Fries Before Guys (SWAT Generation 2.0 2)

I leaned next to Rowen and said, “These bean bags really hurt. I think my boob is bruised.”

Rowen snorted.

“I heard the commotion and turned on the lights,” she said. “I didn’t come out because I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on. So I peeked through the blinds and saw it all happen. I’d already called 9-1-1 before Derek told me to.”

“You’re fuckin’ lucky you stayed your ass inside,” Dax growled.

Rowen rolled her eyes, then leaned her head against the man’s chest.

“That was scary, Dax,” she said. “I never thought anyone would be able to get in here so easily and break into a police car.”

“She had a key,” Louis, also known as our calendar’s Mr. May, said. “None of it is broken into. Not a single thing.”

***

Derek

Each cruiser was equipped with a lockable gun safe in the back hatch area. There was a code that was needed, and a key. That’d been why I hadn’t brought the gun inside.

Not that that particular gun I’d left in there was lethal.

If it’d shot actual bullets, it would’ve for sure been brought inside.

But, having been looking down the end of a shotgun barrel, I hadn’t realized that she’d grabbed my shotgun that shot beanbags. I’d just seen a gun, and I’d not thought past that.

“I’m not going to the hospital.”

I looked back at Avery to see her shaking her head at the medic.

“It hurts, but I can tell nothing’s broken,” she said. “My neck hurts more than anything.”

Terror rolled through me as I thought about her neck.

“We’re going,” I barked.

She shook her head. “Derek, trust me. Nothing hurts. My neck is sore, just like it’s been all day. If it hurts any worse tomorrow, then I’ll go. But I’m not that bad. I promise.”

I looked away, seeing Foster staring at me with amusement on his face.

Rachel moaned and rolled over, her eyes blinking open to see twelve police officers standing around her in a loose semi-circle.

“Oh shit,” she breathed, dropping her head to the ground in defeat. “What’s it going to take for you to fuckin’ die?”

Oh shit indeed.

Two hours later, I was once again in bed with my woman.

“She confessed to hitting my sister.” I paused. “It was only after she’d done it that she realized it wasn’t you. She’d gotten a text from one of her friends saying that you were at the prom.”

Avery groaned into my chest.

“It was my fault.”

I squeezed her just a bit tighter to me. “It wasn’t. It’s not your fault that Rachel’s got the crazy gene.”

Avery was snuggled up next to me, her hands moving up and down the length of my back.

My mind drifted off again, no longer thinking about my sister. No, my attention was one hundred percent focused on Avery.

“Derek,” she said. “What is it?”

I couldn’t stop playing the sight of her taking that shot to the chest, and then falling into the rose bushes, through my mind over and over again as if on repeat.

I felt like I’d failed.

“If I hadn’t been here,” I said. “If I’d been a few minutes earlier, you would’ve been here alone.”

She bit me on the pec, causing me to jerk back.

“Owww, what was that for?” I asked, smoothing my hand over the hurt.

“That was for blaming yourself,” she said. “Everything is fine. Rachel is in custody. She’s finished.”

“You don’t know it’s finished.”

“I’m fairly sure her saying ‘What’s it going to take for you to die’ is all we need,” she drawled. “And you said that she confessed to doing the hit and run. So that’s it, case solved.”

I agreed.

Somewhat.

Her hand moved down to rest on my hip and she dug her nails into my skin.

“Derek,” she repeated.

I looked down into her eyes and realized that she was right.

Overthinking wasn’t going to help matters.

What would help was to be reminded that she was indeed alive.

I moved until she was underneath me.

“You took your panties back off,” I said.

She grinned, widening her legs for me to situate myself between hers more fully.

“I was hopeful,” she interjected. “I was also being proactive.”

I helped her take the sweatshirt back off.

She’d cleaned herself up while I’d been finalizing shit outside with my father, Ashe, who was called in since she’d already had some dealings with Rachel, and Howell, Rachel’s father.

I wasn’t altogether sure why he’d been there, but he had, so I’d ignored the fact that he shouldn’t be since my father hadn’t said anything.

When I’d finally come back in, she’d been cleaned up and wearing only my sweatshirt.

Which led to now, finding out that she was bare underneath of it.

I growled and ran the length of my lips over the quickly bruising mark directly over her right breast.

“This is going to hurt pretty bad in the morning,” I said, pressing my lips to the spot right beside it. Trying not to let it hurt. “Did you take some medicine?”