Time to Bounce (Carter Brothers #6)

Chapter 11

I bet you would be really motivated if the weight went to someone you didn’t like.

— Athena to Maven

ATHENA

“ So , you’re, what now, head of your neighborhood watch?” Quinn sat back and stuffed a mouthful of French fries into his mouth.

“ I guess,” I shrugged. “ I had only meant to cover for today since our regular neighborhood nosy Nancy was sick. But for some reason, the heads of all the neighborhood watches in this program decided that I needed to be the head honcho in charge.”

“ It’s because she was so likeable, and she didn’t shoot down any of their ideas,” Gable suggested.

He did have a point.

I made it a point to be nice to everyone.

I’d been like that since I was a young girl.

My dad had pressed me to always make friends, and never be a bully.

And , seeing as I was a smart kid who skipped several grades, and was a senior when I hadn’t hit puberty yet, I tended to get bullied a lot.

It’d been in those particular moments in time that I swore I would always treat people with respect and love.

Even if they didn’t deserve it.

“ Made them all feel like they had a voice,” Gable continued. “ That’s good. People want to be heard. Which is what you gave them. I hope you’re okay with being here every single Friday , though, while we continue this program for the next twelve weeks.”

“ What is it, anyway?” Quincy asked.

“ A new program that Quaid implemented so we could see if we could prevent crime in the worst areas,” Gable answered.

“ It’s my hope that we give these people who live in these areas a voice,” Quaid said. “ And by giving them an officer they can talk to, bring their concerns to, I’m hoping they’ll be more comfortable when actual crime hits their area. So they’ll talk to the cops instead of bottling it up and letting the crime continue to degrade each area even more.”

“ And when their neighbors start having shootouts in the middle of the street, they don’t just let them die out there but call someone to help,” I muttered.

Because that had literally happened a block over from me.

A shootout between two gang members had happened, and instead of the gangs, or the occupants of that neighborhood calling the cops, they instead let them die out there.

“ Amen ,” Quaid grinned. “ You sound like you know your stuff.”

I grimaced. “ I moved out of the house when I was young. By the time I graduated with my bachelor’s and master’s degrees, I didn’t want to go back home, so I started working. That was the only area I could afford.”

“ Why didn’t you want to move back home?” Gable asked.

I thought about lying to him, like I’d done to so many other people before, but decided against it.

Maybe it would be cathartic to tell them how my sister was actually kidnapped, and what kind of a smothering environment I’d had to live in after that.

“ How much do y’all know about my story?” I asked carefully.

Gable started reciting what he knew. “ When your sister was a little girl, she was playing at a park with a friend, right across the street from the friend’s house. Nice neighborhood, even nicer park. Upper crust of Dallas elite. That was why Gavrel joined the DPD . To help other kids who went missing like his sister did.”

I grimaced.

“ That’s not what actually happened,” I admitted. “ That’s just the cover story that the media got because of who my father was as a US senator.”

All of the brothers sat back in shock.

I could see why they were shocked.

I mean, from what they knew, my sister was kidnapped out of Dallas .

They didn’t know any more than that.

Hell , there’d been a nationwide man hunt.

“ What really happened then?” Gable pushed, leaning forward and catching my hand in his.

The move did not go unnoticed by any of the brothers.

All of them were smiling.

Then there was Gable , scowling.

Why did I like it when he scowled so much?

“ Well ,” I started, “since a lot of things happened that day, and I was so young, my brain skewed everything. That night is kind of a blur to me. My brain tried to protect me, I guess. I don’t personally know what happened. From that night on, my brain warped everything, and I had dreams that changed my perspective. I don’t know what’s real or what’s not anymore. My age is different in each nightmare I have. But one thing that was real. My parents were shot that night. Both of them. They were severely hurt. Later on, Gavrel and my mother told me about the kidnapping. Pretty much, we were outside playing.”

I drew a deep breath and shook my head while the others stayed silent, waiting.

“ Dad was angry because he’d already told us not to be out there alone, but Mom was talking to another senator’s wife, and apparently we went out there. One second, she said, we were there. And the next, both of us were gone. They later found me in the ocean clinging to a rock, and they believed my sister to be dead in the water. It was found out later, though, that a little girl matching my sister’s description was found getting on a commercial flight. Landing in Dallas . Then spotted one more time getting onto a bus. From there, she was never spotted again.” I shook my head. “ They believed it to be politically motivated due to the nature of their visit to Hawaii in the first place. They think that I escaped kidnapping by jumping into the water. But my sister was taken.”

“ Wow ,” Atlas murmured. “ I would’ve never guessed.”

“ So you were both almost taken,” Gable said. “ And y’all never found even a hint of who did it?”

“ Not a single hint,” I said. “ Why do you think I tried so hard to find her using my program?”

“ Did I tell you how much I appreciate you working on that program?” Auden chuckled.

“ Only a half dozen times,” I teased. “ But I don’t mind you saying it as much as you want to.”

He winked at me.

Lunch was fast seeing as all of the brothers but one— Gable —had somewhere to be.

It was as we were leaving, and a certain someone still had my hand, that Quaid asked, “ So you’re taking over the neighborhood watch thing. What else are you doing?”

I chuckled at the obvious probe.

Quaid needed help.

“ I could cover a few shifts,” Gable admitted.

“ What about joining the SWAT team?” Atlas asked.

Gable sighed. “ I don’t want to be on call twenty-four-seven.”

“ What about just when you’re on shift?” he suggested. “ I’m implementing something new in the program.”

“ I mean, as long as you don’t wake me up at two in the morning on my day off, I might be okay with it,” Gable admitted.

I went to pull away from Gable , but he tightened his hand.

“ When do you go back to work?” Garrett asked me.

I looked at my watch. “ In nineteen hours and forty-seven minutes.”

“ So tomorrow.” Garrett laughed. “ Got it. I’ll run by Pie Hard and pick you up a muffin. You want your usual?”

I felt Gable stiffen beside me.

“ Uh , sure,” I said, wondering why Gable was acting the way he was.

Gable scowled at Garrett , who didn’t give a fuck.

One by one they all left, leaving Gable and I standing alone.

“ You two always that close?” he asked, sounding grumpy.

That’s when it hit me.

He was jealous!

“ I mean, he knows what kinds of muffins I like,” I shrugged, trying to act like I wasn’t over the moon about the fact that he was jealous his brother knew I liked muffins. “ If that makes us close, I don’t know.”

There was more grumbling, then he threw his arm around me and said, “ Well , it looks like we both have the day off. How about you show me this mystery house you live in?”

I looked at him, studying his profile as he watched his brothers all peel out of the parking lot of the diner we’d eaten at for lunch.

I waited until he returned his attention to me before saying, “ Is there a reason you’re spending time with me?”

His eyes sobered. “ Yes .”

I felt my heart wrench at that.

“ What is it?” I asked.

“ Because I want to.” He shrugged.

And because I wanted to let him, I did.

He looked at my house in horror.

“ You live…” He paused as if searching for the correct word. “ Here ?”

“ I’ve lived here since I was eighteen,” I admitted. “ I first rented it from an older couple. They’d both moved to the nursing home right when I needed a place. Their daughter sold it to me for a song—because her parents asked her to—after they passed away.”

“ It’s …” He shook his head. “ It’s bad, Athena .”

I shrugged.

“ Has Maven ever been here?” he wondered.

I scoffed. “ As if I would bring anyone down to Eleventh Street if I didn’t have to. No , she’s never been here. Actually , she thinks I live at my brother’s place now, and I haven’t corrected her assumption.”

“ Why ?” Gable wondered.

“ Because ,” I said as I started up the front walk, very much aware that every single person in the neighborhood was watching right now. “ Why would I want a beautiful woman here when they don’t have to be? Plus , she’s all pregnant and stuff now. I’m not really interested in having Auden hate me.”

“ Auden wouldn’t hate you,” he scoffed. “ He would appreciate you insulating her from this, though. He’s protective after everything.”

After she was saved from her psycho brother and father.

Or , more accurately, two men who were no blood relation to her at all.

“ You can’t blame him,” I said, mirroring my thoughts.

“ No ,” he agreed as he headed up the stairs to my place and stopped. “ You can’t.”

I looked at the doorknob, then back to him. “ What ?”

“ I could probably kick that in,” he admitted.

I snorted. “ You could not.”

“ How much do you want to bet that I can?” he challenged.

I didn’t think he could, or I wouldn’t have shot back with, “ I’ll give you anything you want if you can kick that in.”

My brother had reinforced the door.

There was no way…

Crack .

One kick from his booted heel was all it took to fold my door in like he’d stepped on a cardboard box.

I stared at the door, now nearly completely broken in two, and said, “ Now what am I supposed to do?”

He pulled out his phone and placed a call.

“ Hey , Jack . Yeah , do you think I could get you to replace a door for me?” he asked. “ I need it to be a good door, though. One that’ll withstand a boot.”

He got a couple of details, then he was walking in my door, leaving me still staring at the shattered remains.

“ You know,” I said as I finally followed him in. “ Gavrel told me that would hold.”

“ Gavrel was probably trying to be nice because you wanted to stay here,” he said. “ Plus , there was this one time during orientation we had a bird house building competition with some kids. When he was done with his, it fell apart because he only used wood glue—and too much of it at that.”

I giggled at that, then walked to the wall where I had hung his bird house.

He’d given it to me with this huge grin on his face. “ This one.”

“ Yeah ,” he chuckled. “ That one.”

It was lopsided, and I wouldn’t ever think about subjecting a bird to it.

I guess Gable did have a point when it came to my brother’s carpentry skills.

“ What do I get?”

I looked up to find Gable standing next to me.

“ What do you want?” I asked, having no trouble following his line of thought.

He didn’t hesitate in saying, “ You to stay with me for the weekend.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but he held up his hand.

“ Actually ,” he said, “ I’m set to take a vacation. When I can finally go on it, I want you to come with me… and spend the weekend with me.”

I winced. “ I just got back from a three-week vacation.”

He turned so he could look at me and not Gavrel’s poor excuse for a bird house.

“ I know the chief of police who has final say so on your schedule,” he challenged. “ How about you let me work on that part?”

I was crazy. That had to be why I agreed.

“ Okay .”