Page 20 of A Sudden Response

“Let me see those,” Donny snapped, grabbing the bottles and quickly counted the pills in the first bottle. After the first count, he counted again, only to go pale as soon as he was done. “This can’t be right.”

Great, so they had no fucking clue when the guy took his last pill.

“Police,” a familiar voice announced with a loud knock at the door. A few seconds later, Tyler, a cop they’d run into from time to time, stepped into the house.

“Hey, Tyler,” Joe said with a warm smile.

“Hi, Joe.”

Call him crazy, but Eric really didn’t think the smile Tyler was sending Joe was something that a happily engaged man should be doing. It was certainly doing a great job of pissing him off. Then again, he was already pissed about this bullshit call and having a cop devour Joe with his eyes wasn’t exactly helping.

“They want us to play boogie man and scare a patient into taking his meds,” Eric drawled, drawing Tyler’s attention back to him.

Tyler frowned. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Not even a little bit,” Joe said, biting back a yawn.

“He’s, um, he’s very dangerous without his meds,” Donny stammered defensively.

“Considering no one seems to know the last time he took his pills, maybe you should have called his doctor instead of 911,” Eric pointed out.

Donny opened his mouth to argue but sighed instead. “You’re right. I’m really sorry about this, but could you please give us a hand since you’re here?” he asked, sounding close to crying. When Eric and Joe shared a look with Tyler, Donny quickly added. “Adam’s upstairs right now if you want to talk to him.”

Joe opened her mouth to say something only to be cut off by the linebacker now gawking at them. “You’re here for Adam?” he asked in disbelief. “Good luck with that. That guy’s fucking crazy!” as the rest of the patients quickly nodded in agreement.

Oh, that couldn’t be good…

Apparently, Joe agreed if the glare she sent him was any indication. “You are so buying me dinner tonight. Don’t eventhinkabout arguing,” she said in the same tone she used one week every month when she couldn’t get enough chocolate and everything he did seemed to piss her off. Was it the twenty-third already, Eric idly wondered. Nah, he still had another two weeks before he had to live in fear.

“Fine, but I hope you like ordering your meal through a clown’s mouth,” Eric snapped back.

Shaking her head in disgust, Joe gestured for Donny to show them to the patient. After a pregnant pause, the man reluctantly started up the stairs, followed by Joe and him at eye level with her perfectly rounded ass, forcing him to bite back a groan.

“You’re buying me a steak dinner,” Joe hissed softly over her shoulder.

He snorted. “The only steak dinner you’ll get out of me tonight is a burnt hamburger patty covered in canned gravy.”

“You cheap bastard!”she hissed, making him grin. That is until the bastard trailing after them that he’d forgotten about opened his big fucking mouth.

“I’d be more than happy to make this call up to you with a steak dinner, Joe,” Tyler announced.

Without pausing, Joe looked back at Tyler and gave him a warm smile. “Aw, you’re so sweet, Tyler,” she whispered as she turned to watch where she was going, but not before she stuck her tongue out at him.

Eric glared over his shoulder at Tyler and hissed, “You betraying bastard!”

Tyler grinned hugely as he mouthed, “I know.”

CHAPTER 9

Joe bit back a yawn as she watched Donny cautiously approach the small figure curled up on one of the twin beds in the small and rather depressing room. Her eyes darted to the other twin bed and noted that it was stripped. No roommate, in her opinion, was a good thing since they usually got in the way. She really hated it when they tried to “help.”

“He’s engaged,” Eric whispered in her ear as they waited for Donny to grow a pair of balls and wake the guy up. He was adding way too much drama to this situation and was going to end up pissing off their patient.

“So?” Joe whispered back, keeping her eyes on the patient.

She could practically feel Eric roll his eyes behind her. “So, I don’t think hisfiancéewould appreciate you going out for a steak dinner with him,” he explained softly in her ear.

Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. “He’s not buying me a steak dinner tonight.”

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