and rolled her eyes.

  “He thinks it’ll go smoothly.” She snorted. “Nothing ever goes smoothly for us.”

  It didn’t.

  What could go wrong, did go wrong.

  That was why the house we were going to be sharing took five months to build instead of two like they anticipated. Why we always got called out on SWAT calls when we were in the middle of something. Why Asa always got sick when we were the busiest.

  But again, that was the good thing about having such a good family structure now.

  Someone was always there when they were needed.

  And whether it was me, Dillan, Booth or Delanie, there was always someone there to help.

  “Tomorrow you’ll get called out on a SWAT call in the middle of her birth,” Delanie drawled. “I can feel it now.”

  “I’m not on call,” Booth shot back, grinning.

  “No,” I agreed. “But I am. I know that this isn’t my kid or anything, but I sure the fuck want to be there when my brother’s child is born. I’m the kid’s uncle, he needs to see me first so that he knows I’ll always have his back.”

  Booth rolled his eyes. “The kid doesn’t need to see you first. He needs to see his father first. Because I’ve been highly anticipating his arrival.”

  “Her,” Dillan corrected.

  Booth rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

  They hadn’t found out the sex of the baby.

  Not because they hadn’t wanted to find out, but because the baby was uncooperative and didn’t want them to find out.

  Honestly, I found the whole damn thing kind of comical.

  “Uhhhhh,” Delanie said as she pressed her face into the space between my pecs. “Now my stomach hurts, too. The pain is radiating. God.”

  “How about you go to the bathroom. Take a bath,” I suggested.

  “There’s so much left to do,” Delanie whined.

  There was.

  Today hadn’t been the best day to move in, but we’d put it off so long thanks to the builders taking for-fucking-ever getting their finishing touches done that we literally had no choice but to move in today.

  So, gathering all of the SWAT guys, we’d moved all of our shit into the house in a couple of hours while the SWAT ladies had helped Delanie unpack. Dillan had sat where she was, baking cookies and watching babies, while the rest of us worked.

  Honestly, it worked out really well, and despite having a lot to do inside the house, we were moved in.

  “It’ll still be there tomorrow,” I teased.

  “It’ll still be there next week, because I’m damn well going to have my sister with me tomorrow through this labor,” Dillan chirped.

  Grinning, I popped my hand down onto Delanie’s ass. “Go. I’ll get dinner ordered. Then come help you organize the bathroom while you soak.”

  She sighed and did what she was told, moving slowly as she put her hands on her back and rubbed to help relieve the pain.

  “She shouldn’t have moved all those boxes,” Booth muttered, watching her go.

  “I agree,” I said. “But telling that woman anything is like pulling teeth.”

  My girl was stubborn.

  She’d wanted the house as perfect as she could get it so that she could help Dillan in any way that she could.

  I looked around the state of the art kitchen that had been so fucking hard to build.

  With Dillan, Delanie, Booth, and me all wanting our own specific touches added onto it, the thing ended up being one of the most expensive rooms in the house.

  But, now that I was seeing it, it was totally worth every single penny and tussle that we had to go through to get it.

  The house ended up being almost like two houses in one. The only thing that we would really share was the one bedroom in the middle of the house off of the very large family/dining room. The kitchen, and the overly large laundry room that was big enough to accommodate two families.

  The two wings of the house were large. My side being four bedrooms plus an office while Booth’s was four bedrooms plus a storage room that could be converted into an office if they ever had a need for it.

  We would also be sharing a four-car garage.

  And, in the middle of it all, Asa got his room. That way he wasn’t on one side of the house or the other.

  He got to share us both.

  Which was exactly what this family and he needed.

  No more did he have to go from one house to the other. Spend weekends at Booth’s and weekdays at Delanie’s.

  He’d be in one house, with both of his parents, and both of his stepparents.

  It was every kid’s—at least ones that didn’t have married parents—dream.

  The best of both worlds.

  “When you go back there.” Dillan pointed at a large glass of ice water that was sitting on the edge of the counter. “Take that with you. Delanie poured it right before y’all came in.”

  I picked up t
he glass, ruffled Asa’s hair, and headed in the direction of our bedroom.

  Running my fingers along the pine that lined the walls, I pushed through the door to our master suite and closed the door behind me.

  I heard a disturbing sound when I went farther into the room and winced when I saw Delanie hovering over the toilet, her hair caught in her hand.

  She was naked except for a pair of panties, and she was holding her stomach as if she was trying to hold in her insides.

  I dropped down onto my knees behind her and held her hair for her.

  “Shit, baby,” I said. “We need to take you to the hospital if your back is hurting you this bad.”

  Her answer was to throw up again.

  It went on like this for another five minutes before she sighed and stood up out of my arms.

  She walked to the tub that was still filling up, cranked off the faucets, walked over to the counter, and grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste before starting to brush her teeth.

  I watched from my perch on the floor as her breasts swayed with the movements of her arms.

  “I think I just tweaked my back,” she said. “I’m so fuckin’ nervous about tomorrow.”

  Dillan had a bad pregnancy.

  She’d thrown up. A lot. She’d had high blood pressure that had threatened her with bed rest twice. She’d developed gestational diabetes. Then she’d dealt with swelling so bad that she’d had to stop working over the last month.

  I could see how Delanie would be scared shitless about the induction that was scheduled for tomorrow.

  After brushing her teeth, Delanie tossed the toothbrush down onto the counter, slipped her panties off, and then sank down into the bath.

  It was as she was squatting down and sinking in that her face went absolutely white.

  She cried out in pain and all but fell the last few inches.

  I was on my feet and hurrying toward her when she gasped and surfaced from underneath the water.

  “Oh, God,” she breathed as she wiped the water out of her eyes. “I think I might very well take you up on that trip to the ER. I must’ve hurt myself picking up the boxes today. Though, just sayin’, I swear I didn’t feel anything that bad. Just minor twinges all day long.”

  I cupped her face in my hands and pulled her to me, placing a kiss onto her nose.

  “You need to take care of yourself,” I ordered her.