“It’s not that far, and I’m good for it,” Aiden assured him.
The guy looked up at the mansion looming before them and then back to Aiden. The size of the estate must have convinced him because he simply started the meter and then hit the gas. “All right, then. Let’s go.”
As they drove off into the darkness, Aiden couldn’t help but wonder if he was doing the right thing. But, then again, what the hell was the right thing these days. This was certainly better than some of the shit he’d done in his lifetime.
Maybe leaving the Reaper society wasn’t the only thing changing for him. Maybe he had to change the kind of person he was too.
Shit, now he was becoming some sort of goody two-shoes.
After contemplating this for less than a minute he decided that he would never be a good man, he just wasn’t made that way.
CHAPTER
20
DAVID
Son of a bitch! His head felt like he’d been hit with a fucking brick.
David moaned and attempted to open his eyes. His lids lifted just enough to let in a sliver of light and spikes of pain shot through his head. Dammit, what the hell happened?”
Why couldn’t he move his arms? He jerked one arm and then the other, discovering that neither of them could move. Shit, he was fucking tied up! With another jerk, he realized that he wasn’t actually tied up, he was handcuffed to a chair. They were probably his own damn cuffs, too. He shoved back the pain and forced his eyes to open against light that hit him like shards of glass.
The first thing he saw was Marcus and Aaron sitting on a dirty, gold couch straight out of the seventies and staring at him. Oh wait, he knew that couch. He let his eyes wander further, taking in the surroundings.
Dark paneled walls, green shag carpet, ugly ass couch full of cigarette burns, big gaudy lamps … yup, it was his old house. It looked just like it did the day he left.
“Foster, this is one fucked up house.” Marcus stood. “Please don’t tell me you actually live here.” The Hispanic man towered over him at an intimidating, six foot five. He had scars on his face and tattoos covering his neck and arms. The bad ass look wasn’t merely for show either, he was Julian’s top enforcer.
David had thought he was done with Julian and his goons for good since he left L.A. He had been undercover, on a case, trying to take down drug trafficking operation that had a certain brand of meth spreading like fucking wildfire.
When he went into the operation, it took a full year before he was trusted enough to meet the guy in charge of the Los Angeles branch, Julian Hernandez. Julian was the very kind of man you would imagine would be the leader of a drug trafficking operation. He was rich, ruthless and worst of all, smart as hell.
Julian was also who David was after. He needed to nip it in the bud, take the ring out where it began. A man who ran such a successful drug business wasn’t exactly easy to get to though. He’d had to work his ass off to move up the ranks.
Living undercover sucked big time, to put it mildly. When you were forced to live a life that wasn’t yours, there was basically no contact with those you knew outside the operation, so any friends you made were on the inside. And, most of the time, those people weren’t really your friends.
He had been one of Julian’s many delivery boys. That’s what they called the guys who delivered the drugs, picked up the money, and also took care of any loose ends that may have complicated things. Yeah, delivery boys were the guys who offed people and buried them in the backyard, the ones who cut off fingers to make a point … shit like that. David thanked the powers that be, every fucking day, that he never had to be the one to perform any of those executions. Sure, he’d had to watch a few times and that was more than enough to last a lifetime.
Going into the operation, David had been terrified he would be forced to use drugs in order to maintain his cover. His story was that he didn’t use the product he sold, that it made people get sloppy and his work was never sloppy. Everyone he worked with seemed to accept this, especially since he wasn’t the only one who worked with Julian and didn’t use.
In any case, he’d thought he was done with those people and that part of his life when Julian’s operation disappeared and he left L.A. But, no, here he was with the delivery boys, one of them being Julian’s number one enforcer, and he was the one under the knife this time.
“Jesus, David, did you really think we’d never find you?”
David sniffed defiantly, “I don’t know, Marcus, you guys disappeared … dropped off the face of the fucking earth. What was I supposed to do?”
Marcus narrowed his eyes and glared at David. “You’re a cop.”
Since he wasn’t exactly in the best place to be sarcastic, he just nodded. “Yes, you know I am. Now why the hell are we in this dump and why am I cuffed to a chair?”
Aaron rose from the ugly couch and stalked toward David, “Where the hell is Coop?”
David’s eyebrows shot up? “Coop? What does he have to do with any of this?”
“Like you don’t fucking know,” Aaron accused. “After Coop outed you, he took off and we haven’t seen him since.”
“So,” David shrugged as best he could with his hands restrained.
Marcus shook his head. “So … he also took five hundred thousand dollars with him, you dumb fuck! Now where the hell is he?” Marcus pulled his arm back and before David knew what happened, his head rocked back as stars exploded behind his eyes.
“Dammit!” David cursed. “What the fuck? I don’t understand why I’m the one who is getting the shit beat out of him. I don’t know where that asshole is.”
Aaron turned and strode away a few paces. “See, that’s the problem. We don’t believe you.” He picked up a broken photograph of his parents off shelf by the wall. “You and Coop ended up gone at the same time, right after we found out you were a fucking cop. So, no man, we don’t believe that this wasn’t some sort plan from the beginning.”
David rolled his eyes and sighed. “You have this whole thing fucked up. He is the one who wanted out, I told him I’d help him and then he ratted me out to Julian. Why the fuck would I help him. If it wasn’t for his dumb ass I’d probably still be working my way up Julian’s ladder.”
Wham, Marcus’ fist slammed into David’s mouth.
His head cocked to the side as the large man’s knuckles connected. He felt his lip split and the metallic taste of blood flooded his mouth.
“Where. Is. He?” Marcus demanded.
David spat blood through his teeth. “I. Don’t. Know.”
Aaron replaced the photo. “Listen, all you have to do is tell us where Coop … and the money are, then we let you go. Simple as that.”
With a laugh, David shook his head. “I’m not fucking stupid, I know what you guys do to people. I’ve witnessed that shit for myself. So, even if I knew where he was and told you, I would still be a dead man.”
Making his way back to the couch, Aaron flopped down onto it and the old piece of shit groaned under the extra weight. “So tell us, Detective David Foster … what happened between you and Coop?”
David didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to talk to these mother fuckers. Jeez, they were beating the shit out of him and now they wanted chit chat over tea and cucumber sandwiches … fuck that.
Marcus rolled his eyes and set one foot on the dusty, scratched up coffee table, still towering over David. “You may as well talk. We have all the time in the world.”
He closed his eyes for a moment and then decided it wouldn’t hurt anything. In reality, the longer he kept them occupied, the longer it gave him time to think of a way to get the hell away from them.
“Coop wanted out. So, I told him I could help him and confessed to him my true identity.”
Aaron lit a cigarette and blew a cloud of smoke up in the air. “Sounds so very super heroish.”
“If you want me to tell the story then shut the fuck up, Aaron. Anyway, after he understood that I could help him get
away from Julian’s reign, he told me he would help me in return, but the next thing I knew, he had outed me to Julian and the entire operation was gone … basically wiped off the face of the earth. Then, Coop was gone too. I never heard from any of you … or Coop, ever again. Well, until now.
His eyes flicked back and forth between Marcus and Aaron. “I actually thought that you guys had already found him. That would have explained why he just disappeared.”
Marcus shook his head. “You see, David, I would absolutely love to take your word for it. But, the problem is that you are a liar … and a fucking good one, at that.” He casually examined his fingernails. “You had us all believing that you were one of us. We trusted you and took you in. Come to find out you were a cop the entire time. Someone who lies that well is someone you never believe.”
“I’m not lying!” David jerked forward in the chair, pushing his wrists against the cuffs. “Take these fucking things off me.”
Aaron stubbed his cigarette out on the dusty coffee table, rose from the god awful couch and glanced at his partner. “Looks like we’re going to be here for a while.”
“Not if he can tell us where we can find Coop, and the money.”
“Dammit, Marcus!” David knew they were not going to let him go. These were the kind of people who would kill you before setting you free to tell the world about them. Which left only one other option, he was going to have to try and fight his way out of the place.
“Come on man, tell us. It’s best this way because we’re going to find some very interesting ways to persuade you into spilling it if you don’t tell us on your own.”
David tilted his face upward so that he could look Marcus in the eye. “Fuck off.”
Wham
Marcus’s massive fist slammed into his cheekbone. “You are one cocky little bastard. But, your tough as hell too, I’ll give you that much.”
When Marcus lunged forward again, David did the only thing he could possibly think of to defend himself. He swung kicked out and his boot connected with Marcus’s balls. It wasn’t a move he was proud of and normally he would never consider hitting below the belt, but under the circumstances, it was all he had.
“Mother fucker!” Marcus immediately doubled over, clenching his legs together.
David took full advantage, the second his foot had made contact, he stood, bringing the whole chair with him and surged toward Aaron, who had drawn a .45 from the inside of his jacket. He flew toward Aaron as if he were trying to take down a brick wall.
Aaron, slow on the draw, had just raised his weapon when David made contact. The gun flew into the air as both men tumbled back down onto the couch. Aaron shoved David off of him, which actually allowed David to get back on his feet instead of falling over as intended.
David spun quickly, nailing Aaron in the stomach with the chair leg. “Ugh! Shit!” Aaron grunted.
By this time, Marcus was back up. Turning, David saw Marcus was even angrier than he had been before. “What kind of pansy ass move is that? Nailing me in the nuts,” he growled, grabbing David by the shirt and throwing him down so that he fell to the floor on his side, still attached to the chair.
Aaron had retrieved his gun and aimed it at David while Marcus stood over him, with his hands on his knees, breathing hard.
Game over, David thought. But then, Hannah’s beautiful face crossed his mind and he imagined her sitting in prison, surrounded by real murderers, drug users and other fucked up people. Stick with it Foster, you can survive these guys.
Marcus reared back his leg and then swung it heavily into David’s midsection. “You fucked up, bro. Fucked up, bad.”
David grunted as he was forced to expel a large breath. Marcus kicked again, and again, his boots bruising flesh and breaking ribs. Eventually David grew numb to the pain and darkness began to claim him. He was vaguely aware of the two delivery boys dragging his chair upright, but then … he could last no longer, his lids fluttered shut and the world went black.
CHAPTER
21
HANNAH
She didn’t get a chance to see any of her family before they came to take her to see the judge. Hands cuffed behind her back, two deputies led her through the station and out to a cruiser. They put her in the back seat and whisked her away to the courthouse.
Mr. Ainsworth was already waiting for her when she entered the courtroom. The deputies escorted her to the chairs behind a table where her lawyer sat, file open in front of him. He nodded to her in greeting as she sat down awkwardly in the seat beside him.
A numbness had crept into her since she’d been arrested. She wanted to cry and at the same time she wanted to scream out in frustration, but in the end, she kept silent. She did the crime, so she couldn’t really claim to be innocent. However, she wasn’t exactly guilty either.
A few minutes later, they rose and the judge entered the room. The judge was an old man who had the look of a man who had spent many years in the military. He sat behind the bench, glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, reading over the paperwork on Hannah’s case.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, he addressed Hannah. “Ms. Estmond, you are pleading self-defense?”
Standing, she nodded, “Yes, Your Honor, I am.”
“Would you please explain what happened to cause the death of one, Jeffery Myers.”
“Yes, Your Honor,” Hannah answered and then proceeded to spill the same story she’d told David. After she was done, the Judge peered over his glasses at her and then glanced back down at his papers.
“This case is going to be moving into a full trial where all the evidence can be examined. For now, the bond is set at two hundred thousand.” He pounded his gavel and rose, nodded to the room and then exited out the special door just for the judge.
At his words, Hannah’s heart sunk. It was so much money, no one in her family could afford that. Not to mention, if they did have that kind of money, she sure as hell didn’t want them spending it on her.
Since the case was going to be examined, it would certainly turn up that she acted in self-defense. She could sit in jail until the end of the trial, it wouldn’t be that long. There was no way she would let anyone spend that much money on her if she was getting out eventually.
Back at the jail, she returned to her cell and paced back and forth in front of her bunk, hoping her family would request a visit with her before posting any bail.
“What’s a matter with you?” Sophie, who was sprawled out on her bunk, peered at Hannah over the top of the paperback.
Hannah rolled her eyes and shook her head. “What isn’t wrong, right now, is the real question.”
Sophie shrugged and returned to her reading while Hannah continued to pace the floor. “Just asking.”
Realizing she was being kind of a bitch, she stopped and turned toward Sophie. “Sorry, I’m just stressed out.”
“Don’t be sorry, I understand.”
Hannah eyed the other girls too. They hadn’t even tried to talk to her since she’d come in the night before. “I know I haven’t been very friendly … or nice even. I just have a lot going on.”
Nicole sat on the bed with Shanna on the floor in front of her. She was silently pleating Shanna’s hair into delicate little braids. Brandy lay on her bunk, pretending to sleep. At Hannah’s words, her eyes twitched but she didn’t open them.
“No worries,” Nicole assured her. “A lot of people come in here and don’t want to talk. It’s totally fine.”
Hannah shook her head. “No, it’s not all right. This isn’t the kind of person I am.”
Just then, the door clicked open and a deputy entered the room. “Estmond. Your bond has been posted. Let’s go.”
Dammit.
After being allowed to put her own clothes on and then an excruciatingly long process of paperwork, Hannah was escorted to the door leading out into the lobby. They clicked the locks and the deputy opened the door to one of the best sights she’d seen for a long time.
Lucy was the first to lift her head and see her standing there, staring at them. “Hannah!” she cried out, jumping to her feet and rushing toward her sister. Jack, her dark haired Reaper, was right at her side.
The rest of her brothers and sisters hopped out of their chairs and hurried toward her, as well. Ethan was with them, as always, and, to her utter surprise, Aiden was also with them.
She didn’t have time to wonder why he was there, that was something they would have to talk about later. At the moment, she wanted to get the hell out of there and then cut into them for paying all that money.
“Hannah!” Greg was one of the first to reach her and he opened his arms wide, taking her into a tight embrace. “We’re so sorry you had to stay here for so long.” The rest of her siblings murmured their agreement and encircled her, joining in, until they formed one large mass of hugging family.
When it was over, everyone detangled themselves from the group hug and stood back. “Come on.” Dan threw his arm around her. “Let’s get out of here.”
“You guys should have never paid that bail money,” she whispered, tearing up again. “It will take me forever to pay you back.”
Dan shook his head and pulled her toward the glass doors leading out to the parking lot. “Don’t worry so much. We only pay a percentage of it and after all your court appearances we shouldn’t have to pay anything else at all.”
“What? Really?” She hadn’t known this, still even a small percentage of two hundred thousand, was a hell of a lot to come up with.
“It’s going to be fine,” James assured her, giving her arm a squeeze.
Well, that was a relief. At least that was one less thing she had to worry about at the moment. But, even with all of her family there with her, she let her mind go to David. Where the hell was he? The way he’d been acting, she figured he would have been as close to her as possible this whole time.
Keeper of the Peace (Graveyard Guardians #2) Page 16
