Maybe Swearing Will Help Read online

  When the third and the fourth came through, I couldn’t stop myself from twisting my watch toward my face to read them.

  Ford: I’ll be sure to alert the authorities.

  Ford: I heard that Patman is an ass. Good luck.

  Ford: Second and third that Patman is an ass. Saint just told me that he almost failed out because the instructor took an instant dislike to him. Seriously, good luck.

  I felt my eyes narrow as I read those last two text messages.

  I had no doubt in my mind that Patman had taken an instant disliking of me. I also had a feeling that Patman wasn’t going to be my favorite person.

  I was proven right over the next hour as Patman talked about police procedures and managed to get quite a few of them wrong.

  They were correct at one point in time, but now they weren’t. Laws had changed, and procedures had definitely changed.

  So when we took a small quiz before lunch, and those questions popped up on the test, I chose the correct answer instead of the one he’d given and found myself making a one hundred. Where everyone in the class made sixties.

  “Obviously I should have Ms. Trammel teaching the class.” Patman made a smart-ass comment when he saw my quiz grade.

  I almost pointed out that maybe I should, seeing as I was likely more knowledgeable than he was at this point with my ten years of schooling, but chose to stay silent.

  I had a feeling the tests he was giving were standard tests, used all over the state of Texas.

  They were required by law to give them, and it was up to the personnel to teach to the tests. Obviously Patman hadn’t gotten that memo.

  I was beyond thankful that lunch arrived, and I was able to eat somewhere that wasn’t the classroom. Enabling me to pull my phone out and text Ford about how right he was about Patman.

  Ashe: Patman is a dick. You were right. Also, he hates me. I’ll probably lose this bet…

  Ford: You’ll be fine. Just ignore his ass.

  Ashe: I’ll do my best. But you know how stupid people annoy me.

  Ford: I assume that you’re referring to me as stupid right now.

  Ashe: Would I ever do such a thing?

  I grinned and finished the rest of my salad, then checked my emails, hoping to see my final class schedule amongst them.

  I was happy to see that not only had that arrived, but the grant that I’d applied for to help with tuition this semester had as well.

  Though I had student loan debt, I didn’t have anywhere near as much thanks to all the scholarships, grants, and federal aid I’d been able to get.

  Thanks to my father being a firefighter, my grandmother being a police officer, and my grandfather also being a firefighter, I’d been able to apply for some aid that most people didn’t have access to.

  “Ass for days…” I heard one of the instructors say.

  I looked up and saw Patman staring right at me, a grin on his face saying that he knew I’d heard him.

  I prayed that they weren’t talking about me, but logically, I knew that they were.

  There was only one other female in the class besides me, and she was tall, lanky, and had a utilitarian look about her. She definitely didn’t have ‘ass for days’ like I did.

  Which pissed me off, because why the hell were they talking about my ass? How unprofessional was that?

  Gritting my teeth, I pulled my phone out and texted Ford, because I knew it would make me feel better.

  We still had fifteen minutes left of lunch, and I’d finished my salad within five minutes—salads weren’t enough food. Yet, I’d found that the older I got, the less my body cared about what was enough and not enough. Fried foods and white bread just weren’t going to keep me skinny anymore.

  My metabolism wasn’t what it used to be.

  Ashe: So…is it just me, or is it inappropriate that my instructors are talking about my ass?

  Ford: Are they?

  Ashe: Well…there’s one other man in here that has a bubble butt, and they didn’t strike me as the type to talk about that man’s ‘ass for days.’

  Ford: You’re at the station today, right?

  I frowned, wondering what that had to do with anything.

  Ashe: Yes. Why?

  Ford never answered, though.

  With nothing better to do, I put my phone back into my pocket and crossed my arms over my chest, wondering how bad the rest of this day was going to suck.

  Then I heard what we were doing for the rest of the afternoon and narrowed my eyes.

  Hand to hand combat.

  Yay.

  Chapter 4

  Hell hath no fury like a man who knows you’ve harmed his woman. Even if she doesn’t know that she’s his woman yet.

  -Ford’s secret thoughts

  Ford

  “What are you doing?” Louis asked as he fell into step with me.

  “Going to check out the police academy. They’re doing hand to hand combat training this afternoon, and I want to see how Ashe does,” I answered.

  “Oh, count me in,” Saint said as we passed.

  “Me, too,” Hayes said.

  It was normal for the hand to hand training to be watched by other officers. It was a rite of passage, so to speak, to see all the new recruits get their asses handed to them.

  But, based on Ashe’s texts this morning, and my gut feeling, I felt like I had to be there just in case.

  Just in case what I had a feeling was about to happen actually happened.

  Ashe was a beautiful woman.

  At five-foot-three, she was curvy in all the right spots, and she had a face that was to die for. Kissable lips. Beautiful eyes that matched her hair, and a smart mouth that nearly always got her in trouble.

  I’d always had no problem attracting women.

  I was a six-foot-four, muscled man that had a decent face and wore a badge. And before that, was in the military and wore a dress blues uniform.

  I had no problem getting a fuckin’ woman.

  But Ashe? She wasn’t just any woman.

  She was Ashe Trammel.

  The woman that I loved to hate. The woman that I wanted but refused to allow myself to have.

  “Where are y’all going?” Nathan asked as he walked into the room with Booth and Bourne.

  “We’re going to watch the new police academy recruits get their asses handed to them,” Saint answered. “And we’re going to watch Ford try not to lose his shit when he sees Ashe getting schooled.”

  “Actually,” I said as I walked into the observation room that overlooked the training facility, “I doubt that happens.”

  “Why do you say that?” Booth asked as he walked up to stand beside me.

  I grinned, not bothering to tell them that Ashe was a blue belt in Krav Maga, a brown belt in Aikido, but she’d been taking Muay Thai lessons for years as well.

  The girl knew how to handle herself, that was for sure.

  Which was funny when men tried to intimidate her.

  I’d once seen her take down a two-hundred-and-twenty-pound football player in high school.

  It’d been goddamn hilarious.

  “Hey, down in front.”

  I looked over my shoulder to see Downy, Luke, and Nico sitting in the stadium-style seating behind us.

  “Oops,” I said. “Sorry.”

  I took a seat closest to the window as I could get.

  “We should place bets,” Nico muttered. “Which kid gets knocked out.”

  “I’m betting on the girls,” one asshole in the corner muttered.

  Jerry.

  Of course, it was Jerry.

  “The female instructor normally doesn’t knock the women out, Jerry,” I drawled.

  Because of how this academy worked, usually the females trained the females, and the males trained the males.

  There were times, like I was sure was about to happen with Ashe, that the males would help with the females.<
br />
  “All right, ladies,” Patman said. “Who wants to go first?”

  Nobody raised their hands, causing the entire viewing room to break out in chuckles.

  “Well, this is how it’s going to go then,” Patman said, rubbing his hands together. “I’m going to pick a person for you to work with. And y’all are going to work together to put me down on the ground. Normally we have some females working with us, but since we only have two in the class, we’re going to let you team up with a male and work on hand to hand for today.”

  I snorted, causing everyone in the room to look at me.

  “What do you know that we don’t?” Nico asked.

  I shrugged and kept my eyes aimed forward. “You’ll see.”

  He would, too.

  When people watched Ashe fight, it was like watching a goddamn transformer pop out of a fuckin’ Camaro. You would’ve never expected it. Not in a million years.

  “All right, you and you then,” Patman said, pointing at a male about six foot even, and of course, Ashe. “Y’all come at me.”

  Patman waited when neither one of them moved.

  “What are you waiting for?” he asked, jumping.

  Ashe shook her head, blew her bangs out of her eyes, and then looked up at the viewing room.

  She instantly saw me, and her eyes narrowed.

  I gave her a chin tilt that said, ‘go for it,’ causing her to sigh.

  “What was that?” Saint asked.

  “You’ll see,” Louis said cryptically.

  Louis hadn’t actually seen Ashe in action before, but he had seen videos.

  They were just too impressive not to share.

  Every time my family got together, Ashe always got brought up.

  See, when two people fought as much as Ashe and I did, it was rare not to want to antagonize the other person just a little bit.

  Which my family had no problem doing.

  “Come on then,” Patman ordered, gesturing with his hands.

  Ashe scratched her head, causing her hastily tied up hair to bob in the messy bun on the top of her head.

  “Come on, Jericho,” Patman ordered. “If you’re too much of a pussy to…”

  Jericho moved, coming at Patman like a man possessed.

  “Guess he didn’t like being called a pussy,” Nico murmured.

  I snorted and watched as Ashe stood back, watching the two fight.

  Patman had Jericho in a headlock about a half minute later, slowly lowering him to the ground.

  Ashe waited until Jericho was all the way on the ground, and Patman wasn’t paying the least bit of attention, and then moved.

  Have you ever seen what a hunting panther looked like as it stalked its meal?

  One second you had no clue it was there, and the next the panther had the head of whatever animal it was stalking in his mouth, and he was clamping down on it for the kill?

  That was what Ashe always reminded me of.

  A panther.

  Beautiful to look at, deadly to cross.

  I never underestimated her. Not when I was nine, and certainly not now.

  Patman, however, did.

  He forgot to keep his eyes on his other opponent and paid the price for it.

  One second Ashe was across the room, and the next she had Patman in an armbar on the ground, her legs wrapped solidly around his throat, pinning him to the ground with ease.

  “Holy shit,” Nico, Saint, and Sammy said in surprise.

  “Damn, she’s a hot bitch,” Jerry said. “I’d let her wrap her legs around my face like that any time she wanted.”

  I ignored the motherfucker that had a death wish and watched as Patman refused to tap out.

  “Tap out, darling,” Ashe ordered. “I can do this all night.”

  Some kind of signal was given between one instructor and the next, and seconds later, Ashe was up and moving across the room.

  Patman was up on his knees, and the other instructor that went to kick Ashe in the face was still pulling his heel back to strike.

  I was on my feet before I’d told myself to do so.

  “Easy,” Nico ordered softly. “Easy.”

  There was no gentling me, though.

  I may fight with Ashe because it amused me to no end to see her riled, but I was the only one allowed to do so.

  The only one.

  Her brothers weren’t allowed to do it. Not my brother. Not these two asshole instructors that Luke should’ve fired two years ago.

  Not anyone but me.

  Patman got up, rubbing his arm, a sneer on his face.

  The instructor, Greeves, I believed his name was, narrowed his eyes when he saw Ashe across the room, not even breathing hard.

  “Looks like we got ourselves a wannabe fighter here,” Greeves joked.

  The recruits around Patman danced around awkwardly on their feet.

  “That wasn’t very sportsmanlike,” Ashe said flatly.

  “No.” Patman grinned. “It wasn’t, was it? But, saying that, you’re not going to get sportsman when you’re out in the world. You’re going to get dirty.” He snapped his fingers at Ashe and the poor scared man that was paired up with her. “Again.”

  Ashe rolled her eyes.

  “I don’t think so,” she said. “You’re going to try to hurt me, and I’m not going to do that again. I’ve proven I can take care of myself. Move on to someone else.”

  Louis whistled between his teeth, and I sighed and looked up at the ceiling, knowing that was just going to incite Patman to go at her harder.

  “You have to pass this portion of the class to move on,” he said. “And if I don’t feel like you’re worthy of passing, then you won’t pass. Which’ll be a pity for your friend, Luke, now won’t it?”

  I felt somebody’s presence at my side and didn’t bother to look over at who it was.

  It was only later that I’d realize it was the chief of police himself. Ashe’s uncle.

  “What’s going on?” the chief, who I didn’t realize was the chief, asked.

  “What’s going on is Patman and Greeves are trying to beat the shit out of Ashe,” I said. “Fucking assholes.”

  “That’s the point of the training.”

  I shook my head. “Not like this, it’s not.”

  “One more time, or are you too scared?” Patman goaded.

  She flicked her hands at the man that’d been paired up with her. “You run along so I don’t end up hurting you, too.”

  The kid froze for a second, unsure what to do.

  But Patman laughed and ordered him to stand back.

  He did so reluctantly, looking as if he possessed half a brain cell and didn’t want to leave Ashe out there on her own.

  “She sure can fight,” the man next to me stated.

  My eyes never once strayed from the screen.

  “Like a motherfucker.” I nodded. “She’s amazing.”

  Patman once again moved his hands in a ‘come on’ gesture and Ashe rolled her eyes.

  “I swear to God,” she said. “If you so much as give me a red mark on my skin, I’m calling my daddy on you.”

  Jerry laughed behind us.

  “What’s calling her daddy going to do?” he sneered.

  Louis answered for me so I didn’t have to.

  “Her daddy is part of the Dixie Wardens Motorcycle Club.”

  Jerry shut up quite fast after that.

  “Also,” I said softly, “there are about fifteen clubs loyal to him within a thirty-mile radius.” I continued to explain, “Ones that can get here at the drop of a hat and help out until he does.” I grinned. “And her dad took classes with Ashe so that she wouldn’t be alone in all of the adult classes. So he can handle himself just as well as… that.”

  Ashe didn’t waste time in doing what she needed.

  One second she was all the way across the room on the edge of the mats, standing next to her fellows, a
nd the next she was once again trying to sweep Patman’s legs out from underneath him.

  He recovered, gaining his balance by using his hand to keep him upright before he hit the mats, and Ashe took the nice way out and collapsed his elbow inward on itself and not outward like I’d seen her do in the eleventh grade.

  “There was this one time,” I said to no one in particular, “she went out on a date with a guy. When he wouldn’t take no for an answer, she fought back. Broke his elbow by doing that exact move right there. Only she went the wrong way. Patman’s lucky.”

  The man at my side grunted out an amused sound.

  But I kept my gaze solely on Ashe and how she moved.

  “Now’s where she’ll either go easy on him or take all her frustration out,” I mused. “I’m going with easy because she has to work with these two motherfuckers for the next few weeks.”

  The man at my side snorted.

  “That was easy?” he asked curiously.

  The ‘easy’ he was talking about was Ashe doing this complicated move that put Patman flat on his face.

  She moved just in time to see Greeves heading toward her.

  A quick jab and a fist straight to Greeves’ balls had him lying on the ground right next to Patman, and she hadn’t even had to loosen her armbar on Patman to do it.

  “Ohhhh,” a few of the men behind me groaned.

  “She did that to me once,” I said to no one in particular. “Thought I was going to die. She didn’t know it was me, though. Thought it was just some random guy trying to force her to do something. I learned my lesson not to surprise her anymore.”

  Chuckles filled the room.

  And we all watched as Ashe got up and made her way to the side of the mats, leaving the two instructors on the ground to get up on their own.

  “I think we should call it a day.”

  I looked over to the man at my side.

  His eyes came to mine and they were filled with amusement.

  “This is about to get ugly,” he pointed out.

  I agreed.

  Wholeheartedly.

  Unfortunately, over the next few weeks, she got treated worse and worse, and she never told a single soul.

  It wouldn’t do for her uncle to find out that one of his officers was a piece of shit.

  Chapter 5