Claiming the Enemy: Dustin (Porter Brothers Trilogy 3)

“You never know. It could turn out to be the best day of your life.”

“If it’s not, will you homeschool me?”

Dustin looked over the back seat, taking the time to talk to Logan despite the honking horns behind him. “No, I promise if you don’t, I won’t stop until you’re just as exited to go to school as church.”

“Okay,” he said disbelievingly as he opened the car door. “Who’s picking me up after school? You or Holly?”

“I’ll be here with bells on.” Dustin waved to Logan as he closed the door.

Driving to his office, he felt wide awake after sleeping most of the weekend away. When he had finally gone to bed after the crying stopped in his head, he fell asleep immediately and had slept until nearly noon. Holly had texted after church, asking if Logan could go home with Noah and Chance and stay until after dinner. He’d agreed. Then, after eating a bowl of cereal, he went back to bed and hadn’t woken until Logan came home. Spending the rest of the evening with him until bedtime, he had gone back to his own bedroom and had no problem slipping into a dreamless sleep.

Now he felt refreshed and ready to take on the world, except he was still waiting to find out about the death he dreamed about. That the person was dead, he had no doubt. His nightmare had stopped on Friday night. Deep down, he knew the beating had been too severe for anyone to live through—the last two dreamless nights had proven that.

What still freaked him out, though, were the screams he had heard Saturday night. He had never experienced anything like it and damn sure didn’t want to repeat it.

Regretting not eating breakfast at home, Dustin looked at his watch. He didn’t have an appointment until ten, so he had more than enough time to swing by the diner and still have the opportunity to get some work done before meeting Willa.

After parking, Dustin was walking toward the diner’s entrance when he saw Greer’s truck at the police station across the street. He looked farther down the opposite street and saw parents dropping their children off at the daycare.

Holding the door open for a couple coming in behind him, he saw Greer walking out of the station and going toward the daycare. Though Rosie wasn’t even there yet, Greer was already going there to give his instructions. Dustin didn’t know how Jessie put up with him. If it weren’t for Holly, he was sure Jessie would have already handed him his ass on a platter.

The restaurant was filled with customers. Scanning the available options, unless he wanted to wait for a table to open, he went to the counter, taking one of the swinging chairs.

“Morning, Dustin. What can I get for you?”

“Morning, Carly. I’ll take a couple of eggs and a pumpkin muffin.” Returning her flirty smile with an impassive one, he took out his cell phone to scroll through his calendar, not wanting to be drawn into a conversation with the overfriendly waitress.

“You want some coffee?”

“No thanks. Just some orange juice.”

“I’ll put your order in. If you need anything, just yell.”

Dustin nodded, not looking up from his phone and not relaxing until Carly moved away after getting his juice. He didn’t put his phone away until his food arrived. Luckily, the restaurant was too busy for Carly to spend much time chatting with him. The woman was nice, but she was a little too nice to all the men in town, especially The Last Riders.

Sam had had him walking a tightrope to keep her happy, yet she’d still cheated on him. Greer had made a fool of himself with Diane before he married Holly. He didn’t need or want a woman in his life now. It was already full with Logan, his family, and work. He didn’t need icing on his cake. It would have been nice to have, but if it wasn’t there, he wasn’t going to go on a search for it.

Finishing his breakfast, Dustin got in line to pay at the cash register. Looking out the plate glass window, he saw Greer now standing outside the yellow daycare, talking to Bliss. He could tell she was upset from where he was. Knox was approaching the two.

Taking out his wallet, he took out a twenty and moved ahead of the others in line.

“This will take care of my bill. Keep the change.” Laying the money and the ticket on the counter, he left to see what had Bliss so agitated that she must have called Knox. Had Jessie gone over the deep end and had thrown Greer out of the daycare? From Holly’s face as she got out of her car to drop Rosie off, she was just as concerned that Greer had done something.