Page 64 of Rules of Engagement

The first picture's of the man on the stretcher. A zoomed circle clearly shows how viciously mauled his broken arm was, complete with bone protruding, and a warning that it’s graphic. The second one's a close-up of the other dude walking in handcuffs without a face. The third one's Jocko, me, and Lucifer outside the hotel room. My face is buried in Jocko’s chest, his arms wrapped around me, and Lucifer's lying at our feet. Two portions of that picture are zoomed to show Jocko’s raw, bloody knuckles and bright red, wet patches of blood on Lucifer’s black face. His eyes are glowing red from the light, and he looks like a devil dog. The caption reads ‘PTSD? Are they out of control?”

I slam the laptop closed and gulp air. This is bad! This is very bad.

I jump up from the table, grab my phone to text Jocko.

Hey. Do you know how much longer you’ll be?

We need to talk.

My phone rings. “Hey, Babe, missing me?”

“Yes.” I smile despite my panic.

“We're wrapping up now. It shouldn’t be too much longer. What’s up?”

“It will keep till you get here.”

“I’m not doing anything but supervising. Talk to me.”

I choose my words carefully. “Something has happened.”

He waits, but I'm unsure what to say over the phone. “Jorja, what has happened?”

“It’s about last night, but I don’t want to tell you over the phone.”

“Is it important?”

“Yes.”

“Is it bad?”

“I’ll tell you when you get here.”

The line goes dead.

I stare at it. “Did he just hang up on me?” I ask the air, then look out the window.

What I see startles me, and I step towards it, making sure I’m seeing what I think I’m seeing. “What the bloody hell?”

Jocko and Lucifer are walking over from Mr. Finkle’s house!

When they walk through the front door, my mouth is no longer hanging open. It is pressed into a hard flat line.

“Sup, Juicy?”

“You're renting the house next door?” My voice sounds much more accusatory than I intended, but my heart rate is up, and I’m still shocked.

“Yeah.” He stares at me.

“When were you going to tell me?” My arms cross under my boobs, and my hip cocks to the side.

“Am I in the doghouse?”

“Maybe.”

“I was looking for the right time, but it didn’t exactly present itself with everything that has happened between us.”

I open my mouth, but he holds a finger up. “However, I did intend to tell you this morning over breakfast, but when you said you were hoping I would be staying with you for a little while longer…. Well, I decided to hold off telling you so I could sleep in your bed for that little while longer.” His grin spreads to his eyes, and that cute eyebrow twitch does me in.

I roll my eyes. “You're forgiven.”

He grins. “So … what happened last night that you have to tell me in person?”

I take a deep breath and sigh. “TheSunnyville Gazetteposted about the incident last night on their Facebook page. And it’s not good.”

He glances at my laptop. “What does it say?”

“Let me just show you.”

He looks out the window, picks the laptop up off the table, takes my hand, and leads me out the door. “You can show it to me over there. I need to get back.”

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