May Contain Wine (SWAT Generation 2.0 5)

His rough voice made my nipples pebble.

“I was thinking about how I know how you like your eggs,” I said. “And how I know you’re about to smother them in salsa. I know you.”

“You didn’t know I wanted four eggs,” he teased.

I rolled my eyes. “I knew that you wanted them over easy, cooked in bacon grease and that your normal order was three eggs.”

He flashed me a grin. A grin that quickly fell off his face.

“We need to talk about last night,” he rumbled quietly.

I scrunched up my nose.

“What happened?” I asked quietly.

He spent the next hour explaining exactly what had happened the night before.

Shortly after he’d gotten the call about Romeo, he’d called me into the room and told me.

Of course, I’d been heartbroken—granted, the kid was weird, but I didn’t want him to die—and had done the only thing I could do. Hug him.

Shortly after I’d left, giving him the space to think or sleep, whatever he’d needed to do.

And eventually I’d heard his soft snores coming from the closed bedroom door.

But I knew that there’d been more.

The ‘more’ wasn’t very good.

“I don’t even know what to say,” I said softly. “Pretty much, if I’m understanding this correctly, it was me going on this date with him, and leaving, that caused him to have a psychotic break? I guess I should be happy that he’s not using people?”

I mean, that was something to be happy about.

Right?

If that was the case, why did my heart still ache when I thought about all the animals that had died because of me?

How many more animals were going to be tortured before we finally found him and got him the help that he needed?

“We think that the mother is aiding him in some way,” he said. “She ‘gave him the keys to their Florida house’ but the timelines in their stories don’t line up. When I called this morning to check on what was happening, Bennett informed me that the mother didn’t even shed a tear at the news that her son had hung himself in his cell.”

I grimaced.

“I’ve never liked the mother much,” I admitted. “When I called her the very first time to come get Romeo from school, she bitched me out. I’m talking, literally fifteen minutes of bitching so solid that I’d said ‘never mind’ just so I wouldn’t have to deal with her in person. I mean, Romeo hadn’t been ‘sick.’ I’d just felt that she would want to come get him if he wasn’t feeling well. I’d been wrong. She hadn’t. And, in fact, had been so pissed off that the next day she’d called and told me not to call her unless Romeo was running a fever worthy of being sent home, throwing up, or something was broken.”

“That was the vibe I got from Tiana Ricci,” Louis muttered, watching as I pulled his eggs off. “She wasn’t concerned at all for Romeo. Only Julian. Which was really fuckin’ weird. Since Julian was under investigation for what he’d been doing at your house, and Romeo wasn’t.”

I sighed and pushed the paper plate toward him.

“I don’t even know what to say,” I admitted. “The one and only time I’d met her—she’d had to come pick Romeo up because he’d sustained a possible concussion during football practice—she’d been a real bitch. I don’t even think she said a word to him. She’d arrived, glared at me, and had signed him out before snapping her fingers at Romeo. Not a word had been spoken. The next day, there was a note from her saying he was fine to return to class. No concussion, and that she would be sending us the hospital bill.”

Louis’ eyes were hard. “She didn’t deserve to have kids.”

I agreed wholeheartedly.

Cracking my eggs into the pan, I fried myself up two eggs before walking to stand next to where Louis was leaning against the counter.

Together we ate standing up and didn’t speak again until all of our food was gone.

I eyed the stack of bacon and decided against another piece.

I was still hungry, but I’d eaten my fair share, and the rest was Louis’.

And he would eat it all.

He saw me looking and grinned. “Eat it.”

I rolled my eyes but snagged a piece.

It was only when I was done that I said, “Now what?”

He grimaced.

“Now, we hope it doesn’t take too long to find him.” he said. “You stay with me. I take you to and from school… and we hope that he doesn’t take too long to find. I don’t think he’s altogether dangerous, per se, but I do feel like we need to treat this seriously. Just because he hasn’t been dangerous to you, doesn’t mean that he hasn’t been dangerous to animals. And if he’s capable of that, then he’s capable of anything, in my opinion.”