Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 68576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
I caught my little Atlas Junior up in my arms and hugged him tight.
“Hey there, little guy,” I said. “You want to go see Daddy at the police station before we go back to the house and play in the pool?”
“Daddy! Peas! Pool!” he chirped as I grabbed his stuff, waved to the teacher, and headed out.
The station was a short drive from the school—as planned—and took us two minutes to get there.
I walked into the station, my eyes moving every which way, in a desperate attempt to see someone I knew.
Since I’d never been in the station on my own before, and I didn’t see a single Carter in sight, I moved toward the chief’s office, which happened to be the only place I knew exactly where it was at.
I had to bypass the front desk, and the woman behind it dismissed me, either recognizing me, or not caring enough to stop me.
Either way, I walked directly to Germaine’s office and knocked on the door.
“Enter,” I heard the deep voice order.
I ‘entered’ and waved at Germaine, who looked surprised to see me.
He got up and walked toward me, hands out for Forest.
Forest went, excited to see him, and started babbling a mile a minute as he was wont to do.
“Is that right?” Germaine asked, then turned to me. “You get any of that?”
I snickered. “I got ‘teacher’ and ‘police station’ as well as ‘daddy’ and ‘pool.’”
“Ahh,” he chuckled. “I guess I didn’t even get that.”
I shrugged. “He’s good. Don’t get me wrong. He talks a whole lot. But I still don’t have the knack for translating two-year-old.”
“Well that makes two of us,” he said. “Not that I’m not happy to see y’all, but is there something wrong?”
“Oh, no.” I shook my head quickly. “I’m just here to visit for a few seconds. Atlas asked me to stop by.”
“Gotcha,” he nodded.
“And I have no clue where I’m going. Yours is the only office I knew how to get to. I figured you could point the way,” I admitted.
His brows rose. “Did the receptionist not tell you how to get to the SWAT area?”
“Uh,” I hesitated. “She didn’t acknowledge me at all. And watched as I walked right by.”
His eyes narrowed, and I immediately felt bad for throwing her under the bus.
“Errm,” I looked anywhere but at him. “I’m sorry.”
He sighed. “It’s like this generation just doesn’t give a fuck anymore. It’s so hard to find quality workers that want to be here. This new generation just wants money, and time off. I don’t think they know that to get both, they have to actually work.”
I shrugged. “I wouldn’t know how that feels.”
He threw his arm around me, and led me through the many, many hallways of the station.
Several people stopped him, asking about Forest and Atlas. Several were interested in me, too. Germaine, however, was very skilled at turning them all away and guiding them away from him without so much as saying it.
When we got to the ‘SWAT wing’ as he’d coined it, I came to a sudden, frozen halt in the doorway.
Why?
Because there were a bunch of half-naked men, sweating and working out.
There were black guys, white guys, Mexican guys, a few Asian and Indian as well.
And every single one of them was ripped.
My gaze was bouncing around the room like a freakin’ pinball, unsure what to focus on.
But that indecision stopped when Germaine whistled, causing every last one of them to focus on us.
“Daddy!” Forest screeched, wiggling hard.
Germaine set Forest down on his feet, and showing he didn’t have the same issue as me, he went right to Atlas at the back of the room.
He wasn’t as sweaty as the others, but he had his shirt off as well as a soft smile on his face.
Before Forest got there, he stopped, ripped his shirt off, then kept running.
Germaine and I laughed at that, as did almost all of the guys.
But wait… nope.
I was wrong.
There were several females in there as well.
Shirtless as well, still just as fit, but wearing bras and short shorts.
“Awww,” one of them said. “How cute is that?”
“Who is this little man?” the other female asked.
“Elise, Fatima,” Atlas stood up with Forest in his arms. “I’d like you to meet my son, Forest. Forest, this is Fatima,” he pointed at the stunning Black woman. “And this is Elise,” he pointed to the bombshell Latina.
They oohed and awed over him, all of the men coming over to do fist bumps before going back to working out.
It took Atlas ten minutes to head back toward us.
In those ten minutes, Germaine gave a quick overview of the SWAT team to me, introducing people, explaining what they were doing, and giving an overall understanding that I didn’t have before.
Atlas stopped in front of us, then placed Forest on the ground before saying, “Hey, buddy. Go get your shirt. You want to swim, don’t you?”