Depends on Who's Asking - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,45

I’ll protect her with my life.’

His eyelid twitched and he looked away, but I knew better than to think I won.

As we all walked out to our respective vehicles later, it wasn’t lost on me that I didn’t want to leave. Because leaving meant that I had to allow Carolina to go home.

Also, leaving meant that I had to explain.

And I didn’t want to explain.

Explaining meant that I’d have to think about the last couple of days, and I didn’t want to do that, either.

But for her, I’d do anything.

“I…” I started to say once we’d reached her car.

Only, just as I was about to invite her to come to my place, every single member of the SWAT team that wasn’t gone had their phones go off.

I pulled my phone out and went to the app that indicated we had another SWAT call. This one a continuation of the one earlier that’d been ‘de-escalated.’ Apparently, the de-escalation hadn’t been so great after all.

Her eyes met mine over the top of her car door that she’d opened as I’d read over the call.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?” she asked hopefully.

I licked my lips. “I have to work. I’m working the night shift. Can I see you when you get off? For an hour?”

She scrunched up her nose. “That’s no fun.”

My lips curled up into a smile and I walked closer, pulling her as close as I could with the car door between us.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I whispered against her lips.

Her eyes went hot as she pulled back. “Tomorrow? You’ll do some talking?”

I laughed and jogged away. But I said over my shoulder, “I’ll do some talking.”

But it was only later that I remembered that call from Brad and listened to the voicemail, and what I heard made me even more confused.

CHAPTER 14

Time to sit in front of a dead tree and eat candy out of socks.

-Coffee Cup

SAINT

I was almost dreading heading over to Carolina’s house two days after the party.

It was now the seventeenth of December and my pretend birthday. I always picked out a different day to celebrate my birthday. It was usually by myself.

I’d had one hell of a day at work last night, and this morning hadn’t started off any better thanks to trying to investigate more of Brad’s cryptic ass messages.

As I pulled up in front of Carolina’s house and got out, I didn’t go to the door but to the passenger side of my cruiser.

Once there, I helped Smoke out of the truck.

Smoke looked at me pitifully.

Instead of putting him on the ground, I walked him to the front door of Carolina’s place and tapped the door with the steel toe of my booted foot.

I heard her yell ‘coming’ from somewhere deep in the house, and what distinctly felt like a pinch near the vicinity of my heart when I heard her voice had me smiling despite my shitty day.

She was already wearing a bright smile when she opened the door. A smile that quickly fell off her face when she saw me carrying Smoke.

“Oh, no,” she gasped. “What happened?”

I grimaced as I walked past her through the door that she held open.

“Some asshole decided to run the dog over instead of stopping his car,” I said. “He’s okay. He could’ve been seriously hurt. But luckily, he dodged enough that they only ran over his tail. They had to amputate part of it. He should be up and running in no time, but they still had him on some pain medication and he’s partially still under the effects of the anesthesia.”

“Oh, you poor big boy.” Carolina looked at him with sadness filling her eyes. “Can I touch him? I know that he’s a working dog and all.”

I was already nodding my head. “You care if I put him on that blanket on the floor?”

Carolina swept the blanket up and laid it over the couch instead. “Put him there. He doesn’t need to stay on the floor.”

I did as she suggested and Smoke groaned when Carolina went as far as to prop his head up with a pillow.

“How did this happen again?” she asked.

I recounted my night.

“Well, it all started with the SWAT call. Then I went to work after that, and about halfway through my shift, some asshole decides to take off while I’m doing a search of his car. He nearly ran over the dog when he backed up, then purposefully steered toward him after that. Ran over his tail and the doctor had to