Bang Switch (Code 11-KPD SWAT 3)

Once again, I didn’t write anything down, and I heard them say the same exact thing as I left. “She’s never going to remember all of that.”

I just laughed as I walked into the kitchen, up to the note pad beside the grill, and pressed play on my watch.

Their orders were all played back to me, one by one, and I wrote it word for word down onto the paper.

I snorted, surprised that none of the ‘observant’ cops at that table had known what I’d done.

Then again, I’d been doing it for a month now and not one customer had noticed yet.

I handed the paper over to Vinnie and barely contained the dry heave that threatened to boil out of my throat when Vinnie took it, but made sure to touch my hand even though I’d just barely been holding on to the ticket as it was.

He was very touchy, and I was fairly sure he liked to change my orders and make them wrong just so I’d come back to the back to see him.

Hence why I got the watch, so he knew I’d written the order down correctly, and couldn’t use that excuse anymore.

I’d gotten hip on what he was doing shortly after I’d gotten my fifth order wrong.

That’s when I got the watch, just so he could hear me getting the order, and then writing it down correctly.

I also made sure to check the order before I took it out there. There was nothing like being made to look stupid in front of customers.

“Is it pretty busy out there, Mem?” Vinnie asked.

I wanted to smack him.

I wasn’t really fond of nicknames, and every chance he got he used one with me.

After correcting him for the tenth time, I stopped trying, knowing it wouldn’t make a difference.

“Just the usual lunch crowd,” I said as I backed through the door.

I didn’t hear Vinnie’s reply, and couldn’t say that I was unhappy about it.

He really did creep me out, and I couldn’t wait to have my degree finished so I could get the hell out of here.

“Oh, you had two tables come in while you were in there,” Jessica said as she flipped the page.

I growled low in my throat and went to greet two of my regulars, taking their drink orders before I went to the next table.

Although I was busy, Downy still occupied all of my thoughts.

I kept chastising myself. He was a cop, and cops were not to be trusted according to my daddy. That was only because daddy was a cop himself, and had been for nearly forty years. But he knew how cops thought. Knew what they knew. He was them.

His name was Byron “Stone” Conner, and I loved him desperately. However, I didn’t love that he didn’t have any boundaries when it came to my life. Hence, why I’d moved here, and why he didn’t know how hard it was for me to get by.

Daddy was a part of The Dixie Wardens MC. His charter was in Alabama, about a four-hour drive from the state line due East.

I’d grown up in the motorcycle club life.

I dealt with their shit for twenty years. The constant, silent presence at my back.

When he finally started to try to control what I did with my life, wanting me to go down a different path than what I was on, I started to pull away.

I moved out, found my own place and lived my life.

I still spoke with my dad once a week. Still saw him on holidays and birthdays. But he didn’t run my life anymore. I had friends that didn’t know my daddy was a cop or president of a motorcycle club. It’d come up eventually, but right now…right now I was happy and living my life. Even if I had to do it by living a little lean.

Mom, well mom was just that…my mom.

She was first generation Chinese American, and an all-around bad ass. She had to be to deal with my daddy.

She was also the one who taught me to always be nice and respectful…something I’d do if it killed me.

Most of the time, that was.

There was always a first time for everything.

And when I went to the empty table after the rowdy inhabitants left it, I was mad enough to spit nails.

Here’s your tip: Maybe you should tell your boyfriend that he can shove his badge up his ass. Maybe if he hadn’t threatened to shove my plate up my ass, face up, you’d be getting a tip right now.

I whirled and faced the man that’d just cost me money and glared.

He caught the glare the moment I turned, and his eyes narrowed on the check that was in my hand. When he made to stand I shoved the flimsy paper in my hand into my back pocket and turned around.

“Jessica,” I said making my way up to the bar. “The men at the back table are through. The only ones left are the ones in the front reading their newspapers, but they’ve been taken care of as well. If it’s okay, I’ll take my break now.”

Jessica waved her hand. “Sure thing, doll.”

Lord fucking save me from hard headed men.Chapter 4Alpha’s. Men who don’t listen to a word you say. Do what they want. And expect you to deal with it.

-Fact of Life

Downy

“I think you pissed her off,” Luke said dryly.

I turned to our captain, my best friend, and glared. “Did I ask you what you thought?”

The man thought he was so fuckin’ smart now that he was married. Little did he know he wasn’t. “You want to go for a round later tonight?”

He laughed. “We can go for a round right now.”

I shoved him in the shoulder with my own and downed the rest of my drink.

“No can do. I have to meet the contractors that are putting in my floor, then I have to go to…shit,” I said as my beeper went off. “Mother fucker!”

We all stood, throwing down cash as we always did.