Ugh, of course she heard the "you could do worse" part and not the "rule following" part.

"Yeah, he's had many chances to arrest me but usually doesn't." He'd taken me in a few times but never booked me.

Lainey twisted her head around and furrowed her brow at me.

"It's not all my fault," I said with a hand on my chest. "The last time, he left the evidence unattended. It was basically entrapment, and entrapment doesn't count. Right?"

I hadn't researched it fully yet, but I was pretty sure he couldn't bring an entrapment case before a judge and win.

Lainey shook her head. "No."

"Right," I said and gave a shrug of fake indifference. "So it's not my fault. Make sure and tell him I said all these nice things about him." It might help me out the next time he has a choice about fingerprinting me.

Lainey's cheeks turned a deep shade of red.

They'd so kissed.

"I'm not.. well... who knows when I'll see him again," she stuttered. Lainey didn't usually stutter.

"Uh, huh? I'm sure you don't." They'd definitely kissed.

Or possibly more.

I didn't want to know, but I had to ask. For posterity's sake. I owed it to the bakery girls to learn the truth. "Have you guys..." gun fire ended my sentence early. "Duck!"

As another round of bullets pinged against my car, I dropped my empty cupcake wrapper and threw my upper body over Lainey's. I couldn't let Anderson's new girlfriend die in my car. Lainey screamed and then one scream turned into another.

The shots seemed to go on forever as I pushed down on Lainey to keep her safe. The back window of my Camaro shattered, spraying glass against the backseat.

"Oh no, Rachel!" I yelled, hoping she'd count it as an apology.

Lainey tried to sit up, but I held her down. "Who is Rachel?"

Another ear-shattering scream ripped through the air. She had lungs on her. The gun fire stopped, but I didn't let either of us move. With my body still over hers, I reached for my stun gun in my coat pocket and turned it on. If the shooter approached the car to make sure we were dead, I'd have only seconds to disarm him. My head popped up, keeping my body over Lainey so she stayed down and I surveyed the visible area outside the car.

Sirens wailed from somewhere close, and I waited another full second before letting Lainey up. She stared at me with round eyes and her mouth open, prepping for another scream.

"You can stop screaming now," I promised. My ear drums couldn't take much more.

She gapped at me. "What was that?"

"A drive-by shooting." I shrugged, trying to lessen the blow for her.

"Someone shot at us," Lainey said, sounding out of breath even though we hadn't moved.

I nodded and wiped back a piece of blonde hair. "They got Rachel." And since Frankie didn't cause these bullets, he wasn't on the hook to buy me a new car. Could I park Rachel in his driveway and pretend?

Probably not.

Damn it.

The police car pulled into the lot behind us. I glanced at Lainey, knowing Anderson wouldn't be far behind, and he'd have questions. Lots of them.

"Are you okay? No blood?"

Lainey leaned forward in her seat and felt around her back. "I'm good. Why would someone shoot at you?"

I raised an eyebrow in her direction. "No one wants me dead." Currently.

At least that I knew of.

Her expression turned to horror as I opened my car door, ready to face Officer Bradley as he approached my car with his gun drawn. "You think this was Tyler?"

Officer Bradley tapped on my window and I hit the red app button on my phone's home screen. The entire universe knew it had to be Tyler shooting at us, but Lainey looked delicate, so I shrugged.

"Not necessarily. You never know with these things," I lied. We all knew. She just hadn't admitted it yet. Her ex-boyfriend decided to go the "if I can't have her then no one can" route.

Bradley tapped on the window again, and I opened the door.

"Drop your weapon," he called, holding his gun at me.

I put up my hands with a sigh. "How would I have a weapon? Do you think I shot the outside of my car from the inside?"

He narrowed his eyes and then tucked his gun back into his dark blue police-issued pants. "With you, no one can ever be sure."

"That hurts." I thought Bradley and I had bonded from my recent visits to the police station.

The passenger car door opened. How come he didn't make Lainey put her hands in the air? She might have been packing. The cute ones were always scary.

"Oh, Vonnie. Your car," Lainey said, sounding like she might cry.

Three black SUVs came to a screeching halt behind the cop car, and Ridge jumped out from the passenger seat of the first one. He marched right up to me, using his shoulder to nudge past Bradley. Great, another man here. I barely suppressed the eye roll.

He was lucky he married Tabitha and she liked him. Therefore, I had to like him. It was BFF code.

"Dude, I didn't know he'd start shotting," I said before he yelled.

I turned around since I couldn't walk past him and examined my car. Rachel hadn't fared as badly as I first worried. She had two bullet holes in the back bumper, but I didn't notice gas or other fluids leaking.

"I thought we had an agreement that you called me first about these things," he said with his arms crossed over his chest as he watched me, probably waiting for me to flee. Honestly, I'd considered it.

I ran my thumb over the bullet hole, curious where the actual bullet ended up lodging. "We do when shit gets real."

He jerked his chin at me.

We were drawing a crowd, and soon the high schoolers would be out to inspect, too. Maybe we'd make it in the paper. Hopefully, no one noticed the stain on my sleeve if they took my picture for the front page.

I spread my arms wide as another vehicle pulled into the lot. "Shit just got real and you're here, so we're good."

What did he expect of me? I didn't have the psychic abilities to see these things before they happened. If I did, I'd have a bigger bank account.

Detective Anderson parked his vehicle, and Lainey practically ran in his direction. She was doomed. He jumped out with the vehicle still running, held her at the shoulders and called for someone to bring her a blanket.

The roar of a lone motorcycle broke through me being able to eavesdrop on Anderson and Lainey's conversation. Broadrick drove right up to where I faced off with Ridge.

We were only missing one important person.

"Where's the chief?" I asked Ridge as Broadrick steadied his bike with the kickstand and removed his helmet, watching me the entire time.

Ridge chuckled. "He doesn't come to these calls."

He doesn't... come to these calls? His words floated around in my brain for a minute as Broadrick stalked closer. The comment bumped around my thoughts. The words banged around in there until a pattern formed.

The chief didn't respond to these calls.

Broadrick made his way to me, and I whacked him on the arm before he started in on his version of yelling. "I need the bike."

"No," he said without a second thought.

I hit him again. "But I need it."