Menace Read online

  “You’re hot for her,” he supplies, a smile teasing his lips.

  Fuck it. “I’m insanely hot for her.” I groan as I run my hand along my neck, my voice gruffer than it should be while talking to my son, but our situation is what it is.

  “Is that a bad thing?”

  I think about it for a second, trying to allow myself to come to grips with what I’ve revealed to him. “It’s not, but given the jobs we have, neither one of us need to do anything that could hurt our standing in the community.”

  “And you almost did that last night?”

  Jesus why is he so smart? “I have no comment.”

  He laughs, a full-out, belly rolling laugh. “I’m glad, Dad. I’m glad she does that to you.”

  “Why?” I rub my eyes again, trying to figure out if I’m in some sort of alternate universe.

  His cheeks pink as he has a seat at the breakfast bar. “As I’ve gotten older…” he trails off, face red. “I wondered how in the fuck you lived like a monk for so long. Especially this past year.”

  I think I get the gist of what he’s telling me. My face is just as red, but I answer him honestly, because we’ve always been honest. “I’m not a teenager with teenage hormones rolling through my body, Caleb. Sometimes, it’s lonely. Other times, like when I have a lot on my mind, I don’t think about it.”

  “But you do think about Ms. Holland?”

  We’re quiet for a few minutes, until I sigh heavily. “Yeah, I do think about Ms. Holland.”

  And with that admission, I realize quickly I’m in a place I’ve never been before.

  “Relax, Dad, you’ve waited for this your whole life.”

  I laugh, finding it amusing that my teenage son is the one talking me down, but truth be told he’s probably smarter than most men my age. Walking over to him, I reach down, ruffling his hair. At least I’m still taller than he is. “Caleb, get to work.”

  He grins as he sets his coffee down on the counter.

  “Dad, text her and tell her you like her.”

  I shake my head as he runs out the door to his truck. Little do I tell him I think Karina and I have moved past the I like you stage. What I’d rather tell her is that I don’t want to go to bed at night lonely anymore. But it’s too early for those words, and I have no desire to scare her away.

  Instead, I grab my phone, text her a good morning, and then go about my routine. As I’m getting into my Jeep to make the drive to work, I get an answering text.

  K: I barely slept at all last night, and when I did, I dreamed about all the things you could have been doing to me. Dream Mason is one of the hottest guys around.

  Starting the Jeep, I take a minute to text her back.

  M: Yeah? Real-life Mason has some tricks up his sleeve he hasn’t showed you yet. Maybe we can make that happen sometime this week.

  K: I’m going to be spending all day tomorrow with you. We will NEED to find some time to make it happen this week. Text me your schedule, and I’ll let you know what mine is.

  M: Will do when I get to work. I want this to work, Rina. More than I’ve wanted anything else in a really long time.

  K: Same here, big guy.

  And with a smile on my face, I head off to start my day. Having someone to share this stuff with? Doesn’t suck at all.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Menace

  “What’s that thing on the side of your neck?” Renegade asks as I duck into the squad car he and I are riding in today.

  “What?” I pull the sun visor down and push back the plastic piece to look in the mirror. Son of a bitch, I got a hickey last night when Karina attacked my neck. “Must have cut myself shaving,” I lie, knowing damn good and well I have a beard right now.

  “Riiiigghhhtttt.” He starts the car. As we pull out of the parking lot, I can feel his eyes on me.

  “What, kid?”

  “Don’t give me that kid bullshit.” He laughs as we drive up Main Street. “I have a wife, I have plenty of sex, and I know exactly what a hickey looks like. I’ve just never seen you with one before, so it’s kind of weirding me out.”

  “Weirding you out?”

  Renegade sighs. “I’ve always kind of seen you as a dad, but I also always thought of you as way older than the rest of us. Even though you and Whitney are close to the same age. I don’t know, you’ve just been the one who had his shit together, and to see you with a hickey on your neck reminds me you’re a guy ready to live his own life.”

  “That describes me pretty well. Seriously though, man, did you just call your wife old?” I watch the road as we slowly creep up Main Street until we get to the turn off for the state highway.

  He gives me a scared glare when I mention what he’s said about Whitney.

  “You mention those words to her, I will cut you.”

  I laugh, because it’s fun to get under his skin.

  “Who is she?” Renegade immediately cuts to the heart of the matter and effectively changes the subject. “Anyone I know?”

  I’m not sure if I want to invite this scrutiny into my life yet. If I tell Renegade, he’ll tell Tank, who’ll talk to Ace and Havoc about it, which means I’ll be at the center of the gossip in this group. It’s a place I’ve never been before. But at the same time I kinda wanna tell someone, kind of want to talk about the changes happening in my life. “I’m not sure if you know her or not. Karina Holland, the teacher.”

  “Believe it or not, I’ve met her before. It was quick and I didn’t get a chance to talk to her very long, but from what I did see, she’s cute.”

  “She’s more than cute,” I argue. “She’s got these expressive as hell green eyes, her body is banging, and she laughs with this throaty laugh that sends goosebumps up and down my arms.”

  “Dude, you’ve got it bad. How did you meet her?”

  He’s right, I do have it bad, and I don’t even know how it happened. Maybe it’s just this time in my life is right. Maybe I’m ready to invite someone in to share my days and nights, and everything in between. Whatever the reason, she’s turned my world upside-fuckin’-down.

  “That dating app Caleb created me a profile for. She was one of the only ones who didn’t ask me about being her daddy.”

  He chokes on his own spit. “Did a lot of women ask you?”

  “You seriously have no idea, like none. I didn’t know it was such a thing with this generation of woman. I’m already someone’s dad; I don’t want to treat the woman I’m with like that.”

  “I don’t know how I would react if some woman came up to me and called me Daddy,” Renegade snort-laughs as he says it. “See I can’t even get it out without cracking up.”

  “Dating now is a totally different world from when I was a teenager or even a twenty-something,” I concede. “But I was attracted to Karina’s picture from the beginning. There was something about the way she smiled and the way the smile reached her eyes. We didn’t have a whole lot of conversations back and forth – honestly, I think she liked the way I look. But within a week, we were making plans to meet one another for dinner in Birmingham.”

  “Oohhh, took her to the city, huh?”

  “Where else was I gonna take her?” I give him a glare. “At the time I didn’t know she lived right here in town, I thought she lived in the surrounding area. Anyway, we went to dinner, and we ended up having sex in the backseat of my Jeep. She ignored my attempts to get in touch with her after that for a week or so, and then I had to go talk to Caleb’s class.”

  “No fucking way.” Renegade snorts. “She was the teacher?”

  “She was,” I confirm. “Given the second chance, I wasn’t going to let her get away. We came to an understanding, and we’ve seen each other once since then. Last night. And I invited her to come with me and Caleb to the hunting and fishing show tomorrow.”

  “Does Caleb know?”

  “Yeah, and that’s presented its own set of difficulties. She’s his teacher, he kind of thinks she’s hot, and while I don’t think
Caleb would ever do anything to make her uncomfortable, it might take us all a while to know how to interact with one another.”

  “That makes sense. I remember when Whitney and I first got together. It was easy for us, when it was just us. When you added the prying eyes of everyone else into the mix, that’s when it became difficult to know what to do and how to react. The first time we had dinner with her family as a couple, we told them all she was pregnant. Talk about just throwing it out there.” He shifts in his seat. “Tank decked me, and I worried that I’d fucked up our friendship, but everything worked out.”

  “I think that’s kind of where I am,” I admit. “There’s so much that can go wrong. Like what if we don’t make it? What if I fall hardcore for her, and it ends up being something she doesn’t necessarily want? What if her and Caleb don’t get along outside of her classroom? What if she gets in trouble for dating a student’s parent?”

  “What if it all works out and at this time next year you’re still with her and happier than you’ve ever been? It can’t be all gloom and doom my man.”

  I hear what he’s saying, but so many things in my life have fucked up, I’m just not sure I can count on it.

  My cell phone buzzes in the cup holder next to where I sit. Picking it up, a smile immediately spreads across my face.

  K: So, I have one of those questions.

  Fuck, my heart pounds just from seeing her name on my phone. When did I become this guy?

  M: Which is?

  K: What’s your favorite type of music? Tickets for Shinedown go on sale next week, for their concert in January of next year. I know it’s presumptuous, but if you like them and I like them? Maybe we can make plans. I’m being optimistic in our future here.

  She sends me a picture of herself holding up a sign that says go out on a date with me? I can’t help the laugh, even though it causes Renegade to glance over, a knowing look on his face.

  M: I’m a rock fan, and I love them. Count me in! I say yes to your date.

  The answer I get from her is a .gif with YAASSSS going across the bottom. The stupid smile on my face feels good, and it feels even better to know she’s the one to put it there.

  * * *

  Things have been relatively quiet today as we’ve made our rounds through downtown and along the outlying areas of the county. We’re an hour from going off-shift when a call comes through dispatch.

  “We’ve got a report of what appears to the caller to be teenage kids drinking at Laurel Springs Park,” our weekend dispatcher relates the information to use clearly. “She states they’re loud, crude, and obnoxious. Two teenage boys making vulgar gestures and being all around inappropriate at a family park. She says they’re drinking something out of bottles, but she doesn’t know what it is.”

  “10-4,” I answer back. “Show Renegade and I as responding, we’re about five minutes out.”

  The lights on our cruiser pop on, as does the siren. When Renegade presses the accelerator, I hold on to the ‘oh shit’ handles as the engine responds. Being able to drive fast, be a little reckless, and the adrenaline spike I get as I’m about to answer a call – this right here is probably my favorite thing about being a cop, besides helping people. When I was in the Army, I lived off the dangerous aspect of some of the missions I took. My skill set was very specific, and nine things out of ten I did, I’ll never be able to talk about to another human being. But it gave me purpose, it gave me something to do other than sit at home and wonder how I was going to feed my kid. No, that came later. After the Army, when I had to jump back into civilian life. Things weren’t so easy then.

  In a matter of what feels like seconds, we’re pulling into the park, and immediately we see the teenagers the caller spoke about. Maddox Stanford and Billy Langston have played football with Caleb since he joined the team. They’ve been over to my house more times than I can count. I’ve sat in the stands with their dads, watching them play. Truth be told, I can barely believe what I’m seeing in front of me right now. Two kids who are in the prime of their lives are looking like two homeless bums on a park bench, drunk, in the middle of a Saturday.

  “Maddox, Billy.” I nod at the two of them as we approach. I have my thumbs hooked in my duty belt, giving them the appearance that I’m at ease. Really, I’m anything but. This scares me. I have a few more months to get Caleb out of here and keep him clean. With influences like this, it’s going to be harder than I thought.

  “Mr. Harrison.” Maddox sits up straighter, trying to appear sober, but then a grin starts spreading across his face and the laughter of someone who’s inebriated cuts through. “Or should I call you Officer Harrison?” He laughs, hitting Billy in the stomach.

  They both laugh obnoxiously, and I do my best to remember I’m dealing with boys who aren’t mature yet. “You should put the bottle down and stand up.”

  They do, both seeming to be somewhat reprimanded for the moment. I pull out my cuffs and secure Maddox’s hands behind his back. “You’re being detained, not arrested. I’m cuffing you for my and your safety.”

  Renegade does the same to Billy, and we start taking a look at what they brought to the park with them.

  “Where’d you get this?” Renegade holds up a container of what we all know is moonshine.

  “School,” Billy answers, his face somber. “Are you going to call my parents?”

  “You’re drunk in public. That’s the least of what’s going to happen to you,” I tell him as I start reading them both their rights.

  As I sit them down, I realize one thing is growing more and more urgent. We need to get into that school and figure out who in the hell is making it so easy for these kids to come into contact with something that can kill them if they aren’t careful.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Karina

  “Thanks for coming with me.” Violet grins over at me as we sit in the only nail salon that Laurel Springs has to offer. “Whitney gave me this gift certificate for my birthday, and I haven’t had time to come and use it yet.”

  “No problem.” I watch as the nail technician cuts back my nails and starts painting the shellac I prefer on them. “I haven’t had a manicure in a long time.”

  Vi looks at me, an inquisitive look on her face.

  “What?”

  “What’s going on with that single dad? Did you get things straightened out? Decide to see him again?”

  “Yeah, actually I’m seeing him tomorrow. I’m heading to the fishing and hunting show in Birmingham with him and his son tomorrow.” I play it coy, while still giving her some of the details.

  “Oh my God, Mason is taking Caleb, and they asked Anthony to go, but he’s working, and I’ve never seen him so bummed. They have new boats there,” she frowns. “But at least Caleb and Mason get to spend some time together.”

  “I know Caleb and Mason are going.” I try to hint to her, about who the single dad was.

  “That’s right, Caleb’s in your class.” She shakes her head, as if to get her thoughts straight in her head.

  “He is, but that’s not how I know they’re spending the day in Birmingham together tomorrow.”

  I dropped the bomb, now I’m waiting on her to respond to it.

  “You’re spending your day with Mason tomorrow?” Her eyes are wide as she looks over at me and she puts two and two together.

  “Mason and Caleb, if you want to get technical.” I decide to go for broke. “He invited me to the show with them in Birmingham.”

  “What? Wait a second.” Her eyes are shining. “Is Mason the single dad? Like as in the Mason that works with my fiancé, Mason? Mason is the single dad and Caleb is my Caleb??”

  A giggle bursts from my throat. “Yes!”

  She shrieks as we get looks coming at us from all directions in the salon. “Shhhhh,” I giggle, face flaming as she opens her mouth on a silent scream.

  “I thought you said he had a little kid!”

  “I thought it was a little kid, but I never asked either. Imagi
ne my surprise when he walked into my classroom, ready to talk to the kids about jobs. Caleb was so happy to introduce us. Little did he know, we already knew each other very well.”

  She snorts as I’m sure she plays out the scene in her head. “Only you, K.”

  “I know,” I reply, shaking my head. This stuff always happens to me, but I’ve never been so happy to have it happen before.

  “So tell me all about it!”

  “It’s really new, Vi, I don’t know if I want to jinx it. I’m enjoying hanging out with him, and I’m looking forward to getting to know Caleb better.”

  Her eyes are intense as she stares at me. “Why do I get the feeling you’re already like knee deep into this, and you’re just trying to manage your expectations?”

  How the hell does this woman hit this shit on the head like this? “I got my heart broken once, I don’t want it to happen again,” I argue.

  “I’m just gonna say this. Since I’ve started dating Anthony, I’ve gotten to know them all better. The one thing I can tell you about Mason is that he loves his son, he loves the guys he works with, and he doesn’t give his heart half-way. He’s not going to break yours, K. I can almost promise you that.”

  “There’s just so many things he’s seen and done, that I’ve never had to deal with.” I pull my bottom lip between my teeth. “He was a dad as a teenager, he’s sending his own teenager off to college this summer, he’s had to deal with so many situations I’ve never even thought of,” I trail off. “What if he gets bored with me, what if in the grand scheme of things I’m too immature for him, just because I don’t have the same life experiences.”

  “That’s bullshit and you know it.” She uses her foot to jostle my chair slightly. “Stop looking for things that aren’t there. How do you feel about him?”

  The question is one nobody’s ever asked, because I’ve not told anyone else we’re dating. How do I feel about Mason Harrison? “He makes me laugh, he makes me hot, and throughout the day, I think about him. Probably way more than I should. I find myself texting him little snippets of conversations that I find funny. If I see a meme on Facebook and it reminds me of him, I’ll screenshot it and text it to him. I’ve never done that with another guy.” I realize as I’m talking, the words are the truth.