Chapter 20
Unfortunately , my milkshake brings all the psychos to my yard.
— Atlas to Auden
ATLAS
“ Team one,” I said into the microphone over my face. “ Do you have eyes on the suspect?”
“ No ,” the team leader for team one, Kaden Michaels , said. “ There’s a coat rack covering the majority of the window in there.”
“ Team two?” I asked.
“ Negative ,” the team leader for team two, Bastian Haynes , grumbled. “ My side has a filing cabinet.”
I cursed under my breath, and the negotiator, Elise Pearson , looked over at me from her perch against the back wall of the SWAT bus.
“ I have eyes on two of the suspects through the north skylight,” the sniper for team one, Numbers Messer , said. “ The caller said there were four, correct?”
“ I have five in the room total,” Fatima Serna , the sniper for team two, said. “ If I could get the shooter to go three feet in the direction of the window, I can take the shot.”
“ Fatima ,” I called. “ What does the suspect look like?”
“ White male, fifties, tall, black t-shirt, black pants, black shoes. Blond hair. Bloodshot eyes. Looks inebriated AF .” She answered in only the most professional of ways.
The old SWAT team leader, Scott , had hated Fatima . He didn’t like that there was a female on his SWAT team, and he certainly didn’t like that she was young. He also didn’t like how she was like all the GenZers and spoke her mind, didn’t give a fuck who she pissed off, and cared more about her personal wellbeing than someone else’s.
Truthfully , GenZers got a lot of flak for their work ethic, but Fatima showed none of the more negative attributes.
“ Numbers , do you confirm?” I asked.
“ Yes ,” he said. “ He’s passed by the skylight a time or two, but since the hostages are on the floor right under the opening, I have no shot.”
I fisted my hands.
“ The kid’s getting restless,” Kaden Michaels said urgently. “ He’s running…”
A shot sounded, and my heart stalled in my chest.
I squeezed my eyes shut and whispered, “ Please tell me that…”
I couldn’t finish my sentence.
“ I can’t tell,” Fatima said, sounding horrified. “ I can’t see the kid.”
“ No visual,” Numbers sounded just as sick.
“ Kid’s okay,” Bastien breathed.
A rush of relief filtered through the entire team.
“ We’re moving,” I said as I bailed out of the truck.
“ Boss ,” Elise said.
I looked up at her. “ What ?”
I didn’t mean to snap at her, but she flinched anyway.
“ Watch his eyes,” she said. “ The ex-wife says his eyes twitch weird when he’s about to hurt her.”
I nodded once, thinking I’d need to apologize later for my attitude, and headed out.
“ Team one,” I said. “ You’re with me. Team two, I want you to go to the back entrance. We’re taking the roof.”
“ Fuck yeah,” Abe fell into step directly behind me.
The other four fell into step behind him, and we marched up to the side wall that had the ladder that led to the roof.
Careful with our step, we made our way to the large room where the hostages were being held in the bank.
We’d not taken this route earlier due to the multitude of skylights in the roof. The stability of the area in which we’d have to move was unlikely to hold all of our weight.
“ Trinidad ,” I said. “ You and Abe walk around the windows, make sure to be careful of the shadows you cast, and get in place.”
The two moved, silent as shadows.
“ The rest of you spread out among the windows,” I urged.
I dropped down to the closest skylight, not quite close enough that I could see directly in, and waited.
“ Team two, set?” I asked.
“ Set ,” Bastien confirmed.
“ Numbers ,” I said. “ What’s it looking like?”
“ Kid’s okay, I can see him now in his mother’s arms. She has her hand over his mouth,” Numbers murmured.
“ Fatima ?” I asked.
“ I can see all four hostages now, but I can’t see the suspect.”
“ Fuck !”
I didn’t know who said that, so my heart pounded in my throat for a few long seconds before Fatima came on and said, “ Ulrich fell down the stairs.”
A little levity rolled through the group.
“ I’m okay,” Ulrich wheezed.
I used the mirror in my pocket to push over the skylight, and I saw the shooter Fatima had identified earlier.
I also saw the large hole in the wall above the mother who was now holding on so tight to her toddler that he was red with indignation.
I put the kid at about three or so years old. He was much bigger than Forest , but I could tell that he was confused, not comprehending anything about the situation he was currently in.
“ Hey , Chief , did you get the specs on the glass yet?” I asked my father.
My dad was here because he was first on scene because he’d been on his way home from work.
“ Tempered ,” he answered. “ Breaks like normal glass just fine, according to the blueprints with the city.”
I jerked my chin at Abe and said, “ Abe , do you have a clear shot?”
Normally , we would have tried a little harder to get him to talk to the negotiator, but his utter lack of communication, and his erratic behavior, had pushed me to make this decision earlier than we usually would have.
We’d been at it for two hours, and not once had he agreed to talk to us.
“ Yes , sir,” he said.
“ Thuy ,” I said. “ Get ready to provide backup. Team two, stand by.”
Abe aimed and fired.
The shot took the guy in the chest, right above the heart.
He went down fast, but no blood spread on the floor.
In fact, the motherfucker got right back up.
Thuy stood up and took aim, hitting the suspect in the shoulder.
The guy rolled, and just so happened to come right under my skylight.
He pulled the shotgun that he’d just so happened to keep hold of throughout it all and raised it.
The toddler’s face would forever be seared in my brain at that very second in time.
Without thought, I aimed and fired, hitting the guy in the face.
The guy’s head went back, smacking so hard into the pristine lobby floor that it bounced back up again.
Blood and brain matter went flying.
“ Team two,” I said. “ Clear .”
Only when all of the hostages were out did I exit the roof.
I made it down to the bottom in time to hear a reporter say, “ Why did you have to kill him?”
Before I could stop myself, I said, “ It was either kill him or watch him shoot a toddler in the face. Which , exactly, would you have chosen, Ms . Smith ?”
I hated this reporter with a passion.
She was always screaming about how unfair and unjust the justice system was and how law enforcement was made up of a bunch of corrupt individuals who would rather have power than provide support.
Ms . Smith turned to me and glared. “ You are not God !”
“ No ,” I said. “ But I am upheld by my sworn oath to protect the innocent. And just sayin’, but a fifty-two-year-old drunk who wanted money is a whole lot less innocent than a three-year-old whose worst crime might be stealing a cookie from his brother.”
And yes, I’d heard the father, who was clearly distraught, relay that story while we stood in the parking lot getting information on the hostages.
“ You …” Ms . Smith started again, but my dad smoothly and succinctly interrupted her by saying, “ Ms . Smith , please respect the police line until we can get the scene fully secure.”
Ms . Smith continued to cause a ruckus, but I went back to the SWAT truck and crawled inside.
“ That’s the first time anyone has refused to even speak to me,” Elise sighed.
“ Don’t worry,” Fatima said as she crawled into the back with us, sniper rifle already broken down and back in its carrying case. “ There’s a first time for everything.”
“ Kinda sad not hearing your sweet voice, though.” Numbers got in behind Fatima . “ That’s the only time I ever hear it.”
“ Fuck off, Numbers .”
Numbers gave a wave of his hand as if to say ‘see?’
The rest of the crew filed in, and I got started on my paperwork as we headed back to the station.
It took me two hours once we’d gotten to the station to finish up, and by the time I was heading out to the truck it was well past one in the morning,
By the time I arrived home, however, it was nearly two due to a wreck on the interstate that caused traffic to be at an almost standstill.
Fuck , I hated Dallas .
Using my phone, I disarmed the alarm and unlocked the door with the pad of my thumb, closing, locking, and rearming it behind me.
The house was utterly silent except for my footfalls as I moved farther into the house.
My first stop was Forest’s room, where I checked on him to make sure that he was okay.
He was fast asleep in the footed pajamas from earlier.
He had a bear that I hadn’t seen before now tucked into his chest, and his fingers were clutching… my shirt.
I closed my eyes as a wave of rightness washed over me.
This was my child.
Why did it feel so right?
It felt as if he’d always been there in my heart, taking up space.
It took considerable effort to pull myself out of the room.
It took even more effort not to stop by Pepper’s on my way to my own.
I crawled into the bed fully clothed, fell face first into the pillow that still smelled like Pepper , and fell asleep.
It felt like seconds later when I was awoken by my phone vibrating in my pocket.
I rolled over, still in the same exact spot from when I’d collapsed and pulled my phone out of my pocket.
“ Hello ?” I grumbled.
“ Your girl was right,” Garrett said. “ She walked in here, pockets full of drugs, got the key card from a cleaning lady, and was heading for the employee elevators when I walked up. Boss immediately alerted, and I called in backup. She was arrested, in full uniform, fifteen minutes ago.”
A wave of disgust rocketed through me.
“ Dad know?” I asked.
“ He was my first call,” he answered, sounding distracted. “ I gotta go. Better head to the station.”
I quickly washed my face, brushed my teeth, and used the restroom.
After washing my hands, I changed my clothes, then headed back out to the kitchen.
When I got there, it was empty.
I glanced at the time on my watch and found it to be a few minutes shy of seven in the morning.
I headed down the hall toward Forest’s room and found him still in his footed pajamas, this time wide awake and staring at the door with the saddest look in his eyes.
“ Hey , bud,” I said. “ Why didn’t you come wake me up?”
If my calculations were correct, Pepper had been gone for a solid three hours by now.
How long had he been awake?
“ No wake,” he said.
“ Yes wake,” I said. “ Anytime you wake up, you can wake me up. Just come down to my room.”
He looked confused, so I picked him up out of the bed and walked him down the hall to my room. “ This is my room.”
He rested his head on my shoulder, and I felt my heart give another one of those strange tugs.
“ You want to come to work with me for a bit?” I asked.
He didn’t have much choice, really.
Until I could find him alternate care when I had to go in, and Pepper was at the bakery, I had no other recourse.
“ What do you want to wear today?” I asked him as we headed back toward his room.
“ Peas ation?” he chirped.
“ Yeah , buddy. We have to go to the police station,” I confirmed. “ How about shorts?”
It was September , but it was still hot as balls out.
“ Yes ,” he confirmed.
I got him dressed in a fresh diaper, shorts, a t-shirt that had cracked me up with Smoky the Bear on it, and his sandals.
Once dressed, we headed back to my room to grab some keys, and then we were out the door.
“ Juice ?”
I winced. “ Uhhh …”
I spotted Quincy across the road, and I headed for him.
He was outside watering his wife’s rose bushes, but I doubted she’d like his form of watering.
“ You know,” I said as I got up to his back. “ Hollis would kill you if she saw you pissing on her roses.”
He tossed me a look over his shoulder as he shook his dick off and shoved it back into his pants.
“ What Hollis doesn’t know won’t hurt her,” he said.
“ I heard that,” came through the Ring camera that was set up on their front porch.
“ No , you didn’t,” Quincy teased.
“ Find a different spot to go. Like , you know, the toilet that’s right inside the door,” she grumbled. “ Hi , Forest !”
Quincy finally turned around to notice the boy in my arms, and his smile grew. “ Hey , Forest !”
Forest buried his face into my shoulder.
Quincy’s face softened. “ What’s up?”
“ I have to head to the station, but I forgot that I need to give this kid something to drink and eat. You got anything I can grab real quick?”
I needed to go to the store for two-year-old acceptable finger foods.
“ Top right drawer there’s some sippy cups. They’re pink. You know Princess Dalia would take nothing less. There should be some powdered donuts inside the pantry door on the right,” Hollis offered.
“ Hey !” Quincy cried. “ You told me they were all gone!”
“ They are for your fat ass,” she grumbled. “ I have never seen a man eat as many powdered donuts as you. I wanted to save a few for myself, dammit. Between you and Dalia , I have nothing sacred in that house.”
Quincy rolled his eyes. “ I’ll be right back.”
“ How was your first night?” Hollis asked as Quincy disappeared inside.
“ Good ,” I answered. “ Mostly . I was gone for the majority of it, but he seems to have done pretty well. Slept through the night as far as I can tell”
“ Pee ?” Forest asked.
I thought he wanted to touch the pink flowers, so I put him down to do that, and went back to looking at the camera just as Hollis started talking again.
“ Slept through the night.” She laughed. “ Gah , I wonder what that feels like?’
A stream of wetness hitting the dirt sounded, and I looked over to see Forest’s shorts and diaper down around his ankles.
“ See , told you it was a good spot,” Quincy said as he came out with a bright pink sippy cup and the half-eaten bag of donuts.
He also had some suspicious white powder around his mouth that let me know he’d snuck a few before bringing the bag out.
“ I’ll bring more,” I said. “ I need to do a grocery run after this anyway.”
“ Bring me something from Pie Hard and we’ll call it square,” he teased.
I didn’t bother denying him.
He and I both knew I’d be going by there one way or another.
After a tip of my hat, I handed the drink over to Forest , and waited until we were in the truck before I gave him the donuts.
“ Do me a favor and try not to make a mess, buddy,” I called.
He tried.
I could tell he did.
But by the time we arrived at the police station, he was covered.
I could only laugh as I caught him up in my arms and headed inside with him.
“ Who ya got there, Carter ?”
I looked over at the receptionist, who was new enough that I couldn’t remember her name, and smiled, though it didn’t reach my eyes. “ This is Forest .”
“ Hi , Forest !” she started to stand, but I waved her off and headed for my dad’s office.
I heard my mother before I saw her and stopped just in time to keep her from barreling into me.
“ That fu…” she trailed off when she saw Forest in my arms. “ Well hello there, handsome.”
I rolled my eyes.
My mom was a hardass.
Until it came to her grandkids.
Around the station, Mom was known as The Wall .
Mom didn’t give. Didn’t break.
She was there, always standing, unbreakable.
“ Mamasauce ,” I said as I gave her Forest . “ Why are you so mad?”
She tried to sweep the powdered sugar off his chest and realized it was there to stay.
“ Gamma is mad because there’s a lady here that’s a twit.” She looked at me, her eyes once again going hard. “ You seriously owe that girl an apology.”
I grimaced. “ I’m more than aware.”
“ I heard she’s watching this guy for you.” She once again leveled me with a look. “ You’ll lose her if you’re not careful.”
My stomach twisted. “ I’m working on it. There was a moment of panic when I thought she was leaving, and I can’t say that I handled it well.”
“ You’re one of my brightest children,” she said. “ But your choice in women leaves a lot to be desired. For the love of God , don’t let the best one yet go.”
With that she took off with my kid, who was glad to go.
They chattered away until I couldn’t hear a single word.
“ Mom’s right,” Garrett said, coming up behind me. “ You’ve got shit taste in women.”
I rolled my eyes, heading for Dad’s office once again.
When I arrived, I saw I wasn’t the only one there.
Auden , Gable , and Quaid were there as well.
All of them went silent upon my arrival.
“ Son , have a seat.” He grimaced.
I did and he turned his monitor around for me to see.
I watched in silence as the body cam footage from Garrett’s chest was displayed.
From start to finish, I could see the entire thing pan out. From the moment she entered the hotel, to the moment Garrett’s entire body jerked as he saw a woman and her husband leaving. I frowned at the words that the man leveled at the woman before Garrett once again turned his attention back to Sage and the maid.
The next fifteen minutes of footage was my brother approaching then detaining Sage . He walked her out to his cruiser, and the arrest caught the attention of every single person she passed.
An officer getting arrested by another officer would do that.
“ News has already hit on who we arrested,” Dad grumbled darkly. “ The assistant chief is also sitting in on the interview. Want to watch?”
Dad had a new system where he could tune in to any of the interviews in the station.
At my nod, he pulled up the feed for the interrogation rooms where the questioning of Sage Solomon was already under way.
“ This should be fun,” Mom came in with a bag of popcorn, and not my son. “ I am so freakin’ glad I didn’t take the assistant chief position. Popcorn probably wouldn’t have been allowed.”
“ Where’s Forest ?” I asked, slightly alarmed.
I mean, logically I knew my mother wouldn’t give my kid up to someone who wasn’t trusted, but that didn’t make my heart hurt any less.
“ Pepper has him.” She snorted. “ I was left like a wet gym sock. She was called by Sage , who wanted Pepper to come bail her out.”
“ Why’s she here then, since we all know that she’s not bailing out that little psycho?” Gable asked.
“ I’m here because I was called to offer up my testimony on what I felt happened and why Sage did what she did,” a humor-filled voice called from behind us. “ Hello , Carters .”
I looked behind me to see Forest in Pepper’s arms, his fingers curling around a stray lock of Pepper’s blonde hair.
“ Hello , Good Solomon ,” Gable drawled.
She rolled her eyes.
“ There are a whole slew of good Solomons .” She sighed. “ There’s only the one that sucks.”
“ If you say so,” Gable teased.
She hefted Forest up on her hip again, but decided after she’d done that it’d be easier to put him down since he was somewhat contained in Dad’s office.
“ What are we looking at?” Pepper asked, squinting at the screen.
I gestured her to come closer, and when she did, I patted my leg.
She hesitated, contemplating what she should do, but ultimately chose to take a seat on my thigh.
She perched on the front of my leg, nearest my knee, as if she was waiting to take off at any second.
I leaned forward, hooked her around the waist, and tugged her to sit completely in my lap.
She stiffened, and I leaned forward and said, “ Relax . I want to see, too.”
That was a lie.
As long as she was in my lap, I couldn’t care less what I was seeing.
She relaxed, though, allowing her back to rest into my front.
“ Turn it up, darling,” Mamasauce ordered. “ It’s too loud in here with all of your sons’ loud breathing.”
“ Mom !” Gable whined. “ I breathe like a lady.”
“ You also smell like a lady,” Mom turned to him. “ Why is that?”
Gable ignored that question and turned to Forest . “ Oh , hey, Forest . Come to your uncle.”
“ That’s low, using the baby,” Pepper said under her breath.
Gable scratched his nose with his little finger as he picked Forest up to rest in his lap.
Forest immediately reached for the cup of pens on Dad’s desk, knocking them all to the ground.
“ Oops !” he threw himself down, and only Gable’s grip on his hips kept him from face planting onto the floor.
Pepper gasped and lunged but leaned back into my chest again once Gable proved he had him.
My own heart had taken a leap as well.
“ I got it, Forest ,” Auden said as he reached for the pens.
He filled the cup up and handed it back to Forest , leaving the rest of us the time to look back at the screen.
“ Turn it up,” my mother repeated her earlier words.
Dad fiddled with the screen, and soon we could hear everything that was being said in the interrogation room.
“...wasn’t mine,” Sage was saying.
Auden snorted.
My mom grumbled under her breath.
Pepper all out laughed.
“ Then where did it come from, Ms . Solomon ?” Assistant Chief Cruz asked carefully. “ Because you were caught with this on your person. You had no stops that would’ve netted you that kind of bust. I’m not dumb, Ms . Solomon . You’re going to need to tell us the truth now.”
Sage started to cry, and a couple of weeks ago even, that would’ve affected me. Now ? Well , now all it did was piss me off because I saw it for the manipulation it was.
“ I confiscated it from a man selling them on the corner,” she continued to lie. I was going to arrest him, but he had a little boy with him named Forest .”
“ That lying twat,” Pepper groused. “ She’s only saying the first name that pops in her head.”
Disgust rolled through me.
“ Then we’ll corroborate your story with the bodycam footage.” He leaned back in his chair.
“ I didn’t have it on,” she lied.
“ It’s always on,” he corrected. “ For it not to be on would mean that you didn’t pick it up from the shift manager.”
He pointed at her chest, and she looked down.
The bodycam was right there in the middle of her chest.
One thing that DPD had done when my dad took over was require 24/7 bodycam footage on every officer on shift.
It’d been decided that it was safest for all involved, citizens and officers alike, to have camera footage to fall back on if shit hit the fan.
“ Oh , I , uh…” she stalled.
“ Can you access her body cam?” Pepper asked curiously.
“ Yes ,” Dad said. “ Give me a… There .”
He pressed play on the body cam and mute on the show in interrogation room four.
There , we watched her go up to a man who looked slightly shady. After a back and forth, she demanded to have the drugs that he was selling and threatened him if he didn’t.
Without a word, he slapped a couple of bags of pills in her hand and ran.
She shoved them all in her pocket—sans gloves—and started whistling as she headed back to her car.
“ Did she at least wipe down the bag?” I pinched the bridge of my nose, my knuckles playing along the back of Pepper’s neck.
“ Yes ,” Dad said. “ She at least had that going for her.”
“ You’re firing her, right?” Pepper asked carefully.
“ She was fired the moment those cuffs went on her wrists,” Mom assured her. “ This is a public relations nightmare due to her notoriety after the kidnapping. Also , she’s a cop, and she was arrested in the highest profile hotel in the area. Now we’re trying to find out if we want to charge her.”
“ Charge her, please.” Pepper leaned forward, pressing both of her palms together in a praying motion. “ Please .”
Mom laughed. “ Sadly , it’s not up to us. We can charge her all we want but it’s up to the DA , who fucking hates us, to prosecute. There are no promises.”
Pepper sighed, wiggling in her seat.
“ Peppa !”
Pepper looked over at Forest , who was holding out a pen.
“ Oh , pretty.” She took it, admired it, then handed it back.
The interaction was altogether innocent, but it again had the power to rip my heart straight out of my chest.
I was so engrossed with them that I missed most of the discussion that was happening around me until my brothers and Mom started to stand up.
Pepper got up, too, and reached out for Forest .
“ Come on, bud,” she said. “ We can go back to the bakery and let these boys work out what to do next.”
I got up as well, glancing at my dad, and letting him know with a few words that I’d be back.
I left them all in the office, heading behind Pepper and Forest , chatting away.
I didn’t understand a single word that was said by my boy, but Pepper acted like she got every single word.
“ You can take my truck,” I suggested. “ I have the car seat.”
“ Oh ,” she paused. “ I guess that’s pretty important, huh?”
I grinned and held out my keys.
She dropped her Jeep keys into my own and said, “ I’m sorry, but it’s out of gas. Like really out of gas. I was going to get it on the way home.”
I nodded. “ I’ll take care of it.”
She didn’t argue, but I could see the instant rejection in her eyes.
I got the door for Forest , then took him from her arms before strapping him into the car seat.
“ Be good for Peppa , will you?” I asked him.
He gave me a thumbs up, and I realized that he still had the pen from my dad’s office.
“ Can I see that?”
He handed it to me, and I immediately dismantled it, taking the ink insert out before giving it back.
He took it, frowned, then handed it back to me. “ Fix !”
I pulled a set of keys out of my pocket, the ones to my house, and said, “ Here . How about we switch?”
He took the keys, threw the pen at my face, and said, “ Tanks !”
I pulled away and closed the truck door.
Pepper was already in the front seat and starting it up.
“ Don’t let him lose those keys,” I pleaded. “ I kind of need those to get into the barn outside the house.”
She smirked at me. “ I’ll try.”
I leaned into the open door, one hand on the door, and a forearm on the top of the truck.
“ Try real hard,” I purred, leaning in.
My mouth was only inches away from hers, her mouth leaning into my own, before she cursed and pulled back. “ Employee , employer.”
I gritted my teeth. “ For now, I guess.”
“ Forever ,” she disagreed, pushing on my chest. “ I’ll see you when you get home.”
I backed up, then watched her leave.
Only when she was completely gone from sight did I go back to my dad’s office.
“ You got it, you got it bad,” Auden pretended to sing Usher into an invisible microphone.
“ She fucking hates him,” Gable sang his own verse by Puddle of Mudd as he came back in.
“ Fuck all the way off,” I grumbled to them both.
“ Boys ,” Dad said. “ I have to literally appear to be a professional here. So do you.”
“ Sure , Dad . Sure .” Quincy came back in.
“ Y’all are awful,” Dad grumbled. “ Sit the hell down and shut up. We have some things to talk about.”
We all sobered.
He was right.
Dammit .