Joke's on You (SWAT Generation 2.0 6)

“I just remember Kerrie giving us both beers,” Delanie said softly. “After that, I don’t remember anything.”

Why would that be the last thing that they both remembered?

But before I could really think about it too much more, my phone rang on the table.

I sighed and reached for it, looking at the screen.

“Dammit,” I muttered. “I have to take this.”

It was my alarm company, and they only ever called me when there was a problem.

Booth nodded and started to clean up the mess.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Ma’am,” the alarm specialist said into my ear. “We have a report of a glass break detector in your main dining area going off. We’ve dispatched police to the location.”

I sighed.

“I’ll go check it out,” I said. “Did the cameras pick anything up?”

“No, ma’am,” the alarm specialist said. “Camera one and two aren’t showing any activity. All is quiet as well.”

I grimaced.

“I’m sure it’s just a false alarm. It’s been acting up lately. I dropped a book on the ground this morning, and it set it off. I was there to turn it off, however.” I stood up and gathered my keys. “I’ll make a run by there.”

“Okay, well like I said, the police have already been dispatched. The alarm will stay in progress until you can turn it off after getting a good look,” the alarm specialist said. “Have a nice night, ma’am.”

I sighed and shoved my phone into my pocket.

“I gotta go,” I admitted, looking at Booth with sorrow. “My stupid glass break detector is acting up, and I have to go meet the police at my shop to make sure it was just a false alarm.”

He looked torn, as if he wanted to go with me.

I rolled my eyes. “You’re not going with me.”

He sighed. “I can’t. Asa doesn’t go back to sleep well when I have to transfer him. We get calls when I have him, and I have to have my mom meet me at the station, and she says he’s up for hours afterward.”

“You need a live-in babysitter like Delanie has,” I teased, patting myself on the chest.

“You can move in any time,” he countered.

I rolled my eyes. “You’d hate living with me. I get up really early in the morning, and sometimes I go to bed at seven in the evening. It’s really hard to keep quiet when people keep odd hours.”

His eyes seemed to focus intently on me for a few long seconds. “I wouldn’t hate it at all.”

I chuckled and picked up one last Hawaiian roll—fuck my diet—for the road.

“I’m out.” I paused at the door with him behind me. The abruptness of my move had him bumping into me, pinning me to the door with his big body. Yet, when I expected him to move, he didn’t.

“What is it?” he asked.

I could feel his hot breath on my neck.

It made my nipples pebble.

“We’re still on for Saturday, right?” I questioned.

He chuckled. “Oh, we’re still on. You want to come over any time, even after you’re done with the alarm company, I’m here. Even if it’s for ten more minutes.”

After practically running out of his house after that, I arrived at the donut shop to find it hopping.

There were people… everywhere.

Even one face that I wasn’t all that excited to see.

Kerrie.

Since he arrived at my car first, not allowing me to talk to the officer that was there, I leveled him with a glare. “What are you doing here?”

He looked at me, confused. “I’m always here. Even when you don’t want me.”Chapter 5

I’m single because I hate people. But I want to find that one person who I don’t hate who also hates people but doesn’t hate me.

-Dillan’s secret thoughts

Dillan

“What does that even mean?” I asked, pushing past him to go to the cops. “And seriously, why are you here?”

“I saw the activity as I was driving by and stopped,” Kerrie explained.

For some reason, that didn’t sit well with me.

What would he be doing anywhere near my shop? He lived in Longview. That was nowhere near here, not to mention where my shop was located was near a school and the college. And both were practically ghost towns after five o’clock. And since those were the only two things that you could access past my shop…

I ignored Kerrie and walked up to the officer that was peering into my shop window.

“Officer,” I said, holding out my hand.

He turned and took my hand. “Ma’am.”

“This is my shop.” I pointed.

He grinned. “I know. I was just doing a check. I don’t see anything that would be cause for worry. But why don’t we take a quick sweep of the place and make sure. Can you turn the alarm off?”

I could.

Which I did through my phone app.

The piercing screech cut off seconds later, and I reached for my keys only to find them not there.