by J. H. Croix
“We should go—”
Evan held up his hand and then pointed at me with the new beer he’d uncapped for himself. “Relax. She knows about it. Whatever you came here to say, you can say it in front of her.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Evan
Sonny looked at me like I’d lost my damn mind. Disbelief and shock passed through his eyes. I knew why. I would’ve looked at him the same way. Hell, I did look at him the same way when I heard Niki knew about everything and was helping him with our dad’s case.
“She knows what, exactly?” Sonny asked, his eyes cutting back to Sadie. His demeanor shifted from the jovial, playful little brother to the detective in two seconds flat. “What did you do today, Ev?”
Taking a long sip of beer, I met Sonny’s gaze. There was a reason Beau and I hadn’t wanted him involved in it, yet here he was. I could see the minute I looked at him when he said he needed to talk that he knew something was going on.
Beau and I had underestimated our younger brother, it seemed. We both knew he was a great cop but holy fuck. How the hell did he know about me helping our dad, and how did he know it had gone down today?
I’d only decided to do it yesterday, and the only people I told were Sadie and Beau. Since Sonny had only just met Sadie, I knew she hadn’t been the one to spill the beans. Beau would’ve told me if Sonny had confronted him.
He was the one who convinced me we shouldn’t involve Sonny in the first place, so it seemed unlikely he would’ve been the one to tell Sonny anything. I wasn’t going to get answers before I gave some, though.
Beau would have to forgive me because I wasn’t lying to Sonny then. He wasn’t here in any official capacity, and he already knew something happened and that I was involved. It was too late to leave him out of it.
I sighed, planting my palms flat on the granite island. “I had to do something for Dad. To help Beau.”
Confusion crossed Sonny’s brow. “Beau? Our brother Beau? What does he have to do with this?”
Obviously, Beau hadn’t been the one to tell him. At least that answered one of my questions. “People have been threatening him about Dad’s money.”
“Fuck,” Sonny muttered along with a few more choice words slipping out under his breath. “I want to know why you didn’t come to me with this, but tell me what you did for Dad today first.”
“I shifted some money into a different account for him, one here in Cypress Creek. He said it was too obvious for him to have money here, so no one would look at our bank. Apparently, someone was getting close to it there.”
“Did he tell you who they were?” Sonny was sharp, edged angles. His back was ramrod straight, his shoulders squared, and his jaw tight. Even his eyes were steely.
I shook my head. “No, but since I told him no at first, I didn’t ask questions.”
“Good move,” he said, but his posture didn’t relax. “What did he tell you?”
I shrugged. “Not much, only that he needed a favor. He told me what it was, gave me instructions, and then called to find out if it was done.”
“And was it?” he questioned, leaning forward. His gaze was planted firmly on mine. My brother the detective in action was kind of awesome.
Nodding, I told him the rest of what I knew. “I said it was done and so was I. When he first started calling from prison, I kept rejecting the calls. Beau finally convinced me to speak to him. He said he was being threatened, and Dad was in trouble. I didn’t want it on my conscience if something happened to Dad, and Beau really was in trouble, so I agreed.”
“But you told him you were done after this?”
“I did. In no uncertain terms.” I never wanted a repeat performance of today.
Sonny nodded absently. “Good, that’s all good. You sure he didn’t give you anything else?”
I shook my head. “Like I said, I didn’t ask, and he didn’t volunteer any information.”
“Sounds like him,” Sonny said, giving Sadie a tight smile. “You knew about all this?”
“Most of it,” she said. “The highlights. I got a little more context now but nothing new.”
Sonny shot me a look. “I get why you told her, but you should’ve come to me first, bro.”
“I wanted to. Beau and I agreed it was time to do our part. We didn’t want to put you or Tyson in a sticky spot at work.”
He chuckled dryly. “Work is already a sticky spot for me at the moment.”
“I guess that’s true,” I agreed. The poor guy had been to hell and back over our father’s case in the last few months. Even after the chief’s involvement was exposed and his fellow officers eased up on him for the role he played in bringing the man to justice, people still whispered behind Sonny’s back.
Same old, same old. He remained the son of a criminal, and people didn’t know if they could trust him. The way they saw it, if a man like Chief Harris could be corrupted, then surely Sonny wasn’t above it all. I sat down on another stool and sipped my beer, looking at him over its rim. “How did you know?”
“How did I know what?” he asked, his own beer hanging from his lips.
I lifted my brows at him. “Really? You’re going to try that card?”
He sighed, smirking as he took a sip. “It was worth a try, even if I knew it wasn’t going to work.”
“So how did you know?”
Glancing at Sadie again, I could see he was unsure how much to say in front of her. When he looked back at me, I gave him a nod. It was small enough that she wouldn’t have seen it unless she was paying close attention to me, but her eyes were fixed on Sonny as she waited for his answer.
It was my way of vouching for her, telling him it was okay to talk in front of her. Pressing his lips together in a resigned line, he told me. “I heard you did something today by people who shouldn’t have known. I know you were trying to help Beau and Dad, but you’re in this now. They’re going to be looking for you.”
I sighed inwardly. I’d had a feeling something like that was going to happen. As it turned out, that niggling feeling in my gut that said it was only the beginning sure seemed to have been right so far. “I knew that was a possibility.”
I also knew that no matter how badly I didn’t want to be involved, i was my family. In the end, I was never going to abandon them if they needed me. I had taken a risk for them, and it looked like that risk had blown up in my face.
There was no going back for me after today. I had as much of a target on my back as Sonny did or as Jeremy had back when he’d first started dating Marie. I took the risk, and I was willing to live with the consequences or else I wouldn’t have done it.
Where that left my relationship with Sadie, I didn’t know. My heart lurched at the thought of losing her, but I knew it could happen. Sneaking a peek at her from the corner of my eye, I expected to see fear in her expression, in her eyes. To my surprise, she didn’t show any worry or even disgust for my family and how I’d ended up in hot water because of them.
She looked surprisingly serene. Determined but calm as she waited for Sonny to keep going. I could tell she’d been through something dark. Only someone else who had wouldn’t show any emotion during a talk like that.
People who lived their perfect little lives would’ve been shocked, appalled, and fearful, and they wouldn’t have been able to hide it. Sadie looked perfectly in control like she didn’t have a worry in the world.
“Welcome to the fight, brother. I hope you know what you’ve gotten yourself into because I don’t think you’re going to be very excited about it if you only find out now,” Sonny warned. There was regret in his eyes like he would’ve liked to have been able to save me from getting involved.
Unfortunately for him, it’d been my choice. Right or wrong, I made it, and I was seeing it through. “Okay, so what do I need to know?”
Sonny filled me in on the case, careful not to give too many details that weren’t already public knowledge in front of Sadie. It was better that way. She would
be safer not knowing any intricate details.
“There’s still the man I think is behind all this,” he said. I noticed he was careful not to say Ken’s name. “He’s the main player. If we can take him down, the whole house of cards will come crashing down.”
“Are you building a case against him?”
Sonny snorted. “I’m trying, but the guy’s been more careful than a teenager fucking the principal’s daughter. He’s making pretty damn sure no one ever finds out because he knows his future rides on it.”
“There has to be a way to get to him,” I said, feeling Sonny’s frustrations coming off him in waves.
He blew out a breath and shook his head. “We’ve tried, man. His offices are shut up tighter than anything you’ve ever seen, not that we can go in without a warrant anyway and not that we have anything good enough to get a warrant.”
“Fuck,” I muttered. Sonny had been working on that for months. If he couldn’t find a way to get to Ken, we might both be stuck in that mess for a long time yet. “Can you describe what he looks like? Maybe if I see him around town, I can follow him or something.”
“Following him don’t mean shit,” he said. “Trust me, I’ve tried. I’ve got a picture of him on our last stakeout, though. I can show you what he looks like so you can watch out for him if he drops by the shop. He approached me in the courthouse after Harris’s death after all. It’s not such a long shot to think he might approach you too.”
Sonny pulled his phone from his pocket and flipped through, setting it down on the table with a shot of a graying man in the frame. Sadie leaned forward when I did and then gasped. “Who’s that?”
“Ken,” Sonny said, exchanging a look with me before his eyes snapped back to her. “Why? You know him?”
She paled, her green eyes wide when they met mine. “This is the man I was telling you about earlier, the one who… I heard them calling him Kenny.”
“What?” I asked, my blood running cold. Even if it was a coincidence, if Ken was the guy she was working for who’d hit on her and they ever found out she was seeing me, she could be in trouble. Serious trouble.
Fuck. I needed to find a way to protect her. Every instinct in my body screamed at me to make sure I kept her safe. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Before I could say a word, Sadie turned to Sonny. There was a gleam in her eyes I hadn’t seen before. Determination, sure. But it was also something more, something born from the strength and maybe even some of the darkness inside her. “I want to help. What can I do to help? Let’s take this guy down once and for all.”
Part Two
A Shameless Southern Nights Novel
Chapter One
Evan
"The blue sedan needs to have its wheels aligned. Phoenix, can you take care of that for me?" I nudged Phoenix's arm as he rushed past me, jerking my head at the sedan being picked up in an hour.
He threw a harried smile in my direction. "Sure thing, boss. Let me ring up Mrs. Brady's repair, and I’ll get right on it."
Without waiting for my response, he hurried to the counter and finished up with his current customer. Scrubbing my hands over my face, I ticked the sedan off my mental to-do list, knowing I could trust Phoenix to get the job done.
The shop was hectic this morning, and my guys were running around trying to get to everything. Our schedule was on track, but we were going to have to push to get through it all.
Machines whirled, the electrical droning interspersed with the sound of metal hitting metal and the guys calling out instructions to each other. They worked well as a team, and I was lucky to have them. Regardless, we were all slammed. I couldn't complain. Business was booming. Soon I was going to have to expand, hire more people, or both.
Up to my elbows in grease, I stuck my head back into the engine of the truck I was working on. We had so many repairs to get done that the workshop floor was packed and there were more cars waiting for our attention out in the parking lot.
Word was spreading that we did good work at reasonable rates, and people were bringing their vehicles to us from all over. My work was finally building me a reputation as someone trustworthy despite that tarnished connection as my father’s son.
It felt good. So why am I risking it all?
I kicked that thought out of my mind. I couldn’t afford to be distracted by my family issues right now. It was too late anyway. For better or for worse, I’d sealed my fate when I transferred the money for my father.
“Yo! Boss man, we need your opinion on the damage to this fender.” One of my workshop assistants called out, motioning me over to where he was standing in front of the damaged vehicle. “You got a minute?”
“One minute.” I joined him and listened to the debate about repairing the busted fender or ordering a new one.
On the heels of that decision, I was walking back to the truck to get back to what I’d been working on when someone else flagged me down. Once I gave my input there, a customer wanted to talk to me about working out a payment plan for her repairs.
The morning flew by in a whirlwind of activity. It was more than an hour before I finally made it back to the bay where the truck was parked. Thankfully, the repair was an easier job than I’d thought, and I got it done in record time.
When I was done with the truck, I went to scrub my hands and then closed myself off in my office. If the door was shut, my guys knew not to interrupt me unless it was urgent. I pulled my sketchpad out from under a stack of invoices and grabbed my pencils, hunching over the pad.
Four customers were waiting for me to send through the mockup designs for their cars, and at least one needed his urgently. Something about a car show he was attending this weekend. Twirling my pencil between my fingers, my tongue slipped between my teeth as I thought and stared down at the blank page.
Tugging my laptop across the desk, I powered it up and pulled up the pictures the man had emailed when he hired us. After a good look at what he was after, I settled in to whip up a design for him.
I was so immersed in my work that I forgot Sonny was bringing by some lunch. When he knocked at my door around noon and walked in carrying two boxes of pizza, I blinked in surprise before I remembered our arrangement.
"You forgot I was coming, didn't you?" Sonny plopped down in my visitor’s chair and moved some of the clutter on my desk out of his way to make space for the pizza boxes.
"Things are crazy around here this morning." I carefully set aside my sketches and moved the laptop out of the way. "How's your day going?"
Shrugging, Sonny handed me my pizza and opened his box on his lap. "My shift starts in an hour, but it's bound to be madness over at the station too. We’ve got a big audit coming up after everything that went down with Chief Harris. With the GBI still in town, everyone’s hustling to put their best foot forward."
"Harris left you guys with a shitty situation to clean up, that’s for sure,” I said, folding a slice of pizza in half before I devoured it in a few bites. It was the first thing I’d eaten all day. “Speaking of the GBI, do you have any new leads to follow on Dad's case?"
Sonny shook his head. "Nothing new to chase down. The GBI’s doing their thing with all the other players, but they’re keeping me on a ‘need to know’ basis. Since I'm only investigating it on the side, I probably won't have anything new until Sadie comes through with some information."
Instantly, my pulse started hammering. Sadie volunteering to help us had been on my mind since it happened. I didn’t want her anywhere near our father or that fucking asshole Ken who had hit on her. They were bad news, but she was insistent about doing what she could to help.
She also insisted on keeping her night job, which didn’t thrill me. Not one bit. I understood and respected her need for the income, but I didn’t like her working for Ken, not after he tried to hit on her. Sadie brought out my protective side, but it wasn’t simply that. I’d been raised to respect women and hated guys who pulled shit like Ken. Sadly, it was all too common. "I'm worried
about her using her janitorial job to try and get information for us."
"I was kind of shocked when she offered."
I nodded, sighing. "Me too. I never thought she would. Even if I’d known she was working for that guy, I never would have asked her. It’s too dangerous."
Sadie offering her help left me with a jumble of feelings. On one hand, I was fucking surprised she would be willing to do that for us and impressed by her fierce determination to bring the man to justice.
On the other hand, I wanted to lock her and Emery in my house until all this was done and I knew they would be safe. The urge to protect them was intense and powerful. I respected the hell out of her for her independence and knew I had no right to meddle in her decisions, but fuck if I didn't want to.
Sonny finished chewing a bite of pizza and chased it down with a gulp of water, understanding in his eyes when he lifted them to mine. "That's the thing. Neither of us would have asked, but she offered. Somehow, I don't think she would have taken no for an answer. She seemed pretty damned determined to take him down."
"I know." I sighed, thinking back to what she told me about how Ken reminded her of her father. "She has her own reasons for wanting to go after him, as well as helping us."
Sonny cocked his head. "I know you don't like it. I'm concerned about her too. Personally, I never would have gotten her involved. From a strategic perspective as a detective, though, she's gold. She’s in a position to get information about Ken that we likely wouldn't be able to get without her help. Plus, she volunteered to help."
"I don't want to put her at risk, Sonny. She has a daughter, and she…" I cleared my throat, struggling to put words to emotions I hadn't even admitted to myself yet. Finally, I settled for, "She’s a good person. I don't want anything to happen to her."
