“Retired,” he said. “Why?”
I made a face.
“There’s an explanation,” I said. “One that I’m not sure that I quite understand, to be honest.”
Downy nodded.
“He worked with a criminal profiler friend of his to come up with the list,” I continued.
Downy flashed me a grin.
“Thirty to fifty. Retired.” Downy paused. “What else?”
We continued to talk about who and why.
“I have a list of retired officers,” he said. “And it’s a really stupid reason. Pretty much my wife adds them to a list as they retire. As a reminder of the fact that I could be retiring, too.”
My lips twitched.
“Almost all of them are older, though,” he continued as he jerked his chin in the direction of the hallway. “It’s in my gun room stuck to my safe. Come on.”
Just as I was following him down the hallway, the front door opened and Lock, Downy’s son, walked in.
He took one look at the mess of the living room and his brows rose.
“Apparently your kid was an asshole.” Downy reversed his walk and deposited the baby into Lock’s arm. Then went on to point at the couch. “Clean that up.”
Lock started to chuckle, but went to the kitchen and grabbed a roll of paper towels.
“Where’s Ares?” Lock asked.
Downy then explained the last couple of hours to his son, causing Lock to laugh out loud.
“All right,” he said, his eyes coming to me for a few seconds. “How’s it going, Hayes?”
I gave him a chin lift.
“What’s up?” I asked.
His grin appeared, reminding me of the older man that was now back at my side.
They were definitely family.
Though, the only resemblance that Ares had to them was the red hair.
Likely she took after Downy’s wife.
“Not a whole lot.” He paused. “What are y’all doing?”
Downy explained, then left him to clean up while he took me to this list he had in his office.
“Though, just sayin’, but all of these are older except a few,” Downy said just as his phone rang.
He gestured for me to keep following, then spoke to his wife.
He pushed through the door to a room at the end of the hall, but his eyes were downcast as he spoke.
Mine, however, weren’t.
Which was why I got a very good look at Ares in her underwear before her father became aware of a problem.
Her underwear were cute.
Her ass was even cuter.
I was so entranced with the way those black boy short underwear hugged her ass that I didn’t pay attention to the words on them until she was turning around.
Her eyes took one look at me and she practically froze.
I grinned and barely smothered a laugh when she screeched in outrage, yanking the towel up to cover herself almost fully.
It took everything I had to force my eyes down.
Ares immediately started ranting at her father, but my mind sort of blanked.
My eyes were caught on a sliver of her skin that peaked out between her shirt and the towel that she was wearing.
Even when her brother came into the room and started to rib her, I still didn’t quite comprehend the conversation surrounding me.
Because she’d shifted in aggravation and her towel had slipped even farther.
It was Downy’s, “I thought you had a date?” that had Ares glancing at her watch and cursing.
“I do!”
Except, Ares hadn’t been the person that Downy was talking to. It’d been me.
I glanced at her father who was staring at me in question.
“I do,” I confirmed.
Which I was really wishing that I hadn’t agreed to.
Son of a bitch.
Going on a date was the last thing that I wanted to do.
“Let me give you those names,” Downy said as Ares rushed past us.
Her sweet scent had my cock hardening as she brushed past me, and I had to grit my teeth to keep myself from reaching out to touch her.
After getting the list from him, I was reluctant to leave, wanting to catch Ares as she left.
However, I still had to run home and change out of my SWAT uniform.
I wasn’t sure that my date would appreciate me coming to meet her with someone’s blood staining my pants leg where I’d accidentally kneed a suspect in the face when he’d tried to pull my gun out of my holster.
“Thanks for your help,” I said as I shoved my phone back into my pocket as I finished taking a photo of the list. “Why the list, though? I mean, does your wife think that you having a list of names will help you make the decision to leave?”
Downy shrugged. “I think she just wants it to be there as a reminder. That people are ‘making it out.’”
I nodded once and offered him my hand.
“I do have to go,” I said. “I appreciate it.”
Downy shook my hand and grinned. “I don’t want any of these men to be who you’re looking for. All of them were and are good men.”