Classy AF: Cheap Thrills Series Book 3

by Moore. , Mary B.

  “Tom and Cole were in complete control of…” Ren started and then shut his mouth with an audible snap when she glared at him.

  That’s when my mom spoke up, unable to help herself. “So why are you covered in mud, honey?”

  Spinning around to look at who’d spoken, Maya’s eyes widened when she saw my parents and then she looked at me, reminding me that they’d met a couple of weeks before when we’d celebrated Jose and Ellis’s engagement. “Your parents are here? I didn’t know that. Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Beauregard, how are you?”

  “We’re very well. You look…” Mom stalled and then reached into her purse to pull out a tissue for Maya. One whole tissue, and from the pocket-sized pack of Kleenex, too, when Maya was covered in mud.

  “Well, I got stuck in mud as I pulled out of our house, and the only person around to help me was this one’s,” she gestured over her shoulder with her thumb at Ren, “grandfather. Seeing as how he’s still recovering from major heart surgery, I got out and pushed him while he put his foot on the gas. Except – and this was after five minutes of pushing, by the way – he didn’t have it in gear. The second I called out to him to put it in gear, he did it – whilst keeping his foot on the gas.” All of us made noises of understanding, apart from Ren who groaned. “Not only did he shoot out of the mud, leaving me falling face first into it, but he also stalled the engine and still managed to hit the fence,” she growled, and then looked over her shoulder to where her husband was now lying with his eyes shut. “Playing dead won’t help, you have another vehicle to fix.”

  “Noted.”

  I’d made the mistake of moving out from behind Raoul while Maya told her story, and when she turned to look at me again to say something she finally saw my eye, having missed it before now. “Holy shit, what happened to your eye?”

  I could see out of it now, slightly at least, but I knew for a fact it looked bad. The mirror that I’d been standing in front of when I brushed my teeth this morning had told me so, in fact. “Halloween costume. I decided to get started early.”

  Apparently my attempt at humor didn’t go down well with any of them, least of all the man standing behind me who reached out and pinched my butt cheek, making me jump.

  “I heard the guy was the size of a tree,” one of the orderlies, Ted, who’d been pushing Ren said.

  The other one, not wanting to be left out, added his two cents worth. “I saw him, he was like a frigging bull. There’s a hole in the wall in the cubicle that’s bigger than my foot where he hit it with his fist.” Seeing as how he was standing on the same side of the bed that we were, we all looked down at the foot he held out when he said it, and I had to wonder if we all thought the same thing as we saw that he had the tiniest feet I’d ever seen on a grown man. I wore size eights and even mine looked bigger than his.

  “Took nine men to keep him down,” the first orderly stated, totally invested in retelling everything going around the hospital now. “I heard your head snapped back so hard, you broke your neck. Seems like you’re doing well now, though,” he said, looking at me curiously. “You blind in that eye?”

  Losing patience with it, Raoul tugged me behind him again. “Does it look like she’s got a broken neck or lost an eye? Next time you speak to your coven of storytellers, do me a favor and inform them it took five of us to get the cuffs on him, and two to arrest him. Then tell them that Rose didn’t break her neck, nor is she blind in one eye. She took the punch better than any of y’all ever would have and she didn’t complain about it once. I’ve seen grown men cry over less, so she deserves a bit of respect and admiration,” he hissed leaning forward at them. “If that’s ok with you?”

  “Here, here,” Dad growled, glaring at the men with his arms crossed over his chest. Here’s the thing about my dad – he looked like a lumberjack. He was over six feet tall, had a bushy beard, shaggy hair, was barrel chested, and looked like he chewed nails instead of gum. Well, not quite, but when he was pissed he did. And that’s how he was looking at Huey and Duey who’d just been discussing his daughter like she was a freak show, so it was no wonder that they froze and stared at him when he said it. When the staring went on a bit too long for his liking, he sighed and shot the glare in my direction. “I just wasted forty-nine seconds of my life I’m never getting back looking at these fools, we moving or am I wasting more time?”

  Hogan Beauregard was the nicest man in the world, I promise he really was. He was also the biggest papa bear in the world who was protective of his daughter. In one morning, he’d heard his daughter had been punched by someone, had caught her in bed with a man, seen the damage to her eye, had to take her to the police station to answer questions about her assault, had to sit and listen to his wife ask the man he’d caught her in bed with life questions… it was a lot for him, so he was short-tempered at that moment. He also hated hospitals, so all of that meant that we now had Hulk Hogan – literally.

  Whether he said it to try to forge a bond with Dad, or if he really meant it, Raoul tugged me toward the bank of elevators and muttered, “Agreed, fools!”

  Waving over my shoulder at the injured Townsend, Maya, and the two men who looked relieved to see the back of my dad, I stumbled along behind him. And then we got onto the elevator, an elevator that had a woman in it who was sneezing and coughing without covering her mouth. Although, she didn’t do that until it started to move, by which point we were trapped with her and her cooties.

  The look Dad shot me then would have scared the shit out of the two orderlies, but instead it made me burst out laughing.

  * * *

  We’d been at Tana’s bedside for roughly an hour when I finally asked what I’d been dying to since I’d met her the day before. “Are you going to leave him?”

  Twisting the blanket around in her hands nervously, she glanced at the doorway and then started speaking. “Yes, I am. People probably think I’m weak for staying with him, but I just couldn’t do it, I couldn’t get to the door. I’d think about how everyone who saw me would judge me, and it just didn’t seem worth it,” she whispered, looking back at me with tears in her eyes. “I guess I was weak. I’m not a submissive woman normally, so it must make me pathetic.”

  Reaching over, I gently took her casted hand. “My soon-to-be sister-in-law was abused by her first husband. I asked her before I came today if I could tell you about them and she said it was ok. Her ex used to hit her, but she didn’t leave him until he beat her and allowed the woman she’d caught him with to beat her, too, so he was arrested. It’s kind of funny actually, because her sister – whom she’d just met face-to-face for the first time that day – beat the chick with a breast pump,” I snorted. “Anyway, she told me her reasons for not leaving him revolved around the fact all of their assets were tied up together, and she paid for them all as well, so it seemed like an impossible wall to climb. She also didn’t want to be her mom, who’d gone from man-to-man her entire life. Then there was the fact she had no one to run to for protection - didn’t even know how to find someone - and if she’d used the internet, he’d have found it on the search history if he logged into one of her devices. Her mom was always on her ex’s side whenever there was a problem, so she was no good, and that was the only family she had until her half-sister came into her life. She didn’t really have any friends that she could get to, either. The worst bit, though, and I think you’ll understand this as well,” I told her, leaning in closer. “She was worried like you were of people thinking she was weak for staying with him, but also about retribution and him coming after her.”

  “That’s exactly it,” Tana whispered, tears spilling over. “If he gets out, he’ll come after me and it’ll be even worse.”

  “You can come and stay with us,” Dad said firmly from where he was sitting in the corner. He’d been there since we introduced them both and had sat listening to all of it silently. “Or, we have friends who can help you, and they live even further away from here than we do. Either way, you’re not a sitting duck.�
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  I wasn’t sure if it was relief or just everything catching up with her, but hearing that, Tana started bawling her heart out. It hurt to hear it and not do anything, so I moved until I was sitting next to her on the bed and pulled her into my arms. “You’re a victim, honey. It doesn’t matter why someone stays with the person who’s abusing them, you’re a victim. In the handful of years that I’ve been doing my job, I’ve come across almost every reason you can think of from women in your situation, and it doesn’t lessen what they’re going through at all. And if anyone says you were weak, trust me when I say – that reflects more on them, than it does on you. If someone is that cold-hearted, that ignorant to what someone who’s being abused goes through and the effect it has on them inside, that they have to call you weak – that’s on them. They’re the weak and ignorant ones, not you or my sister-in-law.”

  It took her a while, but she eventually stopped crying enough to agree to the help from my parent’s friends. One hour away wasn’t far enough for her, and when we called them, they immediately agreed to help her out. Les and Polly had a farm in Idaho, and Polly had been a therapist up until her retirement two years previously, so she knew people who could help Tana heal and recover inside, while they helped her do the same on the outside.

  After stopping in to speak to the ER department’s manager to discuss what was happening, and reassuring her that Tana would receive the help she needed mentally, emotionally, and physically, we finally left to go home. One thing’s for sure, when I left that hospital, I felt like a different person. I still had a hangover that refused to quit, I still had two watches that belonged to Jose and Tabby that Mom had cut out of my pocket, I still had a messed up eye, and I was still the Rose that wanted Raoul Evans desperately, but being able to help someone who didn’t know where to turn – something I wish I could have done for Jose when she needed it – that was what changed me. I’d lived near Jose and had never even thought for a second that something like that was going on near me. When I’d found out, I’d thought of all the laughs and great moments I’d had while she was having the shit beaten out of her, the light inside of her smothered, and I’d wished I’d been able to do something. The prospect of Tana getting what Jose had now? I just hoped it would happen for her.

  Now, we were headed home so that Raoul could put on his big, bad po-po uniform, and so that we could get something to eat, and then I had a revenge to plan out. Just because we’d kissed this morning, it didn’t mean that the war was off. Hell no!

  Things were just getting started.

  Chapter Eight

  Raoul

  Because I was working tonight, I’d dropped Rose and her parents back at her house, and had then walked across to my own. The second I walked through my door to let Ranger out, I’d felt like I was missing something, and it fucking sucked. Then again, the time away from her gave me the opportunity to think things over, and I needed that time.

  I’d always been a deep thinker, I didn’t do anything on a whim which was why all of my relationships had never been surprises. I weighed up pros and cons, I assessed how well we fit together, I thought about what we could do on dates… I just wanted to be prepared. The difference with Rose was – I didn’t need to do any of the planning or assessing, it all came naturally to us. I didn’t even feel like I needed to do it, I just wanted it to happen. Even Hogan glaring at me all day hadn’t changed my mind, nor had the prospect of her brother finding out and trying to kick my ass. Ellis was a great guy, and had a good heart, but he was also protective as hell of his little sister.

  No, what I needed to do was to think about what had happened this morning. The whole thing hadn’t felt awkward or like it was being acted out, every last movement had just come to both of us naturally. The kiss had been explosive, almost literally explosive because as soon as I had the taste of her in my mouth, I’d almost come in my pants like a teenager. No man wanted that on his record, I’m telling you – no man.

  At one point when we’d been kissing, I’d noticed something glinting between her tits, but I hadn’t wanted to leave her mouth long enough to explore. Now that I didn’t have it distracting me, I wanted to know what it was. She wasn’t wearing a bra, that I knew for sure, and as far as I knew clothing manufacturers didn’t put embellishments inside clothes nowadays. So what was it? Maybe she’d come across glitter at some point and it had stuck to her? That stuff was the herpes of the crafting world, so it wouldn’t surprise me. My sister Catalina had gone through a stage of using glitter on everything when we were kids, and we’d found the shit everywhere for years afterward. Would that shine like what I’d noticed had?

  Leaving the back door open for Ranger, I walked over to the doorway that led into the living room so that I could look out of my front window at Rose’s house. What was it about Miss Beauregard that fascinated me so much? That question was easily answered – everything. I liked everything about her, and I loved her sense of humor.

  The prank war between us might have annoyed some people, and yeah sometimes it was a pain in the ass, but it was us. To each their own – I don’t judge you, you don’t judge me. Except people did judge, and the discussion between Tana and Rose at the hospital today had proven that.

  Did I care what they thought about me and Rose? Fuck no. But I cared what they thought about a woman who’d been beaten and abused. The world was full of assholes, I should know seeing as how I’d arrested enough of them throughout my career, but to judge a woman as weak? That’s the definition of an ignorant asshole, and I had no time for those people. I just hoped they were never in that position to find their way out of, begging and hoping for light at the end of the tunnel.

  Just then, a nose shoving its way between my legs from behind snapped me out of my thoughts as Ranger let me know he was hungry. “I wish you wouldn’t do that,” I sighed, walking back to the kitchen to close the door and get his food ready. “We’ve discussed this many times, boy. I’m a human, humans don’t do that nose to ass interaction shit. Sticking your nose in mine is just weird and gross.” Turning around to make sure he was listening, I groaned when I saw him licking his balls instead. “And that’s not right either. Go find a private corner somewhere far away from me to do that shit.”

  Apparently that’s not how dogs do it, though, because the furry little asshole continued to do it even after I put his bowl down on the floor.

  * * *

  Fourteen hours later…

  Living in a small town is great – there’s less major crime like murders, less crime in general, but crime still happens. They were now building more houses and properties on the outskirts of the town, which meant that crime was starting to go up. However, on the whole we didn’t deal with what the police in major cities dealt with, so that was a plus. With the new housing, though, we were definitely getting stretched thin seeing as how we were a small department.

  Last night’s announcement that DB’s dad Alex would be joining us hadn’t been a surprise, but it had been a huge relief because two others were coming, too. In three week’s time, we’d be gaining Alex, an officer from Florida called Carter, and another one from Chicago called Alejandro. All had been working in their jobs for a while, so the only real change would be going from large cities to a small town. At least, that’s what I was hoping for. We were also looking for a new front desk clerk to work with Rory, so hopefully we’d find them soon. Maybe she’d even leave, because she was getting on my last nerve.

  Everything at work was running smoothly, I’d been called out to the theft of some machinery from the building sites where the new properties were being developed, there had been kids partying at the lake, and the last call had been to old man Beck who’d thought someone was ‘scoping the joint’, but it turned out to be one of his girlfriends stalking him to see if he was cheating on her. The answer was – he was, just not at that exact moment. No, the other woman had turned up while I was questioning the first woman, decked out in a black trench coat and I suspected had not
hing else on underneath. This had led to a fight, lots of arguing, and finally me driving the women back to their homes – in adjacent rooms at the retirement home.

  Some nights you were glad for peace and quiet, other nights you want to be busy, and I found that I wanted it more than normal just now. Rory had been set on DB since she’d started working with us, and that had been funny to watch as a spectator, but now that she was making it clear she was interested in me? It was awkward, and it really wasn’t funny when you were going through it. That’s why I was happy to deal with the calls, and also why I’d volunteered to drive the women home, knowing full well I’d have to listen to them arguing the whole way. I’d rather be deaf than uncomfortable.

  After what had happened last night and the day I’d had, though, I was exhausted. So, when I walked through my front door and Ranger didn’t beg to be let out, I didn’t think anything of it and collapsed on my couch with my eyes already shut. Really, I’ll blame it on exhaustion and anything else I can think of, because that beats the fact that I wasn’t aware of my surroundings and who might be in them. That was until that person made themselves known.