“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 nostrils flared as he leaned over the table. “And if you do, I’ll kill her.”
My back straightened, and as much as I was enjoying winding him up, he was pressing all the right buttons to have my flip switching.
“You think what I’ve done to her so far is bad? You have no fuckin' idea.” His threat was clear, but that threat was just another thing we could now hold against him.
“Too bad she has no idea you’re even here,” Jord said as he ambled closer to us. “She’s probably living it up somewhere far away from you. Although”—he gripped the back of the chair next to me—“I’m sure she’d add more value to our case. She is, after all, your sister. A jury would eat up everything she says. And I’m sure when they hear the horror story of you holding a knife to her throat, and one of your crew members installing a lock on her bedroom door, they’d realize that you’re not just a piece of drug-dealing scum, but a danger to women too.”
I blinked as Jord gave his spiel, and understood what he was trying to do. If he did somehow make it out of here, and he thought Lola was one of the reasons, he’d find her and hurt her. But Jord had him second-guessing himself. Sure, she’d known I was undercover for the last week or so, but she’d gotten out, so she didn’t care what I was doing to Hut. He wouldn’t see it that way though.
Hut’s lips pursed and he looked down at his clenched fists on the table. “I want my lawyer.”
I’d wondered how long it would take him to ask for one. I grinned at Jord and gathered up all the images. “You got it, Emerson.” His low growl batted off the walls, but it did nothing to frighten me. He was like a small puppy with a bone he didn’t want to share.
I sauntered out of the room, Jord on my tail, and moved down the hall for the next person I needed to talk to. I rapped my knuckles on the door and pushed it open.
Ryan sat on a chair in the corner, and Ford sat on the sofa. This room was a tool we used to lull suspects into thinking they were safe. The nice furniture and bright walls made them feel like they weren’t being interrogated. But that wasn’t what we were using it for today. Ford had been arrested just like Hut, but it was all for cover. We just needed to fill him in on a few things, and then he could be on his way.
“Ford,” I said as I closed the door behind me.
“Brody?” His brows furrowed, and he glanced from me to Ryan. “What’s going on?”
I sat in the chair next to Ryan, opposite Ford, and leaned my forearms on my thighs. “I’m Agent Brody Easton.”
Ford blinked several times, processing the four words I just spoke. “You fucker!” His chest lifted on a breath, but he didn’t make any move to get up. “It was you that told them about Jenna.”
“I did.”
“And then...shit. I had no idea.” He stared at a spot on the wall behind me. “What does all this mean?”
“As I said to you when we first spoke,” Ryan started, “you have immunity for the information you have provided. Should this case go to court—which we’re ninety-nine percent sure it will—you’ll need to testify, after which you’ll be reunited with Jenna.”
“And she’s safe?” Ford asked, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed. “Jenna is safe?”
“She is,” I answered, causing Ford to look my way.
“You helped Lola get out too, didn’t you?”
I shook my head, and my teeth ground together. “I didn’t. She did that all on her own.”
“Oh.” Ford nodded. Today had been a lot to process.
“I just wanted to come in and tell you who I was.” I stood and widened my stance when he stood too.
“I always thought there was something off about you,” Ford said, a smile on his face. “I didn’t think it’d be this though.” He held his hand out to me, and I glanced down at it with raised brows. “Thank you.” He cleared his throat. “Thank you for helping with Jenna. If you wouldn’t have followed me that day, she’d still be trying to hide from Hut on her own.”
I placed my hand in his and squeezed once. “You’re welcome.”
“Will he go down?” Ford asked when I pulled away.
“If all goes to plan”—I stepped toward the door—“he won’t live another free day for a long time.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
BRODY
Thirty-six long hours, two hours’ sleep in that time, and I was finally heading home. I didn’t have a case I had to return to undercover, and I didn’t have anywhere I needed to be for the next day. Everything was coming to fruition. The end goal we’d been working toward was right in front of us.
We’d spent the majority of the last twenty-four hours interviewing Hut and getting more and more agitated with his “no comment” that his lawyer told him to use. He wasn’t giving us anything, not that we expected anything less, but I’d resolved that I wasn’t going to leave until he was charged. Finally, he’d had his rights read to him, and he was heading down the path he deserved.
The roar of my Mustang’s engine vibrated through the seats as I pulled into my neighborhood, and I was pretty sure everyone else could hear me coming. I hadn’t known when I’d get out of the office, so I hadn’t told Cade or Moira. I wanted it to be a surprise, especially as summer had just started. I’d be able to spend some much-needed time with them and rebuild what I’d lost over the last six months.
I pulled into my driveway and parked next to Moira’s SUV, half expecting Cade to come running out of the house. I shook my head. It was eight in the morning, and it was the first week of summer. Of course, he was still in bed.
Inhaling a deep breath, I pushed the car door open and stepped out. The sun was high in the sky, that fresh feeling of a new morning surrounding the neighborhood of large houses and pristine front yards. This was what I’d always worked toward, and I’d finally made it. So why did I feel like I didn’t belong here?
“Brody?” Moira’s soft voice called. “Is that you?”
I whipped my head around and grinned over at her. “It’s me,” I told her, taking three giant steps and wrapping my arms around her waist.
She clung to my shoulders, her tinkle of laughter flowing around us. “Careful! You’ll flash all the neighbors my underwear.”
I chuckled and let her go, framing her face with my hands, and placing a gentle kiss on her lips. “I’m home.”
“I can see that.” Her fingers gripped my arms, and she blinked up at me. Her face was bare of any makeup, her hair a mess from having slept all night, and it was the most beautiful I had seen her. This was the Moira I remembered, not the one she tried to be when everyone else was around.
“How long are you home for this time?”
“I…” I let out a breath and pulled my hands from her face. “I’m not sure. The case is finished, and I have a day before I need to get back into the office to brief everyone.”
She twirled around and walked inside the house. “I have plans today, but I'll call and cancel them.”
“Oh.” I closed the door behind me and shivered at how cold the house was. I’d never been one to like the cold, much preferring the heat, but Moira hated to sweat. “You don’t have to cancel them—”
“It’s fine.” She waved her hand in the air as she walked through the living room and into the kitchen. “It was just for my hair and nails. I can reschedule them for tomorrow.”
“Right.” I sat down at one of the bar stools, staring at her as she walked around the kitchen and pulled cups out of a cupboard I was sure held something else only a couple of weeks ago. Was it bad that I didn’t even know where things were in my own home?
“Dad? You home?”
I perked up as Moira started the coffee machine and then heavy footsteps were blasting down the stairs, and a grinning Cade was running toward me. Most teenage kids didn’t want to hug their da
ds, but they didn’t go months without seeing them. The main thing on my list was to rebuild my relationship with him. He didn’t deserve to have an absent father, and even though Moira had done all she could, he needed me more now than ever.
I squeezed the life out of him and ruffled his hair. “I’m home, kid.”
My stomach dipped as the word echoed around me. The last time I’d said that it was to Lola. Lola. I couldn’t allow myself to think about her, because if I went down that rabbit hole right now, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to burrow my way back.
I was aware I was compartmentalizing, but what else was I meant to do? Run to her, tell her everything would be okay and we could be together? I wasn’t a fool. I knew where I stood. Right here, with my wife and son. So why did it feel like I was cheating on Lola? It shouldn’t have made my chest hurt, it shouldn’t have had my palms sweating, but it did.
“Will you come and see my lacrosse practice?” Cade asked as he pulled back.
“You have practice? It’s summer, right?”
Cade rolled his eyes and sat next to me at the same time Moira passed me a cup of coffee. She leaned against the counter, her eyes on her cell as she typed away furiously. Was this what every morning in the house was like when I wasn’t here?
“Yeah, it’s summer. But they have lacrosse camp this year.”
“Ahhh.” I took a sip of the coffee and cringed. What the hell had she put in this? It was like drinking a cup of sugared milk. “Then, yeah, I’ll come. What time do you have to leave?”
Cade flicked his gaze at the giant clock sitting on the wall. “In an hour. Is that okay?”
My lips kicked up into a grin, and I stood. “Hell yeah, it is.” I walked around the counter, my attention moving to Moira, who was smiling down at her cell. “I’m gonna take a shower, and then we can grab some breakfast burritos on the way.” I dumped the “coffee” down the sink and ruffled Cade’s hair on the way past.
Today would be the start of a new life for the three of us. I’d put the case behind me, and reevaluate everything. It was time I was home more, and hopefully, after being gone so long for this op, we’d have some real time off and be in the offices more.
I took the stairs two at a time and headed into our bedroom, a bedroom I’d spent more time away from than in. It wasn’t home to me, not yet at least. But I told myself I’d try. I’d try my hardest to put everything behind me and continue on the path that I’d created for myself fifteen years ago. Now all I had to do was put Lola behind me, and not think about her.
Easier said than done.
LOLA
Summer brought with it a whole new routine for the diner. There wasn’t an influx at certain times anymore. Instead, we had a pretty steady flow with no real slow hours. I wasn’t sure whether I liked it like this more or not, but it allowed me not to think about everything that was going on.
Jan asked if I was going to tell Sal about everything this morning, just like she had for the last week and a half. But I wasn’t ready. If I said it out loud to someone else, then it made it all the more real. It wasn’t that I didn’t know what I was going to do, because there was never a doubt in my mind, but I told myself I was waiting for the three-month mark. People always said that when you were twelve weeks along you were out of your danger zone. And it would give me four weeks to wrap my head around everything.
I was a jumbled mess. I’d gone back and forth, not knowing how to feel about everything that had happened. Things had gone from bad to good, then worse, then good, and then apocalyptic. And then I’d thrown myself at Brody hours after finding out I was pregnant. It was a stupid move, but at least he’d told me how he really felt.
You’re not enough.
I stumbled as I walked toward my section, his voice ringing so clear in my mind. He’d said he loved me, but that I wasn’t enough, and part of me wanted to hold on to the “L” word like a life raft and never let go, but the rational side of my mind told me to push it away and sink. The only thing I was sure of was I was keeping this baby and I loved it with everything I had already.
“Hi, can I take your—” I flicked my gaze up, and the first thing I saw was Cade’s grin. I had a millisecond where I didn’t glance anywhere else, afraid of what I’d see on the other side of the booth. But I didn’t have a choice, and my body already knew he was there without me having to confirm it. “Order?” I whispered out the last word.
“Hey, Lola!” Cade beamed up at me, his face a sweaty mess.
“Hi, Cade.” I tried to pull my lips up into a smile, I really freaking did, but he was here, with his family.
God, his family.
A throat cleared, and I whipped my head around to face Moira, who was staring at Brody who was...staring at me.
Shit. This was not good. Not good at all.
Don’t look him in the eyes, Lola. Don’t you dare do it, don’t you—
Crap, I looked him in the eyes.
His words, the last time we saw each other, had said one thing, but the way his gaze was focused on me, and the clench of his jaw, told me another. He was holding himself back from saying or doing anything. I wasn’t sure why that gave me the satisfaction I needed to say, “Have you looked at the menus yet?”
His head reeled back at the sound of my voice, and I raised a brow. Maybe he was fooling himself with what he told me, or maybe I was fooling myself into thinking I saw something in his eyes and the way his body moved. Either way, a genuine smile pulled at my face as Cade tried to order a burger.
“Cade,” Moira admonished. “What did I say about meat—”
“He needs the protein,” Brody replied gruffly. “He just spent two hours training. Let the boy eat what he wants.”
Moira huffed and shook her head. “You’re too soft on him.” Her voice was like whiplash, but what annoyed me the most was the way Cade’s shoulders slumped and the way he looked down at the table.
“And I told you if you don’t want to eat meat that’s fine, but you can’t push it on us,” Brody replied, turning his body toward her.
She scoffed. “Okay, Brody. It’s not like you’re here most of the time anyway. You let him eat meat for the next week or however long you’re home for, and then he can go back to not eating dead animals when you’re gone.”
“Not this again.” Brody huffed out a breath and ran his palm down his face. “I have to fuckin' work, Moira. Who the hell do you think pays for that big house? Who pays for those expensive clothes—”
“It’s fine,” Cade said, his voice low. “I’ll have the—”
“Are you seriously going there?” Moira screeched, her brows high on her forehead. She crossed her arms over her chest, but Brody didn’t make a move to look down at her. And I was here, staring at their argument in both horror and fascination.
“Yeah, I’m going there. You can’t be on my case about going away for work but then spend said money on shit you don’t even like!”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Moira ground out. “I do like that stuff. Not that you’d know, because you’re never home!”
Her shout brought me out of the trance I had been in watching them, and I glanced over at Cade. His chin was to his chest, his hands clenched on the table in the same way Brody’s was, and I...I couldn’t let him sit here and listen to this. They were off in their own world, but he didn’t need to be there with them—just like I didn’t.
I leaned forward and placed my hand on Cade’s arm. He jerked and stared up at me. “Come on,” I whispered, and tilted my head to the side.
He pushed out of the booth, and I spun around. “Where are we going?” he asked, following me through the diner and past the counter.
“I’m due my break, figured I could accost you to come and sit with me.” I shrugged as I stopped next to the pass and put an order in for Cade’s burger and an omelet for me—the only thing I seemed to be able to keep down right now.
“But I’m here with…” He trailed off, and I turned to see where he was loo
king. Moira’s hands were flailing in the air, and Brody was listening to everything she said. Neither of them had noticed Cade wasn’t sitting there anymore.
I grabbed two glasses, filled them with soda, and passed them to Cade. “Carry these for me.” He wrapped his hands around the glasses, and I hooked my thumb over my shoulder. “Follow me.”
He knew the way to the back room, but he needed a distraction, probably about as much as I did. It wasn’t his fault that his dad was away all the time—or that he was a lying cheat or that…
Or that I loved him.
Shit. I was meant to be distracting Cade, not getting inside my own head.
We pushed into the break room and took our normal seats, the silence washing over us, but the longer we were in here, the more his shoulders seemed to relax. “So…” he started. “That’s what happens when Dad’s home.”
“Hmmm.” I was being noncommittal. I was channeling the inner me who let someone else talk and didn’t put my own emotions into it.
“It’s been like that since I was a little kid.” He huffed out a breath and placed his palms on the table, spreading his fingers out. “I wish they’d break up already.”
My soda went down the wrong way and spurted up my nose. Oh, the burn. I was doing that weird laugh/cough thing, and all the while, tears ran down my face.
“Crap.” Cade tapped my back a couple of times. “Sorry.”
I waved my hand in the air. “It’s okay.” I coughed a last time. “Just went down the wrong way.” I hadn’t expected him to say what he had, and even though a part of me liked that he’d voiced his opinion, he was saying it to the one person who shouldn’t have been listening.
“I thought study sessions were over?” a deep voice said.
We both looked up at the door and stared at Sal. He had three plates balanced on two hands and a grin on his face.
“It is,” Cade said to him. “Mom and Dad are fighting.”
“Ahhh.” Sal nodded his head like he understood it. “Makes sense.” He walked over to us, placed the plates on the table, and sat in the last empty chair. “So, Cade, you wanna make some money this summer again?”
Fallen Duet: Brody & Lola: Free Fall & Down Fall (Easton Family Duet Boxsets Book 1) Page 28
