Page 54 of I Can't Even

Ellodie.

What was she doing here?

“Oh, Sergeant,” another new hire, Duke Miller, said. “Who’s she? She’s pretty.”

Forcing my eyes away from the woman who had half of my attention all morning, I narrowed my eyes at Duke and said, “You may be a former Navy SEAL, but I was MARSOC. I’d say we’re fairly fuckin’ equal. And I’m older and wiser. Trust me when I say that I could kill you just as easily. Plus, I’m local, and I know this area like the back of my hand. You look at my girl again, and I’ll let you know just how well I can hide your body for nobody to find.”

Duke and Trig separated from the Navy unit about four months ago, and came to Dallas to be near their friend, Autry Bills, who just so happened to run security, and many other things, for Circus House, Keene’s family’s circus.

They were great officers, and I was happy to have them.

But not enough that I’d be willing to share anything with them, let alone my girl.

“Yes, Sergeant.” Duke mimed zipping his lips, eyes alight with mirth.

“Any more questions for today?” I questioned.

“No, Sergeant,” twenty officers said at once as they got up to leave.

Seeing Assman in the back, I called for him to wait, and then held my finger up to Ellodie and Gable. Gable who was about a week away from going back undercover to work on finding a new drug operation that was running rampant throughout the city. It’d already taken out seven high-schoolers and three middle-schoolers.

Which was unacceptable.

Any loss of life was bad. But so much worse when it was a kid.

Assman halted and headed toward me, looking worried.

I shook my head as soon as he got to me and said, “I’m not reprimanding you for anything. How is the kid?”

Assman smiled. “Doing really well, actually. My grandmother is watching him most of the time for me. We got all moved in. She’s staying with him during the day, and when things are getting too much for her, your mom is doing it. Or she’s finding someone to do it. Usually, it’s another cop’s wife. I didn’t know they had this huge network of wives who are willing to just drop everything to watch a kid.”

I grinned and held out my hand. “Good. I’m glad that it’s all working out. Yeah, that network started before I was born. My mom is pretty awesome.”

“She is,” he said. “Thanks again.”

I dismissed him to get out on patrol, then turned to the two people who were waiting on me.

“Assman?” Ellodie grinned.

“It’s an unfortunate name,” I agreed. “What are y’all doing here?”

“Checking to see if you wanted to grab lunch,” Gable said. “She’s running errands this morning and should be done in time for lunch to happen.”

I looked at my tired brother and said, “What happened to sleeping a bit?”

“The roofers next door working on Quinn’s place happened,” he grumbled. “I couldn’t sleep if I wanted to. There are about thirty men crawling all over that roof putting it in with about twenty nail guns between them.”

My lips twitched.

“It was really bad. Plus, I forgot I had an appointment today.” Ellodie nodded her head. “I have to go get my birth control refilled. That should take me like an hour max. Then I have to go pick it up. Run to the grocery store and grab some staples since apparently you have absolutely nothing in your kitchen…”

I snorted. “I don’t have anything in my kitchen because I literally just moved in, remember?”

“I mean, you told me that, but your version of ‘just moved in’ and mine are completely different.” She snickered, her eyes trailing down the length of my body. “Why don’t you wear the same uniform as your other officers?”

“Because I’m the boss.” I shrugged. “Let me know where y’all end up wanting to go to lunch. If it’s close, I might be able to go.”

Gable jerked his chin up, but our mother caught his attention across the room, and he said, “Be right back.”

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