Just Kidding (SWAT Generation 2.0 #1)(66)

I heard it close behind me and stared at myself in the mirror.

Dax was right.

They hadn’t had to cut my hair again.

Honestly, if you looked at me, you wouldn’t think that I’d just taken a hammer to the temple.

There was no outward sign that anything had happened.

Inwardly, though? Yeah, my brain was throbbing like a bitch.

After using the bathroom and washing my hands again, I made a half-assed attempt to tie the gown in the back so that I wouldn’t have to hold on to it. Then made my way out the door.

I arrived just in time to hear Max say, “Dax isn’t here. He got a SWAT call and left about a half hour ago.”

I narrowed my eyes and looked at the door that Max was barely holding open and saw Rachelle on the other side.

“I wanted to apologize to Rowen, too. Is that okay?” Rachelle pleaded.

I was about to reply with ‘hell no’ when another voice entered the fray.

“I don’t think that’s gonna work.”

Max opened the door a little more and placed his big body into it, blocking the way to me but also allowing me to see who’d just spoken.

It was Hayes.

He was another new member of the SWAT team and one that I didn’t know all that well just yet.

I had a feeling being with Dax would mean I’d get to know them all at some point.

Rachelle turned and pressed her back up against the wall right outside my door. I could just barely see her from where I was standing.

My mother was turned and surveying everything from across the hall.

“Ma’am,” Hayes said as he removed a set of handcuffs from his pocket. “If you could please come with me.”

Rachelle shrieked then. “I will not!”

There was a crowd gathering around now, and even the throbbing in my head couldn’t stop me from watching the show in front of me.

“I didn’t do anything!” she continued, her voice so high-pitched that I couldn’t help but wince as the pain started to pound even harder in my skull.

“Ma’am,” Hayes said, moving closer to a clearly not-going-to-cooperate Rachelle. “Time to go.”

Rachelle went wild then, throwing herself forward, her hands curling into claws as she aimed them at Hayes’ face.

Hayes caught her and had her face first onto the hospital floor in about half a second flat.

I watched with enjoyment as her face was pressed to the nasty floor and she was handcuffed.

“So what did she do?” Max asked curiously.

Hayes opened his mouth to say something, but Rachelle started spitting venom.

“That bitch,” Rachelle growled. “I should’ve never let her do this. But Rowen and her smug ass face. I wanted to ruin it after what she did to me.”

What I did to her?

What the hell had I done?

Then Dax, who was the latecomer to the party, arrived.

“Sorry to inform you,” Dax replied. “But my girl didn’t do anything to you. You did everything to yourself.”

“I was forced to tell my husband what I’d done down to the smallest of details. He didn’t take kindly to being married to someone who was practically a sex offender, so he filed for divorce.” Rachelle turned her venomous glare toward me. “All because that one had to go and open her mouth in a public place. One of my husband’s business partners heard and told my husband. Now he’s divorcing me and leaving me penniless.”

“Being penniless will be the least of your problems,” Dax supplied. “Thanks, Hayes.”

Hayes marched Rachelle out before I could get the rest of the story.

Dax shook his dad’s hand, then looked at me standing there looking curious.

“What the hell?” I asked.

He walked up to me and put his strong arms around me, pulling me in close.

I laid my head down against his neck and breathed deeply, inhaling his scent over and over again.

When I closed my eyes, my headache started to pound less fiercely.

“Come sit down,” he ordered.

I felt the rumble of his words underneath my cheek.

I wanted to move but only if he came with me.

Which he did when he picked me up like a child and carried me back to bed.

But he crawled into it with me.

Which was about the time I saw that he was in sweatpants and not the gear he’d left in.

“Tell me what happened,” I ordered.

So he did. Starting with the words I’d said earlier about thinking Shondra was looking behind me.

“Rachelle had crawled in through a broken window,” he continued. “We’d thought that was how Shondra had gotten in, but apparently it was how both of them got in.”

I shook my head as my dad entered the room, looking pissed.

I didn’t say hi to him, eager to hear the rest of the story.

“Shondra somehow convinced Rachelle to help her. Not sure how or why, but they were working together yesterday,” he continued. “And then Rachelle had a stroke of conscience and called me after beating you over the head with a golf club I had in my spare bedroom.”

I winced. “So not a hammer?”

He shook his head, and I sighed, curling up into his arms.

“Rachelle’s husband wasn’t aware that Shondra was being looked for. But upon being made aware, he gladly handed her over. Then told us Rachelle’s whereabouts. We’re not sure what she was up here trying to do, but my guess it wouldn’t have been good.” He paused. “They’ll both be facing attempted murder charges now.”