Mark (Mallick Brothers 3)

"You're right," he agreed, pulling back slightly, looking down at me with a small amount of relief and more than a little purpose. His eyes softened as he released my hips to gently wipe the tears from my cheeks. "Thank you," he added, leaning down to give me a quick, distracted kiss even as he reached for his cell.

While he talked, I took the coffees from Collings who gave me a knowing look, and started handing them out to those who were holding it together enough to accept.

It was the better part of an hour later when Fee and Lea dropped into the seats on either side of me, all the men still huddled to the side, talking. Charlie had trusted things to his sons and had taken a very pale, very shattered Helen home to try to calm her down.

"I can't," Fee said, shaking her head that was angled up to the ceiling as she blinked rapidly, trying to keep the tears in. We all knew it was futile, and a second later, they started streaming too.

Even though I had no experience at such things, my arm reached out and went around her shoulders as Lea reached across me to rest her hand on Fee's leg.

"What do I tell the girls?" she asked helplessly.

"You tell them," a male voice said from in front of us, unfamiliar, making us all shock apart and look up. It was then I realized that I did know the voice, though I had only heard it once before, in a big box store, when he had a gun pointing at Mark and me. Detective Lloyd, I think his name was. "That Senator Ericsson's son is a disgusting piece of wife-beating shit who we have never been able to take in despite a dozen domestic abuse calls from his mansion that is paid for by tax-payer dollars. You tell them that their uncle stopped that bastard from putting his wife in an early, but likely very welcome, grave. You tell them that he is not the one who belongs in prison, but that sometimes bad people do win in life. You tell them that if they want that to change, they better get an education and start taking some of these positions of power away from these fucking scumbags. That's what you tell them. Minus a few 'fucks, maybe,'" he added a bit sheepishly.

With that, and not a single thing more, the strange, elusive Detective Lloyd disappeared out the front doors.

"Wow, I always thought he was a bit of a prick," Lea commented at the closed door, making both me and Fee snort before we realized how inappropriate that was.

"Is it weird that I am relieved this wasn't work-related?" Fee asked, looking at us. "I mean, I shouldn't be. If it was work-related, all they would need to do is all go after the fuckface all at once until he agreed to drop the charges. Then it could all be over. But, for Eli's sake, I'm more, um, I don't know... relieved that he raged out for the right reasons? I guess that's what I'm trying to say."

"I don't think he's seeing it that way, unfortunately," Lea said, not trying to be a Debbie Downer, just being honest. "You know Eli. He goes into a downward spiral after he realizes he let the rage win out. Takes him a while to get out of the funk. I mean... we don't know how badly he hurt this wife-beating asshole," she went on. "His charge is only aggravated assault, so he didn't kill him. But was he close? I know seeing a man wailing on a woman was likely a trigger like he has never known before, so that wouldn't surprise me. Without one of his brothers to pull him off, this could have gone really badly really fast. That might be why he won't talk to any of us, wouldn't hardly look at any of us."

"It will pass," Fee said, exhaling hard. "It always does."

Lea nodded, but stayed silent, and I had the feeling maybe she thought differently. She just didn't want to bring the mood down. "Scotti," she said suddenly, making me jump, feeling like I had been more of an eavesdropper than a participant in the conversation up to that point. "Do you think Mark would be willing to take in Coop?" she asked, looking hopeful. "Fee can't do it with all the girls. Ryan and Dusty have the cat who hates Coop. Shane and I don't have a yard..."

"I'll ask him, but I don't think he would say no."

"Let us know, though. If Eli was picked up this morning, that beast has had free rein of his place for almost a day. He needs to be let out, fed, and have some serious damage control done at his place."