She glared at him.

“He had a few shots of Jameson. A couple of Guinness. Then he wanted to go somewhere with…uh…” He shot Nick a pleading glance. Nick sat back, arms folded across his chest, very unhelpfully. “Uh, more action,” he finished, euphemistically

But Avery wasn’t stupid. “Christ,” she said. “You took him to the Pussy Cat Palace, didn’t you?”

Tyler grimaced. “Uh. Yeah. It’s totally my fault, I should never have told him about the place.”

Avery’s eyes shot blue sparks. “No shit.”

“He said you don’t mind when he goes to see exotic dancers.”

Avery’s lips compressed. “Whatever. So how did he get arrested?”

Tyler looked at Kaelin. Her pretty face was expressionless. She was probably as pissed at him as Avery was, but she was trying hard not to show it. “Well. When we left, we were waiting for a taxi, and down the street from the Pussy Palace, I mean Pussy Cat Palace, there was a fire truck parked on the street. Didn’t seem to be a fire, and all the firefighters were inside somewhere, but Scott said…uh…he’d always wanted to be a firefighter. He said you have a thing for firefighters, in their uniforms, and you guys do this role play thing…”

Avery’s face went scarlet. Well shit, sharing that might have been a mistake.

“Anyway,” he hurried on, glancing at Kaelin, whose lips twitched. “He climbed up into the fire truck. I tried to stop him, Ave, I swear it. I grabbed his shirt—um, that’s why it’s ripped—and tried to pull him down but he was determined. And then…well…” He paused. He wasn’t doing a good job of this. Avery looked more and more furious with every word. Maybe there wasn’t going to be a wedding tomorrow.

“So.” He grinned. “We all got in and then I saw the keys were in the vehicle and I thought, hey, might as well make his last single night one to remember and I started the truck up and we went for a ride.”

Silence expanded thickly around them all in the waiting room, other than the small choking noise Nick made.

“You…you…” Avery stared at him, mouth gaping. “You went for a ride? In a fire truck?”

He lifted his shoulders.

“Are you fucking insane?” she yelled, and the officer on duty at the desk looked up and frowned. She punched Tyler’s chest and he jumped. “What the hell were you thinking? And why aren’t you the one arrested?”

“Uh. Little mix-up. When the cops caught us. They thought Scott was driving, but he wasn’t. I tried to tell them, but…you know.” He made a face and lifted his hands. “Cops. I’m really sorry, Ave. But we’ll get him out. It’s just a misunderstanding.”

He looked at Kaelin, whose eyes were closed, her lips trembling. Hell, she was laughing. What the fuck?

“What do we have to do?” Avery demanded. “To get him out?”

“They said we can…uh…post bail. But not until tomorrow.”

Avery’s screech had him wincing.

Kaelin went over to the desk. “Hi, Officer Cuthbert,” she said. “Is Brent working tonight?”

“Hey, Kaelin. No he’s not.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

Kaelin pulled her cell phone out of her purse and punched in a number. She waited. Who the hell was she calling?

“Hi, Brent,” she said. “It’s me, Kaelin. Yeah. Good. Um…I have a little problem.”

She turned away and walked to the end of the waiting room so Tyler couldn’t hear her. Shit. She was talking to the cop boyfriend. Or whatever he was to her. She said they’d broken up. A moment later she returned, off the phone.

“Brent’s coming,” she told Avery, patting her shoulder. “We’ll get this all sorted out.”

Tyler scowled at her and she blinked at him.

“Can I see him?” Avery demanded.

“Sure,” the officer on duty said. “We’ll bring him to a room. Be about ten minutes.”

“Ten…” She looked like she was going to explode. “Fine.” She stomped over to the chair and sat down, casting Hardeep a baleful look.

She set her purse on her lap and folded her hands over it, staring resolutely across the room.

“It’ll be okay, Avery.” Kaelin sat beside her and rubbed her shoulder. “It’s not that big a deal.”

Now it was Tyler’s turn to gape at her. Scott was in jail. He’d stolen a fucking fire truck. And it was no big deal? To the girl who followed all the rules, played it safe, never drew attention to herself?

Tyler slumped down into one of the cheap plastic chairs. He’d been to this police station years ago under similar circumstances. He and Nick had taken Nick’s grandma’s car for a joy ride when they’d been fifteen, and not only got caught, but had been caught with beer in the car. His parents had been unfuckingbelievably pissed off when they’d come to get him that night. Then there was the time Dad’s car had been totaled. And then, that incident ten years ago. He’d been so shit scared that he was going to end up in jail again, only that time he was nearly an adult and… He shook his head, blocking that gut-wrenching memory.

Moments later, a man walked into the station, tall, broad, short-cropped dark hair, square jaw. Tyler wanted to punch him the minute he saw him, knowing exactly who it was. The guy went straight to Kaelin.

“Kaelin, honey, what’s going on?”

She rose, gave him a hesitant smile and let him hug her. Tyler’s gut twisted and his skin tightened, and he scowled at them. Kaelin explained the situation to the guy, introduced him briefly to the others, Hardeep still snoring away. Then Cop Boy nodded and disappeared through a door. Kaelin met his hard stare.

“What?” she asked.

“That’s the boyfriend?”

“Um…ex. Sort of.”

Sort of? What the hell did that mean?

“You said you broke up.”

“Yes.” She nibbled her bottom lip as she took her seat again, perching on the edge of the chair. “We did. He still wants to get back together. I guess.”

“You guess?” Fuck.

“Okay, he does. But you know. It didn’t work out, so…” Her voice trailed off.

“Sucked in bed, huh?”

Her eyes shot wide. “Tyler!”

He laughed. Her expression said it all. It was true. Man, he could show her. Cop Boy didn’t know how to satisfy her, but he could.

Christ. He was drunk.

He had to be shitfaced to be thinking things like that. He slumped lower in the chair. His shiner throbbed and his shoulder twinged a little from the tussle he’d had with Scott. Hell. Shit. Fuck. Damn.

It wasn’t long before Scott appeared, looking like crap, what little hair he had mussed, his eyes red, shirt ripped. Cop Boy was behind him. Avery jumped to her feet and rushed toward Scott, and Kaelin rose too, slower, and moved toward Brent.

Tyler watched glumly, though relief slid through him that Scott was out. Reluctant gratitude toward Cop Boy rose inside him. He stood.

“Thank you so much,” Kaelin said breathlessly, gripping Cop Boy’s big biceps. Tyler gritted his teeth. “I so much appreciate this, Brent.”

“Not a problem. You know I’d do anything for you. And I’m sure this was all just a misunderstanding.”

“Thank you.” Avery turned to him as well. She eyed him up and down, glanced at Kaelin then back at Brent. “Thank you so much, Brent. We’re getting married tomorrow.”

“I know.” Brent grinned. “Take your fiancé home and put him to bed so he’s not too hungover to say his vows tomorrow.”

Shit. The guy was decent. But when Brent looked down at Kaelin, standing beside him in her sexy little black dress and heels, Tyler saw the hunger in his eyes and once again wanted to deck the sonofabitch. His hands curled into fists.

“I’m driving,” Kaelin said. “I’ll take you home first, Avery, and then I’ll take the guys back to the hotel.” Scott had a room there too.

They woke Hardeep and dragged him out of the station. Scott wasn’t all that steady either, so it took Nick to help Hardeep and Tyler to help Scott. Then they discovered there were only three seatbelts in the back seat of Kaelin’s little black Mazda.

She stood there biting her lip.