“What’s going on? This is my house. What’s wrong with my family?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. He wasn’t supposed to be at work until around midnight, which meant he should have been home. Now he conveniently showed up just minutes after his family was murdered?
He pushed past the officer and ran up the steps of the house. His howl of pain could be heard down the whole block, but I wasn’t buying it. I followed the officer up the steps, but stopped short at the door, knowing I shouldn’t re-enter the crime scene. He laid next to his wife, crying out, but there were no tears.
Then I noticed something on the floor next to the wife. It was something small and white…rectangular. I stepped inside a few feet. The officers were distracted with the husband. As I walked further in, I noticed the DCFS logo on the card…and my name underneath it. Blood was smeared on the corner of the card.
I gasped, raising my hand to my mouth as I shook my head. This was my fault. It had to be. I raised my eyes to meet the husband’s and for just one instant, our eyes locked and I knew. That glimmer in his eye…he saw my card and he killed them for it. But then his face morphed back to the grieving husband and the killer disappeared.
3
Jack
“Thanks, Diana,” I said, waving to the woman at the daycare center. I took Brody’s hand in mine and walked back to my squad car. I was late getting here. Again. I felt like the shittiest father in the world, always arriving after hours to pick up my son. I was lucky Diana was so forgiving and willing to stick around for me, though it cost me extra for her added time. Luckily, she was single and didn’t have a family to get home to, or she would be more strict with her policies. But that would all change eventually. I needed to find a babysitter for the days I worked later.
My mom and dad said they would move to town to help me out, but I didn’t want them giving up their home just for me. They were older and living in their dream house now that they were retired. Their house was paid off, and they didn’t need to get another mortgage at this stage of their lives. Still, something had to change.
“Daddy, I saw a dinosaur today.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, a Veloci…a Veloci…”
“A Velociraptor?”
“Yeah,” he said excitedly. “One of the boys brought him in to play with.”
“That’s pretty cool. Did he let you play with him too?”
“Yeah, but did you know that…that a Veloci…”
“Velociraptor…”
“Yeah, it’s not even the size of the ones they show in Jurassic World!”
“It’s not?” I asked, like this was a complete surprise.
He shook his head wildly. “No, it’s really only the size of a turkey!”
I grinned down at my kid. I couldn’t believe he was already five. Pain lanced through me as the realization struck that he’d already gone four years without his mom. I pushed it to the back of my mind and smiled down at him.
“Movies always lie to you,” I said, trying to focus back on my kid. I opened the back door for him and watched as he strapped himself in. Shutting the door, I walked around to the driver’s side and got in, ready to head home.
“Daddy, do you put me back here because you’re mad at me?”
I frowned in the rearview mirror as I pulled away. “Why would you ask that?”
“Because this is where you put Andrew and Joe when you’re mad at them. Then you take them to jail and lock them in the cell.”
I grinned at him, shaking my head. “I just didn’t have time to get my truck,” I explained. “Besides, if you’re back there, you can’t get out of the car.”
He sighed heavily. “Except I feel like a criminal.”
I rolled my eyes at his dramatics. That kid could win an actor’s award for his theatrics. “You’ll be fine for the three minute drive home.”
We pulled into my driveway and I helped him out, letting him run ahead like he always did. It just wasn’t the same, walking up to this house anymore. I thought about selling it many times, just to escape the memory of Natalie, but I didn’t think that was fair to Brody. This was the only place he knew. Then again, he didn’t even remember his mom. Would moving really affect him?
“Josh told me he would show me how to pick a lock the next time I saw him!” Brody said, jumping up and down.
“He did, huh?”
“Yeah,” he nodded excitedly.
“When did you see Josh?”
“At the diner when you were ordering our food. I was telling him about you helping Cat Lady out when she got locked out of her house—”
“Her name is Abby,” I corrected him as I slid my key in the lock.
“And I told him that I would never forget my keys…if I had them. And then he told me that he could show me how to pick a lock next time I saw him!”
Perfect, just what I needed. It was bad enough that my kid thought it was okay to shoot strangers if they offered you a ride, but now he was going to learn how to pick a lock. I’d have to have a talk with Josh. I may be getting along better with him, but that didn’t mean I wanted his influence rubbing off on my son.
I opened the fridge, searching for something I could make quickly, but it was pretty much empty. I needed to go to the grocery store. Hell, I needed to hire a maid to come help me out. I glanced around the house and winced. It was fairly picked up, but I couldn’t remember the last time I’d scrubbed the floor or cleaned the bathrooms. I tried to keep up, but I just never seemed to have enough time.
I pulled out frozen chicken nuggets and arranged them on the plate. My kid loved the dino chicken nuggets, so I kept them stocked in the freezer. After sticking them in the microwave, I rested my palms on the counter and watched the glass plate spin inside.
“Daddy!”
I turned and swore I saw Natalie across from me, smiling at me that way she always did, like she thought I hung the moon and stars. She walked over to me and for just a moment, I could feel her arms wrap around my neck and her breath tickling my skin. But then Brody came running downstairs, and like smoke, she vanished.
I swallowed hard, shaking off the images as Brody ran over to me. “I forgot to tell you! Ms. Engleman gave me a dinosaur!” he shouted, shoving the small plastic dino up in my face.
I snatched it out of his hand and stared at the tiny brachiosaurus. “That’s pretty cool, buddy.”
“I know! And she said she needs to see you tomorrow.”
“She does?” my eyebrows pinched in concern. “Did she say why?”
He shrugged in that way kids did and ran off.
“Hey! Dinner’s in five minutes!”
“Okay!”
Sighing, I waited for the microwave to ding and then separated out his nuggets from mine. Adding ranch dressing to his plate, I pulled out a placemat and tried to appear civilized. After pouring his milk and grabbing a beer, I called him downstairs. After staring at my chicken nuggets for about ten minutes, I decided something needed to change in my life.
After my failed attempt at making a dinner of chicken nuggets for Brody, I was determined to give him a real meal tonight. So, we headed to the diner. Anything had to be better than the crap I was feeding him. We walked in, taking a seat at a booth while Brody rambled on about all the things he had done at daycare.
I did my best to pay attention like always, but tonight I was distracted. Work was building up and my mind kept drifting to how much easier things were when his mom was alive. I knew I shouldn’t think that way. Brody wasn’t a burden to me, but sometimes it really sucked doing everything on my own.
The waitress walked up with a grin on her face. “What can I get for you tonight?”
Brody looked at the menu in thought, though he couldn’t actually read anything on it. “I want mashed potatoes and fries!”
“Well, you can’t just have mashed potatoes and fries. You have to have some meat too. How about chicken?”
His eyes lit up. “Can I have gravy?”
He shoved his fist into the air, shouting his victory. “Yes!”
“Any vegetables?” the waitress asked.
“Corn, please.”
“And you?”
“Surprise me,” I grinned. At this point, I didn’t care what the dinner was as long as I didn’t have to cook it. “And I’ll have a coke.”
Brody’s eyes widened. “Can I have a coke too?”
“No, you need milk.”
“But you get coke,” he pouted.
Sighing, I turned to the waitress. “Two milks.”
Grabbing the menus out of my hand, she smiled at me. “I’ll bring those right out.”
I ran my hand over my face, tired as hell after today. Brody woke me up at five this morning, I didn’t get my coffee until well after ten, and I was drowned in paperwork for most of the day. I knew once we got home Brody would want me to play one of his twenty-thousand dinosaur games with him, which always turned into a dinosaur wrestling match. By the time I put him to bed, he would be wiped out, but so would I.
But even with exhaustion hitting hard every night, I just couldn’t manage to get a good night’s sleep. If it wasn’t the job keeping me up, it was worrying about Brody and whether I was giving him the best life possible. And then there were the nights that I laid in bed thinking about Natalie and what we would be doing if she was still alive. Would we have more kids by now? Would she have gone back to work? Her life was cut so short.
Even though I was moving on with life, I still had my moments where I was just stuck in this chasm of pain. Slowly, I was working my way out of hell and starting to live again, but I just wasn’t at full capacity yet.
I smiled as I stared at my son. He was coloring on the paper they brought him, completely oblivious to how hard life really was. If it hadn’t been for Carter, I would be half the man I was today. I would have never forgiven Josh, and I would still be punishing the Cortell brothers for being related to him. I was finally at the acceptance part, where I knew Josh didn’t have any part to play in her death. I just couldn’t figure out how to transition from blaming Josh to being his friend again, because deep down I knew I had been wrong from the start.
My phone buzzed and I pulled it out, getting a call from CPD.
“This is Jack.”
“Yeah, this is Murphy over at CPD. We have a reported accident out on 41 East.”
“So, go take care of it.”
“It’s a county call. It’s outside city limits.”
I rolled my eyes. They were always pulling city jurisdiction bullshit on us. “Is it an emergency?”
“No, low priority.”
“Alright, I’ll be out there soon.”
I hung up and sighed, trying to decide who I was going to have babysit Brody, but then decided to call in Carter.
“Yeah?”
“I need you to take a low priority call.”
“How low priority?”
“Why?”
“Well, I’m an hour and a half away.”
“Shit,” I swore under my breath. “Alright, I’ll handle it.”
I hung up, ready to call Mrs. Cranston when Carly walked up.
“Hey, Jack,” she grinned, holding her son Rici in her arms.
“Hey. How’s the little man?”
“Doing great. Did I hear that you have to take a call?”
“Yeah.” I waved the waitress down. “Hey, can you box up our meals?”
“Sure thing, Jack.”
“So, who’s going to watch Brody?”
He was still coloring and hadn’t caught on yet that I was going to have to leave.
“I was going to call Mrs. Cranston.”
She grimaced, her nose wrinkling up. “Don’t do that. He can come home with me.”
“No,” I said quickly. “I don’t want to cause any trouble.”
“What trouble? Josh is on his way home. I was just picking up dinner.”
“Yeah, but you already have your hands full.”
The truth was, I hated leaning on other people, especially ones with a family of their own. But with Carly, I had been so horrible to her and her husband that I didn’t feel I had the right to ask for help.
“Jack, if I offer to help, it’s because I want to.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Get over it,” she said, as if she knew exactly what I was thinking.
Sighing, I ran my hand over my face. What other choice did I have? “Hey, Brody. I have to go out on a call. Do you want to go back to Carly and Josh’s place for a bit?”
His gaze shot up and he grinned wide. “Really?”
“Yeah, buddy.”
He looked over at Carly, obviously excited. “Can we play dinosaurs?”
“Oh my gosh! Of course! You know, Alessa just got a new dinosaur.”
His jaw dropped comically. “Is it a T-Rex?”
“How did you guess?”
“What about a Parasarololphus?”
“A parasaurolophus?” I noticed she said it really slowly, enunciating each syllable.
He nodded excitedly.
“You bet we have one!”
“Let’s go!” He jumped out of the booth excitedly.
“Whoa, hold on, buddy. You have to wait for the food.”
“But then we can go?”
Carly smiled down at my son. “And then we can go.”
God, I was a shit friend.
I slid out of the booth and lifted Brody up, giving him a hug. “Alright, I’ll see you soon, buddy.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
I set him down and turned to Carly. “I won’t be long.”
“Don’t worry about it. We have a spare room if it gets too late.”
I nodded, thanking her again before turning to leave. Why was this so hard?
Three hours later, I pulled my tired ass up to Carly's house. Trudging up the steps to her town house, I knocked on the door, a little worried at what I would find. Had they taught Brody how to play with guns, throw knives? Brody already knew how to hold a gun. I’d taught him that last year, but I couldn’t help but wonder how far they’d taken it.
The door swung open, and Josh gave a chin lift. “Hey, man.”
“Hey, I just came to pick up Brody.”
“Yeah, I kind of figured that.” He swung the door open further, stepping back to let me in.
“So did everything go okay?”
He shrugged. “Well, you know, Antonio dropped by and we had a knife throwing contest. Then Antonio showed Brody how to drown someone. So, that was interesting.”
My head snapped to his.
“Everything was fine,” he laughed. “The kids watched Jurassic World after dinner. Now they're in the kitchen.”
I shook off my irritation. I couldn't blame him for teasing me. I was constantly thinking there was something devious going on with Josh, like the guy would actually put my kid in harm's way. I strolled into the kitchen and was shocked to see Carly whipping up a batch of something. Brody was sitting on the counter swinging his legs as he munched on a cookie.
When he finally saw me, his eyes lit up and a huge smile crossed his face. “Daddy, Carly made me cookies.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” I said, taking in the chocolate smudged all over his face. “Were they good?”
“She is such a good cookie maker.” He took a huge bite, crumbs falling down the front of his shirt as he chomped away.
“Yeah?”
“The best cookies ever. They were so warm and yummy. And they, and they had lots of chocolate!”
I chuckled and took him down from the counter. Walking over to the sink, I grabbed a paper towel and wet it, then wiped off his face.
“So, you had fun?”
“It was so cool!”
“What else did you do?” I asked, grabbing his hands and wiping them off.
“We watched Jurassic World, and
this dinosaur came running and broke through a wall. An it, an it, and this guy was hiding by a truck and a dinosaur sniffed him. And then, then he moved the truck out of the way with his nose, with his head, and, and then he ate the guy!”
I chuckled at his enthusiasm. “Yeah, I remember that part.”
“It was so cool.”
“Yeah, I bet.”
“Yeah, what was that dinosaur called?” Josh asked, his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the wall.
“It was…it was…Indominus Rex!” he shouted, getting super excited, his whole body shaking as he jumped around. The kid was way too enthusiastic about dinosaurs.
I turned to Carly and didn't know quite what to say. She really saved my ass today. “Thank you again for watching Brody for me.”
She jerked her head at Josh. “It was mostly him. I just baked cookies.”
“Still, thank you both for taking care of him for me.”
“Jack, you know we’d do it anytime for you. It's not a big deal. He had fun with Alessa, and they played for most of the movie with dinosaurs.”
I walked over to Josh, feeling like it was high time I pulled my head out of my ass. I held out my hand, staring right at him, waiting for him to shake my hand.
If he was surprised, he hid it well, but I could tell he was happy this shit was finally over. I wanted to say something, but with Carly in the room, it was hard. As if she sensed my hesitation, she grabbed Brody’s hand.
“Hey, how about we go say goodbye to Alessa and Rici?”
He ran out of the room, Carly following right behind him.
I turned back to Josh and cleared my throat. “I know we’ve already talked about this…But now I want to move past it.”
“Meaning what?” he asked hesitantly.
“Meaning, I’d like to be friends. I understand if you…if you don’t want that. I’ve treated you like shit for a long time, and you didn’t deserve it.”
“What about Antonio? You know I’m not going to just start hating him because of you.”
“I don’t expect you to.” I sighed. “The truth is, I’ll never like Antonio, but it has nothing to do with Natalie. Hell, he didn’t even know about Carly’s psycho ex still going after her.”
Four Horsemen: A Small Town Romance (A Good Run Of Bad Luck Book 5) Page 3
