Err on the Side of Violence: Terribly Acronymed Detective Club Series (Book 3)

Chapter Twenty-Two: Rachel, Monday

"I think Joe saw Joanie last night," Lauren confessed to Rachel and Al as she drove them into Vancouver, after they'd made sure Emma, Naomi and Tosh were well established at Lauren's house, phones fully charged, fridge well-stocked, Emma stocked with pads, and grandparents promising to check on them later in the day.

"What?" Rachel turned to watch Lauren's face as she drove. Her best friend and lover looked to be grinding her teeth, maybe holding in a scream. "I thought he wasn't going to."

"That's what I thought too."

"How do you know he saw her?" Al asked from the back seat. "Did he tell you?"

She shook her head. "I smelled her on him when he came to bed."

"Ugh." Rachel felt a little sick to her stomach. "Didn't he clean himself up before coming home? You do."

Lauren turned to her with her mouth open in indignation. "That's what you find wrong about this?"

"I think what Lauren's saying," Al said, "is that she's upset Joe went to see Joanie without letting her know first, as per the rules she told us about. Is that right?"

"Yes, exactly. He promised me he wouldn't. He said Johnny would suspect something if he cancelled too many Sundays in a row. If he changed his mind, why didn't he tell me?"

"I'm just playing devil's advocate here," Rachel said, "but maybe it was Johnny who cancelled, for some reason, and he decided to just use the opportunity while he was already on the road."

"Still!" Lauren exclaimed. "He could have just told me! We have these rules for a reason! And now he's breaking them and that's cheating!"

Rachel had no response to that, and neither did Al. She knew it was ludicrous to think about it that way, because they were all cheating.

Lauren furiously wiped a tear from her eye, and the look on her face was fearsome. Rachel thought that if Joe saw her like this, he'd be afraid of her even though she was half his size.

"Are you going to talk to him about it?" Al asked.

Lauren shrugged. "What can I do? Yell at him? Threaten divorce if he does it again?" She shook her head in disgust. "Maybe I should have seen this coming. Rules are made to be broken, right? I never even wrote them down, I just hoped they'd do the right thing, but now I know they're just a couple of sneaky opportunists."

"Uh, sorry to burst your bubble," Rachel said regretfully, "but so are we, and I think you're just going to have to suck this up."

Lauren gasped and looked at her. "I thought you'd be on my side about this!"

"I am, really, I am. I still can't imagine Joe being intimate with that woman, even if she is gorgeous."

"Gee, thanks, Rachel, that makes me feel so much better."

"What I'm trying to say is... at least you know what the deal is. Joe only knows about you and me. He doesn't know about Al."

Lauren looked at Al in the rearview mirror. Rachel looked back at him, and he shrugged sheepishly. "I think he's beginning to suspect," he said.

"What?!" Lauren squawked. She nearly took her hands off the wheel, she was so startled. "Why do you think that?"

"We chatted in the car on the way to the detachment yesterday. He asked how I could be okay with the two of you seeing each other when I supposedly didn't have my own side piece. I said I was okay with it because it was you, Lauren. Then I got a little moony talking about you, and he didn't like it one bit."

Lauren blew out in frustration. "Well, fuck him, then. You didn't actually say we've fucked, did you? No, you wouldn't have, because you're sitting here and not in traction at the hospital."