by Zoë Lane
“No doubt.”
“What are you going to do?”
I stared at her. I saw the watering eyes and pale skin. A shaky hand tucked hair behind one ear. She wet her lips and her eyes rounded even more.
I dragged my gaze from her to look at my grandmother. She was my rock. The woman who’d pushed me to be the man I was today. And now she lay here unable to talk, open her eyes, even breathe on her own. I owed her more than my life for taking me and my younger siblings in. For raising us like her own children—who couldn’t be bothered.
I had a debt.
And I would pay it.
I sniffed and blew out a breath. Once again, Lacey filled my vision.
I didn’t want to hurt her. She’d known so much pain and torment in her life; the last thing I wanted to do was bring her more suffering. She too needed to know the truth; to right the wrong that had happened to a mother she’d loved but couldn’t remember. My insides died as I heard the words slip from my lips.
“I’m going to have the police arrest your father.”
30
LACEY
I hadn’t heard him right.
I know I hadn’t.
I stood there for endless minutes trying to piece together the few words of that one sentence. Sean had since stood and was pacing the room while on his phone talking to some agent somebody. When my feet finally recognized the command from my brain, I stood in Sean’s path and placed my hands on his chest.
“What are you doing?” I whispered fiercely. “Who are you talking to?”
He stared right through me. I heard a man’s voice from his phone, and then Sean responded with the hospital room number.
“Sean?”
He stepped away from my touch and paced in the opposite direction.
I racked my brain for answers. A clue as to why he would think my father had had anything to do with the shooting of his grandmother. They didn’t even know each other, did they? Sean had never said. Why would he shoot a defenseless grandmother who was so well liked in her community? What motive would he have? It didn’t make any sense at all.
When Sean ended the call, I pounced. “What the hell are you doing? Why would my father want to shoot your grandmother?”
“He wouldn’t, but Malik would.” His deep voice nearly boomed.
“Then…I…I don’t understand, Sean. Please tell me my father isn’t involved.”
He came at me then, his face inches from mine. If there was such a thing as black flame, his eyes were it. “Your father and Malik know each other. Probably running the same gambling racket. I saw your father at Dr. Kavoska’s last night. Something happened. I don’t know. But now my grandmother”—he stiffly pointed—“is shot, and your father knows why.”
He moved past me, waves of fury hitting me.
Gambling? Dr. Kavoska?
I about-faced. Sean stood at the doorway looking out. Probably waiting for the police. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about. How does Carter know Malik? Who is Dr. Kavoska?” The doctor’s name sounded familiar, but I had been kinda living under a rock at the sobriety center for a while and didn’t really keep up with Richmond gossip—something I’d never done anyway.
Sean’s stony face held no remorse, no sympathy. Only determination and rage. “Dr. Kavoska is some big-time rich dude who is probably running a gambling ring due to his connections to other investors. Carter knows him from his time on the beat. Carter also knows Malik because he collared him years ago. Is that clear enough for you?”
I stepped back from the sting in his tone, my gaze no longer able to hold his. I found his grandmother easier to look at, despite the tubes and the utter atmosphere of hopelessness around her.
“I went to a party Dr. Kavoska had last night,” Sean continued. “I didn’t say much, but something happened. Now, my grandmother’s dead.”
“She’s not dead, she’s—”
“Lacey, she’s comatose!” He stormed back into the room. “She can’t breathe on her own. A bullet tore up her brain. She’ll never wake up!”
I kept my head down. It was the only part of my body I could move. Fear coursed through me. I know he would never touch me—not like Carter—but anger and rage were all the same, and often produced the same results.
Nurses rushed in. “Sir, please,” one of them implored. “This is the ICU. If you can’t keep your voice down—”
Sean apologized profusely.
I made a break for it.
And I kept running down the hall and out of the unit. I would’ve stopped…
If I had heard his voice.
I slammed my palm against the elevator button and fidgeted until the door chimed and opened. I walked briskly to the main waiting area, where Landyn and Rose were seated looking at Landyn’s phone.
Rose quickly stood. “What happened? How’s his grandmother?”
I swallowed twice to wet my throat and tongue. “He’s going to have my father arrested.”
“What?” Landyn’s brows slammed together, and he stood then. “I mean, I’m all for that guy rotting away in jail, but what the hell for? Please tell me Carter shot her. I would love to see his ass in jail.”
Rose gave him a dirty look and then reached out and gently clasped my upper arm. “What did Sean say?”
“He said…” I cleared my throat and blew out a breath. My gaze darted around us. It was late in the evening, with only a few people scattered in chairs around the large room. I lowered my voice anyway. “He said Carter collared Malik—some guy from his neighborhood that’s been threatening him.”
“Threatening him?” Landyn asked.
I nodded. “Malik’s involved in gambling and wanted Sean to throw some games.”
Landyn looked pointedly at Rose. “Told you the guy was a cheat. I knew it!”
Defensiveness surged through me. “He’s not a cheat! He refused, and then…then he’s been working with the police. I don’t know all the details. But Carter knows some Dr. Kavoska, and Sean thinks it’s all related.”
Landyn closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Rose’s mouth angled down to one side. They stepped away and took their seats.
“What?” I asked quickly. “What aren’t you telling me? Why does everyone know what’s going on but me?”
“You’ve been…dealing with your own stuff,” Landyn started. “Dr. Kavoska is connected to the Rhinos’ ex-doctor, and he knew Billy—the tight end that killed himself a few weeks back.”
I put my hand over my mouth. Numb, I took a seat beside Landyn. “So…there’s something to this?” I looked at him, desperate for understanding I still didn’t have.
“Your father does have a drive for money,” Rose whispered.
I looked away. “And Sean’s going to have him arrested.” My gaze snapped to Rose. “If he does that, that’ll ruin the investigation. He’ll never speak to me.”
“Are you sure that’s what Sean said?” Landyn asked.
“He was on the phone with some agent, telling him everything.”
“Everything like what?” Rose asked.
I shook my head. “I was too stunned to pay attention.” My heart sank, and my stomach twisted into tight, uncomfortable knots that pulsed and made me want to find the nearest toilet and puke.
“Then we have to stop him,” Landyn said firmly. “Go back up there and tell him not to do it. He knows what’s at stake.”
“I can’t. It’s done. He’s so angry, Landyn. You didn’t see his grandmother. She was shot in the head. She’s never going to wake up. How do I ask him to stand by and not do anything?”
Landyn positioned his hands on my armrests, his blue gaze burning into mine. “Do you want to find out what happened to our mother?” he asked quietly.
“Yes,” I answered back, my voice equally hushed. No hesitation. Landyn stood upright again. He reached a hand out for me and then for Rose. “Then let’s go. See if we can get to him before the police do.”
I took his hand.<
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31
LACEY
The entire way over, Landyn cursed Sean out and at the same time said a prayer for his grandmother.
I did neither.
It wasn’t like I wanted his grandmother to die. I liked her. A lot. She was funny and kind. Someone who’d embraced me within seconds of meeting me. I remembered her eyes had narrowed as if she were trying to figure me out. A quick decision. She had been welcoming after that.
I stared out the window, cramped in the backseat of my brother’s sports car. The city was dark, and the buildings weren’t moving by fast enough. For all I knew, the cops had picked Carter up already.
“I can’t believe I’m driving to his house,” Landyn muttered.
“You shouldn’t go in,” I advised. “You can let me off on the corner so he doesn’t know you’re here.”
Landyn snorted. “Not like it’s really going to matter if he gets arrested.”
In ten minutes, I was knocking on Carter’s door. No police cars in sight. His wife answered and had me stand on the porch until Carter came to the door. He grinned widely.
“Hello, Lacey!”
He reached out to hug me, and I let his arms go around my shoulders. Nausea coiled in my stomach. A familiar urge to run and hide almost had me bolting from the porch. Carter’s arms swiftly drew away. Probably because he saw Landyn near the driveway.
Carter acknowledged him. “Landyn.”
“Carter.”
“Ah, Miss Mackleby. It’s not a pleasure.”
“Mr. Carter,” Rose responded professionally. Landyn looked like he wanted to murder Carter.
“You two coming inside?” Carter asked them.
“Nope,” Landyn said. He looked at me with desperation. I nodded to reassure him. Nothing would happen to me. If I had to, I’d choke the life from my own father.
“Would you like anything to drink?” Carter asked when I had taken a seat on his couch.
“No. I’d like to ask you about Mother.”
Carter grunted. “Not this again.”
“Yes, this again. I want to know what happened to her.”
Carter’s gaze held nothing. “You know what happened to her. She left.”
“By herself?”
“You accusing me of, what? Killing her?”
“Your words,” I whispered.
Carter laughed and relaxed back in his chair. I almost smiled at the fact that he probably wouldn’t be sitting in that chair for very long—if I could get past Sean calling to have him arrested.
“You know, I really wanted to have a relationship with you, Lacey. You and your brother. But neither of you are willing to meet me halfway. It’s a shame, really. I know I’ve done wrong, and I admit it. But I’ve turned my life around. Don’t people deserve second chances?”
That wasn’t fair. I’d been given a second chance. I would look ungracious if I said no. But I believed that some people couldn’t be redeemed. That might not be right, but after the evil I’d faced—this man before me—I couldn’t be convinced otherwise.
He feigned hope in his eyes. What else could it be after, what he had done to Landyn and me when we were children? I wanted nothing more to do with him—and then I did.
I wanted to remember.
Wanted to know who I had been before ten years of age. Was it what Landyn had said?
I looked down at my wrist. Were these scars the result of cigarettes? I couldn’t tell him I had developed a phobia because of them. Another reason he couldn’t be redeemed.
Mother…
“What happened to our mother?” I asked quietly. Silence greeted me. I glanced up. Carter’s face had become like granite. I stared into the eyes the same color as mine and saw none of the love I’d once believed he’d harbored for me, despite all the wrong he’d done.
I saw nothing.
I saw him.
Then my ears heard the faint sound of sirens in the distance. My phone buzzed in the back pocket of my jeans. Probably Landyn.
“You have a few minutes before the cops get here.”
“Cops?”
I nodded. “For the attempted murder of Sean’s grandmother.”
“What? What the hell are you saying, you little bitch!” Saliva spat from his mouth as he shouted the words at me. He advanced. I launched off the couch, and I slammed my knee into the coffee table.
Landyn burst through the door with Rose behind him.
“Lacey?”
Carter turned. “Get out of my house, Landyn.”
Landyn smiled, but without humor. “You’re going to jail, Carter. Finally.”
I found my voice, pleading and desperate. “Why did you do it? Why did you shoot his grandmother?”
Carter laughed. “I didn’t shoot anyone.” He spread his arms out wide. “Look at my life! I have a wife and child on the way. I go to fancy parties and eat the best food every week. Why would I mess that up, huh?”
Doubt wormed its way up my spine, just as cop cars pulled into the driveway. Through the sheer curtains over the living room windows, I saw police with guns drawn race up the lawn.
“About time,” Landyn said, looking quickly at the scene and then back at Carter. He held out a hand for me, and I took it. He pulled me back behind him. “I hope you rot in that place.”
Carter just grinned and chuckled. He held up hands. Police surrounded him. “I wonder where your mother is rotting?”
The cups snapped loudly over his wrists. Miranda rights were read. I couldn’t find my voice even though my mouth was open and ready for the words. My ears burned with my father’s laughter.
Rose had enveloped me in her embrace, telling me it was going to be okay and that he had only said that to get at me.
Well, it worked.
I looked desperately at Landyn. “He’s never going to talk.”
He put two hands on my shoulders and held my gaze. “Lace, don’t think about that now. Once he’s in prison, he’ll talk. He’s an ex-cop. That alone will make half the population want to kill him.”
I shook my head. “You heard him, Landyn!”
“I know what I heard, and I know what I choose to believe.”
“I want the truth!”
My phone buzzed again. Cops pulled Landyn aside and started questioning him while Rose was already on the phone, probably talking to her crisis firm. I hoped she charged a high retainer because it seemed like every week there was some sort of drama with the Rhinos.
I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and stared at a message from Sean—the last guy I wanted to talk to right now, but the only one I wanted to hold me.
I’m sorry. I need to see you.
32
SEAN
I screwed up.
Lacey would never talk to me again, and I couldn’t blame her. I’d see her every day at HQ and it would be torture not to talk to her…not to touch her.
But why should she forgive me? I’d called the cops on the one man who knew the truth about what had happened to her mother. No way he would talk now—if he ever would have.
I had chosen my grandmother over Lacey. The woman I…
Malik loudly cleared his throat, pulling me from my thoughts. I glanced at the agent beside me, who kept writing in his notepad. My gaze drifted to the clock on the wall. It was nearly ten o’clock. The doctor would’ve been finished with his checkup on my grandmother, and now I’d have to get the information from the nurse.
Malik grinned at me. His hands were cuffed behind his back. Another agent stood behind him.
The assistant district attorney entered the room, shoving his cell phone into his dress pants pocket. “Okay, it’s done.”
I launched from my chair. “You can’t do that!”
The ADA put up a hand. “Mr. Miller—”
“He shot my grandmother. She’s in a coma. She’ll never wake up!”
“Mr. Miller, please…” The ADA gestured for me to step outside. I left the room and stood in the hallway with my arms crossed
. I glared at the ADA while he shut the room door.
“Listen, I understand that you want justice for your grandmother.”
“Damn right. You’re just going to give him immunity?”
The ADA put up both hands this time. “It’s not my first choice, believe me. If you know anything about my record, I go for the severest punishments, especially when they have to do with grave bodily injuries or deaths. I’m a firm believer that people need to pay for their crimes.”
“Then why is this any different?” I seethed. “Is it because he voluntarily gave himself up? When he came here, I thought he was going to finish my grandmother off.” Instead, Malik had told me to call the cops because he had something to say and he wasn’t going to say it unless I was present. Why hadn’t I just choked him out then?
“The DA has a different perspective.”
“I’d like to hear it,” I snapped.
“Malik is a low-level guy in a potentially multimillion-dollar scheme.”
“He’s a murderer,” I said slowly. “How is my grandmother’s life worth less than all that money?”
The ADA briefly closed his eyes and then spoke in a lower tone. “He could lead us to the big fish. He’s already given us enough information to put a warrant out for Carter Gallagher. I was just informed that Carter’s been arrested, and he’s not talking.”
I figured that.
“Now Carter is low-level too, but he’s an interesting character.”
“That’s one way to put it.”
“His name is on the periphery of some unsolved cases that go back years. We’re talking corruption, disappearances…murder.”
Starting with Lacey’s mom, probably.
“Now he’s never been a suspect, but having him means we might get a few of these cases solved, or at least have some leverage over the one we’re focused on now.”
“How, if he’s not talking?”
“Let us worry about that. Right now, Malik can give us names, numbers, locations, corroborations…”
