Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Ande studied my face for a few long seconds before she said, “So, a baby?”
My heart physically ached. “No. No baby. Probably never a baby.” I hesitated. “We don’t want anyone to know. At least not yet. She’s still processing everything, and it’s a lot to process.”
“You know she won’t be able to keep it a secret for long, right? I mean, our family is so nosy,” she asked as the elevator doors opened and I headed in the opposite direction of her. “I’m her best friend! She even told me about your penis size!”
That last part was announced to half the ER waiting room.
With a shake of my head, I headed to my cruiser, and then the station.
I called Boseman on the way, and by the time I arrived in the interrogation room, Costas was sitting there waiting for me.
He waited for me to take a seat before saying, “It’s about fuckin’ time, jackass. I’ve been waiting on you to get here forever. How’s my sister?”
I took a seat, leaned back in the chair, and said, “She’ll be a lot better if she’s not implicated in the operation you were running out of her house.”
The derision in my voice penetrated his cool, calm, and collected features.
“I wouldn’t have had to do it out of the fuckin’ house had you gotten your shit together sooner!” he snarled. “You had your own brother in my operation. He was there for a frickin’ year. I tried everything to get him to narc on me, and there you were, watching and observing. Jesus Christ, y’all are slow.”
I shook my head to try to clear it. “What are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying that I had to nearly start selling pussy to get you to pay attention for real.” He rolled his eyes. “And tell your brother he can’t hide that white fuckin’ hair. It’s easy to spot him when his hair grows like a goddamn weed.”
I didn’t reply to that, unsure what I was supposed to say.
Gable had been made, and Costas hadn’t killed him?
What the hell was going on right now?
I looked over at the two-way glass, wondering if I was hearing this correctly.
Was he saying what I thought he was saying?
“How about you spell it out for me, Costas,” I suggested when I turned back to him.
“You know it’s not easy to just get out, right?” he asked.
I felt my insides freeze at his words. “Yes.”
“Well, I’ve been trying to get out for years,” he grumbled. “But nobody fuckin’ lets you go. Just when I start to pull away, I’m dragged right back in. And I decided, the easiest way to deal with this was to get arrested. That way I’m not killed when I do go. Shayne’s not in danger. Short of goddamn murder, I’ve been trying to get you to seal the deal for years.”
Seal the deal.
He’d wanted me to arrest him this entire time?
“I didn’t like watching my sister fuckin’ break when it came to you,” he said darkly. “And you left because of me. You wanted her to choose you, and she wouldn’t. Not after the childhood we had. Our bond is something you’ll never understand. But now, she doesn’t have to choose. I’m going away for a long time, and you’re going to keep her safe while I’m there.”
“About that…”
“A full confession. Zero desire for a lawyer right now. And the assurance that everything was all him, and he hid everything from Shayne,” the chief said. “That’s about the best outcome you could’ve asked for.”
I headed back to the hospital to be with my girl, only to find out that she’d checked herself out of the hospital AMA—against medical advice—and disappeared.
“Where is she?” I snapped at Atlas, who was talking to a harried looking nurse.
Atlas looked over and scratched the back of his head. “I was takin’ a piss and came back to find her gone.”
“Well, fuck.”
Ande: I swear nothing in this world smells better than the person you love.
Shayne: Have you ever walked past a Cinnabon?
—Text between Ande and Shayne
SHAYNE
I’d been released from jail, a.k.a. the hospital.
Okay, that might be an exaggeration.
I’d released myself.
I wasn’t too sure why. All I knew was that I was having a really fuckin’ hard time breathing there.
If I’d known what I know now before I left, I probably would’ve stayed my ass put.
But all I could think about, the longer Quinn was away, was his assurance that we would make it. And how he wasn’t asking me my opinions.
In one day, I’d been hit in the face by a door, assaulted by a police officer I knew hated me, gone to the hospital and found out that I had a baby living inside of me who hadn’t made it, and been told that my life was about to change by the man who had wrecked my entire world.