Chapter 18
Don’t let your wild, majestic heart fall in love with someone who has the intelligence of a soggy cat turd.
— Athena to Maven
AUDEN
I’d left Maven in my bedroom after assuring her that she could stay at my place for as long as she wanted, and that she could use my truck to go check out the bakery today if she wanted.
I had two of them, and the one would just be sitting there.
When I was sixteen, I’d gotten a square body Chevrolet for my birthday, and had kept it since.
The only issue was it was a gas guzzler, and had no working A / C .
It also wasn’t too happy to be driven for long periods of times, which wasn’t conducive with working thirty minutes away.
After telling her where the keys were, I headed out, leaving her sleeping in my bed.
I met my brother in the kitchen.
“ For a person who is supposed to get up and open a bakery at five in the morning every day, with pastries and goodies already prepared, she has to be the sleepiest person ever,” Gable mused.
I snorted. “ How many times did you drive past that bakery and see it dark as hell when they were supposed to be open?”
Gable chuckled as he said, “ Plenty .”
I had, too.
I was very much aware of when she was supposed to be open.
The first time I’d decided to run by there early just to see her face, it’d been closed, and I’d been worried.
But as I made it a habit to run by there more and more, the reality became apparent.
Maven did not do early mornings well.
In fact, it was only when she hired Pepper that the bakery opened early with any consistency.
“ You ready for this?” he asked.
I wasn’t.
I had a feeling I was about to change the flight path of my career today, and it was making me nervous.
I’d been at DPD since I’d done my four years in the Navy right out of high school.
I loved working for the DPD , but things were about to change, and I surprisingly wasn’t too upset about it.
“ As I’ll ever be,” I answered. “ Are you coming with me or riding with Atlas ?”
“ You ,” he said. “ I want to make sure you don’t get your ass kicked by the chief.”
I rolled my eyes.
I didn’t think it’d go that far, but hell, there was no telling at this point.
“ I’m sorry, but I’m not going to let him kick my ass,” I admitted as we pulled onto the road that would lead us to the precinct. Fuck , but these tolls were kicking my ass. “ He may be my superior, and a high ranking individual in the community, but if he comes at me in a fight, I’m not going to take any punches from him. What little I’ve learned about him from Maven and Athena makes me want to murder him already. I’m barely hanging on as it is, so if he gives me a reason…”
“ Athena’s cute and grouchy,” Gable said. “ Ask Maven if she’s single.”
I chuckled as we talked a little more about what we thought of Athena .
Personally , I liked her.
Though she was a bit younger than I expected, she seemed like a great friend to Maven , which was all I cared about.
Unfortunately , the trip to DPD took less time than usual, and as I walked up the steps, possibly for the last time, I wasn’t anywhere near as nervous as I thought I would be.
“ I’ll meet up with you after your meeting with the chief,” Gable said. “ I have stuff to do around the office today, that I should be able to get handled before you’re set to get your beat handed out.”
He split left to go around the building to the back door, meanwhile I took the main entrance, ready to face the bullet head on if it was headed for me.
I stopped to say hello to a couple fellow cops as I walked in, and arrived in the training room for SWAT , unsurprised to find that the impromptu meeting planned for the SWAT team wasn’t actually a meeting for the entire team. Just for one team member.
I supposed I should’ve confirmed it with Atlas before I’d come. Though , just sayin’, but why would I have expected anything less? It was childish and beneath him, yet there Scott was, fuming, as I walked into the training center.
“ Where’s everyone at?” I asked, unsurprise leeching into my voice.
Scott’s eyes narrowed. “ It’s only you today, Carter .”
“ Why ?” I asked, voice short and clipped.
“ You ask me why when you damn well know the issue,” he said carefully. “ I told you to stay away from her.”
“ I’m sorry, correct me if I’m wrong, but nowhere in the employee handbook that I have read, and signed that I understood, did it say that I couldn’t date whomever I wanted,” I said, trying to control the anger.
“ She’s off limits to Carters ,” he said, ignoring me. “ If you want to keep this job, you’ll stop talking to her immediately.”
Like hell I would after yesterday.
Witnessing that accident and walking up to the passenger side window to see the woman I wanted with a burning that never quit, bleeding and scared, as she stared at me with desperate eyes to help her… that wasn’t something I’d ever forget.
I’d give her the time she needed. I’d help her move her business. I would be the buffer she needed between her and her father… and her brother.
But I would be there.
And when she was ready, I’d tell her exactly how I felt.
What I didn’t need was the SWAT team. The Dallas Police Department . The entire Dallas area.
As long as I didn’t leave with any misdemeanors or felonies under my belt, I’d be fine.
I’d received an email this morning that had hiring paperwork.
And , just sayin’, but the pay increase was worth it in and of itself.
“ Sorry , friend, but I’m not interested in that kind of life.” I shrugged. “ I was actually on the way to hand in my two weeks’ notice anyway.”
“ Just because you quit doesn’t mean there aren’t alternate means of forcing your hand,” a deep, angry voice said from behind me. The chief. “ If you want to keep this route, I will make your family’s life hell,” The chief said. “ All those newly built houses have to be paid for, don’t they? What’ll happen if I go ahead and get rid of every Carter on this force?”
“ You’ll have a lot of issues on your hands,” I heard my father’s unamused voice as well from behind me.
I turned to put my back to the wall, allowing all three players to be in sight.
My dad dragged his gaze up the length of me to make sure I was okay.
I was.
Well , if extreme anger was still considered being okay.
“ I guess it’s finally come to a head then, has it?” Chief Austin said. “ You’ve been trying for years to keep your ass in the assistant seat but looks like that’s coming to an end.”
“ I’m not sure how you think that,” Dad shrugged, “but I’ll allow you to have whatever opinions you desire.”
Chief Austin looked like a tea kettle about to whistle, he was so angry.
“ Just fire them, Dad ,” Scott so helpfully suggested.
My watch vibrated, and I glanced down at it to see it show the tiniest of photos, then a single name above it.
Maven .
I reached for my phone in my pocket.
A picture came through, and it reminded me why this was all worth it.
I opened the text from Maven and smiled despite the anger and hostility floating around the room right now.
There she was, standing in the middle of a bakery that was already outfitted for her needs, and she was jumping up in the air and clicking her heels together.
Her hair was flying, her eyes were bright and shining.
My heart literally skipped a beat.
“ Are you even listening to me, Auden Carter ?” Chief Austin’s voice came out like a whip. “ Or are we boring you with the fate of your future?”
“ My future is just fine,” I said tauntingly. “ It’s very bright.”
His eyes narrowed. “ I will literally ruin every single one of the people you love if you don’t back off.”
“ We all quit, then, and will be saving you the trouble of using us as bargaining chips.” Quaid’s voice from the door had my head swinging that way. “ Feel free to find a new gangs unit captain. Also feel free to find a couple of new members of SWAT . Oh , and then there’s me, who coordinates every single beat cop in this station and three others. Quincy also sends his condolences and says that with his superb success rate and skills in solving the murders in this city, he will be more than happy to find a different police department to offer his skills to. Garrett also says that he’ll be taking Boss , since we brought him onto the precinct anyway. And Gable’s next under cover assignment will have to be given to another, even though he fits the bill perfectly, according to the powers that be.”
Damn .
I was getting choked up here.
All of my brothers willing to quit for me.
“ And I won’t be working community outreach, or be the department spokeswoman anymore, either,” Mamasauce crooned. “ Effective immediately, Germaine and I are on vacation. We’re going to be on vacation until our PTO runs out, then we’re going to retire from the department that we’ve been working at for forty years of our lives.”
Damn , my mama was vicious.
“ None of that has been approved,” Chief Austin snarled.
“ It has, actually,” she said. “ We went to the board last week about it.”
The board.
Holy shit.
They were serious, and not bluffing.
“ And we don’t need permission to quit,” Atlas pointed out. “ Nor do we have to offer two weeks’ notice.”
And just like that, we were walking out of the building.
It was like a wave, too.
One second it was just us walking out, and then suddenly there were about fifteen other cops walking out with us.
On any given day, my dad had told me that the Dallas PD had a hundred and twenty cops on shift.
And literally twenty-four of them were leaving. That was at minimum a fifth of the entire precinct walking out with us.
“ There are more,” my mom said. “ I’ve been busy talking to everyone. Some can’t afford to leave. Assman wanted to, but he’s got the baby to worry about, and his ailing grandmother. But he promised to be our eyes and ears.”
“ My partner is quitting, too,” Quincy said.
“ Half of my team is leaving,” Quaid said.
“ There are two other K -9 officers who are heading out. That’s more than half of them.” Garrett chuckled.
When we made it into the parking lot, I said, “ I don’t even know what to say.”
My mom walked up to me and cupped my face.
Sure , I had to lean down to give her access to my face in the first place, but still.
“ There is no greater feeling in this world than love,” she said. “ And to be quite truthful, working under Chief Austin has been a struggle for the last four years. We’re not unhappy with our decision, nor did we do this in haste. All of us decided it was time.”
“ And we don’t expect to be out of the job for long,” Quinn admitted. “ They’ll feel our loss quite effectively. Shit will be in chaos, and the board will be roaring to figure out why. There’s only one common denominator here.”
“ And the board has been made aware of issues with the chief for a very long time,” Dad said. “ There is way more to any of this than you know.”
“ Oh , please share.” Quinn slung his arm around our dad.
“ But share at home, because with an unexpected day off, I think we should go for a swim with the kiddos. They’ll enjoy it,” Quincy said. “ Gather at the community pool at noon.”
I had to laugh at that.
There we all were, jobless, and we were talking about going swimming.
I fucking loved my family.
The drive back to Sunnyvale took longer than I expected, but I tried her at the bakery anyway in hopes that she was still there.
I was in luck, because I arrived to find her chatting with a man inside.
A man who was standing way too close to her.
I got out of my truck and jogged up to the door, nodding my head at the man as his eyes turned to take me in.
“ Auden !” she breathed as she rushed to me, throwing her arms around my shoulders. “ Why aren’t you at work?”
Her eyes went comically wide, and then she whispered, “ You weren’t fired, were you?”
I grinned down at her. “ Not fired, no. You like the place?”
She pulled back, but only far enough to grab my hand in between her two, and started showing me around.
“ This place is awesome,” she said. “ It’s new construction. The people who were going to move in had an unexpected death in the family and had to move back to Indiana . So , all of this is brand new. Everything . Not a single carton of milk has been left in this fridge.”
The fridge was very nice.
It was about four times the size of mine at home.
“ Shit ,” I said. “ That’s huge.”
“ It’s my dream fridge,” she breathed. “ And I’m in love.”
“ It’s awesome,” I admitted, taking in the rest of the shiny place.
Stainless steel countertops. Stainless steel walls up to about six feet.
“ This looks pretty perfect,” I admitted. “ Not that I really know what I’m looking for when it comes to things like bakeries.”
She snickered and pointed at something. “ This is the walk-in freezer/cooler. This is the bathroom and breakroom area. You already saw the front with all the display cases.”
“ It’s rent to own as well,” the man who I assumed was the realtor said. “ The owners agreed to allow a test out period of three months. If she wants to buy it, her three months’ rent for this place will go toward purchase price.”
I nodded, thinking that was a fantastic idea.
“ They’ll also lend me a box truck they had planned to use for deliveries,” Maven continued, floating around like she was on cloud nine.
Grinning at her excitement, I went through the rest of the space with her, loving her bright smile.
“ Oh !” she cried. “ And the best part!”
She squeezed my hand and tugged, leading me out of the break room and up to a set of stairs that had been hidden by what I thought was a closet.
It was not.
The stairs led up to a loft apartment that had me inwardly scowling.
“ I have a space to stay here!” she cried. “ But no garden. I’m going to get this guy to list my house, though.”
I pasted on a happy smile, even though I wanted her to stay at my place with me.
That really was too soon, though.
At least for her.
“ This is great, honey,” I said resolutely. “ It’ll get you out of Dallas , away from him. And you’ll be close.”
To me.
Her smile was warm as she said, “ My thoughts exactly.”