Just Kidding (SWAT Generation 2.0 #1)(6)

Luke cursed again.

“She’s going to absolutely lose her shit.” Luke groaned. “This needs to be done somewhere that’s not in the middle of my police station.”

I gave Luke a chin up.

“Send her the back way,” I suggested. “I’ll hold her off.”

Then I was gone before either one of them could say another word.

I heard them both moving as if their life depended on it, though.

Scrambling to catch up.

I made my way down the long length of the hallway and smiled at the woman when her eyes caught on me.

“Why hello, Dax.” Reese smiled. “Look at you looking all official and shi… stuff.”

My lips tipped up at one corner, showing off my signature smirk.

I say signature seeing as apparently I do it a lot and I’m not aware of it.

I just don’t see a reason to smile full out all the time. Maybe I’m lazy, I don’t know. But being happy and jovial and smiling is exhausting.

I’d much rather be who I am than who people want me to be.

I looked down at my ‘uniform’ which consisted of black tactical pants, black tactical boots, and a black t-shirt that denoted me as ‘KPD SWAT.’ The ensemble was finished up with a black gun belt with my service weapon and some extra ammo.

“Official?” I asked. “I was thinking I looked like a douche… ummm,” I hesitated. “Dork.”

She snorted. “You look fine.”

“I look like I’m about to step right out of a B movie,” I corrected her. “I wish they’d let me wear jeans.”

“You don’t like wearing the pants?” she asked.

I shrugged.

“I like wearing the pants.” I heard a shuffle behind me.

I turned so that I was leaning against the wall and she turned, following so she could continue to face me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rowen sneaking out the back door with Luke following her out.

“But…” Reese pushed.

I groaned and scrubbed my hands over my face.

“Today we’re taking part in a charity calendar photoshoot,” I explained. “And I really, really don’t want to do it.”

Reese’s smile was soft.

“Isn’t it for that girl that lost her dad last year?” Reese asked, face and body softening.

“Yeah, the girl graduates this month,” I answered. “We’re hoping it’ll help with her college fund. Every participant gets to choose which charity that they’re donating to. A few of us chose her.”

‘Her’ being Avery Flynn. Avery’s father, Rader Flynn, had been a twenty-five-year veteran of the Longview Police Department. Six months ago, during an inter-departmental SWAT raid between three departments, he’d suffered a fatal injury.

The man that was getting arrested had decided he would rather go down swinging than face jail time.

He’d taken out Rader in a last-ditch effort to get himself free.

It hadn’t worked.

But he had killed the veteran, leaving behind his nineteen-year-old daughter.

Sadly, that wasn’t the first time that Avery had suffered a blow like that.

Her mom, who also happened to be on the Longview Police Department, had been hit by a drunk driver while going home from work in her police-issued vehicle. Avery had been sixteen at the time.

Needless to say, if anyone deserved help, it was her.

For both of her parents dying while on duty? That was a blow. A big one.

“That’s sweet.” She paused. “Why do you have such a fear of cameras, anyway?”

I winced. “I don’t necessarily have a fear of cameras as much as a worry that my pictures are going to get used for something that they were never intended to be used for.”

When I was in high school, there’d been an unfortunate event that had occurred with me and my girlfriend at the time. After we’d broken up, she’d sent all of the pictures of me that she’d taken, and some that I’d sent her, and had blasted them far and wide for everyone to see.

Meaning, there were some rather revealing pictures of my nineteen-year-old body floating around in cyberspace that always came back to bite me in the ass at the most inopportune of times.

“Ahh,” she said, probably remembering the incident well. “I see. Well, what you’re doing is for a good cause. And the photographer that was hired for this particular shoot should take care of you seeing as you’re doing it for her.”

I grinned.

That was true.

Avery Flynn, the girl that was getting some help off the money some of us made for the calendar, was also the girl that was taking the photos.

Avery had, apparently, been extremely gifted in the photography department.

Self-taught, she’d started when she was twelve.

Apparently, she’d been taking the SWAT photos for years, as well as doing quite a bit of the photography that our police department used on their social media accounts and websites.

“I’m trusting her,” I told Reese. “You see me dressed for it, yes?”

Reese snorted. “I see that you think you’re going to get away with not taking your shirt off. But we want these puppies to sell… and that requires bare chests.”

I opened my mouth to reply, then closed it.