Order (Tattoos and Ties 2)

He started the engine. The rumble jerked Dev awake, and he raised his head, looking around, surprise showing on his face when his gaze landed on Keyes. “You came.”

Keyes grinned and started to back out of the parking space. “Yeah.”

“Best fuckin’ friend a guy…” Dev didn’t finish. He was back asleep, this time with his head falling back against the headrest.

Months had passed since he’d been to Dev’s new apartment complex. Keyes took a turn or two wrong, but eventually found the place. He rolled his diesel engine through the quiet complex, trying to remember the apartment number. Only because of Alec’s quiet neighborhood did he even consider that every vehicle he owned should come with a noise warning.

He cut the engine, staring at the dark building. A corner window showed a light turning on. By the time he got Dev out of the truck, Holly was standing on the porch with the porch light on, a pretty little robe wrapped around her, both worry and relief clear on her face.

“Babe,” Dev said, slurring his words as he tried and failed to pull free of Keyes’s hold. With as much as he had to carry Dev to keep him on his feet, Keyes didn’t think it was wise to let him go. “You’re home.”

“I came home early, but you weren’t here,” she said, worry and confusion etched on her pretty face as she took in everything she was seeing. By her reaction, this might be a first for her, which spoke volumes for how much Dev must care for her.

“Didn’t wanna be here without you,” Dev managed to say before slumping in Keyes’s arms, requiring him to carry Dev the rest of the way inside. Together, they knocked through the front door then down the hall, Holly shimmying past to lead the way to their bedroom where Keyes laid Dev out across the bed.

“Want me to get his clothes off?” he asked, tugging off one of Dev’s boots then the other. He placed those on the floor beside the bed.

“No. That’s enough. Thank you for getting him home. He’s been drinking quite a bit more, but I haven’t seen him like this,” she said, her worried gaze focused on Dev as she wrapped her arms around her waist.

He’d have to give that topic a hard pass. Keyes didn’t want to know their problems and certainly didn’t want to talk to her about them. He immediately started for the bedroom door. “I’ll be by in the mornin’ to take him to work.”

“I can take him. I don’t have to work and the girls are gone this week,” she said, following behind him back toward the front door.

“You sure? I don’t mind,” he asked, his only real focus was on making his way out of the house as quickly as possible.

“No, I got it. Do you have his keys?”

He only slowed from his quick getaway to turn while walking over the threshold of the front door. “Tell him Hound’s got ’em.”

Keyes hightailed it back to the truck, jumping in and shoving the keys in the ignition, starting the engine within a couple of minutes of tugging off Dev’s boots. He put the truck in reverse and paused to pull his phone from his pocket to check the time. Solidly past midnight. Alec was probably sleeping. He shouldn’t text. He sighed. With that decision made, he pressed on the gas, looking over his shoulder to back out of the parking space.

=?=

Alec dropped Paul Dixon’s record on his desk and had to fight the bile rising in his throat. The story of Key’s tragic childhood unfolded in the long list of complaints and charges filed against his father. How in the world had Key turned into such a fine man growing up under the influence of that horrible human being? Alec shuffled the pages now spread across his desk to find the photo of Paul Dixon. The image led to another glaringly obvious question: how was this man Key’s father? He was short with a stocky build and jet black hair. Alec wished he had a photo of Key’s mother.

He pushed back in his office chair, his chin resting between his forefinger and thumb as he stared unseeingly at the scattered sheets, thinking about Harmony Carter Dixon. Based on the words painting the picture of Key’s mother, she seemed like a train wreck, and that was putting it nicely. What had that life been like for such a young boy?

Alec leaned back in his chair, dropping his head back on the headrest. This was exactly why CPS was wrong for him. His heart ached for Key and his heart feared for Keely. He’d gotten lost for hours, trying to piece together the timeline of Key’s abusive life. Janice had only presented him with the facts, very few in-depth details, and those were only from the time Key landed in CPS custody. Key had run away from foster care several times, gotten arrested as a teenager, and dropped out of school by the middle of tenth grade. If Keely was subjected to this lifestyle, would the same happen to her?