Just Kidding (SWAT Generation 2.0 #1)(24)

One side of the duplex was bare bones. Nothing out front to distinguish it as lived in.

But the one next door had a grill underneath the carport. A toolbox with an even smaller toolbox sitting on top of it. A jet ski and a paddleboat.

Oh, and a shiny black motorcycle that looked awfully familiar.

“Mostly everyone that lives here is a police officer of some kind,” Hastings said. “This guy is also an officer.” She gestured to my would-be duplex mate. “There are really only two that aren’t. Me, I live on the very end.” She pointed in the direction of her place. “And another woman that lives across the street and two down from me. I think she’s a nurse anesthetist.”

Wow.

That was surprising as hell.

“This is gonna be the safest place in the entire world,” I joked.

She grinned. “You have no idea, Rowen! Nothing happens here that we don’t want to happen here.” She gestured to the toolbox under the carport. “I wouldn’t think that’d be able to be left anywhere else. But at any given time, there are at least one or two officers home. They monitor the place. Keep a watch on everything. Nothing happens here without their knowledge.”

I had a feeling she was right.

And I thought living at my parents’ house was safe.

She finally walked into the open duplex and waved me in.

“I came earlier and turned on the air so we wouldn’t die while you were looking,” she explained. “I just left it open since we were about to head down here.”

I watched as she started to blink rapidly.

Having a feeling that she didn’t want me to stare, I turned and surveyed the room around me.

“Wow,” I breathed. “This is beautiful.”

Prettier than anything else I’d ever been in that was a rental.

My apartment in San Antonio looked like a dump compared to this place.

“Rent is eight fifty a month,” she said as she continued. “You can either sign a year contract, or you can go month-to-month. The only thing with month-to-month is that if there’s a new increase in the rent, you’re gonna have to pay it.”

That sounded fan-fucking-tastic to me.

Mostly because I was planning on buying a house. I wasn’t sure when. I wasn’t sure where.

But I knew that was one of my goals.

My parents had shouldered my education expenses. My car was paid off. I didn’t buy anything I didn’t need.

Which in turn meant that I had enough money to do what I wanted—like buy a freakin’ house.

I just had to make sure that the job that I’d accepted would work out, first. Then I’d go house shopping.

Until then, I would wait and live month to month when it pertained to rent.

Score!

“Month-to-month sounds great,” I said. “Do you need a background check on me or anything?”

She was already shaking her head.

“Nope,” she said. “All I need is some paperwork filled out. Then the first and last month’s rent. Then you’re good to move in.”

I was starting to feel absolutely giddy.

“Deal!”





Chapter 6


I don’t get the ‘zero fucks given’ thing. I have a ton of fucks. Fuck you. Fuck off. Fuck this. Fuck that. Fuck them. Fuck me.

-Dax’s secret thoughts

Dax

The next morning I woke up to a loud racket coming from the front of my duplex.

Popping one eye open, I realized that my alarm was about five minutes from going off.

I found myself hurrying out of bed as if I had gotten a full eight hours of sleep instead of the two that I’d been allowed after a SWAT call from hell.

I’d set my alarm for about half an hour before I would need to leave to pick up Rowen, but it was more than obvious that I hadn’t needed to.

Hell, I’d gone to sleep thinking about her the night before, and now I’d woken up doing the same thing.

What was it about the woman that had me tied in knots?

Hearing what sounded like the door next to me closing, I frowned and began to move toward the front window in order to peer out.

Did I have a new neighbor?

I knew it wouldn’t be long.

The place that I was living in was a freakin’ gold mine. Plus, it was one of the safest places in Kilgore thanks to all of the officers that were calling Shady Shores Duplexes, home.

My eyes lit on a familiar red coupe, and my heartbeat started to accelerate.

Frowning hard at the car, I watched and waited for the car’s occupant to come back.

She did long moments later, pulling a box out of the front seat of the car before turning around and bringing it back inside.

Excitement started to pour through my veins at the thought of her living next to me.

But what if it wasn’t her living next to me? What if it was a friend of hers or something? And she was just helping them move?

Unable to stop my curiosity, I walked back to my bedroom and picked up the first pair of pants I found—a worn and battered pair of blue jeans I’d worn to mow the yard in the day before.

I’d had about an hour in between getting up and having to go get my mother that I’d used to mow the small yard.

When I was done, I’d thrown my dirty clothes in the corner of my bedroom in my haste to get to the shower.