“The note?” I rasped.
Luke handed me a piece of paper in an evidence bag.
My eyes scanned the note with a growing dread.
An eye for an eye. We take care of our own. Your son took my daughter, it was only fair to take his life too. Repayment.
The note wasn’t signed, but I knew exactly who it was from.
I knew going into that night I helped Luke that it’d be a mess. I just never thought it’d be like this. I never thought innocents would pay for my transgression.
Who else had I put into danger because of this?
“It’s Alexi Artem. I know it,” I said.
Alexi Artem was in prison for laundering money.
The CIA had put Reese’s ex on the job undercover. He had faked a marriage with the daughter of Alexi Artem, and been charged with watching Anita Artem to see if she ever tried to contact her father. In the interim, he’d cheated on his ‘wife’ openly, and Anita had started to get suspicious.
Except when she’d realized he’d been cheating, she’d wrongly assumed that it was Reese he was cheating with, and not the woman that he’d actually been cheating with.
It also didn’t help that Anita had been pregnant. Not only was she emotional, but she was hormonal.
The agent in charge had wanted to keep perpetuating the lie, wanting to catch Anita now that he’d had evidence that she’d been in contact with her father again.
Luke and Reese had reluctantly gone along with it, even going as far as staying away from each other for weeks.
I’d been charged with watching over Reese, as had all the other members of the SWAT team. Sure we could’ve had another cop do it, or one of Special Agent Nathan Lawrence’s men do it. We liked to keep it between us, not wanting to bring the rest of the force into it if we could help it.
The too high levels of hormones and emotions from Anita didn’t mix, and she’d started killing people.
It started with killing a police dog then went on to killing Reese’s ex-boyfriend and then his current girlfriend.
Finally, she was going to kill Luke and then Reese.
She’d settled with Luke first, shooting him while him and Reese had been eating at a restaurant.
I’d been watching over Reese when Luke had been shot, and I’d sent her to the police station and stayed with Luke.
Luke had been shot twice in the head, and I’d taken the only action I could at the time.
I’d shot the pregnant woman.
Then I’d kept her alive long enough for paramedics to take over.
They’d been able to save the baby, but Anita had been lost.
And it’d been haunting me ever since.
And now this.
“Rob’s wife…did anyone go talk to her yet?” I asked.
Luke nodded. “Mary took it pretty hard. With all that’s happening over the city, the shooting a few weeks ago. She’d been understandably worried. Now, though, she’s pretty devastated. I bet she’ll have a hard time of it for a while. The guys have started a collection at work to pay for his funeral.”
I felt sick to my stomach.
And I was seconds away from losing it.
It wouldn’t do to let them see me cry.
“I’ll be at home,” I said gruffly.
We’d met at the station, but the station had been flooded with news cameras and reporters, and we’d decided to take it back to Luke’s place.
Luke walked me to the car, and he watched as I drove out of his driveway and straight to the one place that would give me clarity. Would give me the comfort I needed right now.
Home.
Home where Georgia was waiting for me.Chapter 12Life sucks then you die.
-Coffee Cup
Georgia
“I’m going to stay with him for a couple days. They put him on administrative leave pending further notice. He’s upset,” I said, shoving things into my bag.
Ace nodded, leaning against my doorway.
“Okay. Make sure you let your job know what’s going on,” he said, eyes fastened on the amount of stuff I was packing in my bag.
“I already did. Other than the one meeting I had scheduled with a potential adoptive couple, I’m free for the next three days,” I explained.
He nodded, but kept staring.
I stopped and looked at him. “What?”
He took a deep breath, his chest puffing out, then he let it out before he said, “Darby’s gone again. Hasn’t done any of his chores this week. And I’m pretty sure he’s been gone since last night. He went out dressed for a night on the town, and he’s not answering his phone.”
I sat down heavily on the bed and looked down at my hands, flexing and unflexing them.
“Change the locks,” I said, not knowing what else to do.
He nodded. “That was going to be my suggestion to you. I don’t want to do it, but if he brings home the same shit he tried to in Houston, we’ll never get him out of it again. I don’t even care enough anymore to try.”
I nodded, my eyes starting to water.
Standing, I walked into my brother’s arms, locking my hands around his thick chest.
His shirt smelled like dirt and hay, as it had his entire life.
Even when we’d lived in Houston he’d worked on a farm.
It was in his blood and always would be.
Darby, though… I didn’t know what was in his blood. Definitely not hard work.
He didn’t try at all, to be honest. He’d been a royal asshole from the moment he became a teenager.
He’d even seen multiple therapists for his PTSD…something we all had done.
Darby though, hadn’t benefitted one bit from the therapy. Instead going off the beaten path…down a dark alley…then straight into a fuckin’ lion’s den.
It took us a while to see what was going on, and by that time he’d already been in the thick of it.
And he hadn’t just chosen any gang. He’d chosen the worst gang in Texas. The freakin’ Blue Slayers.
“If he comes around, call the cops. Leave all of his belongings at the end of the driveway in some plastic trash bags. Make sure you label what they are so the trash doesn’t pick them up,” I sighed.