Just Kidding

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  Just Kidding

  Book 1 of The SWAT 2.0 Series

  By

  Lani Lynn Vale

  Text copyright ©2020 Lani Lynn Vale

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Dedication

  Sometimes you eat the cookie. Sometimes you don’t. Today I ate the cookie.

  Acknowledgments

  Golden Czermak- Photographer

  My Brother’s Editor & Ink It Out Editing

  Cover Me Darling- Cover Artist

  My mom- Thank you for reading this book eight million two hundred times.

  Kendra, Laura, Kathy, Mindy, Lisa, Petra, Barbara & Amanda—I don’t know what I would do without y’all. Thank you, my lovely betas, for loving my books as much as I do.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue

  Other titles by Lani Lynn Vale:

  The Freebirds

  Boomtown

  Highway Don’t Care

  Another One Bites the Dust

  Last Day of My Life

  Texas Tornado

  I Don’t Dance

  The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC

  Lights To My Siren

  Halligan To My Axe

  Kevlar To My Vest

  Keys To My Cuffs

  Life To My Flight

  Charge To My Line

  Counter To My Intelligence

  Right To My Wrong

  Code 11- KPD SWAT

  Center Mass

  Double Tap

  Bang Switch

  Execution Style

  Charlie Foxtrot

  Kill Shot

  Coup De Grace

  The Uncertain Saints

  Whiskey Neat

  Jack & Coke

  Vodka On The Rocks

  Bad Apple

  Dirty Mother

  Rusty Nail

  The Kilgore Fire Series

  Shock Advised

  Flash Point

  Oxygen Deprived

  Controlled Burn

  Put Out

  I Like Big Dragons Series

  I Like Big Dragons and I Cannot Lie

  Dragons Need Love, Too

  Oh, My Dragon

  The Dixie Warden Rejects

  Beard Mode

  Fear the Beard

  Son of a Beard

  I’m Only Here for the Beard

  The Beard Made Me Do It

  Beard Up

  For the Love of Beard

  Law & Beard

  There’s No Crying in Baseball

  Pitch Please

  Quit Your Pitchin’

  Listen, Pitch

  The Hail Raisers

  Hail No

  Go to Hail

  Burn in Hail

  What the Hail

  The Hail You Say

  Hail Mary

  The Simple Man Series

  Kinda Don’t Care

  Maybe Don’t Wanna

  Get You Some

  Ain’t Doin’ It

  Too Bad So Sad

  Bear Bottom Guardians MC

  Mess Me Up

  Talkin’ Trash

  How About No

  My Bad

  One Chance, Fancy

  It Happens

  Keep It Classy

  Snitches Get Stitches

  F-Bomb

  The Southern Gentleman Series

  Hissy Fit

  Lord Have Mercy

  KPD Motorcycle Patrol

  Hide Your Crazy

  It Wasn’t Me

  I’d Rather Not

  Make Me

  Sinners are Winners

  If You Say So

  SWAT 2.0

  Just Kidding

  Fries Before Guys (2-11-20)

  Maybe Swearing Will Help (3-10-20)

  Ask Me If I Care (4-14-20)

  May Contain Wine (5-12-20)

  Jokes on You (6-9-20)

  Join the Club (7-14-20)

  Any Day Now (8-11-20)

  Say it Ain’t So (9-8-20)

  Officially Over It (10-13-20)

  Nobody Knows (11-3-20)

  Depends Who’s Asking (12-8-20)

  Valentine Boys

  Herd That (1-21-20)

  Crazy Heifer (2-25-20)

  Chute Yeah (3-24-20)

  Get Bucked (4-21-20)

  Blurb

  Let’s do a calendar, they said. It’ll be fun, they said.

  Well, they—i.e. Kilgore Police Department’s public relations specialists—were wrong.

  Now, every time Dax Tremaine walks around a corner, the women of Kilgore, Texas can’t help calling him Mr. January.

  Mr. January, can you fix my flat tire? Mr. January, can you cuff me? Mr. January, can you sign my boob?

  It goes from bad to worse when even on a SWAT call, the women won’t stay away.

  ***

  It was the worst time of her life. Rowen Roberts had finally admitted to herself that the man she loved would never love her back. She was just fired from her job for violating client confidentiality, and to make matters worse, she’s held up at gunpoint in a convenience store where she only wanted some ice cream to help mask the pain.

  The moment the gun is pressed to her forehead, she knows she has a decision to make. Follow the rules and maybe possibly live, or go down swinging where at least she can salvage just a little bit of her dignity.

  And when the voice of Mr. January himself tells her to do what the gunman says, she’s had enough. Rowen has never really been a girl that does what she’s told. Mr. January won’t have to save her. She can dang well save herself.

  Prologue

  Hey, I like your personality.

  Me-Thanks, it’s a disorder

  Me- when I’m trying to make friends

  Rowen

  “Theo!” I smiled as I took the seat across from him. “How are you? How’s your job going? I thought that you were working!”

  It was a complete and utter accident running into him, but I couldn’t say that I was upset.

  In fact, I was rather excited.

  It wasn’t often that I saw him out.

  He was a busy man and most of the time when I invited him out somewhere, he said no.

  It was always work-related, though, so I understood.

  Theo looked up, and instead of the welcoming smile I expected, there was a frown.

  “Rowen,” he said, looking confused. “What are you doing here?”

  I’d met Theo when I lived in Kilgore, Texas. He’d actually had a thing for my sister, Katy. My sister had dated him for a while, but it’d never gone any further tha
n a few dates. My sister had gone through a lot of shitty relationships, her one before Theo having been the worse. So, when Theo had come along, she hadn’t been in the right frame of mind.

  Then, Logan, her now husband, had come along and changed all of that for her. Causing Theo to finally see that Katy wasn’t the one for him.

  Me, on the other hand?

  I’d always had a thing for Theo.

  It was a pain in the ass, too.

  I mean, he was all hung up on my sister while I was hung up on him! What kind of person did that make me, wanting my sister’s cast-off?

  But… I couldn’t help the way it made me feel.

  I frowned. “I saw you sitting here, and I thought I’d come say hi while I waited for a few of my colleagues to arrive. Am I interrupting?”

  He was quick to shake his head.

  “No, actually,” he said. “I’m here meeting a… friend.”

  I blinked, then felt something in the pit of my stomach start to churn.

  “Oh?” I said, feeling my belly tighten.

  He cleared his throat. “Yeah, it was a last-minute thing…”

  “Theo, you made it!”

  I blinked and turned my head to see Shondra, a woman that worked with me.

  Shondra, the woman that made it her life’s mission to do things to me, inside and outside of work, to make me look bad.

  Luckily, I’d yet to experience anything that I couldn’t come back from. And me not retaliating was driving her insane. She hated that I didn’t fight back.

  Me? Well, I just hated her, period.

  I officially had two more weeks at Tool & Associates in San Antonio, Texas before my ‘real life’ began.

  I had officially graduated, I’d passed the Bar, and now I was on my way to the real deal—a grownup job with a firm that would put my skills to use. Well, I would be when I found a job, anyway.

  The only problem was, I kept expecting Tool & Associates to offer me a job since I’d been interning with them for a year now. Yet, all I heard were crickets. I didn’t get an offer or anything. I mean, I’d given them a year of my life that I didn’t have to give.

  What the absolute fuck?

  Needless to say, I had a feeling that had a lot to do with Shondra seeing as she was vying for the same job.

  Shondra, who was staring at the man that I had a thing for.

  Shondra, who was glaring at me like I’d committed some faux pas by talking to Theo.

  I wanted to scream, “I saw him first!”

  Yet, I managed to control myself. Barely.

  “Uh, yeah,” Theo said, his eyes bouncing from me to Shondra and back. “I didn’t realize y’all knew each other.”

  Theo looked torn, as if he wanted to invite Shondra to have a seat, but he didn’t want to do that with me sitting there.

  I chose to allow them their space and scooted out of the booth without another word.

  I’d just placed one foot onto the ground outside of the booth when Theo stopped me.

  “No, stay,” Theo suggested. “There’s enough room. Y’all have four more joining y’all, correct?”

  I wanted to stay about as much as I wanted a root canal.

  “Umm,” I said. “I’m just going to grab a drink. But thanks.”

  Theo caught hold of my hand when I would’ve taken off, and I narrowed my eyes at the hand that I’d wished so hard would hold me once upon a time.

  It was then, at that moment, that I realized my stupidity.

  I’d done everything in my power to get him to notice me. But in the meantime, I’d forgotten that I was worth more than giving one man my sole, undivided attention when he didn’t want it.

  I was cheapening myself.

  Fooling myself. Telling myself that one day maybe he would notice me.

  When I realized he hadn’t once seen me for me.

  He’d seen Katy.

  He’d obviously seen Shondra.

  Who he hadn’t seen was Rowen.

  I was invisible to him.

  I prayed that he would for once see me as something other than the sister of the woman he once thought he might have a future with.

  But that hope was in vain.

  Because, once again, he let me down.

  How did he do it this time?

  By not coming to any of the events that I had invited him to, because he was ‘busy,’ but somehow made it to Shondra’s.

  That was a bunch of horseshit if I’d ever heard it.

  I twisted my hand so that my wrist slipped free of his hold, and his eyes narrowed.

  Taking a hasty step back, I quickly skirted around Shondra and made my way to the bar.

  I would’ve made my way straight the hell outside but just as I was heading out, three of my other co-workers made their way inside and headed straight for me.

  “Ohhh!” Macy cried. “You’re here! I’m so happy to see you!”

  Macy was the cutest little thing I’d ever seen.

  She was small, curvy, and wonderful.

  I loved her and she was honestly the saddest thing about leaving this old job behind.

  Shondra made my life a living hell, as did Shondra’s best friend, Bridget, who just so happened to side-step me and Macy and head straight to where Shondra and Theo were.

  Tillie, Macy’s roommate, waved at me.

  “Hi, Rowen,” Tillie said. “Congrats on passing the Bar.”

  I smiled then. The first genuine one since I’d walked into the bar and seen Theo.

  “Thank you,” I said. “I’m so excited. I can’t believe I’m finally done.”

  “You’re free!” Macy laughed. “Come on, let’s get you a drink. What are you having?”

  I thought about what I did and didn’t want and then decided to say ‘fuck it’ and drink a margarita.

  I wasn’t a big fan of alcohol, to be honest, but every once in a while, I could choke down a single margarita.

  After I was done with that, I’d switch over to pineapple juice and hope that nobody noticed.

  I wasn’t the best drinker in the world.

  With my inability to choke down alcohol and actually enjoy it and my disgust at seeing people go too far when it came to consuming it, I just didn’t see the point.

  After ordering and getting my margarita, I walked back to the booth, thankful to see that the girls had filed in, leaving me the outside.

  Farthest, thankfully, from Shondra and Theo.

  Theo and Shondra were talking quietly, and I tried my best to look anywhere but at them.

  The only problem was they couldn’t see that my heart was slowly bleeding out right in front of them.

  Trying to distract myself, I started texting my sister, Katy.

  Rowen: Get this. Theo is sitting with me at a bar. Only problem is, he came with Shondra.

  Katy messaged me back instantly.

  Katy: What a bitch. And a dick. I hate them both.

  I grinned.

  Rowen: I’m drinking a margarita. That should tell you how bad it is.

  Katy: You should’ve just taken the shot of tequila. It would’ve hit you harder and gotten it over with faster.

  Rowen: How are the babies?

  Katy: I just got shit on. Literally shit. On my leg. I disinfected it with some counter spray that kills 99 percent of germs.

  Rowen: You sure know how to cheer a girl up.

  Grinning because she made me happy, I took a long swig of the margarita, and only managed to grimace slightly.

  “I thought you didn’t drink?”

  Theo’s question had me stiffening.

  And I knew that his question was aimed toward me without even turning to look at him.

  Instead of answering, though, I ignored him, acting for all I was worth as if I hadn’t heard him at all.

  He was all the way at the end of the table.

  And there were five other chatty women now at the table with us. />
  It was safe to assume that I could’ve realistically not heard his question.

  But then he had to go and repeat himself, louder this time.

  “Rowen,” Theo barked. “I thought you didn’t drink?”

  I had no other choice but to turn my head and look at him.

  Gritting my teeth, I turned my head slightly to stare at him.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I thought you didn’t drink,” he repeated slowly as if he was talking to a small child.

  I barely refrained from gritting my teeth.

  “I drink,” I answered.

  Then lifted my margarita glass that was half-filled now.

  “Is it good?” Tillie asked curiously. “I’ve never really liked margaritas.”

  I thanked Tillie from the bottom of my heart for asking me that question, because it meant I could safely look away from Theo without looking like I was intimidated.

  “It’s okay,” I admitted.

  And it was.

  That was all alcohol ever was to me. Just okay.

  I could live with it or without it.

  But I’d rather spend the same amount of money on a piece of cake or two cupcakes from my favorite cupcake place.

  Absently I started to fuss with my hair, something that I always did when I was nervous, and Shondra’s attention turned to me.

  Her eyes evil, she said, “You know, Macy has some hair products that would work wonders on your hair.”

  Macy, hearing her chance to pitch a sale, jumped at the chance.

  “I’ve heard a lot of good things about this hair product,” Rachel, my other co-worker who’d shown up at one point while I was at the bar, said.

  I blinked, surprised.

  I hadn’t actually heard anything about it except from these ladies.

  In fact, the only thing that I’d heard at all was the name.

  Macy was also making a ton of money selling it.

  Yet I hadn’t heard one positive review outside of Macy since she’d started selling it.

  One would think that if a product really was that great, then someone somewhere would’ve been talking it up.

  But they weren’t.

  Sadly, Macy had a really good sales pitch, and I couldn’t stop myself.

  Thanks, Shondra.

  Which was how I offered to buy shampoo and conditioner from her.

  “You’ll love it. I promise!” Macy clapped her hands in excitement.

  Shondra rolled her eyes.

  “Oh, okay,” I said, blinking. “Yeah, sure.”