Page 37 of Refusing Kendall

“Why didn’t you lock the door?” Maverick asks as I see Lucas catch sight of the mess at my feet.

He bends down to get a closer look. When his angry eyes turn up to mine, I can’t hold back the tears that flood mine. I thought I was strong enough not to let this get to me, but with one look, he has me undone. He stands and wraps me up in his arms before even one tear can fall.

“What’s going on?” Goose asks, he and Maverick hover over the pictures. He’s the first one to look back up to me with murder in his eyes. Mav’s face is a stone-cold mask as he bends down to retrieve them from the floor.

Teagan, who went to stop the beeping microwave when they first came in, now stands in between Goose and the counter with his eyebrows low in confusion. His eyes land on the pictures as Mav lays them on the counter, and I watch as his expression turns to an icy rage that rivals only Goose at the moment.

His lip turns up into a snarl, “What the fuck? Who the fuck took these?”

The last question is directed towards me, still encased in Lucas’ arms, and I shrug, “I don’t know. I just got them. They were taped to the door when I got home.”

“And you didn’t call us?” T all but roars.

Lucas shifts us slightly as if to put space between me and Teagan. Between that and T yelling at me, it has me going on the defensive.

“You can’t be serious right now,” I say, stepping away from Lucas. “You can yell all you want, but it’s not going to solve anything. It’s not like I’ve had them for weeks or anything. I just got home like ten minutes ago. You can be mad at me all you want for being caught with your pants down like this. I know how bad it’ll make you look with the team if it gets out, and it’s my fault things went as far as they did. But, just so we’re clear, I didn’t take the goddamn things, so don’t take it out on me.”

I don’t wait to see if my words sink into his brain. Stalking into my bathroom, I have to refrain from slamming the door like a teenager. I’m so embarrassed that someone not only had the audacity to watch us like this, but went as far as to take the photos to prove it. Then, Teagan turns around and gets pissed atmefor it. I need a few minutes to myself to deal. Pressing my back into the wall, I slide down so that I can rest my head on the tops of my knees. The tears that threatened to spill over at the others seeing the invasion of our privacy are completely null and void compared to the anger and frustration that Teagan has spiked inside of me.

I’m not exactly sure how long I sit there before there’s a soft knock at the door. Lucas sticks his head in. “The detectives are here, and they’ll need to talk with you, baby,” he says in an oddly neutral voice.

I follow behind him to the kitchen, making a point to not look any of my guys in the face.

“Hello again, Ms. Davis,” the younger one says, reaching out to shake my hand. “We understand there’s been another disturbance.”

I nod, “There was an envelope of pictures taped to the door when I got home today.”

His face reveals no emotion whatsoever as he asks, “Can we see them, please?”

I’d rather a hole open up in the middle of the Earth and swallow me up, than to be standing here as they go through them, but I don’t voice my objections as Teagan passes them over. It only takes about three turns of the pages before I lose the grip on my mouth, “Do you have to do that here?”

He glances up at me, and his cheeks go pink. It’s his older partner that answers, “We can always do it at the station, but you’ll have to release the envelope to us.”

One word from Mav seals my fate, “No.”

They both nod, and I look to the floor as I feel a blush steal across my face. Goose comes to stand on my other side and takes my hand. I don’t look up, even after they’re finished with them and sliding them back into the envelope.

The older cop speaks again, “If we take them with us, we can have it all checked for fingerprints.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Mav shake his head, “We don’t want those leaving the house. You can do it here, right?”

They confirm that they in fact can, but it takes them what feels like forever to get someone out here to do it. It’s probably only like twenty minutes or so. Just knowing that yet another person is going to go through them, makes the whole thing drag out.

We all sit and wait patiently for the detectives to do their job. It isn’t until they’ve promised to let us know the results and are out the door, that Teagan turns to me and reopens our earlier heated discussion.

“I wasn’t mad at you,” he tells me.

I roll my eyes, “You sure could’ve fooled me.”

He runs a hand through his hair, “I was just pissed, because the last thing I wanted was for that memory to be tainted like this. I don’t give a shit if the whole world knows that I belong to you, or that they do too.” Motioning towards the others, he continues, “I’m fucking pissed, because whoever this is keeps fucking with us and hurting you in the process.” He moves around the counter to come stand in front of me. When I won’t look up to his face, he uses his index finger to lift my chin. His voice turns softer, “I’ve already told you that I’m not ashamed of this.”

I nod, and his long hair forms a blanket between us and the others as he leans down to press his lips against mine. Squeezing me tighter in his arms, he presses a kiss against my forehead.

“It doesn’t matter at this point,” Mav says. “I’m having a security system with cameras installed tomorrow, so one of us will need to be here around lunchtime to let them do their business.”

That reminds me, “What are you even doing here today? I thought you had practice.”

Still standing close, Goose answers, “It got moved to tomorrow, so we were coming down to have dinner with you.”

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