May Contain Wine (SWAT Generation 2.0 5)

“Except, he started to get worse. More obsessed with Ms. Alvarez by the minute. He… he wanted me to leave presents for her, but I wouldn’t. I… you have to believe me. I didn’t do that stuff,” he croaked.

I looked down at the tattoo, and he noticed.

“Julian and I have the same one,” he said. “Got it on the same day. I didn’t correct you when you brought me in because I thought for sure my mother would show… except she hasn’t.”

My gut clenched.

“So you haven’t been the one to leave all the dead animals on her porch?” I asked.

He shook his head, looking sick to his stomach. “No, sir.”

I hated that he’d done it this way. Had he just been honest from the beginning, things would’ve been different.

Now? He was going to jail for assault on a police officer and I was sure many other things. Even if he hadn’t hurt her.

“Is your brother at your home?” I asked.

Romeo put the gun on the ground and slid it my way.

I caught it before it could slide past me, handed it backward to Saint who I knew had my back still, and waited.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “He’s… he’s different now. Ever since meeting Ms. Alvarez, I don’t know where he is or what he’s doing. He doesn’t answer my calls anymore. I haven’t seen him in a week.”

I cursed and stood up, walking slowly over to Romeo.

Offering him my hand, I waited for him to take it.

When he did and I brought him to his feet, I placed both of my hands on the kid’s shoulders and said, “I’ll find him. And I’ll get your mom here.”

Romeo looked relieved.

Then his head hung, and he held out his hands in front of him.

I cuffed him seconds later, walking him to the cell that he’d occupied before this had all gone down.

Once he was inside, I closed the cell door and gestured for him to poke his hands through the door.

He did, and I uncuffed him.

“We’ll fix this, Romeo,” I said softly.

When Romeo looked up and caught my eyes, I saw desolation there. He’d given up all hope.

The look made my insides turn.

“We’ll fix this,” I repeated.

Romeo shook his head. “You can’t fix this. Nobody can.”

He turned away, leaving me with my cuffs, and collapsed onto the bed.

The sheets he’d used to fake hang himself were still hanging from the rafters.

I should’ve removed them.

Instead, I left them there, and will forever regret that I didn’t.

***

“Since we’re all here,” Bennett said. “And I have a warrant for Julian Ricci’s arrest, we’ll execute it now.”

Being able to execute the warrant tonight felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.

Except, ten minutes later, when we arrived at the house, it was to find it completely empty.

The doors were open, every single window was open wide, and there wasn’t a damn soul to be found in the entire place.

Son of a bitch!

“Well, motherfucker.” I kicked the closest garbage can, causing it to tumble end over end until it came to a rest next to the wall, its contents spilling out onto the tiled floor.

“Need to get the mother here,” Saint suggested. “See if we can get her to give us any information on where he might be.”

“No need,” Bennett said as he gestured toward a car driving down the length of the road. “I was able to get Foster to head to where she was presumed to be staying. He sent her here.”

We watched as the woman got out of her car and hustled to the front door.

The moment that she saw all of us standing in her entryway, she stiffened and stilled.

“Miss Ricci, do you happen to know the whereabouts of your son, Julian Ricci?” I asked stiffly.

She blinked owlishly at me.

“Why?” she asked. “What has he done?”

Saint went about explaining.

The woman’s eyes widened when we told her what her son had done.

“My Julian wouldn’t have done that,” Tiana Ricci affirmed. “He’s a good boy. Just gets lost sometimes.”

“We have him on video,” Saint said, trying to be careful with his words as if not to piss her off. “And Romeo affirmed that Julian was the one to do it.”

She shook her head. “No, it was Romeo. Romeo’s the bad one, not my Julian.”

I tilted my head. “Romeo didn’t do it. Julian did.”

She shook her head. “It wasn’t. I promise.”

The bad thing was, she actually believed her words.

My gut intuition, however, confirmed that it wasn’t Romeo. You didn’t fake emotion like that. And, after analyzing the video again, I knew what to look for this time. Romeo was right. He and the brother did share the same tattoo. Romeo, however, had a few scars on his wrists that the person on the video didn’t have.

“It doesn’t matter if it is or isn’t him right now,” Saint said. “He’s wanted for questioning. Now, do you know where he is?”