Page 41 of Inflame Me
I fall to the bed next to my mom and stare at the ceiling. “Things with him can’t work, Mom. There are just so many things wrong with him and me.”
“You don’t think I know that? You don’t think it killed me to leave your father? You don’t think I have my own regrets?” my mother says.
I turn to her. “You’re mad you left? I thought you were happy you left?”
“I don’t know anymore. Just being around that man …” Her voice trails off.
I need to deflect her. “What do you think the guys are doing?”
“I have no idea,” she responds.
I PUNCH THE motherfucker in the chest, hearing him wheeze. “Don’t ever lay a fucking hand on her,” I growl.
“Brother, chill,” Pops says, putting a hand on my shoulder.
Fuck, I could tear this piece of shit apart. He’s lucky at the moment that I’m being pulled off, because if not, he would be straight out dead. The moment I saw that terrified look on Tanner’s face, I couldn’t hold it back. Like a magnetic pull, I had to feel her, smell her. Protect her.
Pops steps back and pulls out a piece of paper. “Says here that you are here unofficially.” That shocks me, and by the look on Dagger’s face, him, too. “You took a week off to come here.”
“What?” this comes from Officer Miller. “We’re not getting paid to be here?” The shock on his face matches that of ours.
“No,” Pops responds, surprising me.
Officer Miller sits on the couch, dumbfounded. “You told me that the station said we had to come down here and question these two. What the hell is going on?”
“What’s going on is this idiot thought he could threaten and touch my daughter. He thought he’d get some stupid confession out of them or take it out on their hide,” Dagger answers.
Officer Miller stills, and if I had a heart, I might have felt something for him. “Fucking hell! I need to get back. I can’t miss work!”
“Shut up! I had your vacation cleared for you,” Griff spits out at him.
“You wasted my fucking vacation for this shit!” Miller responds.
“As much as this little pissing contest you have going on is humorous, we’ve got shit to do,” I cut in. “Whose car did you drive down here?”
“Mine,” Miller answers. I swear, if he were a cartoon, smoke would be pouring out of his ears.
“Good,” Pops says, looking at the man. He pulls out a couple bricks of cash, handing it to Miller. Miller doesn’t take it.
“What’s that for?” he asks, eyeing the cash, his mouth almost salivating at it.
“You, to drive back. You speak nothing of this. Take your family on a little trip with the rest of your vacation time. You say nothing of what happened here.”
Miller eyes the money then Pops. “My wife knows I’m here.”
“Then you convince her that you lied,” Pops responds.
“Don’t you dare fucking leave. They’ll kill me,” Griff says.
Miller looks between all the guys. He ponders for long moments, but I see the instant he looks at the money and realizes so many of his problems would vanish because of it.
“I’m out of here. I didn’t want to come in the first place,” Miller says, standing up.
Pops hands him the money. “Never a word or I find you and put a bullet in your head, your wife’s, and your kids’.”
Miller pales. “Not a word. Ever.” He gives one more look at Griff then takes the moment. “The case was pretty much closed out after the conversation with the fiancée checked out. Griff didn’t want to let it go, said the Sergeant told him to investigate to make sure. I came because he said it was ordered.”
“Go,” Pops says, and Miller shuts the door behind him.
