Chapter 10

Will had taken to this Daddy thing like a duck to water. He'd jumped in with both feet. I didn't really understand how a person made you feel warm and cozy, but I'd be damned if Will hadn't done exactly that.

Being sent upstairs to my favorite place in the world to do my favorite thing in the world? Hell yes. Well, wait, the list might need to be changed. Kissing Will had taken over the number one spot, but reading remained a semi-distant second.

If he made me come at some point, the competition would be on again. He hadn't come out and said it, but Will was slower than me when it came to falling into bed with someone. I hadn't had any relationships, but finding someone for sex hadn't been an issue since I was a teenager. They damn sure didn't give a shit about your hopes and dreams when exchanging blowjobs in a club restroom.

After dinner, Will joined me upstairs in the loft. I tried to put down my book, but that man could give a look. One raised eyebrow had my ass planted back on the couch to continue reading about urban landscaping.

Will surprised me though. He found the romance novel I'd told him about over dinner on the bookshelf, pulled it out, snuggled into my side on the couch, and started reading. Will didn't expect me to fill the silence and didn't assume I wanted to control every fucking person in my life.

Just the chance to turn control over, even for one night, let me sleep like the dead and wake up ready to go. It would have been better if Will had stayed in my bed, but he insisted on going home. If it hadn't been for his scorching kiss on the front porch, I might have thought it was just a plot to get away.

Ha! Of course I thought it was a plan to get away. Will was a fucking catch. I had no idea what he saw in me. Given that he messaged me when he got home because who the fuck knew what could have happened in that hundred feet, it probably wasn't a ploy. I wasn't entirely certain yet, but I suspected Will had an edging kink. I really fucking hoped he did.

Obviously, that made it entirely his fault I was driving around the island daydreaming about a certain social worker

"Unit Charlie Five, what's your location?" dispatch crackled over the patrol radio. Cam and I both looked toward the radio. He adjusted our unit's computer in case we needed to look anything up.

"Southend, near the city limit. What do you need?"

"Burglary call. Male, eighty-two, at home and needs medical too. The address is 1892 Sawmill Road. I'll get EMTs en route. He couldn't get much information out, but he said he thought they had left the property."

"Copy. 1892 Sawmill Road. En route."

Cameron had gone stone still when the address was called. I glanced over at him as I activated the lights and sirens.

"What's wrong with you?"

"That's Laken's old address. It's his grandfather. Hurry the fuck up!"

"I'm going as fast as possible," I said through clenched teeth. With lights and sirens blaring, I tore out of the parking lot near the school zone we'd been doing paperwork in to head over to the house. The drive felt like an eternity, but it was probably only ten minutes max. The narrow, twisted roads ate up my speed and slowed things down considerably.

Laken meant the world to Cameron, and his grandfather was everything to Laken. He'd moved into his grandfather's place full-time as a kid after his parents died in a plane crash. Cam had lived next door. They were inseparable throughout school and most of college. My focus was completely on the road, but the tension rolled off Cam like fog into a harbor.

I turned off the main road onto the gravel trail that led to Laken's grandfather's house. It wasn't especially deep in the lot, but the trail zigzagged in a switchback pattern that made speed impossible. The ambulance had beaten us there by seconds, and the EMTs were just stepping out of their bus.

"Hey, give us a second to clear the scene. Dispatch couldn't provide us much information." The EMTs nodded and stayed at the end of their vehicle while Cam and I approached the front of the house. It was a modest one-story home with an overhang covering the small front porch. There was a bench off to one side with some planters holding the remnants of summer flowers. The front door was already open when we approached. Our weapons were drawn as a precaution, but they were at our sides and pointed at the floor.

"Mr. McCade, are you in here?" Cameron called out since he was more familiar with him.

"Cam, is that you? I'm in the living room. The bastard got me, but I ain't dead yet," the raspy voice of an older man called out from the living room. Cameron jerked his head toward the rest of the house while he veered toward the living room. After clearing the living room with Cam, I cleared the remainder of the home. The house was small, so it only took a few minutes to check the three bedrooms and closets toward the back. Once cleared, I called the EMT crew to come into the house to check on Mr. McCade.

He sat in the recliner with disheveled clothes and a bruise developing on his cheek. The scuffle between him and the burglar had left smaller pieces of furniture knocked over and some knickknacks broken. His right hand had scraped knuckles and was smeared with blood.

Cameron stood next to him with a hand on his shoulder. He vibrated with barely contained rage. I pulled out my notebook and pen to take some notes since Cameron was currently useless. The EMTs gave Cameron dirty looks because he was getting in their way of checking the older man's vitals, but we all recognized any attempt to get Cameron to step away was pointless. He wasn't budging from the Mr. McCade's side.

"Sir, you may not remember me, but I went to school with Laken and Cameron. Can you tell me what happened?"

"Yeah, I remember you. You never talked but watched the rest of them like a goddamn ghost."

"Yes, sir, that was me. Cameron does enough talking for three people."

The older man snorted at my attempt at humor, but it was enough to put him a little more at ease.

"I was in the barn working on my truck. Laken always calls me at three, so I came back into the house. I can't miss it."

"Why can't you miss it?"

"Because that jackass he lives with will yell about how I'm wasting his time and interrupting their damn dinner. He does the same thing after we talk for ten minutes, so I never miss it."

I ignored Cam's growl.

"What happened today?"

"When I got back to the house, a man was going through my desk. He got away, but not before I got a good one in. Not as young as I used to ‘cause he got a few in on me too."

As we talked, the EMTs continued to work on Mr. McCade.

"Hagen, we're going to need to take Mr. McCade in," Jude, the senior EMT, interrupted. He turned back to Mr. McCade and said, "Sir, your blood pressure is a little elevated, so we need to take you over to the hospital and let the docs check you out."

Mr. McCade scowled at Owen. "There's not anything a doctor can do that a glass of tea won't fix. I'm not going."

Cameron sighed heavily. "Mr. Mac, either you go get on the bus willingly, or I'm calling Laken right now and telling him you're refusing." The look Mr. McCade gave Cam and me could melt glass, but he gave a curt nod and stood.

"Whoa there, sir. Let's get you on the gurney and we'll head on out. Boys, are you going to follow us?" Since a few other officers had arrived while we talked, we agreed.

The ambulance left the house, followed by us. Cameron remained silent until we were on the road.

"I need to call Laken and tell him what's happening."

"Didn't you just promise you wouldn't do that?"

"I threatened to call him right then, I didn't say anything about not calling later." Cameron stared out the window like the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

"Is that fair? Can Laken do anything about it?" Cameron shot a glare at me.

"What's going on here?" He gestured to my entire length sitting behind the wheel.

"What?"

"Who the fuck snatched your body and left you behind? I know you got hit on the head, but personality transplants aren't a thing." I rolled my eyes at him.

"Fuck off, Cam."

"Ah, there's my shitty guy."

Cam and I followed the bus into the ER parking lot. After parking, Cam left to call Laken and I headed inside. The staff had already brought Mr. McCade into the treatment area and were hooking him up to various machines. To keep out of the way, I wandered into the hallway and double-checked my notes.

The last time I was here with an old man, it'd been my grandfather. He'd been mowing the lawn even though I'd told him not to. I'd been off the island at college and had planned to mow like I always did on the weekends when I came home. He wanted me to study instead, so he had decided to help me out.

When my grandma called, I got my ass back over here. He held on long enough to say goodbye. The doctor said he had a massive blockage in his heart and was on borrowed time, but it hadn't made me feel less guilty. When Grandma passed three months later, it wasn't a surprise. They had been inseparable since they met. There was no reason for death to change that.

Thinking about them brought me back to Will and me. There was no way I would get a love like that. My grandma always said there was a lid for every pot, but that wasn't true. Some things were just too warped. My parents had always clearly seen whatever that warp was in me, and so had all the other men. Will would see it eventually, but until then, I would do my best to enjoy the ride.

"Officer Hagen, fancy seeing you here." Will's voice jolted me out of my thoughts.

He strode toward me from the interior of the hospital dressed in his usual work clothes of a button-down shirt with the sleeves partly rolled up to show his hot-as-fuck forearms, slacks, and sockless loafers. He stopped directly in front of me, standing close, and gave me a cheeky grin.

I wanted to shove him away so no one would guess how much I wanted him. A bigger part of me wanted to grab him and bury my face in his neck. I couldn't get enough of that uniquely Will scent.

"Yeah, we had to bring someone in. If the docs clear him, I want to finish my interview." I angled myself closer to him. It wouldn't be professional to put my hands on him when we were both at work, but if I got a little closer, it wouldn't hurt anyone.

"Oh, are you here for Mr. McCade?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"The ER nurse called me down for a possible issue. He lives alone without family nearby. There's a concern about his well-being. I can't get into the details because of privacy laws, but there's more to it than whatever criminal thing brought him here…wait, he's not in trouble, right?"

"Nah, he's the victim. I mean, I guess the guy he hit could complain about it, but pretty sure he wouldn't be filing a report."

Will smiled, and my chest tightened. Damn, I could watch him do that all day. After I spoke with Mr. McCade and got back with the officers processing the scene, I'd be off at a decent hour. Generally, Will wasn't at work on nights. Everything in me wanted to say something about seeing him tonight.

"I need to check on Mr. McCade. I'll see you later." Dammit. I was such a fucking coward.