May Contain Wine (SWAT Generation 2.0 5)

“Scared the fuck outta me,” Booth muttered.

“Thanks, son.” The farmer held out his hand. “I really appreciate you doing this. I see that all the horses and most of the goats made it out.”

I nodded. “I don’t know if they all made it out, but I opened up all of the stalls.”

I followed that statement up with a great big cough that caused black gross stuff to come hacking out of my lungs.

Booth stepped back as he said, “Ewww.”

I rolled my eyes and wiped my mouth. “You have a kid. How are you going to say ewww? You’ve dealt with worse stuff.”

“Yeah,” Booth agreed. “But he’s my kid. There’s a difference when it’s your kid doing the eww stuff and it’s someone not from your loins.”

The farmer chuckled. “That’s true. My kid shit on me once. It went all the way down my chest and into my underwear. Even got around my balls. If it’d been anyone else but my kid, I would’ve murdered them.”

I didn’t know what to say to that.

But they did have a point.

Shaking my head, I looked at my watch.

“Shit, I gotta go,” I said as I looked at my watch. “Calloway is meeting with that dude from the motorcycle club, and I kind of don’t want him in the same room with my girl alone if I can help it.”

Booth smirked at me. “Better hurry. It takes ten minutes to get there, and you said that she was meeting him at five.”

I grimaced and slapped Booth on the back.

“Will do.”

The farmer held out his hand. “Thank you so much, officer.”

I took it, shook it twice, and was just about to take off when none other than the fire truck and ambulance pulled up.

“Son of a bitch,” I groaned.

A few firefighters got out, eyeing the blaze that was fully engulfed now.

A few new paramedics followed them from the ambulance.

Their eyes went around the scene as if to see what and who was around them that might need help.

“Better run,” Booth said to my explicative.

The farmer stepped back, grabbing hold of the goat’s horns when he went to follow me to my cruiser.

“I’ll take care of the paperwork,” Booth said. “But you owe me.”

I gave him a fist bump and took off toward my cruiser only to come to a bone-jarring stop at the driver’s side door.

“Mr. May! Mr. May!” a woman from across the street called. “Can you give us a statement? Why did you save those piglets?”

Why did I save the piglets?

“I like bacon, what can I say?” I muttered as I practically fell into my cruiser.

The woman started to write furiously into her little notebook in her hand, thankfully not following me or moving any closer to block my way.

The drive to Calloway’s place took less than ten minutes, but the entire drive I had to pull over every couple of miles to hack up more black stuff.

Luckily, she was close, meaning even with my stops, I had no problem making it there fast.

When I arrived at the house, it was to see the man whom I assumed was Laric and Calloway standing out on the front porch. Calloway looked worried.

I got out of my cruiser and made my way up the front walk, making a mental note to pull out the lawnmower and weed eater this weekend to take care of the yard again.

The damn yard was the nicest thing about her place.

I was just about to climb the steps when the look on her face registered.

Calloway’s worried eyes went wide with alarm.

“Louis! Why are you so dirty?” she asked, ignoring the man at her side and making her way down to me.

I caught her arms before she could get too close.

“Don’t hug me. I’m covered in soot,” I said. “I need a shower.”

She pouted but did as I asked.

“What’s wrong?” I asked worriedly.

She swallowed hard.

“I had another dead animal on my porch,” she muttered.

My brows lifted sky-high.

The only reason I’d left her alone after that dog thing was due to the little asshole Romeo being incarcerated for the weekend.

The thought that she had another dead animal on her porch meant that someone else—someone that likely had to also be involved—was out there continuing the kid’s handiwork.

I stiffened.

“What was it?” I asked. “Did your Ring doorbell catch anything?”

Calloway frowned. “It was a bird.”

My brows rose. “How do you know that it was…”

It was left by the little sadistic shits that did the same with the other two animals?

“That it was left specifically for me?” Calloway moved. That was when I saw the bird pinned to the side of her house with a butcher knife. “That’s how.”

I winced.

“You’re not staying here anymore,” I said. “I’ll send your dad or mine over here to deal with that. See if they can find anything else. In the meantime, we’ll be going to my place.” I looked over at the man. “That okay with you?”