He dived for me, but I was quicker than him. I lifted the butt of my gun and smashed it into the side of his face. He went down instantly, but I followed him, raining my fist into his face a couple of times for good measure.
“That was for Lola.”
“Lola.” Hut groaned, his gaze finding mine. “Does she know you were using her all along?” He laughed, blood flowing out of his mouth as he did. “She never can catch a break, huh?” He shook his head. “I told her I was the only one that cared, but she didn’t listen. Stupid fuckin' whore.”
I didn’t want to hear another word out of his mouth, and apparently neither did Jord because he smashed his fist down onto Hut’s temple, knocking him out for the count.
“Thank fuck for that,” I groaned out, stowing away my gun.
“His whining was annoying me,” Jord said, placing his hands on his hips as he glanced around the warehouse. “Damn. We actually did it.”
“We did.” I nodded, but the rush I was dying to feel didn’t happen. Hut may have been in custody, but what had I destroyed to get him there?
* * *
BRODY
I crossed my arms over my chest as I stood in the room, watching through the two-way glass. Hut was sitting at the table, cuffs on his wrists that were attached to a titanium pole on the floor. He wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
I’d expected him to lawyer up right away, but he hadn’t, so we’d let him stew for a few hours, and now it was time to talk to him.
“You ready for this?” Aaron asked as he sauntered into the room.
I didn’t look away from Hut or the dried blood on his face. “Yeah.”
“You did good, Brody.”
“I know,” I answered, finally turning to face my supervisor. “This case took a piece of me, though.”
Aaron stared at me and pushed his hands into the pockets of his slacks. He’d been there nearly every step of my career. He was the one who had asked me to put together my own unit. “Each one does, Brody, there’s no way around that.” He let out an audible breath and stepped closer to me, flicking his gaze to Hut briefly. “But you have to find a way to work through it. This case was different—more intense.”
“I know.” My head rang with his words when he’d first brought us this case. It was personal to him too, but then, weren’t they all? You didn’t go into this job without having a history and something to prove. We all had our demons. It was just capturing them that was the problem. “I’ll be fine, I just need to get this piece of shit locked up and then we can all move on.” I wasn’t sure whether I was talking about us as a team or my family, but it worked the same for either one.
I stepped out of the room and tilted my head to Jord, who waited in the hallway for me, and together we strolled into the interview room. Hut’s gaze met mine, and he didn’t look away as I sat opposite him. His lips lifted into a smirk, probably because he thought he’d get away with it again. He was wrong, though. We’d taken our time to get him, so we knew he couldn’t squirm his way out of this one.
“Emerson.” I grinned, knowing he hated anyone calling him that. Jord handed me a file and moved to the corner of the room, keeping his attention on us. “I hope you’re comfortable,” I remarked as I opened the file on the table.
“Yeah, but I’ll be out of here soon so...” He shrugged. The metal from the cuffs and pole clanging against each other. “Just a matter of time.”
“I’m sure you think that.” I started to pull photographs from the file and placed them on the table. Each one was surveillance from the last six months: deals he’d been a part of, Ted’s dead body, and the raid from today. “I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that these don’t look too good for you.”
He leaned his arms on the table, scanning the pictures, and grinned. He fuckin' enjoyed seeing them. “Such a shame you don’t have one of Lola on here.” He raised a brow and flicked his gaze over to Jord. “Your friend know you were fuckin' my sister?”
I gritted my teeth together, trying to hold in all the words that wanted to escape. He had no idea what had happened between Lola and me. Hell, I couldn’t put into words what had happened between us, but I sure as shit wasn’t going to let him talk smack about her.
“This isn’t about Lola,” I ground out.
He tutted. The bastard tutted at me like I was a first-grader who’d touched something he shouldn’t have. “Now that’s where you’re wrong.” He leaned back in his seat, a smug look on his face like he’d just won a war. “I see you don’t have any evidence from the meeting I brought her to with Carson.”
“Hmm…” I shuffled some more images onto the table. “Looks like we don’t. What a shame. They must have gone missing.”
Jord chuckled from the corner, and Hut zoned in on the sound. He batted his gaze back and forth between the two of us. “You’re protecting her.” He stood and yanked on his cuffs, but I just leaned back and enjoyed the show. He’d never get out of them, and if he hurt himself, it would be his own damn fault.
“I didn’t say that.” I pointed at my chest and looked over at Jord. “Did you say that?”
“I don’t recall saying that,” Jord answered.
“You bastards!” Hut pulled at his chains some more, giving up after a minute or two with his chest heaving. “You won’t get anything to stick on me.” His nostri