18. Beau
Beau
My brother and Deputy Nate Jones climbed the steps to the porch, both clearly locked in with their law enforcement faces on.
“Come on in, guys,” I offered as I held the door open to them.
Colt wasted no time. He charged into the room, eyes narrowing in on Birdie sitting over on the sofa, and took off to wrap her up in a big hug.
“We’re going to find out who did this, and he’s going to pay. I promise you, Birdie. We won’t let him get away with this.” Colt kissed the top of her head, clearing his throat as he stepped back, his hands shaking as he settled them by his side.
My throat stung like a fucking bastard as Birdie’s eyes filled with tears.
“Hi, Nate.” She smiled, those tears never falling as she let him wrap her up in a hug too.
Nate had become like family these last few months, coming around for family dinner since he helped Colt save Vi from an unhinged stalker right after Connor was born.
I was happy to see Colt pulled him in on her case.
“Hey, Birdie. I’m so sorry about what happened.”
“Yeah. I don’t really even understand. One minute I was shutting my door after getting home from night shift, and the next, he was just…there.”
Colt nodded. “We’ve both walked through the crime scene—” Birdie winced, and his face fell. “I’m sorry. We both walked through your house. We’ve cataloged the evidence, but we need to take your statement for the case file.”
“Okay. You just need me to go over everything?”
“Yeah. Take your time. Walk us through what happened. Nate will write it down and at the end, we’ll have you sign it.” His eyes dropped to the brace secured around her hand.
“Well…” Birdie took a breath in, looking over at me.
What the hell was I doing, still standing up?
I sat down on the couch next to her, wrapping my arm around her back.
I’m not sure if she even realized how she immediately leaned into me, but I did.
And my brother sure as hell did, too. “I was late coming home from shift because I stayed for a delivery…”
I tried to sit as still as I could, listening to her recount everything that happened.
How she’d felt uneasy about a truck following her, but they’d turned before her street, and she didn’t see them again.
But as soon as she started going through all the fucking horrific things she’d gone through in the house, my stomach pitched.
“You’re growling,” she’d whispered at one point. I froze. I hadn’t even realized I’d been doing it…
“And that’s when he said it wasn’t the end of things. I laid there until Beau came rushing in.”
“Fuck,” Nate sighed as he finished writing down the last of what Birdie had said. “Here. Take a minute to look these over and make sure I documented everything correctly. You can sign whenever you are ready.”
I moved my arm from around her shoulders, settling it against her thigh.
“What do you have from the scene? Anything?” I asked Colt.
He shook his head, and my stomach rolled. “Nothing so far. But we’ll find something. There’s no way in hell I’m letting someone put their hands on Birdie like that and get away with it. Not to mention the threat of returning. I don’t like it.”
She brought the pen to the paper and signed her name at the bottom.
“Would you mind if I went back upstairs now? I think I could sleep a little more before Juniper comes home.” She smiled as she handed the paperwork back to Nate, but it didn’t meet her eyes.
“I’m one of those people who has a hard time getting pain medicine to clear their system, and I don’t want to be sleepy when she’s here. ”
“We have everything we need for now,” Colt said as he stood. “I want you to call me if you think of anything else, okay?”
“I will.” Birdie stepped into his embrace. Colt kissed the top of her head again, and I bit the inside of my lip, trying to not lose it as I scooped her up in my embrace.
“Give me a sec,” I said as I walked past Colt and Nate to the stairs.
“I can walk, you know?”
“Yeah, and I can carry you. I’m a big and strong cowboy, remember? Let me do this.”
“Fine.” Her head snuggled down onto my shoulder. “But it’s for your ego, and not my physical abilities or lack thereof right now.”
“Sure thing, baby.”
I tucked Birdie back into bed, kissing her forehead before jogging back downstairs.
“You better find this fucker before I do, Colt,” I told my brother as I grabbed the paperwork the hospital had given us to add to the report. “I swear to God, I’m going to rip him limb from limb for this.”
“Don’t say anything else, Beau. It can’t be self-defense if I know you’ve premeditated anything.” Colt took the papers from my hand.
“Didn’t hear anything that sounded like premeditation to me, Colt.” Nate nodded as he picked up his hat from the table. I shook his hand, then my brother’s, and watched them walk out the door.
“Hey, sweet girl. Welcome home. Were you good for Aunt Jessie?” Juniper was all smiles as I scooped her out of her aunt’s arms.
“Please, she was a dream! Beckett loved having her over, too.” Jessie rolled her eyes as I shifted Juniper onto my side so I could grab the bag in her hands.
“Where is Beck?”
“Hawk took him into town for some uncle-time with Gage. He wanted to go out to see Mae and the baby, and I had a bunch of freezer meals for him to drop off to them, too. It’s just easiest to drop Beckett off.
With Quinn being brand new, we don’t want to get her sick, and I’m sure Mae and Stone are both exhausted.
I couldn’t imagine a toddler coming to visit me right after getting home from the hospital with my newborn. No thank you.”
Jessie’s eyes drifted up the stairs while I turned to put Juniper on her tummy time mat. The floor wasn’t the most comfortable place to be, but if that’s where my baby was, then that’s where I’d be, too.
“How’s she holding up?”
“Not great. I don’t know how I didn’t wake up, but she came downstairs in the middle of the night and swore someone was looking in the kitchen window.
Shattered the glass she was holding and cut her good foot all to hell.
Now she’s got wraps on both of ‘em, and her fucking wrist is hurting. Not to mention the damn bruises on her body. I’m going to kill the bastard. ”
“Do you really think he was here?” Jessie’s face paled.
“Maybe. The guy fucking told her it wasn’t over as he fled. But I also think Birdie pushed herself too hard yesterday to get past something that was fucked up and traumatic, and that manifested into a situation where she was half awake. The mind can play weird tricks on people, Jess. Look at Lach.”
She nodded, her face falling.
“Okay, so what can we do to make Birdie feel safe out here?”
“I already told Colt and Hayes, but I think it’d be the right call to have Hawk carry his firearm on him for the time being. Kip, Denver, Travis, and Emmett—the new guy I hired—are always carrying, too.”
She nodded. “I’ll tell Hawk. Colt said it might not have been random, after all?”
I shook my head, furious at the thought of her being hurt once, let alone having to worry about the threat of something else happening.
The bedroom door creaked opened, as light, tentative footsteps came towards the stairs.
“Goddamn it,” I groaned, getting up as quick as I could and taking the stairs two at a time to reach her.
“Hey, Cowboy.” She looked better. More color in her face. Her smile brighter.
“I thought I told you when I put you to bed that you weren’t walking on your own anywhere today?”
“I had to pee. And I enjoy peeing in peace.”
I shook my head, holding my arms out to her. Birdie sighed, but she didn’t argue. She simply wrapped her arms around my neck and let me scoop her up.
I marched down the stairs and straight to the couch. If she was surprised by the fact that I didn’t put her down, instead twisting my body so that I was on the sofa with her on top of me, she didn’t say anything.
Birdie’s head rested on my shoulder as Jessie looked over from her place on the floor with Juniper. My daughter’s eyes were locked on Birdie, smiling a big, silly, gummy smile as Birdie blew her a kiss.
“Hi, berry girl. I missed you so much yesterday. Were you a good girl for your aunt Jessie?” she asked.
“She was an angel. God, Birdie. I’m so glad you’re okay,” my sister said softly with tears in her eyes.
“Getting there,” Birdie replied as her phone buzzed in her hand.
“Anything important?” I asked.
“No, just my mom. You know how she gets.”
“Did you tell her what happened?” Jessie asked, tickling Juniper’s toes.
“Oh God, no. I’m not sure I will. I can’t deal with her somehow twisting it to be about her and what she’s going through. She’s just asking for money. I’ll give her—”
“You’re not giving her anything,” I mumbled.
“Of course not. I can’t…not with work. And I still want to help Lainey with her business.”
“I’ll pay for whatever you need to help Lainey with.”
“I can’t ask that.”
“You’re not asking, I’m offering. We’ll figure out something.” I pressed my lips to the top of Birdie’s head.
“Want me to tell your mom off for you?” Jessie chuckled.
I thought Birdie might be upset at my sister’s offer, but she smiled, her shoulders shaking slightly with laughter.
“I appreciate the offer. You know this is how she is. I’m just not in the mood to deal with her. Maybe tomorrow, or the next day. But not today. Not right now.”
“Well, I don’t want to overstay when I know you need rest.” Jessie’s hands went flat to the floor before she pushed herself up.
“But if you need anything—help with Juniper, someone to make a few meals, a friend to just talk to about what happened or how you’re feeling—I’m here.
Anytime, okay? Beckett’s been waking us up at like three-thirty or four almost every day for the past month, so if you wake up early, I’m probably already up, too. ”
“God, that sounds awful.” I laughed.
“Oh, just get ready! He was a great sleeper at this age, and then he hit eight months…I haven’t slept through the night since.”
“Jess?” Birdie interrupted our laughter. “Are you guys doing anything for dinner tonight?”
My sister looked at me before shaking her head. “No. I don’t think we have plans.”
“Okay. Will you bring Hawk and Beckett over? I’m going to invite everyone else. I know Lach won’t come, but I don’t think I can manage going out today…”
“Baby, no. We don’t have to—” I started to say before her hand went up and she effectively cut me off.
“I know we don’t, I want to. I need to think of something other than yesterday, and what’s happening at work.”
“Okay,” Jess nodded, “family dinner, it is.”
Jesus Christ, this was a bad idea.
“I’ve got it,” Ma offered as Birdie hissed from trying to pick up the pot of boiling water with pasta in it.
I was going to have a fucking heart attack, watching her hobble all over the kitchen while everyone in the family shot glares at me.
It wasn’t my fucking doing! She was like a goddamn hurricane that wouldn’t take no for an answer.
And if she needed this…if she needed to be in control of the food for everyone, as long as she didn’t hurt herself, I was gonna try and give it to her.
Her phone buzzed on the counter for the fifteenth time since my parents had walked through the door.
I watched her eyes dip to the phone, narrowing as she began furiously stirring the sauce and meatballs in front of her.
It didn’t take a genius to know her mom was popping back in to try and get something from her.
“Hi!” Violet’s voice rang out from the front room. “Sorry we’re late. Hey there, beautiful girl.” She tickled Juniper’s cheek as she walked into the kitchen. “Alright. Put me to work! Birdie, you should be resting.”
Violet’s hand came up and smacked my shoulder. “Ouch.”
“Why is she in the kitchen?” she hissed, not hiding her words very well.
“I want to be here. Family dinner was my idea. I’m fine, and I wanted to make sure everyone had a good meal after fussing over me yesterday.”
“Oh. Okay.” Her brows furrowed as she turned to Jessie, who gave an apologetic shrug.
“Where’s Colt?” I asked.
“He decided to go talk to Lach for a minute before dinner.”
“We should have had it there…” Birdie’s voice carried through the commotion.
“No,” I said. “Lach knows why we’re hosting tonight. He said he understood. He just wants you to feel better.”
“I feel fine!” The wooden spoon in her hand smacked against the counter, sauce splattering on the back splash. “Shit. Can I have the dishcloth?”
“I’ll clean it, honey.” Ma moved to the sink to wet the cloth before hustling back to the red disaster all over the wall. The kitchen fell into the most uncomfortable silence I’d ever felt in my life. I fucking hated that Birdie was hurting, and I had no idea how to fix it.
“So…uh, is Lainey coming out tonight?”
Jessie’s question snapped Birdie out of her sauce-splattered fury. “Uh…no. I didn’t think…” Her eyes bounced to mine—wide and sparkling with rapidly gathering tears—as I rocked Juniper, who was trying to wiggle out of my hold. “I didn’t even think to call her.”
“No, of course. Why would you?” I glared at Jess, who shrugged as I moved around the counter toward Birdie. “She’s always been welcome to come out and join, but she never does. It makes sense that it would just be all of us tonight.”
“Oh my God. She’s my family, and I didn’t think to invite her. I haven’t even talked to her about what happened….”
“Birdie! Birdie! I make dis!” Beckett bounced into the kitchen, waving a paper around. “Nate help-ded me wiff my words!”
She smiled, taking the paper from my nephew. “Thank you, Beckett. I love it! I’m going to put it on the fridge, okay?”
“Otay! I do more!”
“What about me, Becky Boy?” I asked, my eyes still on Birdie’s face.
“No, Bobo.” He shrugged his little shoulders at me. “Birdie gots a boo boo.”
I laughed. “Fair enough, little dude.”
“Dolly, would you mind finishing up the sauce for me? Something tastes off and I don’t know how to fix it.”
“Sure thing, honey. It’s no problem.”
Birdie nodded. “I’m going to go get some fresh air.”
“Do you want—”
“No. Stay here, please. I just need a minute.”
I nodded. The fucking worry on my mother and sister’s face as they watched her leave made the lump in my throat ten times harder to swallow around.
“She’s gonna be alright, honey.” Ma smiled sadly at me. “It’ll just take time.”