Bucking Tradition, page 10
I wasn’t going to do that, though. That would just put a bigger void between Luna and me.
Fear was something I never wanted Luna to feel when she was dealing with me.
The bell above the door chimed when I walked in, and I pushed my sunglasses on top of my head. I moved to the counter, ordered a black coffee, and kept my back to Luna while I took a calming breath. I kept reminding myself she was safe and nothing had happened to her. That was all that mattered.
The barista handed me my coffee, and I turned on my heel toward Luna.
Greta raised her hand and waved as if they weren’t the reason I was there.
“Officer,” Greta called. “Over here.”
Dear God. Part of me believed that Greta was an instigator in all of this.
“Greta,” Luna hissed.
I couldn’t help but smile.
“He’s smiling,” Greta whispered loudly. “I don’t think he’s going to arrest us.”
Arresting both of them was appealing, but they hadn’t broken any laws. Yet.
“Now?” I heard Birdie ask.
Greta nodded and winked.
What in the hell were they up to now?
Birdie raised her hand to her forehead and sighed loudly. “I don’t think I’m right.”
Greta kicked her under the table.
“I mean, I don’t feel right.” Birdie scooted her chair back and slumped in her chair. “I feel a mighty insensibility.”
Greta’s eyes bugged out. “Oh, no, not insensibility.”
As if Greta knew what that meant.
Luna buried her face in her hands and let out a groan.
“Help me, officer,” Birdie called.
Luna shot up from her chair. “Stop,” she shouted. “Just stop.”
Birdie opened one eye and looked up at Luna. “Um, stop my insensibility?”
Greta smacked her hand on the table. “You were supposed to faint in this century, Birdie, not back in the eighteen hundreds.” Greta grabbed her coffee and took a sip.
Birdie opened her other eye and sat up a little bit. “Um, I think I’m starting to feel better.” She fanned her face and gave a weak smile. “It must have been the draft in here.”
Greta licked her finger and held it up in the air. “I’m not feeling a draft, Birdie, unless you’re talking about your horrible acting. If you’re going to roll with Luna and me, you’re gonna have to get your shit together.”
Birdie nodded and smiled. “Maybe I could take an acting class between saving babies.”
Greta tapped her nose. “That is the kind of dedication we like,” she laughed.
Birdie may be a horrible actor, but she seemed to have the type of sense of humor to hold her own with Greta.
Luna glanced at me. “Um, I think Birdie was feeling a little faint, but she’s better now.”
I chuckled and took a sip of my coffee. “That’s good to hear.”
“Uh, do you come here often?” she asked.
I shook my head. “First time.” I held up my cup. “Coffee is good, though.”
“Donuts are good, too,” Greta interrupted. “If that is your thing, officer,” she mumbled out of the side of her mouth.
“Dear God, Greta,” Luna moaned. “I swear she really doesn’t know when to stop.”
I sipped my coffee and smiled.
Luna shuffled her feet and bit her lip. “So, how is your day going?”
“Uh, well, it was going okay.”
She looked over at me. “And now?”
I shrugged. “I mean, it’s been better.”
Luna nodded. “Well, we were just about to head back to my house. Greta and I got the yearning for a coffee and thought we could catch up with Birdie.”
“A yearning,” Greta agreed. She held up her empty cup. “My yearn has been fulfilled.”
“That’s good. I’ll follow you guys’ home, if that’s okay with you.”
Luna nodded vigorously. “We are so fine with that.”
Yeah, I bet she was fine with that. “I’ll just be in my car until you’re ready to go.” I walked out of the café and headed back to my car. I slid into the driver’s seat and took a sip of my coffee.
“You didn’t get me anything?” Bear asked.
I raised my middle finger and flipped him off. “The bounty hunter who can’t do his job doesn’t get coffee.”
“What about the detective who can’t solve his case?” Bear countered.
I pushed my middle finger into Bear’s face. “Go get your own damn coffee.”
“You wouldn’t let me go in,” he muttered.
I lowered my hand and watched the window of the café. Luna was still standing and talking wildly with her hands while Greta sat there with a smug look on her face. “Maybe you should try hooking up with Greta,” I suggested. “If you distract her, maybe Luna won’t do so much crazy shit.”
“I thought I was here to help you solve a few murders, not date your girlfriend’s cousin.”
“Whatever gets the job done,” I muttered. “I heard stories about how crazy Luna’s aunts were, but I have to think that crazy got passed onto the next generation.”
Luna and Greta walked out of the restaurant with Birdie behind them. They waved goodbye to her and got into Greta’s car.
“How much did you yell?” Bear asked.
I started the car and drove behind Greta as she pulled out of the parking lot. “I didn’t. Got a coffee, Luna told me they were headed home, and then I came out here.”
Bear turned in his seat and looked at me. “You took my advice?”
I glanced at him. “Your advice was something I’ve been trying to do with her for two years. I’m not a fucking idiot, Bear. I can see why Luna is the way she is, but that doesn’t make dealing with her any easier.” Sometimes, I needed to be reminded that I had to deal with Luna with caution and give her space.
“Were they terrified when you walked up to them?”
A broad smile spread across my mouth. “I don’t know what exactly their plan was, but once I approached the table, Birdie tried to pretend that she was going to faint, but she said she had an insensibility.”
Bear quirked an eyebrow.
“I don’t fucking know, man. It took everything I had not to laugh.”
“I fucking bet,” Bear chuckled. “You gotta wonder if they were trying to distract you to get Luna out of the building.”
I shrugged. “God knows when Luna and Greta are together. They’re definitely good at keeping me on my toes.”
We drove back to Luna’s, and I parked next to Greta’s car.
Luna hopped out and Greta shifted into reverse before the passenger door was shut. Greta rolled down the window and stuck out her head. “I got some shit to take care of, officer hottie! Go easy on her.” She backed out and shifted the car into drive. “I told her a spanking isn’t always a bad thing.”
“Go away!” Luna shouted.
Bear hopped out of the car and tapped the roof after he shut the door. “See you tonight.”
“What?” Luna gasped. She looked at me. “You’re going back to work?”
“It’s barely noon, Luna. I can’t take off work whenever I feel like it.”
“Oh,” she muttered. “Well, I’ll see you tonight.”
I nodded and headed back to the station. Did I have to go back to work? No. It would have been fine if I took off the rest of the day, but I would have been behind tomorrow.
Luna needed time after her escape, and I did too. I had been able to keep my cool in the café, but I didn’t know if I would be able to when we were in her house, and she was comfortable enough to start throwing excuses and sass at me.
A few hours of being apart was going to do both of us good.
Chapter Twelve
Luna
“YOU HUNGRY?”
I shook my head and kept my eyes on the TV.
“I was gonna make a sandwich.”
“Okay. I think Bristol brought a bunch of lunch meat. She put it in the drawer. I can make you one if you want.”
Bear chuckled and stepped in front of my view of the TV. He reached down and grabbed the remote.
“What are you doing?” I asked when he clicked off the TV.
Bear crossed his arms over his chest. “Wondering what the hell you are doing.”
I motioned to the TV he had just turned off. “I was trying to watch Young and the Restless, but you just turned it off. Chloe was going to have her baby today. She’s been in labor for the past two days.”
Bear chuckled. “You can catch it in reruns, doll.”
“Now you can tell me what you are doing,” she countered.
“Wondering where your sass went. You leave it at the café?”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
That was a lie. I knew exactly what he was talking about. I knew as soon as Ransom walked into the café that I had fucked up by running this morning. After all, I hadn’t really found out anything, and now, I had pissed off Ransom and Bear.
“You just offered to make me a fucking sandwich, Luna. Pretty sure before this morning, you would have hurled the bread at me and told me to make my own.”
I shrugged. I might have done that.
Bear sat on the couch next to me and kicked up his feet on the coffee table. “You do know that you’re not a prisoner here, right? Everything you did today with Greta you could have asked me to do.”
I scoffed. “Like you would have agreed to take me to the girls so I could talk to them.”
“Why not?” Bear asked. “There must obviously be something you thought you could find out about them. I know this is hard for you to understand, but you’re not a cop, Luna. Ransom and I have been trained on how to get answers out of people. We get that these are all of your friends, but you can’t solve this on your own. Hell, Ransom can’t even solve this on his own. He had to call me.”
“I don’t want to solve this on my own, Bear.”
“Could have fooled me,” he chuckled.
“I just want to be a part of it. I want to have my voice heard and not just be told no and to go away.”
Bear shook his head. “I know you’ve been told no; I’ve heard it. But I have never heard anyone tell you to go away. Only been here for three days, but I don’t think any of the people you have surrounding you would say that to you.”
“No is the same as go away with them, Bear.” I didn’t care what Bear had heard or what he thought. When Dad or any of the guys in the club told me no, they meant it as I wasn’t worth enough to talk to about it.
“I’m not going to tell you that you’re wrong, Luna, but I can tell you when Ransom tells you no, it’s not because you’re a woman or that he wants you to go away.”
Bull. Shit. “He tells me no because he doesn’t want me to get in the way.”
Bear raised his hand and twisted it back and forth. “I mean, that might be a little bit, but it’s not the whole reason for no.”
“Go eat your sandwich, Bear. I promise not to try to escape anymore.” I didn’t know what to do next so there was no sense in Greta and me joyriding.
Bear shook his head. “You really don’t listen, doll, even when what’s being said is something good.” He walked back into the kitchen, and I turned the TV back on.
I had heard what he said.
I didn’t believe any of it.
End of story.
Chapter Thirteen
Ransom
“I’M GOING OUT.” BEAR grabbed his sweatshirt he had hanging by the front door. “You need anything?” he asked.
Luna looked up from the TV. “Nothing I need.”
“All good with me,” I replied. We had just finished dinner, and Luna had camped out in front of the TV while I was at the kitchen table going over some things I had brought home from the station.
“Don’t wait up for me.” Bear closed the door behind him with a wave over his shoulder.
I hadn’t really talked much when I had gotten home. Luna had dinner ready, and Bear had already eaten. Now, it was just me and Luna. I wanted to talk to her, but I could tell she didn’t want to. She had been cordial to me, but the usual feistiness was gone.
“What are you doing?”
I looked up from my papers, surprised to see Luna standing on the other side of the table. “Uh, just doing some paperwork.”
“Do you normally bring work home with you?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Not usually.” I hated doing paperwork, but I was pretty good at getting it done right away so it wasn’t hanging over my head.
“So why did you bring it home tonight?” Luna moved to the freezer and pulled out a gallon of ice cream.
Because I spent three hours of my day looking for Luna and Greta. “Day just got away from me.”
Luna hummed and grabbed two spoons from the drawer. She moved to the table and pulled out the chair next to me. “Ice cream?”
I nodded. “I could always go for dessert.”
She sat down and offered me a spoon.
“How is the arm treating you today?” I asked.
She pried the lid off the ice cream and drug her spoon through it. “Pain is much better. It aches every now and then, but it’s getting better.” She licked the ice cream off the spoon and sat back in the chair with her leg tucked under.
“How about the head? No headaches?” I had a few concussions in my time and knew that lingering headaches were pretty common.
Luna shook her head. “So far, so good.”
I dug out a spoonful of ice cream. I didn’t know what Luna was up to. It was almost seven o’clock, and I didn’t think she was trying to drug me so she could go out with Greta. But I wouldn’t put anything past her after this morning.
“I’m sorry about today,” she said softly.
I took a bite of ice cream and nodded.
“Greta and I shouldn’t have taken off like we did.”
I nodded again.
Luna stared at me for a beat. “I won’t do anything like that again.” She cleared her throat. “Unless it is absolutely necessary.”
There was the Luna I knew. It was nice that she was apologizing for this morning, but it was something I wasn’t used to coming out of her mouth. “Thank you.”
She tipped her head to the side. “Thank you?” she laughed.
“I am in shock that the words ‘I’m sorry’ came out of your mouth. You’ll have to give me a second to let them sink in.”
Luna reared back.
A smiled spread across my lips and a chuckle rumbled from my chest.
“Oh, God,” Luna laughed. “I thought you were being serious.”
I took another spoonful of ice cream. “Thank you for apologizing, and you don’t have to promise not to do it again.”
“I know, but I won’t do it again. After doing it, I’m not really sure it was even worth it in the end. I got a few creepy guys from the girls, but they didn’t know names or anything.” She sighed and slumped in her chair. “It was nice to have lunch with Birdie, but the lengths I went to do it were a bit...over the top?”
“I do hope Birdie is feeling better after her insensibility today.”
Luna buried her face on her hand. “My God, that was painful to watch. Greta spewed the idea at her when we saw you pull into the parking lot. Greta was convinced if we distracted you with Birdie fainting, it would take your rage away from me.”
“That might have worked if Birdie was a better actress.”
She nodded. “Uh, yeah. Greta should have been the one to do it, but we thought you might not believe it if she did it because you knew she was crazy.”
I tapped my nose. “You hit the nail on the head with that. I probably would have stepped over her and went home.”
Luna laughed. “I probably would have hitched a ride with you.” She sighed and dropped her spoon in the ice cream. “Bear told me this isn’t a prison.”
“I don’t know who told you it was.”
She looked to the living room. “No one. I guess...”
“You guess what, Luna?” I asked softly.
“I guess for years, it felt like I was in a prison. Not in the physical sense, but more in the sense that I was free to do what I want, but at any turn, I would be told no or that I couldn’t do something because it would hurt me, or I was a girl.” She turned back to me. “It feels like a prison to me and I refuse to be trapped in it anymore.”
This was the conversation I had been wanting to have with Luna, but now that it was here, I needed to tread carefully. I fully understood what she was saying and feeling, but there were some things I didn’t think she had just right.
“I told you no because I have a job to do, Luna.”
“Your job that has to deal with me and people I love.”
I shrugged. “Not wrong, but that doesn’t give you the open right to tag along with me and know everything I do. I’m trained to interrogate, investigate, and uphold the law.”
She tapped her fingers on the table. “I hear what you are saying, and I get what you are saying, but it really pisses me off.” She leaned forward. “A lot.”
I chuckled and shrugged. “And I understand that, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you come to work with me, Luna.”
“I know,” she mumbled.
“But that doesn’t mean you can’t help me when I need it and be involved in some parts of my job,” I offered. At least, when it came to the case that involved her.
She tipped her head to the side. “I feel like you’re going to give me a little bit of hope and you better be.”
“I’m going to the storage unit Tanya’s family has where they put all of her belongings after she died. I know I had said Pie was going to come over tomorrow, but I was wondering if you wanted to come with me.”
“Come with you?” she asked slowly. “As in go to the storage unit?”
“I figure three sets of eyes are better than two. We looked at her apartment yesterday, but it was all cleaned with none of her belongings there anymore. I got permission from her family before I clocked out today.”
Luna’s eyes dropped to the table. “Uh, well, I mean, sure?”
