Flawed (The Mercenary Series Book 3)
Page 18
When I’d first found out about the pregnancy, I’d been frightened and unsure, but now I’d almost lost the baby, I knew I wanted nothing more in this world.
We took the two cases of money to X’s storage lockup beside the train station, and also switched the IDs over. It wasn’t safe to wander around the city with that amount of cash on us, and it wasn’t as though we had a regular home to stash the money in, though I hoped that would change sometime soon.
“I want your name added as someone who is allowed access to the lockup,” said X when we got there. “What’s in there is yours more than it is mine.”
“But I won’t need my own access because I’ll have you with me,” I said, unable to hide the slight pleading tone to my voice. “We’re not separating again. Ever.”
He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me tight against him. “Of course I’ll be with you. This is just insurance, okay? And it wouldn’t feel right for me to be the only one to have access to this money. Half of it belonged to your father, so it’s yours, and Nicole’s, too. I’m sure she would prefer for you to have the code as well.”
I nodded, understanding where he was coming from.
With my name added to his account, and the money and guns safely locked away, we got back on the road. The plan was to drive to a new motel and figure out what to do next from there. With both my father and Giovanni gone, we no longer had any reason to hide. I was relieved to know I’d have easy access to medical care, should I need it, and would be able to start booking the regular pre-natal appointments I would need to make sure my pregnancy was proceeding as it should. We could stay in the city, if we wanted, and perhaps find an apartment to rent.
As X drove toward the motel, a flash of blue lights came from behind us, illuminating the truck, followed by the blast of a siren’s wail.
X glanced over his shoulder. “Shit. What the hell do they want?”
I followed his line of sight to see the familiar lights of a cop car pulsing behind us. My stomach sank. “I don’t know. Were you speeding or anything?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“You’re going to have to pull over.”
I was relieved we’d gotten rid of the cash and guns. At least, if the police felt they needed to search the truck for any reason, they wouldn’t find anything incriminating.
X pulled over to the side of the road, and the cop car pulled in behind us. I heard the slam of a door as the police officer got out of the car. He walked alongside us, and X slid down the driver’s window.
The police officer leaned in. “Lee Mason?”
Two things shocked me. The first was that he’d used one of the aliases X went by, and the second was that I knew him.
“Detective Caraway?” He’d been the lead detective on my father’s case. What the hell was he doing traffic patrol for? I realized he wasn’t in uniform, and the car he’d been driving was unmarked. With dread that settled in my gut like sludge in the bottom of a river, it dawned on me that perhaps this had nothing to do with X’s driving.
He gave me a nod, but didn’t appear as surprised to see me as I was to see him. “Ms. Guerra.” Then he turned his attention to X.
“Step out of the vehicle, please.”
We exchanged glances. This wasn’t good.
“Vee?” said Nicole from the back of the truck, her tone worried.
“It’s fine, Nickie. Just do everything they ask.”
We all climbed out of the truck, stepping onto the road.
Detective Caraway walked to the front of the truck and nodded at the hood. “That’s hell of a dent in the front of your truck. Recent accident?”
X nodded, a frown drawing his brows together. “Uh, yeah. I hit a deer the other day, but it was fine. I thought it was dying, but it got up and took off.”
“Right.” He reached out and touched the grill, before bringing his fingers back and inspecting the substance he’d found there. “Dried blood.”
X nodded again, his frown deepening, his lips forming a thin line. “Yeah, like I said, I hit a deer.”
My stomach churned, my heart beating harder. What the hell was this all about?
The detective continued. “I have my suspicions that if we analyzed the blood it will come back as human.”
“Why would you think that?” I blurted.
He ignored me and spoke directly to X. “We received an anonymous tip that you fought with Harvey Baglione and ran him down in this truck. Mr. Baglione hasn’t been seen for the past week. Do you have something to do with that?”
“God dammit.” X turned to me. “Your father must have done something. I saw him near the front of the truck back at his place before we left to … pick you up. He’s behind this—whatever the hell this is.”
We stared at each other, unable to give voice to our suspicions, but both thinking the same thing. My father had gotten hold of some of Harvey’s blood, planted it on X’s truck, and then placed a call to the cops. Had my father taken Harvey’s body from Tony the Hound’s house the day they’d shot the place up? Had Mickey known exactly who Harvey had been, perhaps known he’d been helping X, and taken the body to plot how he could use it against X? He must have seen the dent in the front of the truck and realized that was the perfect place to use it.
“Lee Mason,” said Detective Caraway, taking out his handcuffs, “you are under arrest for the murder of Harvey Baglione. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…”
Everything else he said vanished in the panicked buzzing that filled my ears. This wasn’t happening, not now. We’d finally been making things right, and somehow, even from his grave, my father was making us pay.
A second cop I hadn’t even noticed stepped forward and pushed X up against the truck. Detective Caraway snapped the cuffs around X’s wrists.
“This is a huge mistake.” He looked toward me. “Don’t worry, Vee. We both know I didn’t do anything.”
I stepped forward, wanting to touch him, but the other cop got in my way. “Sorry, ma’am. He’s in our custody now.”
“No,” I cried. “This is wrong. Please, Detective Caraway, this is all wrong. This is my father trying to get his revenge on me. I told you he’d do it, didn’t I?”
Detective Caraway shook his head. “I’m sorry, Verity. I can’t discuss this with you.”
They pulled X away from the truck and shoved him back down the road toward the unmarked car.
“I’ll get you out,” I called to him. “I’ll get you a lawyer. I won’t let him win!”
X managed to twist his head to give me one final look before he was shoved into the back of the car. He knew exactly who I was talking about.
Then he vanished from view, and the detective walked back up to me. He reached past me, into the front of the truck, and pulled the keys from the ignition.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“This vehicle will be impounded as evidence. I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to find your own way home.”
Home, I thought. We don’t have a home.
He walked back up to the unmarked car and proceeded to climb into the passenger seat.
“Detective Caraway, wait,” I cried.
He paused, half in and half out of the car. “I can’t help you, Verity.”
“Just tell me what I should do next.”
“If you want to help him, get him a lawyer. A good one.”
He slammed the door shut, and the car pulled away, leaving us both standing in the street.
Nicole turned to me, tears shining in her eyes. “What are we going to do now, Vee?”
I couldn’t leave the city. I wasn’t going to leave X to rot alone in a prison cell. My father had known lawyers—damned good ones. Would they work for me now? With my father dead, I was the head of his business, and the house belonged to me, too. How would his men react to that? I couldn’t show any fear. I had to be merciless. Anyone who questioned me would have to be killed. T
hey couldn’t know about the pregnancy—not yet, anyway—not until I’d proven myself. They’d see it as a weakness.
If it would get X out, I’d do whatever I had to. I’d prove X’s innocence, no matter what.
“Home,” I told my sister. “We’re going home.”
THE END
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About the Author
Marissa Farrar has always been in love with being in love. But since she's been married for numerous years and has three young daughters, she's conducted her love affairs with multiple gorgeous men of the fictional persuasion.
The author of more than twenty five novels, she has been a full time author for the last six years. She predominantly writes paranormal romance and urban fantasy, but has branched into contemporary fiction as well.
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Also by the Author
The Monster Trilogy
DEFACED
DENIED
DELIVERED
The Mercenary Series:
SKEWED
WARPED
FLAWED
The Blood Courtesans Vampire Romance:
Stolen
The Serenity Series:
Alone (free first novel of the series!)
Buried
Captured
Dominion
Endless
THE COMPLETE SERIES BOXED SET
The Dhampyre Chronicles:
Twisted Dreams
Twisted Magic
The Spirit Shifters Series:
Autumn’s Blood (free first novel)
Saving Autumn
Autumn Rising
Autumn’s War
Avenging Autumn
Autumn’s End
THE COMPLETE SERIES BOXED SET
Contemporary Fiction Novels
NO SECOND CHANCES
DIRTY SHOTS
CUT TOO DEEP
SURVIVOR
THE SOUND OF CRICKETS
Dark Fantasy/horror novels:
UNDERLIFE
THE DARK ROAD
FLAWED
The Mercenary Series
Book Three
Copyright © 2017 Marissa Farrar
Warwick House Press
Edited by Lori Whitwam
Cover art by Marissa Farrar
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Publisher’s Note
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.