Chapter 8
8
Devon
IT'D BARELY BEEN a half-hour since he found out about the warrant another jurisdiction put out for Janie's arrest, but it was more than enough time for him to come up with a few different scenarios for how this might play out. Not a single one of them involved her laughing in his face.
But here she was, standing in the middle of the employee parking lot at The Baking Rack, head thrown back, laughing so loudly it echoed off the building behind them.
It wasn't a great start.
Straightening off his cruiser, Devon walked her way, doing his best to keep his tone calm even though he was already struggling. "I'm being serious. We got a call this afternoon from Tukwila. They issued a bench warrant over unpaid parking tickets."
Janie sobered almost immediately, her eyes widening. "They can put a warra nt out on me over unpaid parking tickets?"
He scrubbed one hand over his face, exhausted from spending his morning doing laundry instead of sleeping. "Technically, they can. They just don't normally work so hard to get an arrest." It didn't happen often, but he'd come across a few warrants for unpaid parking tickets in his career. Never before had a municipality called them to have someone brought in, though. The warrants were usually only discovered during a traffic stop or other interaction.
Which made this especially strange.
Janie’s jaw went slack, and her complexion paled. “Are you serious?" There was a hint of desperation in her voice. Like she was hoping he was the kind of asshole who would joke about something like this.
And that didn’t sit great. Made him wonder kind of men she was used to dealing with.
"Unfortunately." Devon tipped his head toward his cruiser. "They sent me to bring you in." It was an approximation of what happened. He was there to bring her in, but only because he made it clear no one else would be handling this situation but him. They didn't understand her like he did. Wouldn't be patient and give her time to wrap her brain around what was happening. Wouldn't stay calm when she reacted.
Not that he was doing a great job of it either. Right now he was calculating just how long it would take him to get to Tukwila and back again, because whoever was behind this was doing it simply to be a prick.
Jani e stared at him a second longer before finally straightening. She lifted her chin and shot him a glare. "Fine." After adjusting the purse she had slung over one shoulder, she held both hands out. "Might as well cuff me then."
"I'm not going to cuff you." He moved in a little more, hands itching to reach for her. Wanting to provide comfort she would not appreciate. "We just have to go in, do some paperwork, and then you can go home."
Janie’s eyes moved over his face. "That's it? I don't have to stay?"
Devon shook his head. "You don’t have to stay. I made some phone calls, so you just have to get a court date, and then you can leave." He’d had to work fast to get it all done before five, but keeping her overnight wasn’t an option. Even though he was pretty sure that’s why the call came so late in the day. Janie had pissed someone in Tukwila off, and they were hellbent on making her pay for whatever she’d done.
Luckily, he had a few friends in high places and was able to sort the situation out in a way that would keep it under the radar. He wanted to keep this as easy and as quiet as possible. If it made it back to his mother-in-law that her renter had been arrested, there was a good chance she might try to find a way to get out of the lease agreement, and that would leave Janie scrambling for not only whatever money it was going to take to make this fiasco go away, but also a new deposit and first month's rent .
Doing it this way, no one had to know what happened.
Janie's jaw clenched, but a flicker of something he'd never seen before flashed across her eyes as she stared him down. "Fine. Let's go."
She aimed for the back door of his cruiser but he redirected her trajectory, resting one palm against her back and urging her around the vehicle. "I don't know what's going on, but someone in Tukwila is pretty pissed off at you." He opened the passenger's door and urged her inside. "You have any idea who that might be?"
Janie plopped into the seat, eyes going straight ahead to stare out the windshield, her expression flat. "I don't really want to talk about it."
He crouched down beside her. "I can imagine, but I can't help you if I don't know what's going on."
Janie’s head snapped his way. “I didn’t ask you to help me.”
“No.” He shook his head. “You didn’t.” He held her gaze. “I’m still going to.”
He’d never been one to fight. For most of his marriage, he assumed there was nothing to fight about. That things were exactly the way they seemed.
He’d been wrong.
So while he preferred to go with the flow, he was starting to realize sometimes he had to put his foot down to get his point across with Janie. And this was one of those times. “Now tell me who in the hell is so pissed off at you they called in a warrant just to fuck you over.”
Jani e closed her eyes, head falling back against the rest. "I swear to God, if you try to lecture me—"
"No lectures. I promise." He hadn't considered the way he was coming across. Didn't have a clue Janie would look at it that way. If he had, he would've shut his mouth about it a long time ago. Found a different way to approach things.
Taking a deep breath, he did just that. "Just tell me whose ass I have to kick."
A bark of laughter jumped from her mouth as her eyes flew open and fixed on his face. "I'm pretty sure they frown on cops threatening to assault government officials."
"Good point." He reached inside to grab the seat belt, pulling it free to wrap it across her chest. "Tell me who's ass you're going to kick then."
Janie groaned, head dropping back against the seat again. "He's not even worth the effort." She sighed, shoulders slumping. "Sometimes even I’m shocked at how dumb I am." Pursing her lips, she twisted them from side to side before meeting his eyes. "Before I tell you, I need you to understand I have terrible fucking taste in men."
He straightened, leaning one arm against the frame as he continued studying her. "I sorta gathered that already."
Her brows jumped up. "Was that a dig at Griffin?"
He'd almost forgotten about Janie dating Griffin, but now that she mentioned it, an ugly emotion threatened to rear its head. "No." He watched her face. "But now that you mention it, I’m judging h im a little for walking away from you."
Her lips curved before pressing flat. "Technically, I threw him out." Janie’s eyes left his, moving back to the windshield. "He was a different person back when I knew him. Super closed off and unemotional." Her expression turned almost sad. "Apparently, yelling and screaming for him to open up to me wasn't the best way to accomplish the sort of intimacy I wanted from him."
It wasn't hard to imagine Janie getting frustrated and losing her shit. He’d actually seen it happen. More than once. It was exactly what was drawing him to her. Janie didn't stuff anything down. She didn't hide how she felt. She didn't ignore it thinking it would go away or change. She put it out there to be dealt with. Good or bad.
And he'd rather face yelling and conflict than silence and distance.
“Don’t take the blame for his fucking issues.” Devon paused, trying to soften the sharpness of his tone. “If Griffin couldn’t give you what you needed, he should have told you.” He hesitated, but couldn’t stop himself from adding on, “It’s not your fault you were more than he knew how to handle.”
He liked Griffin. Thought Dianna's husband was a decent guy. But seeing the way his behavior still affected Janie had him itching to throw a punch.
"It's kinda hard not to take it personally." Janie sighed, her eyes dropping to her lap. "He's happily married and I'm sitting in a squad car because I broke up with a guy who didn't like taking no for an answer."
“N either of those things says anything about you." He was slipping dangerously close to lecturing territory, but didn't care. Janie fucking needed to hear this. "Griffin just lucked into finding somebody who suited him. And any asshole who tries to fuck up someone else's life just because they didn't want him, deserves whatever you said to him." He rocked his jaw from side to side, trying to unclench his teeth. "And probably a little more."
This conversation was frustrating him on so many different levels. Not just for Janie and all she'd gone through, but for what awaited his daughters. There wasn't a doubt in his mind they weren’t going to be the type of women who kept their mouths shut and took what came their way. They would be like Janie. They would be fighters. They would stand up for themselves at every turn. And while he knew that would serve them well in many ways, it was clear it wasn't any easier—or more likely to lead to happiness—than the path their mother chose.
"Now." He reached in to push back a curled lock of hair, curving it behind one ear. "Let's go to the station and figure out what the fuck is going on, okay?"
Janie's wide eyes moved over his face, and for a second he saw another hint of the vulnerability he caught earlier. It cut into him deeply, making him even more determined to fix this.
She offered a small nod. "Okay."
Janie was silent on their way in, sitting stiffly in the seat beside him. The urge to reach across and squeeze her hand was strong. He wanted to reassure her. Wanted her to know this would all be okay. He would make sure of it. Unfortunately, they weren't in that sort of a spot.
Yet.
But the more he was around her, the more he thought eventually they could be. That maybe she would finally start to understand him the way he was beginning to understand her. And if he was lucky, that understanding might be enough. Might offer him a little of what he was craving as his daughters got older. He couldn't dedicate the kind of time a relationship would require, but maybe they could form something else. A friendship of sorts. Something that might one day turn into more.
Until then, he would do whatever he could to help Janie find the happiness she seemed reluctant to admit wanting.
Yet another thing he understood well.
After pulling into his designated spot, he parked his squad car and helped Janie out, using one palm against her back to lead her to the door. Once they were inside, he ushered her into an interrogation room. Not because he wanted to question her, but because he wanted to offer privacy. For both of them.
He'd just gotten her situated with something to drink when Josh came in carrying her paperwork. The attorney sat down across from Janie and started to flip through it. The only remaining chair in the room was next to Josh, but it didn't feel right to sit there. Instead, Devon grabbed it and dragged it around the table, taking his place at Janie’s side. He’d promised to help her through this, and leaving her alone on one side of the table would make her feel like they were fighting for different causes.
Josh glanced up, lifting a brow as he looked between them. Like the smart man he was, he kept his mouth shut and went back to the paperwork, flipping through the pages before turning his attention to Janie. "This is a pretty simple thing. The city of Tukwila wants its money. All you have to do is send them a check and it’ll be done. They can't come after you for anything else."
Janie's skin paled and she seemed to shrink back in her seat. The reaction surprised him, because, in the scheme of things, this was a pretty simple fix. Devon leaned forward. "How much does she owe?"
Josh flipped back through the pages, pausing. "$4372.64."
The number had Janie's spine snapping straight. "No way. That's wrong." She gripped the edge of the table, leaning to squint at the number typed out in the paperwork. "I owe a third of that."
Josh shook his head, looking over the numbers. "Technically, they can charge interest, and it looks like they did. Combined with fees and penalties, the number looks accurate."
Janie’s tone turned pleading. "They can't do that. He said they would settle with me. That I could pay them eight hundred dollars and be done with it."
Josh opened his mouth, but Devon held up one hand. "Give us a minute."
His buddy shot him another look that said he was going to pay for every second he spe nt here, before pushing back his chair and walking out the door.
Once Josh was gone, Devon turned to Janie. "How long ago did you make that deal?"
She rocked a little in her seat, hands twisted together in her lap. "Before I moved here."
"And did you pay that amount?" He was pretty sure he already knew the answer to that, but wanted all the information before he decided how pissed off he was about to be.
Janie wiped at the corner of one eye. "Half of it.” She hesitated. “When I had the money to pay the other half, the terms of the deal had suddenly changed."
Seemed like he was going to be fucking irate. "So you didn't pay the other half, whatever city official you were dealing with got pissed off, and you left town."
Janie shot him a glare, a little flash of her normal attitude flaring to life. "If you're going to—"
"I'm not going to lecture." He cut her off before she could finish. "I'm just trying to understand. That's all."
Janie slumped back in her seat, arms crossing tight around her middle. "We’d been going out for about six months when he saw the letter I got from the city about my parking tickets." Her posture tightened even more, shoulders climbing higher. "He said he could help me, and at first he did, but after that he started acting like a dick. Treating me like I should be eternally grateful that he saved me some money." She lifted one shoulder and let it drop. "I told him to go pound sand."
That made him feel a little better even though he knew how it worked out. "Sure he loved that."
Janie's lips softened into a hint of a smile. "The look on his face was pretty priceless." She shook her head. "But I was dumb enough to assume we had an official deal. I didn't find out it was an under the table sort of thing until I tried to pay off the rest and they told me I owed sixteen hundred dollars instead of four." She tipped her head to one side. "Mariah called the next day and told me about this job she knew of, and I figured I'd just move away and he could go fuck himself."
“He can still go fuck himself.” Devon met her gaze as an idea formed. One that would help them both. “Because I’ve got a proposition for you. ”