Page 27 of Wild Card (Foster Bro Code #2)

Dalton

“I’m sure sorry for wasting your time,” Elaine Kemp said, trailing me to the car with Hushpuppy, her Pomeranian, in her arms. “I just couldn’t take any chances with Hushpuppy’s safety.”

“You did the right thing,” I assured her.

Hushpuppy wasn’t much of a guard dog, and Elaine loved him like a child, so I wasn’t surprised she hadn’t sent her pooch in to clear the house. Had a real burglar been inside, Hushpuppy wouldn’t have been much help, anyway.

Thankfully, the culprit wasn’t a person at all. Elaine’s Roomba had gotten stuck between the sofa and the front door and was ramming into walls, causing the thuds she’d heard from the porch.

“Can I get you a piece of pie to go?” Elaine asked. “I feel so silly making you come out here for nothing.”

“Well, I?—”

My radio crackled, cutting across my words. “Deputy 4 to Deputy 2. Go to phone.”

“Sorry, Elaine. Business calls.” I hit the Talk button on the radio mic at my shoulder. “Copy.”

“Stay safe, Deputy!” Elaine called.

I opened the car door, giving her a distracted wave as I dropped into the driver’s seat and grabbed my phone from the glove box.

It was already ringing, flashing with Chloe’s name on the ID.

“Deputy Harvey,” I answered. “Everything okay?”

“I don’t know,” Chloe said hesitantly. “I pulled over this rental car. They were speeding and driving erratically.”

“Go on.”

“It’s Dallas Hale.”

I swore under my breath. “Dallas is driving a rental car?”

“Blue Kia Optima,” she confirmed. “He’s drunk. I asked him to submit to a breath test, and he laughed in my face. Told me his dad would have my badge if I so much as wrote him a ticket.” An edge of panic crept into her voice. “What do I do ?”

Goddamn it. Dallas was going to end up killing himself or someone else if this kept going.

I had a hunch he’d been involved in that hit-and-run, and here he was, driving a rental car.

Two and two equaled four, but with the sheriff in the equation, there were compounding factors that complicated the solution.

“What’s your location?”

“We’re just past the Pizzaco’s on Rainier Avenue.”

“Keep him there,” I said. “I’m on my way.”

“But the sheriff?—”

“I’ll handle him.”

I disconnected before Chloe could argue. Sheriff Hale would be pissed when his son got booked, but I’d make sure he was pissed at me. The man already hated my guts, and Chloe was still learning the job. She didn’t need this bullshit raining down on her.

I reversed out of Elaine’s driveway, turned east down Corker’s Road, and then hit the sirens as I came up to the busier intersection with Rainier so I could flip a quick left and haul ass north.

I pulled up behind Chloe’s cruiser, cutting my sirens but leaving the lights for visibility. It was already dark, and I didn’t want any of us to get hit by another driver.

Chloe stepped out of her vehicle as I approached. “He’s in the car. I took his keys.” She dangled them. “He’s still refusing a breath test.”

I nodded. “This should be fun, then.”

Chloe followed me as I approached the driver’s-side window.

I kept a hand on my holster, even though I didn’t expect any serious trouble from Dallas.

He was a danger to himself and others, but he was predictable.

His daddy had been getting him out of hot water for years, so he had no reason to expect anything else now.

Still, I’d learned the hard way to never make assumptions when walking into a situation. Or, rather, Shane had learned the hard way. I’d watched, helpless to do anything, as my partner bled to death in a parking lot while the perp got away.

Dallas slouched low in his seat, one arm popped on the steering wheel. His left hand was scratching his balls. No guns in sight.

“Heyyyy, Dalton,” he crooned, lips tipping up. “Where’d the hot chick go?”

“You’ll refer to Deputy Parks by her name and with respect,” I said sternly.

“Oops. I meant to say, where’s Hot Chick Deputy Parks?”

“I’m right here,” she answered, shifting forward to make eye contact. “You ready to take that breath test?”

“No can do. Just give me a warning, and I’ll be on my way.”

“Not this time, Dallas,” I said. “If you refuse to submit to the test, we’ll arrest you for noncompliance, and the court will suspend your license.”

Nebraska had an implied consent law, which basically meant when you got a driver’s license, you agreed to submit to a test if you were suspected of driving under the influence.

I sure as hell suspected Dallas. There was little doubt by the redness of his eyes, the heaviness of his eyelids, and the slurring of his words that this man was far beyond the legal limit of alcohol.

He’d gotten started early to be so drunk by seven thirty, but that wasn’t much of a surprise either. Ever since he’d gotten caught harassing Emory and lost his job at City Hall, Dallas had been growing more erratic by the day.

And he wasn’t exactly the most upstanding citizen before this latest spiral.

“Fuck off,” he said.

“Dallas, we suspect you’ve had too much to drink tonight. We can’t let you drive away.”

“Fine!” He shoved open the door so fast he caught my thigh even as I jumped back.

“Fucking shit,” I growled, rubbing at the spot that would surely bruise.

Chloe moved in, grabbing Dallas’s left arm. He didn’t put up much resistance, as drunk as he was, and she had him in cuffs in seconds. She frisked him, ignoring his inappropriate comments, and turned to me. “No weapons.”

I reached for his arm. “I’ll take him in.”

Chloe followed while I read Dallas his rights and shoved him into the back of my cruiser.

“Suck my dick, man!” Dallas shouted. “Wait, you like sucking dicks, don’t you? Come in here with me and you can?—”

I slammed the door on his crude comments. Usually, Dallas played straight for his father’s sake, but it was no secret I was gay.

“Go back to the station,” I told Chloe. “I got this.”

Her forehead creased. “I didn’t call you to dump my responsibility on you. I can book him. I just wasn’t sure…” She winced, tone turning harsh. “I shouldn’t have called. I should have just done my damn job.”

“Sheriff Hale doesn’t make it easy sometimes.”

“I’ve heard the rumors, is all,” she said. “About the sheriff having a blind spot for his son, and Dallas seemed so sure I wouldn’t take him in.” Her shoulders crept up with tension. “I shouldn’t have pulled you into it, though. I’m a big girl. I can handle myself.”

I chuckled. “Chloe, you handled Dallas just fine when push came to shove.” Literally. “You called for some backup, and I backed you up. Nothing wrong with that. Hale already hates me. Just let me take this hit, all right?”

She sighed. “Fine. I can tell I won’t change your mind.”

“You won’t, and Dallas is in my back seat, so finders keepers.”

She laughed. “Oh, lordy. I wouldn’t want to keep that one.”

I grimaced. “Just long enough to dump him in a jail cell.”

“See you at the station, then.” She walked to her cruiser and got in.

I opened my door and dropped into the driver’s seat. Dallas started running his mouth immediately. “You’re so fucking screwed, man. When my dad hears?—”

“Fuck your dad.”

Dallas’s mouth snapped shut in shock. Then he cackled. “Oh shit, you’re so fired.”

I ignored him, starting up the car to drive to the station. I might not have the power to stop Hale from giving his son a free pass, but I could sure as hell make it a lot more difficult for him.

I got Dallas through fingerprinting and was walking him toward a jail cell when Sheriff Hale burst in. He must have seen Dallas’s name in the system.

“What in the fuck is this?” he snarled.

I kept a firm grip on Dallas’s wrists. “Just bringing in a DUI. He’ll be arraigned in the morning.”

“Like hell,” the sheriff said, marching up to us. “What proof do you have that he drove under the influence?”

“None.”

He faltered at that. The man actually expected me to have proof and still came barreling in here, red in the face? How low could he go?

“Release him if you’ve got nothing.”

“He refused the breath test. That’s grounds for arrest and suspension of his license.”

Sheriff Hale scoffed. “Man wasn’t drunk, obviously. You’ve just got an ax to grind.”

“Bullshit,” I snapped. “He was clearly intoxicated and refused to cooperate, which you know goes against the implied consent law.”

“Take those cuffs off him now,” Hale ordered.

“He needs to spend the night in jail.”

“They’ll just release him tomorrow anyway!”

“So, then, let the system do its job.”

“No.”

He grabbed Dallas’s arm and yanked him away. For a brief second, I held on, not wanting to let this go. Dallas swayed to the left, then the right, then the left. He looked like a dang toy we were wrestling over.

The thought made my stomach turn over, and I let go.

Dallas fell against his dad’s chest, causing them both to stagger into the jail cell bars behind the sheriff.

“Goddamn it, Deputy, I could have your badge!”

“You can’t keep doing this! It’s not right. He’s a danger. If you don’t care about the people he hurts, think about him. The fool is gonna kill himself one of these days.”

“He hasn’t hurt anyone,” the sheriff said. “You just want my job, and you’ll stoop to harassing my son to get it.”

“Neither of us really believes that.”

He stared me down. “Pull this shit again, and I’ll fire you on the spot. You’re insubordinate, and it needs to damn well stop.”

Dallas was grinning at me, looking cocky. But I knew Hale well enough to know that Dallas would get a thorough dressing-down later. I’d heard a few of the lectures Hale gave his son. Often homophobic ones.

I’d feel sorry for the asshole if he wasn’t such a despicable human.

Chloe’s voice echoed from the doorway. “I pulled your son over. Deputy Harvey just backed me up.”

The sheriff scowled down the corridor. “Is that right? You really think my son was driving under the influence?”

“I think?—”

“Think carefully about your answer, young lady. You’re a new deputy. Inexperienced. Maybe you made a mistake.”

Chloe swallowed, eyes darting to me, expression uncertain. Sheriff Hale was a master of gaslighting.

“Chloe called me in as a more experienced deputy,” I said before she could second guess herself. “I assessed the situation and agreed the driver appeared intoxicated and uncooperative. It was my decision to book him.”

“Because you’re a pain in my ass.” He pulled out his keys and unlocked Dallas’s cuffs. Gave him a shove. “Go get some coffee and wait for me in the lobby.”

“Aye, aye, Sheriff!” Dallas walked out, weaving enough that anyone with eyes could see he was still drunk off his ass. Chloe stepped aside to let him through the door.

Sheriff Hale gave us a hard look. “Deputies, we’ll call this a big misunderstanding.” He jabbed a finger at me. “The last one, if you want a job.”

He started toward the exit and paused beside Chloe, lips curling into a creepy smile.

“You’re young, Deputy, but you’ll learn once you have a real man giving you advice.”

He patted her arm, his hand lingering a beat too long, then went out the door.

Chloe shuddered.

“That’s exactly why I didn’t want you getting involved,” I said.

“Because Sheriff Hale is a creep? I knew that the day he hired me and warned me not to distract the other deputies too much. Apparently, I fill out my uniform nicely.”

I cringed. “Jesus, and you took the job?”

She gave me a flat look. “Do you think it’s easy being a woman in a male-dominated field? Every department has creeps. This one happens to be my boss, but I don’t spend much time alone with him. At least he’s not the guy riding in the car with me.”

For a split second, I thought she meant her training ride-along with me.

She rolled her eyes. “Not you. My partner in Hayworth. He couldn’t handle that I didn’t want a little extra partnership on the side. It got old fending him off.”

“Creeps!” an old guy called from one of the jail cells midway down the corridor, making us both jump. “Dirty old men!”

“That’s right, Elmer,” Chloe said. “Preach it!”

“Dirty creeps need to be locked up, not me.”

Poor guy ended up in the drunk tank on the regular. He was as sweet as could be, but when he got drunk, he stripped down no matter where he was. He got booked on public indecency at least once a month.

Chloe chuckled and shook her head. “Come on, Harvey. Let me buy you a drink for taking the hit for me. It’s the least I can do.”

I considered the time. “Nah, I’ve got somewhere I need to be.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Hot date?”

“Maybe.”

Axel had left me on read when I asked him about meeting up tonight, but I wasn’t going to make it easy for him to keep me at arm’s length. If he didn’t want to see me again, he’d have to tell me to my face.

She grinned. “Well, at least the night isn’t a total loss.”

I hoped she was right. Because I needed to get out of my head. Needed to silence the voice that was telling me to walk out of here and never come back—or to step up and take responsibility for the whole dang place.

I just wanted to do my job, keep it simple, not be responsible for my fellow deputies’ lives. But things just kept getting worse. I didn’t know how much longer I could watch Hale poison everything I believed in—including me.