“No, of course not.” I rolled my eyes. “Did you break into Maddox’s apartment and steal his gun?”
“No. I’m still the sheriff.”
I held up my hands. “Okay, okay. I was just checking.”
“I know what you think of me,” he said.
I gave him the once-over. “I highly doubt that.”
“You think I’m a bitter, old fool.”
“I think you’re a bitter man who needs to stop repressing your feelings because it turns you into an asshole. And you need better friends,” I said as everyone in the interrogation room stood. “My father doesn’t care about anyone but himself.”
I left the adjoining room and met them in the hall. The detective nodded at me as he walked past.
“How’d it go?” I asked Olivia.
“Good, I think. I think the detective believes him. It’s just the gun that’s a big red flag. Hopefully, whoever stole the gun left fingerprints.”
No one said it, but we also hoped Brandon would wake up and tell us who’d shot him.
Forty-Four
Maddox
I waited at baggage claim for Flash to get off his plane. It was two days after my arrest, and even though I’d told Flash it would be a few months before I went to trial, he’d insisted on coming.
I was hoping the charges would be dropped altogether, and there would be no trial. No one but Addison was able to alibi me. And wouldn’t you know it? The PI her dad had hired had already gone home for the night. I guessed the guy needed to sleep, too, but it was just my luck. He had been there to take pictures of me having sex but not when I needed to get out of an attempted murder conviction.
“Mad Dog.”
I spun around from where I had been picking up my coffee to see Flash cupping his mouth from bellowing my name.
A grin split across my face. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed him until I saw him again.
When we reached each other, we locked hands and pulled each other into a back-slapping hug.
“Dude, it seems I have to come and help your ass out when you’re in trouble, even when you’re retired.”
“Fuck off,” I said with a laugh. “Thanks for coming.”
“Mad Dog.”
I looked around to see who else would be yelling my name across the terminal.
Evan was coming out of the restroom and making a beeline for Flash and me.
I looked at Flash. He hadn’t said anything about Evan coming.
He shrugged. “He made me bring him.”
“How’d you both manage leave?”
“Begged and pleaded. And Evan had to suck the CO’s dick, but we’re here.”
“Fuck you, asshole,” Evan said as he reached us. “You’re just jealous that I’m not sucking yours.”
Flash lifted his middle finger and pushed it in Evan’s face. Evan pushed him away and punched him in the side.
Damn. I’d missed these guys.
“Ladies, it’s too early to fight. Can we save this for later?”
This got me a, “Screw you,” from both of them.
I just laughed.
A few seconds later, the baggage chute started up, and luggage began falling out. Flash and Evan grabbed their duffel bags, and we headed to my SUV.
“How’s the case going?” Flash asked from the passenger seat.
“It’s only been two days,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, but they have to be making some progress.”
“I can tell you that the detective in charge is doing a lot better job than the county sheriff. He’s former military. We have a certain understanding.”
“Navy?” Evan asked.
“Marines.”
“Fucking jarhead,” Flash said as he shook his head.
“Did he question your future father-in-law?” Evan asked
Father-in-law?
“I told him about Addison,” Flash said, reading my mind.
“I believe he’s been questioned, yes, but I haven’t exactly been let into the loop of the investigation.” I sighed. “Let’s talk about something else. What have I missed since I’ve been gone?”
We got to Brook Creek around seven in the morning. It was a Wednesday, so people were heading off to work, but it still wasn’t very busy.
“Holy shit, you really do live in BFE,” Flash said. He’d grown up in New York and not realized places like this even existed outside of television.
“Man, and I thought Afghanistan was bad,” Evan said from the backseat. “You actually choose to live here?”
“Yes, dickhead, I do.”
Ice was from Phoenix and didn’t understand small-town life any more than Flash did.
Although I didn’t understand it too much either at the moment. Everyone was avoiding me, except for Addison and my family. Even people I’d thought I was on good terms with, like Dani, wouldn’t look me in the eye. Foster had even asked me not to come to work until things settled down some. My old teammates coming into town was a welcome distraction.
We pulled around the back of my apartment building and exited my vehicle. I opened the back of the SUV, so the guys could get their stuff before I led them inside.
They dropped their bags on the floor with a thud and sat down on my couch.
I took a seat on the end of the armrest. “You two can stay here, and I’ll stay next door at Addison’s. You’re going to have to flip for who gets the bed and who gets the couch.”
The two of them immediately put their hands in Rock-Paper-Scissors position.
“One time. Winner takes the bedroom,” Flash said.
“Agreed.”
“One, two, three,” they said at the same time.
“Ha! Yes,” Flash said. “Scissors cuts paper.”
“Best two of three.”
“No way. I won. You’re sleeping on the couch.”
“Maddox?”
The three of them turned to see my beautiful, naked girlfriend standing in the doorway of my bedroom. I hadn’t realized she was still there because the door was open when we got there.
Her dark hair was messed up from sleep and from me fucking her good-bye that morning, and she was rubbing her eyes, so she had no clue we could all see her.
Her nipples were berry red from my mouth and erect from the cool air hitting them. And, to top it off, she had two sets of pink fingerprints on her hips from where I’d gripped her waist as I took her from behind before I left.
“I thought I heard voices,” she said.
“Shit.” I jumped out of my spot on the sofa, directly in front of her, and blocked my friends from seeing any more than they already had. “Addy, remember how I told you my old teammates were coming, and I had to pick them up this morning?”
She dropped her hands from her face, her eyebrows furrowed. Realization slowly dawned in her sleepy eyes. “Oh, yeah. Are they here?”
I looked behind me. Both men sat on the edge of the couch with their mouths hanging open.
I turned back to her. “Yeah, baby.” I raised my eyebrows. “They’re here.” I kissed her. “Why don’t you go get dressed? Then, you can come out and say hi.”
Once she fully woke up, she was going to be embarrassed, but right now, she simply shrugged. “Okay.”