Sealed With A Kiss: Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild, page 29
Denny shoved him back. “Get out of my way.”
“Not a chance.”
Zander grabbed Donovan’s shoulder. “Don’t.”
“I’m just standing here,” Donovan told him, his eyes locked on Denny’s.
“Where is she?” Denny asked Naomi, leaning around Donovan. “I want her back.”
“I’m not—” Naomi started, but suddenly Fiona popped up from her chair, reached out and grabbed her hand, squeezing.
“It was me, actually,” Fiona said. “And I’m not saying anything else without my lawyer.” She gave Naomi a pointed look.
“But two nights ago you were…” Knox trailed off as Fiona gave him a shut the hell up look.
“She was what?” Owen asked, clearly not caring about the legal drama playing out if he could get some gossip.
“Nothing,” Knox said shortly.
“You got an alibi for her?” Owen asked with a grin. “Ooph,” he suddenly grunted as Maddie’s elbow connected with his stomach.
“Focus, babe,” she said through gritted teeth.
Owen rubbed his abs. “Yeah, okay.”
Then Maddie stood up. “It was me, too,” Maddie said.
Owen frowned. “What was you?”
“The dog. I took him.”
“Her,” Naomi corrected.
“Right.” Maddie nodded. “Her. I took her.”
“But you—” Owen was cut off by Maddie’s elbow again.
“It was me too,” Jordan said quickly, getting to her feet.
Fletcher, however, didn’t act confused by her confession. He just sighed.
Huh.
Charlie stood up next. “It was me too.”
“It was me too,” Kennedy said standing and crossing her arms.
Denny scowled at the women. “Fucking hell. It wasn’t all of you. There were only three people in the video.”
“What video?” Zander asked.
“The video from my doorbell. I only saw the front sidewalk though. Nothing in the back.”
“Pull it up,” Zander said shortly.
Denny pulled his phone from his back pocket and tapped a few buttons. Then he held the phone up for Zander to see.
Zander watched, then sighed. “Okay, let’s go downtown. We’ll sort through all of this.”
He cast a wistful look toward the chair he’d been sitting in. Donovan followed his gaze. A fishing pole was propped against the wall behind the chair Zander had occupied.
Donovan snorted. Poor Zander’s fishing trip was going to have to be postponed.
“Are you taking all of them?” Denny asked, gesturing toward the women behind Zander.
Zander pinched the bridge of his nose. “I—”
“Tell these five crazy bitches to stop fucking around,” Denny said.
“Six,” Paige said, standing and stepping forward.
“What?”
“Six crazy bitches. I did it too.”
Mitch didn’t even sigh. It was as if he’d been waiting for her to join in.
“Make that eight,” Jill said, pushing up from her chair awkwardly with her huge belly. “Unless I count for three.”
“Uh, you’re seven, babe,” Zeke said, actually helping her up from the chair to claim she’d been a part of a posse of dog-nappers.
Donovan felt a smile threatening.
“You be eight, Jill.” Ellie came from behind the bar. “I’ll be seven.”
“El—” Zander started. Then he stopped, blew out a breath, and looked up to the ceiling. As if praying.
“What the fuck are you all doing?” Denny demanded. “You all want to go to jail?”
“What we’re doing is establishing reasonable doubt,” Fiona said, one hand on her hip. “You have proof there were three people. But you can’t identify any of them. You now have eight people that it could have been. But you can’t actually prove it was any of us.”
“This is bullshit,” Denny said again.
Zander straightened again and raised his voice. “If everyone would just—”
Donovan heard the scraping of chairs and glanced back. Owen, Fletcher, Sawyer, Mitch, and Zeke were now all on their feet.
“You?” Denny asked. He laughed, but there was no humor in his tone. “You fuckers weren’t there. That photo is clearly of women.”
“You come after one of us, you come after all of us,” Fletcher said. “And you might have to put us all in a jail cell at first and sort it out later.”
“Oh, Jesus,” Zander said, running a hand over his face. “That is not happening.”
“For fuck’s sake,” he heard Knox mutter. But the big man also shoved his chair back and stood.
Fiona gave him a big, bright smile. He just rolled his eyes.
“Well, okay then.”
Jane and Piper, two of the women from Iowa, stood up.
Paige grinned at them and gave Piper, the one standing closest, a little hug.
Piper looked over at Dax and Ollie. “Well? You’re not standing up?”
Dax and Ollie were both leaned back in their chairs, watching the whole scenario unfold. Ollie had his long legs stretched out and his coffee mug resting on his belly. Dax had an ankle propped on his opposite knee. They looked completely casual, though definitely entertained.
At Piper’s question, they looked at one another, then back at Jane and Piper, and shrugged.
“We’re more the we’ll-get-the-bail-money types than the share-a-cell types,” Dax said.
“And the smuggle-a-shiv-into-jail-in-a-cake types,” Ollie added.
“You’ve both been in jail before,” Jane told them, propping a hand on her hip. “Sharing a cell if I remember the story correctly.”
“You do,” Piper confirmed.
“Well, yeah, but that was…” Ollie looked at Dax.
“A misunderstanding with foreign officials about local laws,” Dax said. “There was no bloodshed or stolen property or trespassing.”
“Well…” Ollie said. “There was that one time in Rome—”
“That was more of a language barrier issue,” Dax said quickly. But he gave his fiancée a big grin.
Jane just rolled her eyes.
Donovan felt all of his anger and worry drain away and he was definitely fighting a smile by the time he looked back at Denny Jenkins.
The guy had come after the wrong bunch of crazy.
He might win in the end. Someone had stolen his dog after all. But it was going to be miserably frustrating for him in the meantime. And the fucker deserved at least that much.
Denny was still frowning but he looked wary now.
Smart guy.
“Okay,” Zander said, taking a very deep breath and then blowing it out. “Everybody just needs to calm the fuck down.”
“I’m calling your lawyer right now,” Sawyer said, pulling his phone out.
“Whose lawyer?” Fiona asked.
He looked around. “Everyone’s lawyer. She’s going to be pissed she’s not here.”
Right. His wife, Juliet, was an attorney. That made Donovan feel better. At least the criminal he was in love with would be represented by someone who knew what they were doing.
“After you call Juliet, call Bennett and tell him I’m going to need bailed out,” Kennedy told her older brother. “It might take a bit to convince him you’re serious.” Then she shrugged. “Or maybe not.”
“Oh, hey, Dax, can I borrow …” Maddie trailed off and looked at Zander. “How much is bail gonna be?”
“You’re not going to need—” Zander tried to input.
“You know, stealing a dog can cost you three thousand bucks and ten years in jail,” Denny told her. “You still want to take the fall for this?”
“Jesus, that’s the maximum sentence,” Zander said. “And no one—”
“That penalty only applies if the animal’s worth is over five hundred dollars and sorry, yours isn’t,” Donovan told him. He’d spent time looking over all the laws around animal cruelty in Louisiana Wednesday night. He looked at Maddie. “That dog isn’t worth over three hundred and that means less than five hundred dollars and six months in jail. At most.”
“Six months…” Maddie looked at Owen.
“You look hot in orange. And I promise to make the conjugal visits worth it,” Owen told her.
“Not funny,” she muttered.
Owen leaned in and whispered in her ear, then gave her a hug.
Donovan remembered vaguely that Maddie’s dad was in prison and realized that all of this, joking or not, was getting out of hand.
“Listen, let’s just—” Donovan started.
“I need you all—” Zander said at the same time.
“Maddie didn’t do it,” Fiona said loudly. “It was definitely me. All my idea. I blackmailed the others into it. I’ve had fantasies about you and your handcuffs since the first day I met you,” she told Zander, extending her arms, her wrists together. “Let’s finally do this thing.”
“Knock it off,” Knox muttered.
She glanced at him but didn’t say anything. She just wiggled her hands at Zander.
“Sorry, can’t,” Zander said. “I’ve only got one pair of handcuffs. And besides—”
“Fine. We don’t need handcuffs. We’re not resisting. Come on, ladies.” Fiona pivoted on her heel and started for the front door “We’ll meet you down at the station.”
The other women, including Naomi, followed her across the room and out the front door.
The men all stood around, watching them go.
The door bumped shut behind them and there were a few seconds of silence.
Then Zeke asked, “So, they’re walking themselves to jail?”
Zander sighed heavily. “I left New Orleans because this job was supposed to be quieter.”
“Isn’t having the criminals take themselves to jail pretty easy?” Knox asked dryly.
“I didn’t say easy. I said quiet,” Zander told him. “You really think my station is going to be quiet with all of them down there?”
Knox, Zeke, and the rest all nodded. Almost with sympathy.
“So can we get copies of their mug shots from you for the scrapbooks of our trip down here or do we have to pull those off some public website or what?” Dax asked after a moment.
Zander just sighed.
What the hell had just happened? Donovan shook his head and started for the back door. He rounded the building as the women turned west and began walking toward downtown Autre.
Naomi was at the back of the pack with Jordan. Donovan reached her, wrapped a hand around her upper arm, and tugged her to the side of Ellie’s.
“Hey.”
“Just need a second.”
Jordan hesitated but Naomi gave her a nod. “It’s fine. I’ll catch up.”
When she met his eyes, he just studied her for a long moment. They hadn’t talked in over a day. She hadn’t confided in him what she’d done with the dog. But there was no question in his mind that this was the woman he wanted forever.
“What did you do?” he asked.
She rolled her eyes. “You know what I did.”
He blew out a breath. “Yeah. I do. Generally. You want to give me specifics?”
“Do they matter?”
“Not really. I just thought… you were the steady one. And now here we are with you the one practically in handcuffs.”
She simply nodded. “Yep.”
“And I tried to talk you out of this bad decision and you didn’t listen.”
“Nope.”
“So…what are we doing? You’re taking risks and pushing boundaries and playing with danger. You’re still upset with me about Brinkley?”
“No, actually. I just needed to stay with her yesterday because she needed lots of reassurance that she’s safe and I didn’t want to leave her alone again after she’d just been through that trauma.”
He loved her so damned much.
“You didn’t think you could tell me that?”
She shrugged. “I realized that I didn’t need your help, or your approval, to take care of it.”
Well, that was fair he supposed. “You didn’t think I’d have your back?”
“I knew you would. And you did when I needed it.”
That was…also good. He was pretty sure. “I don’t know what’s going on. I’m in love with you. You’re in love with me. Are we really ending this over a dispute about what to do about Brinkley?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
He had never been in love before. Or had a long-term relationship. Or a break-up that he hadn’t wanted to stick. So he was in uncharted territory here, he could admit.
“So help me out here. We’re not over, but you’re not sharing something pretty big with me. That doesn’t seem right.”
She thought about that. Then said, “Okay, I’ll tell you exactly what this is.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Maybe I don’t want to know, on second thought.”
“Well, now’s a good time, since I might be in jail for the next few months.”
“You’re not…probably not…going to be in jail,” Donovan said.
“Well, just in case, let me say this.”
“Does it end with I love you?”
She gave him a smile and put both hands on his chest. “It does.”
He blew out a breath. “Okay.”
“You’ve been content to rescue animals and rehabilitate them, and educate people about statistics and facts, and raise money for foundations, and get people active in organizations.”
He frowned. “Because those are important things.”
“Of course they are. But in spite of all those things you’ve done, you’ve felt restless. Like you wanted to do more,” she pointed out.
“I wanted to keep growing and using my platform to make a difference.”
“Right. Your platform.” She rolled her eyes.
“Excuse me?”
“Rachel and Brent came to town to give you exactly what you wanted and you’ve been fighting them the whole time.”
“They wanted to fake rescues!”
“They wanted to recreate rescues you’ve already done.” She held up a hand when he started to reply. “It wasn’t perfect and I haven’t been happy either, but if you really just wanted a bigger platform and to do more of what you’ve already done, you would have gone for it.”
Her voice softened. “But the truth is, while you’ve been in Autre, your platform hasn’t grown but you have. You. Donovan Foster. As a person. You want to do more but not in a bigger, flashier way. In a more meaningful way. You said it yourself—you don’t care if the animals are endangered and exotic or if they’re raccoons and goats that show up everywhere all the time. You don’t care if they’re affected by a natural disaster, or they got their head stuck in a chicken feeder. You want to help them all. And you want to influence other people to help them.
“Knowing you inspired me to do this same work—to get my boots muddy and my hands bloody and my clothes covered in hair and fur—matters to you. A lot. Maybe more than anything else you’ve done. Even when it comes to me sneaking into some guy’s backyard and taking his dog. Whether you admit that or not.”
She moved in again, now practically standing on his toes. She lifted a hand to his face. “And that freaks you out. You don’t want me doing it wrong or risking the animal’s safety or getting hurt or getting arrested because you helped me find this passion. So you suddenly pulled back and started dotting I’s and crossing T’s.”
She ran her hand over his whisker-roughened jaw. “A few months ago, you would have taken that dog out of that yard and to hell with the consequences. But now you’re in a new position…you’re in love for the first time, you’re part of a real, long-term team full of people who care about you and who you care about in return, and you’re worrying about other people for a change. You’re feeling responsible for humans for the first time. You’re way more comfortable when other people are taking care of you rather than this way around.”
Donovan felt emotions rolling over one another in his chest. He reached up and covered her hand with his, dragging it over to his mouth. He kissed the center of her palm as he stared into her eyes.
“How do you see all of this?”
“Because…” She paused and gave him a smile. “I love you.”
His breath rushed out. “I love you too.”
“I know you do. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to disagree sometimes. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to worry about each other sometimes. And that doesn’t mean that sometimes I’m going to not listen to you. And vice versa.”
“Okay. Yeah. I can deal with that. Maybe. I’ll learn.”
“I know you will.”
“And now I really need to kiss you.”
She melted into him as he cupped her face and covered her mouth. The kiss was deep and hot and sweet and exactly what he needed. If Naomi LeClaire would still kiss him like this at the end of every day, he’d always know that everything was going to be okay.
He’d just started to walk her back to press her against the side of the building when they heard, “There you two are!”
Dammit.
They pulled apart and turned as Rachel and Brent stopped beside them.
“So this is a mess,” Rachel said bluntly.
“What is?” Naomi asked, running her thumb over her bottom lip.
Donovan grinned at her smudged lip color and ran his own hand over his mouth, coming away with some berry color too.
Rachel thrust her phone toward them. “This.”
It was the photo of Naomi, Charlie, and Jordan carrying Brinkley out of Denny’s back yard.
“It’s fine. They were actually taking possession of a dog that law enforcement put into their custody,” Donovan said. He was ninety-nine percent sure that’s what Zander was going to explain when he went back in and asked the cop what the hell was going on.
“What?” Rachel asked.
“Zander served a warrant at Denny Jenkin’s house Wednesday night after investigating the reports of animal cruelty. That warrant allowed him to take possession of the dog. Law enforcement then turns the animal over to a custodian for fifteen days while the situation is more thoroughly investigated. After fifteen days, anyone interested in the animal can post bond that covers the expenses incurred during that fifteen day period. I, of course, intend to post that bond.”
