Herd That (The Valentine Boys 1)

I looked at Nico who was now shoving the phone into his pocket and rolling his eyes.

“I was referring to the fact that his kids wouldn’t shut up about her this morning,” the man on the right said. “My name is Miller, by the way. Miller Spurlock. This here is my gimp baby brother, Foster. I’m the cuter one in the family.”

I blinked.

“I thought that was your eldest brother, Trance?” Nico teased as he threw his arm around my shoulders. “And speaking of, my kids really did think a lot about you. If you want to babysit for me tonight, I’d be grateful. My wife is taking me out to dinner, I think, to spring another kid on me. I think I need a babysitter for that kind of news.”

I blinked. “Umm,” I hesitated. “Unfortunately, I can’t. Ace and I have plans. We’re going to talk to his lawyer after this, then we’re going to work out, because I’m training for that race that’s happening in a couple of months. The one where you have to run really far, then go over obstacles and try not to break your neck. Then, after that, we’re headed out on a date of our own.” I paused for a breath. “But congrats on the new baby, I guess. Try not to let this one turn out like your others.”

Miller started belly laughing behind us.

Foster was wiping tears from his eyes.

“My kids really aren’t that bad,” Nico defended them.

I shook my head. “Maybe if you keep telling yourself, then you’ll even one day believe it.”

Nico’s lips twitched. “Okay, they’re pretty bad. But… only with people they don’t know. Since last night, they’ve been talking about you nonstop. I imagine that they’ll try to start treating you better now.”

The men we passed started laughing, and I knew that they felt the same way about Nico’s kids that I did.

They really were hellions, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

“Weren’t your kids the ones that got expelled from school while y’all were on that cruise a couple of years ago?” a male officer in his late thirties asked from behind a counter. He had a large stamp of some sort in his hand, and he was staring at Nico with a raised brow.”

“Listen here, Winscombe,” Nico sighed. “My kids are perfect angels.”

With that, Miller took me by the elbow—like a police officer would a suspect—and led me further into the station while Nico continued to argue with the Winscombe individual.

That, of course, was when we passed by Marie who had a large stack of files in her arms.

The moment she saw me, then Miller leading me, I knew she automatically thought the worst.

“Hello, Codie,” Marie sneered.

She didn’t stop, but I could see the gloating smile on her face as we passed each other.

When she was behind me, I looked over my shoulder to see her stop at a desk of a female officer and start to talk in hushed tones. Her eyes were laughing as she spoke animatedly with the woman. The female officer looked over her shoulder at me and frowned.

“I see that you already have a friend here,” Miller said. “What’d you do to piss off Marie Glasgow?”

I sighed and gently extracted my elbow from his grip, then brought my hand up to run through my hair. It was a nervous gesture, but I didn’t care. I was nervous. I was also crazy to think that working here would be something that we could accomplish without at least a few odd looks from the men and women who also worked there.

“I once, very briefly, dated her husband,” I said. “We were in high school, and Jace took my virginity. It was a fling of about two weeks. Long enough to get myself into trouble.”

Miller looked down at me with a look of shock on his face. “That was a lot of honesty there. I’m surprised.”

I shrugged. “I have nothing to hide. I’m not bitter about it anymore, either. Just… resigned. But, Jace and I were young. Sixteen.”

“I don’t like Jace,” Foster said from my side.

I hadn’t even realized that he was there.

I grinned. “Yeah?”

He nodded once, stopping to allow me and Miller to go first into the long, narrow hallway.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

I blinked and tossed him a look over my shoulder. “Why?”

Everybody liked Jace.

“Because Jace made fun of his limping when he first got back on the SWAT team. Jace was hired momentarily to cover for Foster while he was recuperating. Foster hated him on principle alone seeing as he’d taken his spot,” Miller explained.

I frowned. “Recuperating from what?”

He paused in the middle of the hallway and lifted his pants leg, revealing a… prosthetic leg.

“Holy shit.” I dropped down onto my haunches to study it. “This is the newest model, right?”

Foster lifted it up farther and nodded. “Yeah, how’d you know?”