21.
J ANIS
“I need your help.”
I looked up at my sister with a frown and asked, “Are you in trouble?”
“No, but I need to be devious, so I thought I’d get advice from the queen.”
“Don’t suck up, little sister. It’s unbecoming.”
“Seriously. I need advice, and you’re just shady enough to figure out how to help me.”
“Spit it out, and we’ll see.”
“You know I got my business degree, right?”
“I’m aware. And you’ve been putting it to good use through the management company.”
“I want to run a bar.”
“That’s going to go over like a turd in the punch bowl. Do you remember how much shit Lark had to go through to get the men in the family to let her run Spokes?”
“Yes, I do, and I still think it was bullshit.”
“I’m not arguing that, but I feel like I should point out that the other bars are already managed by Forresters because, well, they’re owned by Forresters. Of course, Dad still owns a portion of . . .”
“I’m talking about opening a new bar.”
“Did you win the lottery?”
“No. I want investors.”
“You want Dad and the other men from the Kings to front you the money to open a bar?”
“I want them to go into a partnership with me. I’ve still got my inheritance from Poppy, but I made the same promise you did.”
“That you’d hold on to as much of it as you can to help you when times are tough, meaning you can’t close out all of those investments to open a bar that’s not going to give you a return on your money for years .”
“I have the same degree you have, so there’s no need for you to start acting arrogant.”
“With an attitude like that, I’m gonna move onto physical violence.”
“I have what I believe is a sound business plan. I want you to take a look at it so I can be sure there’s no room for improvement before I call a meeting with them about backing me.”
“They’re gonna say no, Poppy.”
“I got the same life lessons from Dad that you did.”
“When someone says no, ask the question in a different way.”
“Exactly.”
I realized what she was doing and said, “And you want to prepare an entire list before you start with the first one.”
“And I want you to help me do that.”
“Do you want to run this business by yourself, or do you have some partners in mind?”
“Camden and I have been talking about it for ages, and Lee’s been on board since almost the beginning.”
“How is Lee going to be involved since he’s stationed somewhere on the other side of the world?”
“He’ll be back in October.”
“I can’t see Tasha and Monica having a problem with their baby boy opening a bar, but Kari and Levi might feel like Lee should be involved with their family business. Besides, what can Lee bring to the table as far as working in a bar . . . What the hell am I saying? If you’re going to run a bar, having someone with the experience Lee’s garnered during ten years in the military is nothing but a plus.”
“Exactly. Camden is great with people and has plenty of bar experience. Lee’s got life experience and can read people, which is something Dad always said was an important trait to have when you worked with the public, and I’ve got the business degree and experience I’ve accumulated helping to keep all the other places running since I started working at Castle Management.”
“You, Cam, and Lee have been talking about this for a while, huh?”
“We have.”
Just like I was close to Jonas and Lawson Dean - we’d been almost inseparable since we were kids, Poppy had the same relationship with Camden Cole and Lee Evans. Since the guys’ parents were intricately connected to the Texas Kings MC and the Texas Knights MC families and they were the same age as Poppy, the three of them had grown up together.
Just like me, Poppy had a close circle of female friends, but she gravitated to Cam and Lee, just as I tended to be drawn toward Lawson and Jonas.
“Okay, get your proposal together and let me look at it. I’m not sure what else I can help out with, but you know you’ll have my full support.”
“Thanks, sis.”
“You should really talk to Lark about how she was able to make it happen.”
“I’m going to her house as soon as I leave here.”
“I’ve got a box of baked goods from yesterday that I was planning to take over to the castle. Will you drop them off for me?”
“Why don’t you just come with me?”
“I can’t today. I’m going to stay and get some filming done while I decorate orders for this weekend. Corey’s going to bring me dinner when he gets off.”
“How is that going?”
“The thing with Corey?”
“When are you going to actually call it what it is?”
I rolled my eyes but avoided the question because I didn’t want to admit that Corey and I had never actually talked about what it was. Obviously, we were together, right? We’d been sleeping together for a while now, and the only time we’d spent a night away from each other was when he was scheduled to work the midnight shifts. Even then, we still saw each other every day.
Wow.
Corey and I had been doing this thing - whatever it may be called - for a month now.
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
A month, Janis? You’ve been sleeping with this guy for a month, taken him to dinner at your parents’ house multiple times, joined him at his parents’ house many times, and you spend every moment together when you’re not working.
Is this a long-term relationship?
No dumbass, it’s a corn dog. What the fuck do you think it is? It’s been a month of constant companionship. You’ve got a drawer of your clothes at his house, and he’s got one at yours. When you can’t find something at your house, you automatically know that you left it at his place.
You have a key to his house, for God’s sake.
Pull your head out of your ass and ask the man what the fuck is going on, and if his answer doesn’t suit you, then kick him to the curb. You ain’t got time for anything less. The whole mission of this being nice bullshit was to find someone to spend your life with, and if he’s not in it for the same thing, then you need to move the fuck on.
“You’re doing that inner voice argument thing right now, aren’t you?” Poppy asked.
“Maybe.”
“Which personality is winning?”
“The one that wants you to shut up and leave.”
Poppy started laughing and walked over to the side table for the box I’d labeled for the girls at the castle.
“Love you, too, Grumpy Cat,” Poppy said as she walked toward the back door. “I’ll lock the door behind me.”
“Thanks, Pop. Love you too.”
When I finished icing the tray of cupcakes I’d been working on, I glanced at my watch. Corey should have been here half an hour ago, and I was alarmed that I hadn’t heard from him yet.
I was considering sending him a text when the buzzer sounded, telling me that there was someone else at the back door. I had two meals left, but if Corey wasn’t going to make it for dinner, I might end up keeping one for myself.
I opened the door and had a second to realize that I really should have listened to my family and friends when they insisted I find a more secure way to give out the dinners I made for people in need. I tried to slam the door, but the man on the other side was quicker and hit it with his body, smashing it into me.
There was a brief moment of blinding pain before the world around me faded to black.
◆◆◆
COREY
I had just sent Janis a text letting her know that I was obviously going to be late, and once again, cursed my co-worker for waiting until the last minute to call in sick. I knew I wasn’t the only one irritated because the captain could barely conceal his anger when he called to let me know I needed to stay on duty for at least two more hours.
I didn’t mind the overtime, but I had planned to surprise Janis with a nice dinner on the patio at my place so we could celebrate our one-month anniversary.
Of course, I hadn’t told anyone about my plans and wasn’t about to admit that I knew the exact number of days we’d been together. I knew that even Janis would give me shit and threaten to take away my “man card.” Whatever the hell that meant.
But it had been a month - thirty days on a wild and crazy roller coaster of emotion that had proven to be the best days of my life. In the time since Janis and I got together, I’d come to see just how lonely my life had been before her. Even surrounded by friends and family, I’d had a void in my life, and Janis had fit there perfectly.
Oh, we’d had our ups and downs, but that was to be expected between two people who were as stubborn and outspoken as we were. But we’d managed to come through each tiff having learned more about each other and were already able to laugh about a few of them.
In the two weeks since I let it slip that I loved her, I hadn’t said it again, but she had reminded me a few times that she liked me “a little bit” and I knew that, for Janis, that was a pretty heavy admission. I was in there, but before I professed my undying love and all that good stuff, I needed to make sure I was really entrenched so I could withstand the storm that I was sure her realization that we were a forever kind of love might bring.
Of course, Janis was not the kind of woman you ever told what to do. I’d known that for years. But like water on a rock, I was steadily turning her to my way of thinking, and I was doing it by treating her the way she deserved to be treated. Janis was a good-hearted queen among women, and I treated her as such, even though I occasionally got stung by her prickly exterior and viper tongue.
I leaned against the hood of my patrol car as I waited for Brawley to bring his new partner to the stop we’d just made and wondered if Noble was still trying to talk some sense into the little punk who’d been weaving back and forth over the centerline,
Suddenly, I heard the screech of tires and spun around to find a truck aiming right for the patrol car, so I acted on instinct and jumped onto the hood. There was a horrifying crunch as the truck ran into the back of the cruiser, and the impact threw me against the windshield and onto the roof of the patrol car. Unfortunately, Noble and I had been assigned to one of the newer cars that didn’t have a light bar on top, so I kept going until I careened down the back window onto the crumbled trunk.
It took a second for me to catch my breath and discern that I wasn’t injured except for a few bumps and bruises. I sat up and looked into the cab of the SUV, only to find a child behind the wheel.
“What the fuck?” Noble yelled from the cab of the car. I hopped down and looked over my shoulder to see him fighting with the airbag as he tried to open the door. The impact crumpled the patrol car like an accordion between the car we’d stopped and the SUV that hit it.
“Are you injured?” I asked.
“I’m good,” he assured me. “Check the driver.”
I hurried back to the truck, and when I yanked the driver's door open, I saw that I had been right. The little girl driving couldn’t be more than ten years old, and she had tears streaming down her face. I was glad to see that the airbag hadn’t deployed, but the person in the back seat was what really concerned me.
“Shit!” I looked back down at the girl and as I reached in to get the key out of the ignition, I asked, “Are you okay, sweetheart?”
“I’m okay. My mama needs help, though.”
“Uh huh, she sure does. Sit right here, okay?”
“Yessir.”
I hurried around the truck to the passenger side as I yelled the correct codes into my mic that would get an ambulance for Noble and our suspect, along with the little girl in the front seat and her mother in the back. I pulled the door open as the woman inside screamed loudly, and was met with a sight I had heard about but luckily hadn’t ever witnessed before.
“Oh, shit,” I muttered as I pulled a pair of gloves out of my pocket and hurriedly snapped them on. “Ma’am, my name is Corey Forrester and help is on the way.”
“You’re the help!” she said before she let out a long groan.
“I called for an ambulance and if you can just . . . “
The woman yelled again as she curled up and held onto her legs. I felt my phone start buzzing in my pocket, but I was too mesmerized by the scrunched up little face that appeared as the woman pushed with all her might. Suddenly my training took over and without even thinking, I did everything I could to assist her as I gave her reassurance, all the while reminding myself to breathe so I wouldn’t pass out.
It seemed as if the world around us fell away, and it was only me and the woman in front of me moving while everything else was still. With one more push, the baby’s shoulders were out, and I gently unwrapped the cord from around his neck before I lifted the baby up and laid him across her chest.
The woman whose name I still didn’t know was sobbing, and I realized there were tears on my cheeks as well. I glanced at the girl who was watching from the driver's seat and saw her grinning like a loon, excited that her mom was okay and the new baby was loudly making his presence known as he squirmed in his mother’s arms.
“Ma’am, are you okay?”
“He’s perfect,” she murmured, not paying any mind to my question.
I looked over my shoulder when I heard someone behind me and saw that the ambulance had arrived without me even hearing them.
As I let them take my place in the doorway, I pulled off my gloves and then walked around the back of the SUV to talk to the little girl again. She eagerly opened the door and jumped into my arms. I hugged her back before I set her down in front of me.
“Is there anyone I can call for you, honey? Do you . . .”
“Mama dropped her phone in the toilet this morning, so I didn’t have any way to call for help, but I used to drive the tractor with Grandpa all the time, so we thought it would be okay for me to drive her car, but I wrecked it. She’s gonna be really mad at me, but maybe she won’t notice because the baby’s here now. I don’t know . . .”
“Slow down, and tell me who I can call. When there’s an emergency, who do you call?”
“911.”
“Right, but I’m here, so who else would you call?”
“Um . . .”
“How old are you? What’s your name?”
“My name is Allegra.”
“How old are you, Allegra?”
“I’m almost seven.”
“Okay. Um . . . do you know your dad’s number?”
“My dad died,” she said sadly.
“I’m sorry, honey.” I scrambled to think of someone else whose name she might know and remembered something she’d said. “You said you drove the tractor with Grandpa. Do you know his number?”
“Grandpa is in the hospital. He fell down and hurt his leg, so they’re helping him learn to walk again.”
“Do you have anyone else we can call? An aunt or an uncle? Where’s your grandma?”
The girl just shrugged, and I looked over my shoulder at the firefighter, who was waiting to check her out.
“Her airbag didn’t deploy, and she doesn’t seem to have any injuries from the steering wheel, but . . .”
“The steering wheel?” the firefighter, a man I recognized but whose name escaped me in all the excitement, asked.
“She was driving.”
“Well, look at you, Danica Patrick!” the firefighter said as he squatted down so he was eye level with the girl.
My phone had been constantly buzzing in my pocket, and I pulled it out just as Brawley walked up.
“I’m guessing that your services might be irrelevant at this point,” I said with a grimace before I looked over at the totaled patrol car where a firefighter was using a piece of equipment to pry open the driver’s door.
Brawley put his hand on my shoulder before he said, “Everything’s gonna be okay, Forrester.”
“I’m not hurt, man. Is Noble?” I asked in alarm.
Just as Brawley took a deep breath and started to say something, Sergeant Gonzales walked up with wide eyes and lifted her hands as she laughed and interrupted, saying, “I have no idea where to start here.”
“It’s a cluster,” I said with a bark of laughter.
“Is the mom okay?” Gonzales asked, her brows furrowed with concern. “And the baby?”
“They seem fine or as fine as you can be when you’re going through some shit on the side of a country road in the middle of fucking nowhere. The girl doesn’t have any information on emergency contacts because she’s only seven.”
“See? I have no idea where to start,” Gonzales said with a snort.
“Since they’ve already got both ambulances in use here, why don’t I take Forrester to the ER in my unit?” Brawley suggested.
“I’m fine, just a few . . .”
“You need to have someone look at that knot on your head,” Brawley said insistently.
“You’re injured too?” Gonzales asked. “Where were you during the accident?”
I explained what had happened and took a cue from Brawley’s demeanor and slightly exaggerated my injuries.
“Dumont’s right. Let’s get you to the ER so they can check you out. No sense waiting for another ambulance. They may not even have another one available, considering what’s going on right now.”
“What do you mean?” I asked as I looked over at Brawley in alarm.
“Come on, man. I’ll catch you up on the way,” Brawley said insistently, as he took me by the elbow and started pulling me toward his patrol car. He opened the passenger door, and all but shoved me inside.
The second he got into the car, I asked, “What the fuck is going on?”
“Somebody took Janis.”