Defensive Line (The Unlovabulls #1)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Where was Hayes when you needed him?

At training camp.

Brody

It had been a fucking day. The break-in at Lily’s house had me unsettled. These scabby-dick-tip motherfuckers threating my girl and her dogs? I’d never felt that kind of anger before. Not even on the field.

Shit was not sitting well, and I was walking a fine line with my temper as I headed into the Bulldogs practice facility for Devon to treat my shoulder. With a couple of players besides me injured, Dr. Douche had decided Devon would accompany us back to Dallas for treatment. Seemed odd to me. We had therapists who didn’t travel to Nebraska with us this year—one of which had been with the team a lot longer than Devon.

While I stood in the hall outside the medical room waiting for my appointment, I checked the clock on my phone. Team should be taking lunch about now. It gave me a chance to hit up Hayes.

“Hey man, how’s the shoulder?”

“S’okay. I’m waiting on PT, but I’m fine. No residual pain past the forty-eight hours. How are you doing, old man? Getting the start against Miami?” The Sharks were our third preseason game.

The sigh Hayes let out made him sound drained. “Hell, I don’t know. Same shit, different day around here.”

“How’s Jensen doing in my spot?” Jensen Bishop was the rookie linebacker out of Miami who held it down when I got hurt last year. He’d played fifty percent of last week’s game while I’d continued to ride the bench for a fucked-up shoulder I didn’t have. Sonofabitch. I was proud of the kid. He was doing his job like the a pro he and he was a quick learner. None of this was Jensen’s fault. It was just the nature of the game.

“Yeah, well, they’re not publicizing this, but he took a nasty hit during practice yesterday. It was just a bad tackle. Helmet to helmet. Kid’s definitely got a concussion. I heard him throwing up in the locker room. But Chase gave him the okay to start this week.”

“That motherfucker. Dick’s just pulling Chase’s strings. Dick wills it, so shall it be. Swear to God he’s the dirtiest general manager in the league. And Chase needs an ass whooping, I’d be glad to give him.”

“Get in line. Hey, how’s your girl?”

I ran a hand over my face. “Yeah, someone broke into her house and left another threat, but thank fuck she wasn’t home.”

“I meant the dog, but no shit? When was this?”

“Last night.”

“Where was she?” I could tell Hayes was choosing his words carefully and I appreciated it.

“Guess.”

“Ahh. You okay, man? You sound like you’re walking the edge. I mean, I would be too with everything.”

He didn’t know the half of it. “Yep. Pretty much. Keep me posted on shit there, okay? If the quilting bee mentions my shoulder, or anything about the girl?”

“The one suing you?”

“The dog trainer. Something weird happened before I got sent home. I overheard some talk about her, and I can’t put the pieces together.”

“Umm, okaaay.” I didn’t blame Hayes. I was confused, too.

“We’ll talk when you get back.”

As I let Hayes go, Darius—a senior team trainer—rounded the corner. “Shaw, you’re with me today.” He unlocked the room and I followed him in.

“Where’s Devon?”

Irritation darted across his face that was gone as fast as it came. “He had a family thing come up. So how is it?” Feet spread, arms crossed, he nodded at my shoulder. “You’re supposed to be in an immobilizer. Where’s it at?” Darius’s tone was all business.

“There’s nothing wrong with it. That’s not my ego talking, Darius. Something is shady here.”

His focus shifted back to my shoulder. “Lift your arm straight out.”

Fifteen minutes later he’d run me through much of the same routine Lily had. “You may be right. But I’m not a doctor.” Shaking his head, he looked like he wanted to say more but stopped himself.

“Fuck.”

“Yep. You certainly are. Look, man.” He readjusted his arms. “I didn’t say this, but they need you sidelined for Bishop to gain experience.”

Dropping my head to stare at the floor, I just couldn’t figure it out. The pieces didn’t fit. “Why go through all this, Darius? Why not just bench me?”

“I don’t know, my man. Your rehab with the dislocation was ahead of schedule, too. Were you benching the same weight you did before the dislocation?”

I grunted. “More.”

Darius harrumphed. “There’s nothing I can tell you that you don’t already know, except that if you think Dick Head and Adam Chase are scheming to keep you out...well, you’ve always had good instincts, bro.” He slapped me on the shoulder.

After I left the Bulldogs facility, I picked up CC, packed a duffel, and told Staci I would be gone a few days. Figuring Lily would be wiped out, I also did my damnedest to adjust my mood.

She didn’t need one more thing to worry about.

“Lucy, I’m home!” I called as I carried a bag from the Blue Goose through the back door.

My girl wanted Mexican food.

Standing in the kitchen with her cell to her ear, she waved me in.

“H-hang on. Officer Johnson, my partner just showed up. If I put you on speaker, can you start again?”

I hadn’t expected to hear from him so soon. Lily pulled the phone away from her ear, putting it on speaker as I set the food on the counter. “Ya got me, Ms. Costello?”

“Sure do.”

“Hi, Officer Johnson. I’m Lily’s friend Brody. Thanks for getting back to us so quickly.”

“No problem. I have a soft spot for dogs as Ms. Costello knows. My Malinois was the best partner I’ve ever had. Okay. Bad news first. I dug into Andrew Brower and I’m fairly sure it’s an alias, but I was able to pull some footage from a CCTV camera and a neighbor’s doorbell camera. The perpetrator was dressed in a black hoodie and gloves. We never got a clear face shot from the camera. Fingerprints from the house also didn’t turn up anyone in the system. It doesn’t mean they’re not in the system, just that they were careful. I’ve got nothing on the letter yet, but chances are they won’t find anything there either. This guy was careful.”

With every sentence, Lily’s shoulders sagged a little more.

“However. We did get a make and model on the truck. 2019 Ford F-150 Raptor.”

Lily bit the inside of her cheek. “That makes sense. It would fit with the body style of the truck we saw at the rental place.”

“Unfortunately, that’s all we’ve got so far,” the officer continued. “I called a few local contacts and put feelers out about your daddy’s ring, Ms. Costello. You might also check pawn shops over the next few months and keep tabs online.”

She nodded. “Okay, I can do that.”

“I hate to see Billy’s championship ring go missing like this. He’s a legend. I even saw him play a few times. But I digress...

“Now, about the mill. The phone number you gave me for Andrew Brower is a prepaid that’s gone quiet. They’ve likely dumped it. We were able to pinpoint a location near the Bulldogs practice facility where the phone was getting a lot of use, but it’s out of Frisco PD’s jurisdiction. I put in a call to a county deputy I know, and she said what I already suspected—not enough probable cause to get a search warrant. But the Davis Ranch outside Prosper is already on her radar for other complaints. Whoops, I guess I shouldn’t have told you where that was.” Johnson went quiet, letting the info sink in.

After a heartbeat, Lil asked what I was about to. “Let’s say, hypothetically, the sheriff’s department received photos, anonymously, of dogs coming and going or the conditions inside the mill. Would that give the sheriff probable cause?”

“Indeed, I believe it would,” the cop said. “In which case, the sheriff’s department could get a warrant and confiscate the dogs if the conditions are inhumane. As well as pursue prosecution if they can locate the responsible party. I don’t think it’s Mrs. Davis, given her advanced Alzheimer’s.”

Lily’s smile was sunshine through the clouds as she read between the lines and grabbed my biceps. “Okay, then.”

“Ms. Costello, I’d be remiss if I didn’t advise you, Mr. Shaw, and whoever else might’ve been helping you to let the authorities handle this. My cousin— Deputy Angela Lee —is certainly qualified.”

And there was who to contact. “Of course, officer. We understand completely and thank you for the update.”

“My pleasure. Be careful, you two.”

It took only one glance at Lily to realize we weren’t going to get much sleep tonight. As much as I wanted to wait until it was Hayes sneaking around on private property with me—particularly in a state where people would shoot you for trespassing without blinking an eye—I wasn’t going to convince Lily to wait.

The way she’d set her shoulders, she was already gearing up for an argument. “Shaw, don’t you even—”

“Okay.”

She lit from within. Plopped down on one of her kitchen chairs and pulled food out of the bag. “Fucking finally.”