Just Kidding (SWAT Generation 2.0 #1)(29)

“What was me?”

I felt my belly churn at the venom in those words.

She knew what she’d done.

She also knew that by admitting it, she’d be admitting to assault.

So she kept her mouth shut tight.

“I know what you’ve done,” Rowen said to the shit for brains that was still in Rowen’s office, not realizing her own danger. “I know that you think you got away with it, too. But let me tell you something, honey. You haven’t.”

Shondra grinned, her eyes flicking up to the hat and back.

“I’ll bet you look like a pubescent male now when you’re naked…”

And that’s when Rowen officially lost her cool.

She walked over to Shondra, reared back, and punched her straight in the nose.

Before she could get another punch in, I caught her around the waist and hauled her back.

“My nose!” Shondra cried, doubling over.

Rowen didn’t fight as I pulled her away.

She just turned her back on the wailing woman calmly, straightened her hat that she’d slipped on before we’d gotten out of the truck, and continued packing her things.

When people started rushing into the hallway outside of Rowen’s old office, Shondra immediately started pointing fingers about Rowen assaulting her.

“What is the meaning of this?” the old man that Rowen had been talking to in the lobby boomed.

“She punched me in the face! For no reason!” Shondra cried.

Rowen loaded the last thing into her box and closed the flaps.

“I did no such thing and you damn well know it,” Rowen countered. “You turned around and ran into the door. Both Dax and I saw you do it. I’m sorry if you’re upset about your new boyfriend not liking you as much as me, but it is what it is. Please, allow me to pass so I can leave.”

Every last one of them moved until there was enough space for us both to squeeze through.

She paused at a slight woman with a worried look on her face.

“You might want to have a talk with Shondra,” she admitted. “Because I used your hair shampoo and conditioner and all of my hair fell out.” She managed to tip her hat up to allow the girl to see her bald head while still holding onto the box. “I’m going with Shondra adding Nair to the bottle while she was out in the parking lot. But if you can’t get her to admit to it, I’ll be suing the company. So you might want to inform the company that you work for of that before I take this to court.”

With that, Rowen started walking again.

The young woman looked deathly pale.

“She’s not joking, by the way,” I added as I walked past. “Have a good one.”

Nobody dared stop us. And when we got to the truck, Rowen was looking a little wild-eyed.

Once we stowed her shit into the back seat and got into the truck ourselves, I burst out laughing.

She looked over at me with wide eyes.

“I can’t believe I just did that,” she whispered.

“I can’t either.”

We both burst out laughing.

“You should’ve seen how badly her head rocked back at the force behind that punch!”

Once our laughing had subsided, I pulled out of the firm’s lot and headed in the direction that she informed me.

My mood went from great to shit in half a second.

I knew the instant that we pulled up into the driveway of her apartment complex that I was about to get into yet another altercation.

This time with the man that Rowen had—hopefully past tense—a thing for.





Chapter 8


I’m going to say this as politely as possible. I will fuck you up.

-Rowen’s secret thoughts

Rowen

The excitement didn’t end with Shondra.

Twenty minutes after leaving the building, we made a stop at my apartment before we went to whatever appointment that Dax had made.

The moment we pulled in, I was surprised to see Theo on the steps that would lead to my apartment.

I blinked, then blinked again.

“What the hell?” I asked, surprised to not only see Theo there but that he looked quite frankly pissed.

Dax got out of the truck while I was still sitting there flabbergasted.

When I finally pulled my head out of my ass at the sight of him sitting there at an apartment that he’d never, not even once, visited, Dax was at my door and opening it for me.

I smiled at him, feeling my heart melt.

He looked off. Not mad, per se, but annoyed. As if something was bugging him, but he was trying not to let it.

“You okay?” I asked.

Today had been a long day for him, and he’d gone above and beyond what I’d ever expected of him.

Then again, I hadn’t expected the shit that had happened in my old office earlier to happen.

“I’m fine,” he said. “Theo’s being here after Shondra’s bullshit is pissing me off.”

I agreed wholeheartedly.

“Shondra rubbing the fact that she’s now with him officially is such a dick move,” Dax continued. “She knows that you once had a thing for him. And I imagine that she learned that from Theo and not on her own. She doesn’t seem like the brightest bulb in the box.”

I snorted.

“I imagine that Theo has no fucking clue,” I told him.