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“I guess.”
“Why aren’t you more excited about this? I figured bein’ in charge would make you giddy. You’re always tryin’ to boss me and Carey around.”
“No, I’m not,” I said, hand to my chest in mock-offended style.
“Right,” Frank said. “Whatever you say. Well, I think you should do it. Besides, if you don’t, Carey will have to bring in some outsider, and you know that’s gonna put Shelley in a tizzy. You don’t want that, do ya? All hell will break loose around here.”
He was right though. Our receptionist wasn’t one to welcome newcomers easily. I was a little concerned about the new deputies, and I hadn’t even met them yet.
I looked at my partner. “Why’re you tryin’ to push me into this? You’re not mad Carey didn’t offer you the job?”
“Nope. I’m happy for you. You should be happy for you too. I’ve got Sam, Murph, and Nic waitin’ at home for me.” Frank was a goner for his new foster daughter. She’d been with them a year already. I couldn’t believe how fast time had flown by since then. “I don’t want any job that keeps me here late doin’ paperwork. I get enough calls in the middle of the night. Besides, we’ve got plans this fall. I’m takin’ my family up to the Pacific Northwest to camp and fish when the kids have fall break. I’m so dang excited about it. Did I tell you we bought a camper?”
“Yeah, you did. Like seventeen times. It’s real fancy, la di da, and it’s even got a bidet. So now the image of you straddlin’ some fancy toilet with a stream of water shootin’ up in the air to wash the shit off your asshole is all I can see when I look at you.”
Frank laughed. The idiot laughed! What the hell was wrong with the man? Before he settled down with Samantha and their kids, nothing made him smile and laugh the way he did now. He was like a different guy.
“It’s a hairy affair,” I said, making a “yuck” face, but then I laughed too. Man, it made me happy to see my friend so blissed out.
“Well,” he said as he composed himself, wiping tears of laughter away from his eye, “whatever you decide, I got your back.”
“Thanks, partner. Right back atcha.”
He nodded, then unlocked his desk drawer and grabbed his gun, fitting it into his holster on his hip as he walked to the door. “See you tomorrow then. Oh, Abey?”
“Yeah?” I said, with my phone halfway to my ear to call José.
If I asked real nice, he’d deliver an extra-large cup of chili right to my truck, with little soup crackers, shredded cheddar cheese, and extra chopped onions. I kept a spoon in my center console for just such an occasion. Truly, I didn’t mind doing fifty extra burpees every morning if I got to eat it at least three times a week, and I hated burpees, which said everything a person needed to know about José’s chili.
“Looks like you got your hands full already today.”
“Huh?”
“Look,” he said, and he motioned with a nod out our front door. “Think you better get your butt on across the street. If I’m not wrong, the assistant director for Ace’s House and old Red Graves are goin’ at it again.”
“Dammit, Devo,” I muttered under my breath.
I shoved my phone in my back pocket and patted my vest, making sure my cuffs were still attached. I hadn’t meant I wanted to handcuff her today! Not in any official capacity, though, if she wasn’t always causing a ruckus, I wouldn’t have minded binding her wrists for some other way less official reason.
Why’d she have to go and make things so damn hard?
CHAPTER FIVE
DEVO
“Devo, you’re killing me here,” Theo said. “This is the third time you’ve landed yourself behind bars. I can’t keep turning the other cheek.”
My exasperated boss hung his head, and I chose not to tell him I’d spotted a new patch of gray hairs on the top. Yeah, not the right moment at all. Personally, I thought the gray was cute. His boyfriend was gaga for it. Brady said they made Theo all the more regal, but Theo did not agree, so yeah. Kept my mouth shut.
“What’re you sayin’?” I faced him fully and looked up at him with my hands on my hips. It was a little embarrassing that there were iron bars between us, but my boss and I had always seen eye to eye, even though we came from completely different walks of life. “Are you firin’ me?”
He rubbed two fingers over his forehead, digging them into the skin, probably trying to rub away his frustration.
If he did fire my ass, he had good reason, but seriously, how could everyone expect me to stand around when people I cared about were being treated so unfairly? I couldn’t do it!
“No. I’m not firing you. Yet. But Devo, you cannot keep getting in trouble like this. We’re supposed to be upstanding members of the community. What will people think?”
I scoffed but instantly felt bad about it. “Maybe they’ll think I’m fightin’ for their rights. That’s all I’m doin’, you know.”
