After declaring we’d come home with him, we had, which ended with us in his spare guest bedroom talking quietly as not to wake him.
“What had you scowling when you came in the RV earlier?” she asked, pressing an absent kiss to my pectoral.
It was only five hours ago, but it felt like a lifetime. Like it’d happened in another life, even.
I leaned over the bed for my pants that were on the floor, then pulled my phone out of my pocket before returning to my previous position.
My phone’s screen was broken, but despite that, it was okay. I was lucky it hadn’t sustained water damage like the rest of my things had as the firefighters put out the fire on the RV as well as my cabin.
“There was a dog that was found on the highway,” I answered. “They forced me to take a picture with it because it wouldn’t hold fucking still. And I wasn’t happy about it.”
She looked at the photo under question, then leaned over and got her phone off the night table.
Seconds later, she was laughing her ass off.
“Oh, Castiel.” She giggled, swinging her phone around to show me. “Your police department shared your photo all right.”
***
Four hours later, my photo had been shared seventeen thousand, four hundred, and three times. There were over ten thousand comments, and so many likes that it really would’ve been awesome had I not been the one that the majority of the comments were about.
“Would y’all shut the fuck up about my stupid picture already?” I grumbled tiredly.
“Just look at the bright side,” my club brother, Zee, said. “At least they found the dog’s owner.”
That was true…I guess.
The dog’s owner, a pretty little Coke bottle blonde, had come to the station during the time that Turner and I were there giving our statement on Craig Minns.
At first, we’d thought that she was just like the other two crazy ladies who’d arrived saying they’d been ‘bad,’ but then she’d started crying as she babbled about her missing dog, and hadn’t said a word about me.
The deciding factor that she was, indeed, the dog’s owner had been when I’d come out with the dog and she’d not taken a single look at me. She’d buried her face into the scruff of the dog’s neck and burst into tears.
“You awake, big boy?” Turner asked.
I blinked open my eyes and saw that she was leaning over me, looking at me with worry all over her face.
“Y’all are so cute together,” Jubilee chirped from across the room. “But we gotta go. We just came over to bring y’all some dinner. Plus, I’m fielding calls left and right from the media asking if we’re taking ownership of the dead body that was previously known as Craig Minns, the famous Redhub pornstar film guy that was now worth millions. I think they’re madder that he won’t be making movies than the fact that he tried to kill my best friend and her man. I’m seriously about to lose my shit.”
Zee put his hand on his wife’s head. “Let’s go, baby.”
Jubilee sighed and looked first at me, then at Turner. “Y’all will call if you need anything.”
A statement, not a question.
Turner sighed. “Yes, I will.”
“Good.” She narrowed her eyes, then contemplated what she was going to say next. “I have your mother’s remains at the funeral home. I was going to give you them yesterday, but I ran out of time. Do y’all want to come get them? Or would you like me to bring them to you?”
Turner stiffened. “Hold on to them at your place until we can figure out where we’re going to take her.”
Jubilee nodded her head. “I can do that. Y’all take care of each other.”
Then they were gone, leaving me looking up at my woman who was once again looking down at me with concern. “Is your arm okay?”
I shook my head.
It was on fire, but I wouldn’t be telling her that.
“Your parents called again.” She yawned as she looked over at me before gingerly sitting on the corner of the couch next to my head. “I talked to them.”
I scowled. “Why?” I paused. “And why are my eyes so fuckin’ heavy?”
She grinned. “First question, because I wanted to. They were worried about you. Second question, because you were in pain, so I ground up a pain pill and put it into the beer you insisted on having last night before bed.”
I growled. “That wasn’t fair. I wanted to have my faculties about me.”
She shrugged unrepentantly.
Then sobered.
“Your parents want to come over here, and I said they could,” she muttered.
I narrowed my eyes. “That wasn’t smart.”
“They were concerned,” she explained. “And not just about you. About me, too. They’ll be here any…” The doorbell rang. “Second.”
Liner appeared out of nowhere, opened the door in the other room, and then disappeared all over again.