Ask Me If I Care (SWAT Generation 2.0 4)

I rolled my eyes at how specific he was being. But my dad was all about specifics.

“Ares got a message that says, ‘hey, just wanted to let you know I’m okay’ at…” I trailed off as she pointed the phone in my direction. “Two-thirty a.m.”

Two and a half hours after her death.

What the absolute fuck.

I hit the information button above the name, then pressed the phone icon.

Downy looked at me with worried eyes when he saw the call button pop up.

Without another word, I hit dial.

The phone rang twice before there was a maniacal laugh at the other end of the line and a man said, “Took you long enough to figure it out.”

My eyes met Ares’ gaze, and it was no secret that she was freaked.

“Not going to talk?” the man said. At least, I thought it was a man. His voice was distorted. Likely he was using some sort of electronic device to disguise his voice. “That’s okay. I got a lot of things to say.”

Still none of us said a thing.

“I’m so fuckin’ tired of you,” the disembodied voice growled. “Always thinking you’re better than me. Well, honey, you’re not.”

My brows rose.

“You just think you’re so smart, don’t you, Daddy’s girl?”

The moment those words were out of his mouth, disguised voice or not, I knew. My eyes caught Ares’ gaze, and I knew that she knew, too.

From what I gathered, ‘Daddy’s girl’ was something that he used quite a bit.

I gestured at Downy to listen to what the man had to say, and I went outside. “Dad, I gotta go.”

I didn’t even wait for him to hang up.

Instead, I called the station and asked for Luke since I didn’t have his direct line. When they said he wasn’t in, I left an urgent message for him to call me back. Then called the FBI contact that I’d been working with on the case since I started looking into it.

“Special Agent McKennick.”

“Easton,” I said. “I got a fuckin’ break.”

After explaining to Easton what happened—i.e., the guy calling Ares—he listened intently.

“He fits everything. He’s not an ex-cop, but his father is a cop. So he knows his shit just as well because I’m sure that he asked his father questions. His father who is still teaching at the police academy. From what I can tell, he’s in his mid-forties. I’m not sure how he found the other girls, or knew that they were teenage mothers, but I do know how he found Abilene. He fucked up and took one from his own school. He’s a principal at Kilgore High.”

“Okay. Meet me in Kilgore at the station. I’m having a warrant drawn up for his arrest right now,” Easton said. “Good work, man.”

I wouldn’t say it was a mission accomplished until I saw the motherfucker behind bars.

“Later,” I said. “I’ll meet you there in about an hour.”

“10-4,” he murmured. Then the line went dead and I was turning to head back inside.

Before my hand was even on the knob, the phone rang, indicating it was Luke.

I answered, repeated the whole process but giving way more information since Luke hadn’t been as aware of this case as I was, and told him of the meeting at the station in an hour.

Luke said he’d be there and hung up, sounding pissed off but resigned.

This time when I went back inside, I turned my ringer off.

Ares and Downy were still in their old positions, but this time the phone was silent and down by Ares’ side.

“He hung up,” Downy murmured. “Now tell me what the fuck is going on.”

My phone buzzed in my hand and I looked down at it.

Dad: Coming to Texas. Can I stay at your place?

I rolled my eyes.

Hayes: Yes. I’ll stay with Ares.

Dad: I could stay at Ares’ place. You can stay at yours.

I snorted.

Hayes: You can’t just invite yourself over to other people’s houses.

“Who’s that?” Ares asked softly, wiping away another stray tear.

I curved my arm around her shoulders and told her what my father said.

“He can stay here. We can stay at your place,” she said.

“Now that that’s settled, how about you tell me what the fuck is going on,” Downy growled.

I told the story again, then watched as his eyes narrowed.

“So let me get this straight,” he said. “The man that my daughter has been having a problem with for years, that’s a total douche bag, is the man that you suspect of killing multiple teenage girls?” He paused. “Teenage mothers specifically.”

I nodded.

He turned his head to the ceiling. “Son of a bitch.”Chapter 16An Adventure? I’ll Alpaca my bags.

-Coffee Cup

Ares

“Do you want to have a contest?”

I stared at the older woman and opened my mouth to say ‘sure’ but Hayes interrupted before I could.

“Grammy,” Hayes said. “She doesn’t want to do a push-up contest with you. We know you’ll win. Ares eats donuts and is soft just like I like her. If she started doing push-ups like you do, then she wouldn’t be soft anymore.”