Chapter 14

Coffee doesn’t ask silly questions. Coffee understands.

-Coffee Cup

Audrey

I never thought I’d be happy to see the end of the line when it came to this cruise.

I felt like I was a new woman. Like the old Audrey was long gone and the new Audrey was one who could conquer the world.

I had a pep in my step.

I even passed the creepy towel guy, who leered at me as I went by, and didn’t flinch.

I just hoped that this new and improved Audrey was enough to withstand the outside world.

Tobias and I walked into the dining room at the time that the paper outside of our door last night instructed, and we came to a stop right inside the door.

“Where to now?” he wondered aloud.

I looked around, and smiled when I saw the same couple from the elevator two nights before.

“Let’s go sit with them,” I pointed in their direction.

They had a large gap of tables surrounding them, and I wondered if that was by design, or because people were too scared to sit next to the man who was clearly giving off a ‘don’t sit near me’ vibe.

Tobias led the way, and stopped beside the chair to the large, grumpy man’s right. “Nico, isn’t it?” Tobias asked.

The man, Nico, nodded. “Yep. Have a seat. There’s plenty of room.”

Tobias held out my chair for me, and we sat down at the table that usually sat ten.

“We never saw y’all,” I leaned forward. “How’d the rest of your trip go?” I questioned the two of them.

Tobias wrapped his arm around my shoulders and tugged me lightly into him, brushing his soft lips against my forehead before letting me go slightly.

“We had to call the principal once a day since we last saw y’all,” Georgia grumbled. “And when we tried to come up to the top deck, ol’ pukey over here got nauseous by the time we made it to the movie screen.”

“There’s something about watching the TV or reading on this boat that just throws off my equilibrium,” Nico explained, giving his wife a tolerating look. “So when we weren’t doing shit, we were taking fucking naps. Laziest week of my fuckin’ life.”

Tobias started to chuckle.

“I probably gained ten pounds,” he said to nobody in particular. “Shittiest food I’ve ever had in my life, but it didn’t stop me from fucking eating it.”

I slapped his arm.

“Language,” I told him, looking at the old woman two tables away with an apologetic look.

He looked at me.

“You’re wearing a ‘Fuck Your Gun-Free Zone’ shirt, which might I add I still want back, and you’re telling me to hush?”

Georgia started to laugh.

“I had to have something long to pull off the leggings I bought from that Lularoe chick who was selling them at that vegetable carving contest.” I waggled my finger at him. “I didn’t have one, and this shirt was the only one that looked good with the bright pink hearts.”

He just shook his head and turned his attention back to Nico.

“What do you do at KPD?”

Tobias didn’t quite dismiss me, though. Instead, he wrapped his arm tighter around my shoulder and pulled me in until I was resting my head against his chest.

“I work as a patrol officer,” he answered.

“He’s also on the SWAT team,” Georgia added.

Nico rolled his eyes. “I’m also on the SWAT team.”

Tobias’ grin was devilish.

“I was on the SWAT team when I was younger,” he said. “I saw a bullet land in the wall behind my head, missing me by a mere half an inch, and decided that I liked my head where it was.”

Nico started to chuckle.

“Our town is small, and we don’t run too many SWAT calls. But I also know that it’s not for everyone,” he said. “What do you do now?”

“I’m a patrol officer for Alabama Highway Patrol,” he answered.

“Eww,” Nico said. “Bunch of drugs?”

Tobias shrugged. “A few.”

Something passed in between the two men, and I wondered what I was missing.

“Here,” Georgia said, claiming my attention. “I’d love to keep in contact with you,” she said. “I can’t believe that we’re already home. I wish I’d gotten the chance to spend more time with you. You seem like a girl I’d love to commiserate with.”

The fact that someone wanted to commiserate with me, a cop’s wife to another cop’s girlfriend, was enough to make me almost giddy.

Then I remembered those three little words. Words, that on their own were innocuous, but said together, made an entire world of difference.

Though, he hadn’t said them again since then and neither had I. But he showed me in the way he wrapped his arm around me, or dropped a kiss to my forehead or the top of my head while he was having a conversation. Badass to badass, like he was doing right then.

“I’d like that,” I said, passing her my cell phone. “Here, just put it in there.”

She took my phone, smiled over my cell phone’s screensaver, and dialed her number.

Her phone rang and she sighed.

“It’s so nice to hear that again,” she said. “I think we spent a small fortune on calls back home this week. I’m so glad to be back in civilization and not in ship jail.”

The big man at her side grunted.

“Amen to that.”

“Emerald Diamonds!” a woman called. “Now disembarking!”

Tobias and I stood up.

“That’s us!”

The couple with us stood as well. “Us too.”

But the moment we stepped off the ship, we went our separate ways, and Georgia and I waved goodbye as if we were long lost friends being separated against our wills.

“I really like her,” I told Tobias.

He grinned down at me.

“Something tells me that you’ll see her again,” he said. “Cop wives are nice like that. There’s a secret club that only cop wives and girlfriends belong to, and they never let you go once you’re in it.”

I smiled, somewhat excited by that fact.

It was nice knowing that someone would always be at my back if I ever needed them.

And Tobias? Well, he was definitely always going to be there. At least if I had any say in the matter.

***

Four hours later, we arrived at Tobias’ house and immediately froze at what we saw.

“Were you expecting a party?” I whispered.

He shook his head. “Nope.”

“Then what’s with the full house?”

He drove up to the carport, parked underneath the awning just to the right of the door and got out.

Rounding the car, he opened my door and offered me his hand, which I took. Guiding me to the door, he led me inside, and we were faced with a wall of people.

“What’s going on?” Tobias barked.

The men of The Dixie Wardens were there, as well as some handsome men who could only be Tobias’ real life brothers.

The moment I stepped fully inside, I was pulled into my brother’s embrace.

“How you been, girl?” he asked. “I missed you.”

I still hadn’t gotten used to my brother being back.

Every single time I found myself in his arms, it was like a dream come true all over again.

This time was no different.

I held on a little longer than I thought he might have wanted, but like always, he didn’t complain.

“Great,” I told him honestly. “I had a lot of fun. Though I’m dying for a hamburger.”

He chuckled lightly, but that chuckle was cut off when I heard Big Papa’s reply to Tobias’ question.

“We’ve had some bad shit go down while you were gone,” he wasted no time vocalizing. “And all of it centers around you.”

“For what?” I barked before even Tobias could react. “He’s done nothing wrong! Not to mention he hasn’t been here in a week!”

“You’ve been suspended. You’ve also been put under investigation,” Big Papa continued, glancing at me like I’d never said a word. “I tried to get Mickey to give me more info, but since I’m a member of The Dixie Wardens, and obviously biased, he’s given me limited information. In fact, I have little more than what the fuckin’ papers have.”

Tobias lifted his hand, and using his thumb and pointer finger, rubbed his eyes tiredly.

“What’d they say I did?”

I’d love to know the answer to that, too.

I was getting all worked up on Tobias’ behalf.

“Be easier to show you.”

That came from my brother who’d never left my side.

I looked over to find him pulling out his phone and typing something into it with one large thumb before he handed it over.

“Here,” he said.

Tobias took the phone and held it in a way so that I could see it, too.

“And, of course, they don’t see the whole video,” someone rumbled from across the room.

I didn’t understand what they meant.

Then again, my eyes were glued to the screen, so it was hard to comprehend much of anything but what I was seeing.

“Get out!” I clearly heard Tobias yell over the screen.

Then I watched in sickly horror as the screen played the entire two-minute video from start to finish.

“Did they release my dash cam?” Tobias’ eyes flicked up to Big Papa once the video was over.

Big Papa shook his head, unaffected, while I suddenly found it hard to breathe.

“Apparently, there was a malfunction.”

“Of course there was,” he swore. “What about my body cam?”

Big Papa was already shaking his head.

“Negative,” he answered. “Same thing. Mysteriously not working.”

“There were about fifteen people there that night,” Tobias grunted. “One of them is going to have the full story.”

“That’s the thing,” Aaron grunted. “There’s no one. All the named parties in your report have been contacted, and none of them corroborates your story.”

“Now’s probably the time to mention that Mr. and Mrs. Shaw have been this kid’s biggest freakin’ advocate, too,” the man who I’d only seen at a distance, Finley, grumbled. “It’s like the kid’s their fuckin’ child, reincarnated. They’re doing everything but putting ‘em up in their fancy smancy house.”

Tobias threw his head back and groaned in derision. “Of fucking course they are,” he grumbled. “Where there’s a stink, there they are, right in the thick of it. Why the fuck can’t they just fuckin’ leave already like they’d threatened to do so many times?” He leaned his head back down and stared straight at Big Papa. “They probably paid off every single person who was there that night. Either forced them to delete whatever video, pictures or recordings they had, or they got them to willing volunteer by offering up a large sum of money. What did Mickey say when he heard this?”

“Nothing,” Big Papa answered grimly. “He heard that they were involved, and he’s made no move to reconsider the facts. Or, at least, that’s what he appears to be doing. From our vantage point, anyway. He may be firmly on your side in this, we just haven’t received any evidence of that fact yet.”

Suddenly, I found my gaze solidly resting on Tobias’.

“I think it’s time for you to leave.”

I was already shaking my head before he’d explained why.

“No.”

He smiled tiredly. “You don’t get a choice in this, darlin’,” he informed me. “The people in question are the Shaws, the boy I was telling you about this week, the one that assaulted my sister; they were his parents. They’re rich, and they’ll do anything they can to ruin my life. I should’ve remembered that before even befriending you. They’ve ruined everything that they could. Followed me here from fuckin’ Texas just to make my life miserable. Trust me, they won’t hesitate in doing the same to yours if they know that you’re with me.”

My chin rose even higher. “Well, they can just do their worst.”

Tobias started to laugh but it wasn’t with humor.

No, the laugh rang of something that sounded similar to defeat.

“I’m tired.”