Carter Reed (Carter Reed 1)

He sighed in frustration, raking a hand through his hair. His shoulders bunched as he lifted his arm and the sleeve of his shirt slid down. His bicep doubled in size before his arm went back down. For some reason, I couldn’t look away from his arm. His muscle folded back into place, but every part of him was sculpted to perfection.

“Are you checking me out?” His tone held a trace of amusement.

“What? No.” But I was. My cheeks warmed and I hung my head. How could I do that? At this time, at this place?

He chuckled, “Don’t beat yourself up. You’re stalling. I’d stall too.” He sighed as he hooked a foot underneath Ben’s stomach. He flipped him over. One of his arms hit the couch and stayed there. It couldn’t slide back down from its awkward angle. Then Carter gestured to him and stepped back again. “Okay. Look at him again. Tell me what you see.”

I had no idea. Nothing. He had on a nice shirt. There was cash in his front pocket. His jeans didn’t look as baggy from the front and there were no stains. Even his shoes seemed new. Wait. His shoes were new. He was clean-kept. He had money. He had a working phone. He had drugs. My mouth dropped open.

“Getting it now?”

“He was high. I thought-”

“You thought what?” He was calm.

“I thought he was desperate and sad. Maybe he didn’t know what he had done when he...” I couldn’t say it. I should, but I couldn’t. It was too soon.

“He gutted your roommate. He murdered her and he’s not desperate, Emma.” Carter grabbed the phone, pulled out the money, and picked up the knife. “He’s got keys. That tells me he’s got somewhere to go. He’s got money, so he’s not here to score quick cash. He’s got drugs. That means he’s got his next hit already with him. And he’s got a second knife. My guess is that this is his favorite one. He used Amanda’s knife on you, and he came with a

gun. Where’d he get the gun?”

I shook my head. “It might be the one I used on Dunvan.”

“Nope,” Carter negated that. “My men took care of that one. This was his. He came here with a gun of his own, Emma. Put it all together. What are you getting?”

I shrugged. I was so tired, so damn tired of it all. I felt myself growing numb again and shutting down. He murdered Mallory. The son of a bitch killed my friend and took away her baby. We could’ve, at least, had the baby. I wouldn’t have cared if it was from Dunvan. It would’ve been half Mallory. She was a good person. The child would’ve been a good person too.

I wiped a tear away and sat on the other couch.

Carter sighed. His tone softened, “I’m sorry if I’m hurting you, but I’m helping you too right now. I’m trying to get you ready because he’s going to wake up soon. Right now you’re thinking that he didn’t know what he did and he’s going to use that on you. He’s going to beg and plead. He’s going to cry. He’s going to use every trick he can think, but that’s not the truth. None of it is. He knew what he was doing, Emma. He killed her and he bragged about it. You heard him. ‘We saw his handiwork?’ He wasn’t here to kill Amanda. He could’ve done that right away. He was waiting for you. He knew what he was doing. Look past his surface and get a feel for him inside. What do you feel? Use all of it. Add it all up in your mind.”

I shook my head. I couldn’t. He was pushing me too hard. “Why are you doing this to me?” I started to turn away.

He caught my arm and pulled me back. “Because you need to know everything and have all the facts in your head. I won’t let you walk out of this apartment with regrets. Those will eat you up inside and I love you too much to watch you go through that. You’re going to make a decision on what to do with him and you’re going to own it. You have to know everything first.”

I shook my head. I didn’t want to do this.

He pulled me over to Ben’s things. His voice was hard now, cold again. “Look at his shit. He broke in. He tied up the owner of the place. He has drugs. He has a gun. He has a knife. He has a phone. He’s wearing good clothes. He’s got keys to go somewhere. A person has an agenda when they go somewhere. They have a reason for everything they do. He’s not looking for an immediate score. His last phone call was to Franco’s guy. He was waiting for you. What was he doing? When he wakes up, it’ll still be his goal. When you figure out the agenda, you figure out the person.”

It was too much. Too many things were being stirred inside of me.

Carter broke. He said in a soft voice, “He already sold you out once and he was awarded for it. What do you think he was here to do? Again?”

My eyes got big and my heart paused. He was going to do it again. Carter was laying the groundwork. He wanted me to figure it out for myself. He was right, Ben would’ve convinced me. He would’ve cried and begged. I would’ve felt bad for him. Hell, Amanda and I always felt bad for him. We made fun of him, but we thought he was pathetic for how much he loved Mallory and pined for her.

Carter was right. I would’ve bought it.

“He’s setting up long-term. He was here to grab you for Franco, or kill you himself.” Carter went over and kicked at his feet. “My guess is that he was going to grab you, then call Franco and ask what he wanted him to do. He probably doesn’t know that Franco’s dead, no one does unless they’re in the family.”

“What would’ve Franco said?”

He shrugged as he kicked his feet again. “Franco would’ve had him bring you in, then he would’ve killed the guy. Your friend would’ve thought he was being so smart, that he had all it all figured out. He was going to get a big reward this time, bigger than just telling him who the trigger had been.”

“It sounds so easy to him, killing me like that.” I shuddered. My voice trembled, “Did he kill her that easy too?”

Carter had bent down and was untying Ben’s shoes when he stopped and looked up. He stared at me for a minute before he replied, “This guy sounds like a normal controlling and abusive asshole. He probably had a lot of fury built up over the years. He watched her with other guys?”

I nodded.