Chapter 5
Home is where those fuckers aren’t.
—Quaid’s secret thoughts
QUAID
“Since you’re still on light duty,” Dad said as he stood next to the chief of police, “we’ve decided you can continue light duty, but also consult with SpecialAgentMcGraw to help him in any way necessary.”
I nearly rolled my eyes.
Such formality when the chief was around.
Dad and the chief were great friends.
Had been golf buddies for so fuckin’ long that the country club knew them as the ‘cop couple.’
Truthfully, ChiefAustin was somewhat of an enigma to me.
Though he and my dad were great friends, likely because they’d been chief and assistant chief for ten years, and then worked together in the same department for ten years before that, I didn’t know him all that well.
He was a private man, and Dad didn’t share much about him besides superficial information.
I’d always wondered if there was more to him than what was on the surface, but since I wasn’t willing to lose my job to find out the information, I chose to keep silent.
“I’m off light duty as of last week,” I admitted.
Well, I’d been capable of being off of it way before that, but the duties I’d taken over as sergeant over the beat cops had all but slammed me. WhenI’d been injured, I’d gone from the second in charge of that to the first, and all the paperwork had nearly buried me.
Apparently, the sergeant in charge of it before me, who’d been promoted to his dream job elsewhere in the department after coming back from neck surgery, hadn’t thought paperwork was fun. Consequently, I’d been cleaning up his mess since I’d hurt myself.
I was almost done, though.
That was why I’d taken the shift last week when one of our beat cops hadn’t shown up for work due to a stomach virus.
It’d been fucking freeing, being somewhere other than behind the goddamn desk in my office.
And now he was telling me to keep doing it longer?
Fucking awesome.
“Well, until we get this case solved,” ChiefAustin murmured quietly, “you’re going to be warming that chair up. We can’t have a thing like this go amuck in my city. The press already eats me alive because they think I don’t take women’s safety seriously. If they find out that we have a serial killer that’s out here targeting AngelinaJolie lookalikes, they’re going to filet me.”
AngelinaJolie lookalikes.
JesusChrist.
I mean, the features definitely fit. But they didn’t look much like AngelinaJolie.
The only thing in common Ellodie had with AngelinaJolie were the lips.
God, those lips.
“I’m not arguing with you,” I said. “I feel like I have a personal vested interest in this now. So, I’ll be doing whatever I can to make sure that we find the person responsible.”
ChiefAustin nodded, then jerked his chin toward his office door, telling me to get out without saying a word.
I nearly rolled my eyes but stopped myself.
“Hey, Chief,” his secretary said as she barred my way out of his office. “I brought some cookies from this new bakery for you…”
“Throw them away,” the chief said.
I was so surprised by the surliness in his tone that I looked back at him.
Dad, who’d been on his way out with me, shifted just enough that I could see that the chief’s glare was aimed at the bakery box.
“Oh, but Chief. You said you wanted some cookies.” The secretary frowned.
I chose that moment to push past her with a muttered ‘excuse me’ and waited outside, far enough away that I didn’t hear the rest of their conversation.
Overall, I felt like the chief was a fair man. He wasn’t the cuddliest, or most approachable, but he was good at his job, and I’d never seen him be unfair in any way.
But his moods were killer when they swayed in the bad direction.
Dad caught up to me and shook his head as he said, “That man.”
I raised a brow at him. “What was that about?”
“I don’t know, exactly,” he admitted. “But he’s had it out for that bakery since Hollis found it and put it on the map.”
Hollis had gone into the bakery, which was close to our apartments, and all but perished over how much she loved it. She loved it so much that she shared the place with Ande. Ande then shared it with Keene’s sisters, who had a huge following on Instagram and Facebook. And from there, the rest was history.
The bakery, PieHard, was booming.
The young woman who’d opened it had seen more business than she could’ve ever asked for.
“Why does the chief have a hard on for it?” I asked. “Did the owner do something to him?”
He looked at me for a long moment, then said, “If you ever mutter a fuckin’ word of this, I’ll kill you.”
I held up my hands. “What?”
“The chief has a daughter,” he mumbled, looking around as he said it, as if he was worried someone might overhear.
“He does?” I frowned. “I thought he and his wife were childless?”
“The wife is. The chief remarried when y’all were around fifteen or so. He had a thirteen-year-old daughter when he did. Something happened, though, and the daughter went and stayed with the grandparents on her mom’s side. And they haven’t talked much about it since.”
“Okay,” I said. “And this matters because…”
“Because that bakery was opened by the chief’s daughter,” he murmured. “And that stays between you and me. Understand?”
I nodded, surprised to hear this.
“That sucks,” I said. “I wonder what all happened.”
Dad’s face ticked up at the corner, his eye twitching. “I will bet my life it has everything to do with the new wife. She’s a fuckin’ dumpster fire.”
ForDad to say that meant a whole lot.
Dad’s version of ‘dumpster fire’ was DEFCON 1.
“Shit, that sucks,” I repeated.
Dad nodded, slapped me on the back, and then went into his office. But not before saying, “Keep your trap shut, Quaid.”
I rolled my eyes and headed toward my own office, testing out my ankle as I moved.
It felt good today.
Really good.
I hadn’t had such a good day in what felt like forever.
I’d even gone on a run this morning.
Sure, it’d been a mile and a half, but it’d been long enough to test out the strength in my leg. And know that I could do longer next time.
I arrived in my office and took a seat at my desk.
Ignoring the paperwork that was already piling up on the corner, I opened up the file that we had on the serial killer.
Picking up my phone, I called Tobin.
“Hello?” he answered, sounding short.
“Hey,” I said. “What’s crawled up your ass?”
He sighed. “My wife.”
I should’ve known that without asking.
Apparently, the chief’s wife and Tobin’s had something in common.
“What’s the problem now?” I wondered.
“She’s throwing a fit because I’m in Dallas.” He sighed.
I chuckled.
‘InDallas’ was code for near Ande.
It didn’t matter that Dallas and the surrounding metroplex was nearly ten thousand square miles.
It didn’t even matter that Ande was now happily married with children.
The crazy woman was still insanely jealous.
“She knows, right, that y’all dated in high school? That it was nothing more than the bullshit dating every high schooler does for a month and breaks it off?” I asked.
Even though I knew she knew that.
I’d told her myself.
That didn’t mean CrissaMcGraw would ever be okay with it.
She’d rather die than ever be okay with it.
I wasn’t sure how Tobin did it.
At least they didn’t have any kids.
Maybe one day he’d get his head out of his ass enough to see that she was toxic.
But that day wasn’t today.
“She does.” He sighed. “Hey, I got your notes from the nurse. Any thoughts you didn’t put into that email?”
“No,” I answered. “I think that she genuinely got the bad vibe off of him and chose to stay away. Which makes me wonder why some of these other women didn’t pick up on it.”
“Maybe they did,” Tobin mused. “I have a profiler who’s going to meet with me this afternoon. I’ll get his perspective on it all. ButI have a gut feeling that we’re only seeing what’s on the surface of this. I think, truthfully, that he hasn’t forgotten about these women who said no to him.”
That made the pit of my stomach clench, and bile rise up to my throat.
“You think I need to put a protection detail on her?” I asked.
And that protection detail would be me.
TheDallasPoliceDepartment didn’t have the kind of cash flow to just put a detail on someone. ButI had the time, and the inclination. Oh, and also the desire to get to know her better.
WhatI saw, I liked.
“I think I might have more answers for you once I talk to the profiler around one,” he answered. “But if my gut feeling is right…”
And his gut feeling was always right.
A long time ago, when I’d first gotten to know Tobin, he always knew things. It was the weirdest thing, yet it’d gotten us out of a few dangerous situations, such as a burglary and a near beating from a couple of bullies.
If he thought she might need protection, then I needed to get to working on worming my way into her life.
“Yo, Sarge.” The secretary hollered. “Assman called in.”
I groaned.
Assman.
That was literally his name.
BergerAssman.
A brand-new rookie who was getting on my last fucking nerve with how often he thought it was okay to call out in a one-year period.
He’d been with the department just short of a year, and in that time, he called out at least fifteen times.
“Son of a bitch,” I grumbled as I got up from my desk and grabbed my keys. “I gotta go, Tobin. Call me when you have more information this afternoon.”
“Will do,” he said. “Your dad said you were my liaison with the department.”
“I am,” I confirmed. “Talk to you later.”
After saying thank you to the secretary, who worked within three departments, for relaying the news about Assman, I headed out, ready to cover a shift.
But first, I would be making a stop.
Assman’s place.
I’d never actually been.
ButI’d contemplated this so many times that I had his address memorized.
I arrived in thirteen minutes, and when I made my way up to the fourth-floor apartment, the first thing I heard when I got onto the fourth-floor landing was screaming.
A baby was crying and losing his or her mind.
I headed down the hall, and my gut clenched as I made my way to the door where the baby was crying so hard. Behind the door I knew to be Assman’s.
Closing my eyes for a long second, I breathed out, then knocked.
The screaming didn’t stop, but it did get closer to the door.
When it opened, I was faced with Assman and a screaming infant.
He looked at me with his deer in the headlights look, and then said, “Sergeant!”
“Assman,” I said as I looked behind him into the apartment. It was a fuckin’ mess. “What’s going on?”
Assman was twenty-four, and according to his paperwork, single. He did have one child listed, but I hadn’t realized it was such a young child.
“CanI come in?” I asked.
He blinked, then stepped back to allow me entry.
I got the first good look at his place and realized that the man was drowning.
There was baby paraphernalia everywhere. Dirty dishes. Dirty clothes. It looked like he had the baby set up in the living room.
There wasn’t a single spot on the floor that wasn’t covered up with toys or dirty clothes.
The man was doing more than drowning. He was gasping for breath with no escape in sight.
“Uh, sorry for the mess,” Assman said as he winced.
“How old is the kid?” I asked over the screaming.
Assman looked down at his son, dressed in blue-striped footed pajamas, and said, “Uhh, ten weeks.”
My brows rose. “You just had a baby ten weeks ago?” I asked as I looked around.
There were no signs of a woman’s touch in his apartment at all.
“Yeah,” he hesitated. “This is new to me.”
I could imagine it was. “No wife?”
Assman looked down at his bare feet, which happened to be stepping on a dirty, balled up diaper. He moved slightly so he wasn’t squishing it before saying, “My ex had the baby and ran. She wanted to… yeah. She didn’t want him. She had the baby and was gone from the hospital before they were discharged. I haven’t seen her or her mom since. No signs of her at the house she shared with her mom, either.”
I shook my head, not understanding how someone could do that to their own child.
“Who’s watching the baby when you’re at work?” I asked, holding out my hands for the screaming infant.
The relief on Assman’s face as he handed over the baby was devastating.
Did the kid have no one?
The baby felt solid in my hands, so obviously he’d been eating well.
I twisted him around so that his chest and torso was to my forearm, his head resting against the crook of my elbow, and then bounced him.
I hadn’t had any child experience until Tex and Addie came around. But overall, I’d found that they loved to be like this, on their belly, for some reason.
And, like magic, the kid stopped crying.
“He has colic,” he said quietly, almost as if he was scared to raise his voice above a whisper or else the kid would start screaming again. “My part-time nanny quit. My other nanny is my grandmother, and she helps as much as she can, but she’s still working. I find a nanny, they quit. Asus has colic, and he cries all day, every day. The only time he doesn’t is when he’s sleeping, and even that’s barely ever.”
Poor guy. Both for the name, AsusAssman, and the colic. Kid definitely wasn’t winning.
Tex had colic.
I remembered heading over to their house to give Ande and Keene a break.
But to have no one…
“Go get a shower, bruh,” I said to him, using the term he liked to call me when he actually showed up for work. “Take a break. I’ll stay for a bit.”
UntilI got a call out, anyway.
It would happen eventually.
Until then…
The kid didn’t go to sleep, but he wasn’t crying, either.
I counted that as a win, and almost laughed when Assman all but ran out of the room.
Obviously, it’d been a while since he’d showered.
Pulling out my phone upon him disappearing, I called the one person I knew would help no matter what.
“Mamasauce,” I said when she answered. “I need your help.”
Mom or ‘Mamasauce’ as I liked to call her when I wanted her to be in a good mood, was swift with her response. “What’s going on?”
After explaining everything, I waited for her to arrive. She wasted zero time.
It took her all of ten minutes to get there, and my sister was in tow. WhileI was waiting for them, I got some of the dishes done that didn’t require any elbow grease… or moving the kid on my arm.
They both took one look at the apartment, and at the now sleeping child in my arms, and went to work.
WhenAssman came back out of his bedroom, freshly showered and looking a whole lot better than when he went in there, he was shocked.
“My flabber is gasted.” He spoke, eyes wide, as he shook his head in disbelief. “You… My dishes are done.”
“Assman, I’m sure you’ve heard of or even met my mom before.” I introduced him to Ande and Mom. “Mom, Ande, this is Assman.”
“Assman,” Ande drawled, her eyes narrowed into laser beams. “Are you making fun of him, Quaid? You know that’s not nice.”
“It’s my actual name,” Assman covered for me. “I don’t even know what to say.”
Mom patted him on the chest as she passed him with an armful of laundry and said, “Honey, everyone needs a village. You just found yours.”
I grinned and said, “See you at work tomorrow?”
“My grandma promised she’d be here,” he agreed. “And we talked about it today, and I think that I can cover her salary at the grocery store if I move in with her and she watches him full-time. Until he’s not so… awful and won’t get kicked out of daycare for crying all day.”
“Okay. If that ever changes, call my mom. There are plenty of people in the department who have folks willing, and trustworthy enough, to watch this little devil,” I said as I walked back over to him and handed his kid over. “Bye, Mom. Ande. Assman.”
Ande and my mom both waved, and I headed out to get on shift. Assman looked like he was about to cry.
I closed the door before any sobbing could commence and headed to Assman’s beat.
ThereI stayed, writing plenty of tickets, for the next four and a half hours.
WhenI had another spare officer, I had him take over Assman’s beat, and then began my journey back to the station.
It was when I was about halfway there that I got the call.
“Unit 1093, I have a call about a car too close to the on ramp on 30.”
I sighed, knowing that I’d have to take it because I was literally the only one in the area who wasn’t responding to something.
Just as I crested the ramp, I saw it.
My heart started to beat fast, and the familiarity of the sexy little body filling out that dress had anticipation starting to course through me.
The last person I expected to see was her.
Yet there she was.