Just Kidding (SWAT Generation 2.0 1)

“Yeah?” I asked. “I think I loved you from the moment I first saw your bald head.”

She ran her fingers over her head—which was now cutely stubbled and so adorable that I couldn’t help rubbing my fingers over it every chance I got.

“Anyway,” she said as if we professed our love for each other every single day. “This chick ends up getting visitation rights. Every week, for one hour a day, she’ll get to visit with her children supervised. And… I got that for her. I hate myself.”

I popped the top of my own beer and started drinking it, all the while flipping through a takeout menu of food that we had available to be delivered to us via Waitr.

“I’m not sure how it’s your fault that you believed a young woman that told you lies,” I said. “Now that you know, I bet you don’t offer to represent her again.”

She was already shaking her head. “No. Not bloody likely.”

“Bloody?” I teased.

She shrugged and scrunched up her nose. “I was watching a show where the main character is British. He always sounds so cool when he says ‘bloody.’”

I snorted and twisted the menu around for her to see.

“Find what you want and let’s order,” I said. “I’m starving.”

After we ordered, we were sitting on the couch watching reruns of Live PD when my phone went off.

I sighed and looked at my phone, which displayed a SWAT call.

“Fuck,” I groaned. “Why did I feel like joining the SWAT team was a great idea?” I asked aloud.

She snickered and pushed at me to get me moving.

“Because you like to make sure we’re all safe,” she said. “And I’ll try not to eat your food.”

I glowered at her. “You better not.”

Her laughter followed me out of the room. And the kiss she gave me at the door made all the bullshit of the next four hours worth it.Chapter 15Hey, trainwreck. This isn’t your station.

-Rowen to Katy

Rowen

“So tell me about the call last night,” I ordered as Dax and I walked into the hospital.

Dax’s dad had a procedure today, and apparently Peyton, his mother, was freaking out.

Peyton, who I’d yet to meet.

Sure, I’d ‘met’ her met her, but not ‘met her’ as Dax’s girlfriend.

Meaning I would be meeting her today under less than stellar circumstances.

I just hoped she liked me.

Dax grimaced.

“You didn’t hear any of it over the scanners?” he asked warily.

I shook my head.

“After you left, I ate my half of our dinner and went to bed,” I said. “I didn’t even think to turn on the scanners.”

He sighed and rubbed his face with both of his hands.

“Rachelle decided to hold Jerry at gunpoint last night so he wouldn’t leave her,” he said, his eyes lighting on mine. “I spent two hours trying to talk my ex-girlfriend into not killing her husband.”

My mouth fell open, and I stopped in the middle of the lobby.

“You did what?” I gasped.

He nodded, hooking me around the waist with one arm as he led us toward the elevators.

“Come on,” he said. “I don’t want my mom alone for long. She gets nervous when one of us is hurt.”

I fell into step beside him, got onto the elevator, and waited for him to explain more.

Once the last of the people were off the elevator with us, he continued.

“Jerry finally talks her down, though. She hands him the gun, and he turns around and aims it at her. Then we have to do the whole thing over again but with him this time,” he continued. “And to top it all off, I was called into your dad’s office this morning and told to leave my personal life at home.”

I gasped.

“He wouldn’t,” I stiffened.

He winced.

“He did.” He nodded. “Told me not to ever let anything like that happen ever again.”

That’s when I lost my shit.

“How the hell are you supposed to ever let something like that happen?” I ranted, throwing up my hands. “Like you chose to have an evil girlfriend when you were seventeen! Holy shit, everyone makes mistakes at seventeen! I wanted to be a goddamn gynecologist! And I don’t even like people! How fucking weird would that be to have to deal with people and their vaginas all day? That would’ve been incredibly awkward! Not to mention that you did nothing wrong. What did he say you did wrong?”

Dax’s eyes caught on something over my shoulder, but I was so pissed that I didn’t realize we were no longer alone anymore.

“He didn’t say much. Just told me not to let the job get personal,” he said. “I should’ve let someone else handle the situation. And he’s right. I shouldn’t have placed myself between them. I should’ve allowed someone else to handle it. I think I only made it worse with my presence.”

She scoffed darkly at that.

“I call bullshit,” she finally said. “My dad is a butthead!”