Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 84871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Aisha: Lucky bitch.
She sends back a picture of one of her toddlers, whose face is smeared with something sticky-looking. The kid is crying in the picture, both eyes and nose running like leaky faucets. Yeah, I don’t envy her a bit.
Me: We won’t be on administrative leave forever. We’ll be back before we know it.
Aisha: To desk work. How long until they’ll let us patrol again? My mother-in-law is hovering. Her living with us isn’t so bad until I’m home all day with her. I wish she’d go hover over the kids so I could just breathe uninterrupted for five seconds.
Why do people ever want to have kids?
Me: You could always run away and come watch Dempsey’s abs with me.
Aisha: Don’t tempt me.
Dempsey has disappeared again. He spent all morning cleaning out my pantry and griping the whole time because everything was stale or expired or inedible. He’s been making a massive grocery list. It’s cute how much he cares about my food situation. Jamie, who was underfed in her younger years, clearly overcompensated for her childhood by making sure her children have access to good food. I, however, was used to eating free food from the diner Mom worked at. When I finally got out on my own, it was more of the same but different restaurants.
Aisha: Heard from Trevor?
The playfulness between us is gone. She knows how worried I am over my nephew, especially now if he’s involved with those bikers. They set a trap for me, planning to take me out. I vaguely remember the Bozo guy yelling at me. What did he say?
“You fucked with the wrong guys, cunt. Prez says you need to be dealt with since you’re causing all sorts of fucking problems in our lives.”
What problems specifically was I causing them?
Everything I’ve done is because of my family. What exactly are they trying to hide anyway? You don’t ambush and attempt to murder a cop just because they’re snooping around or trying to protect their nephew. But if you’re inadvertently getting too close to something they want far away from the cops, perhaps that could be it.
So what are those bastards hiding?
And for whom are they hiding it?
That’s the real question. My gut tells me it’s related to our police department. Tanaka has been making my radar go off since day one when he arrived in his flashy car. Does he have something illegal going on with those bikers? What could it be?
My mind races around and around in a never-ending circle. It doesn’t help being on pain meds. I can’t think as clearly as I’d like. If only I could put a finger on what’s going on so I could put a stop to it once and for all.
“Babe,” Dempsey says, appearing in the living room again, this time, disappointingly, with his shirt back on. “Don’t be mad.”
Don’t be mad?
I can hear car doors slamming outside. Someone’s here and he doesn’t want me to be mad about it.
“Who?”
He cringes and says, “They came up to the hospital yesterday to see you, but I told them to just come over here today since you were being discharged.”
“Who are they?” I demand, voice tight.
“Your family.”
Before I can process his answer, said family just walks right in, Kaden leading the pack. Though I’m happy to see him, and Lucy too, seeing Mom in my house for the first time ever is a punch to the gut.
“I told your sisters that job was dangerous,” Mom says in her gravelly smoker’s voice in lieu of a greeting. “Been predicting you’d get shot since you told us you joined the academy.”
Rhiannon, whose bruises are fading, rolls her eyes behind Mom’s back. Kaden and Lucy both rush over to me, hammering me with a thousand questions.
“Did you shoot them back?” Kaden asks, eyes wide with curiosity. “I hope you killed all those assholes.”
“Don’t say assholes,” me and Rhiannon both say at once.
“It’s an ongoing investigation, right, Aunt Sloane? I bet you’re not allowed to talk about it, huh?” Lucy squeezes my hand, brows furled together. “We’re just glad you’re okay. We all were really worried.”
I don’t see Nevaeh or her kids, so maybe not everyone was really worried. I’m honestly surprised Mom is here. Rhiannon probably guilted her into coming.
“I’m not at liberty to say,” I tell Kaden. “Like Lucy said, it’s an ongoing investigation.”
“Lame,” Kaden grumbles. “Dempsey, want to play Call of Duty?”
Lucy sits on the floor beside the couch where I’m laid up. Rhiannon sits on the coffee table nearby, while Mom inspects everything in my living room with a critical, judging eye.
“Fancy place you’ve got here,” Mom says, crossing her arms over her ample chest. “Didn’t know cops paid so well.”
“Got a good deal on rent here. Jamie knows the landlord.”
“Of course she does.” Mom flutters her fingers in a dismissive way. “Jamie’s something special now, huh?”