He snorted. “Of course you did. Let’s go.”
With our hands linked together, he led me out the door.
“Oh shit.” I stopped in the hall and he was forced to stop too or let go of me. He stopped. “I need my phone and stuff from my car.”
“Dom was the officer assigned to your accident. I’m sure he grabbed it.”
Stalling, I held his hand tightly and swallowed down the knot in my throat. “One more thing.” My eyes were wide, definitely too wide. I could feel the craziness, and the headache was coming back, which I guess was normal since I had a concussion.
Linc stared at me, waiting for me to go on. But he didn’t interrupt or try to make me leave until I was ready. Admittedly, I secretly hoped that my family was gone so I didn’t have to deal with them.
Looking around, I tried to keep my voice down so no one else heard, and I leaned up to whisper in Linc’s ear. “Where’s my machete?”
12
Linc
Getting Kennedy’s machete back was a hell of a lot harder than driving to Taco Bell. In fact, a week after her accident, I still couldn’t locate the damn thing.
I also hadn’t gotten to spend more than a few hours with the stubborn woman, either. Between her work schedule, mine, and the way our families kept interrupting, it was almost as bad as when I was avoiding her.
There was four minutes left of my shift, and I was almost done with the paperwork from my calls for the day when the phone started ringing in the front office. Immediately, I stopped throwing snacks to Daisy, Remy’s patrol dog, who huffed and put her head on her paws, ignoring my existence.
I heard Teri answer the dispatch phone and made a beeline for the bathroom before she could see that I was still on duty. Remy watched me go with a suspicious look on his face. But he couldn’t really follow me, especially when I could see Teri’s head pop into the hallway as I vanished through the bathroom door. Daisy followed and whimpered when I shut the door before she could follow me in.
“I’m gonna get you back for that,” Remy called out loudly. “Come on, Daisy.” I heard him stomp away.
A laugh was the only thing I left him with, and quickly changed out of my uniform and back into regular clothes. Just to make sure I stayed away long enough, I grabbed my phone to make sure that Kennedy was still planning on meeting me at my house for dinner.
L: If you want to grab Lotus Hill and head over to my place, that would keep either of us from having to cook.
K: Why don’t you just tell me you want takeout?
L: I want takeout. It means more time with you, and less time cooking or cleaning.
K: And a movie, maybe?
L: Anything for you.
K: Kay. Xoxo
The bathroom door swung open, and Remy propped himself against the frame, barely catching the door with his foot before it slammed back in his face.
“Close call,” I told him while grabbing my duffel from the bench. “What was it?”
“9-1-1 hang-up. The phone has a history of accidental dials, and the owner has no idea why it does it. She’s not having an emergency.” He crossed his arms and glared at me. “You owe me for that.”
“Nope.” I pointed at the clock. “I’m off a half hour earlier than you this week, remember?”
He still glared. “Will you do your uncle duties with Nox tomorrow for me and Parker? We have a date.”
“Nope.” I shook my head and walked by him with a smile on my face. “Kennedy isn’t doing it, either. Tonight’s the first night that neither of us is working in a week, and I’d like to spend time with her.”
Daisy plopped herself onto the ground in front of me, refusing to move. No doubt she wanted the snacks I still had in my locker for her.
He opened his mouth to say something else, probably to complain about my unwillingness to take my brother’s crotch goblin, but a scream echoed from the other side of the bullpen.
“Hide,” Remy hissed while rolling his eyes. “If we didn’t see it, we don’t have to help.” Contradicting his words, though, he unhooked the holster of the gun at his side but left it there in favor of his taser. I dropped my bag and grabbed the taser from the side pocket, and with a nod to Remy, we moved into the room cautiously.
Dom was standing in the hall next to the detectives’ offices, looking around the corner for whatever was making the noise. Daisy, however, hadn’t moved from her position on the hall floor, with her head lying on her paws, ignoring all of us.
“Are we detectives now?” I was talking more to myself than anything else, but Remy snorted.
“Holy shit,” Dom holstered his taser and started laughing, walking into the bullpen and out of our line of sight. “What the hell happened, Ames?”
“Guess it’s safe,” Remy said while rebuttoning his gun and putting away his taser. I followed suit and dropped mine back into my duffel.
“Fuck!” Dom shouted at the top of his lungs, followed by grunting and another person starting to yell obscenities too.
In the middle of the room was Dom, clutching his balls and lying on the ground, wheezing.
“My balls,” he gasped. “Holy shit.” He wheezed some more, followed by deep gasping breaths as he tried to fill his lungs. “How’d he kick me that hard?”
Amie Lee, probably the scariest police officer in our department, was holding her taser in her hand pointed at a naked man who stood over Dom. Dom, who wouldn’t look up because if he did, he’d get a face full of old man balls.
“Why is he naked?” I asked the important question while Amie stood there, silently daring the man to move.
“No clue,” Remy said loudly. “But the man looks good for his age.”
I had to agree. Balding, with a small amount of gray hair, the old man looked like he used to be a boxer or something. His hands were probably the same size mine were, and he still had enough muscle on his body that no one would be putting him in a nursing home anytime soon.
“I really don’t want to hurt you,” she said with a sigh. “But I swear, if you don’t put the robe I gave you back on, you’re going to have issues, Lou. The worst of which is that I will actually have to arrest you instead of just giving you a ride after you and your girl broke up.” Lou, a man who had to be in his eighties, moved his foot like he was about to kick Dom, but Amie shook her head and her taser at him. “Nope. I really will use it, and then I’ll be really mad because you’re old. So you’ll probably piss yourself, and nobody wants to see that.”
Lou looked around at the escalating situation and then back at Dom, who’d managed to scoot away. “He shouldn’t touch a man when his back is turned.” Lou smacked his lips together and walked toward Amie in a nonthreatening way. “I’m cold, dear. Could you hand me my robe?”
Amie rolled her eyes, put away her taser, and laughed. “Come on, Lou. Let’s call your granddaughter and get her over here to pick you up.”
“Did you see the size of his—”
I shoved Remy in the chest before he could finish his sentence.
“Seriously,” he went on like I hadn’t just interrupted. “The man could have been a porn star or something.”