He sighed deeply. “Anything else?”
“Yep,” I went on. “Last month, at Lucy’s. He did something to her. She was on the ground at his feet, crying. I dragged him into the kitchen and told him I’d kill him if he touched her.” I coughed. “I don’t think anyone saw me but Kennedy.”
“Damn it, Linc. Could you not have left him alone?”
“No,” I admitted. “I mean, I could have. But that ship sailed the minute I knew he hurt her. To be fair, I didn’t threaten to kill him until the day Amie and I responded to the call where he beat the shit out of Mallory.”
The chief ran a hand through his hair, and his shoulders slumped. “Anyone else?”
Remy coughed. “Yeah. I may have spoken to his secretary and let her know that if Royal made any unexpected trips or cleared his schedule to let me know.”
I figured he’d do something like that, and I leaned over to offer him a fist bump. Completely ignoring the scoff that Chief gave us both, I nodded at my friend.
There wasn’t a chance in hell he’d let his little sister become a victim. Not again.
Amie raised her hand, silently waiting for the chief’s attention.
“What did you do?” His voice lowered an octave, and he rubbed his forehead with one hand. “Please tell me it stops with you.”
“I might have done a thing,” she admitted while clearing her throat. “Technically, I think it amounts to a minor case of stalking. After he beat Mallory, I may have driven by his house and stayed there until I could build a case on him for domestic abuse.”
“Were you there last night?” There was almost a hint of hope in his voice.
“No,” Amie admitted. “I was out of town. Otherwise, I’d have video of it.”
The chief’s face fell, and even though I felt bad for him, there was something else happening.
In the years since Danny died, I pushed everyone away. Everyone except Remy. Well, and technically Dom, who deployed with us. Him and Ian. Our unit. The small group of men who relied on one another to survive. But now, things were changing. The chief wouldn’t be asking us if he wasn’t trying to protect us. Amie didn’t need to do anything about Royal. She’d done her job. But the look she shot me told me she did it for me. For Kennedy.
“I didn’t do anything nearly that bad,” Dom scoffed while leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. “But my mother, on the other hand, she definitely did.”
“I don’t know why, but I’m horrified to hear what he says,” Remy whispered next to me. “His mom is fucking terrifying.”
“She may or may not have called his parents,” Dom went on. “I guess she knows them from the old days. When she used to be donation coordinator for the hospital.”
Chief actually laughed at that. “I don’t even care at this point. You guys couldn’t make my job any easier, could you?”
“Actually,” I snapped. “I feel like we were protecting you. Protecting Kennedy, Chief. He’s obsessed with her. He hurt her. I know it. You know it. We all do. She didn’t have to report it for us to know.” I didn’t tell him what she’d confided in me, though. “He beat Mallory to a pulp, and she wouldn’t press charges. He made her color her hair red. The exact same shade as Kennedy’s.”
There were murmurs of agreement from the other people in the room, and I could see that he agreed with us, he just couldn’t say it.
“If we didn’t do something,” I went on. “If I didn’t do something, it would be Kennedy dead right now, and not Mallory.”
22
Kennedy
I sat, dumbfounded and confused, as Jake Findlay, our sheriff and my boss, Maya, told me what happened to Mallory. I tried to care, too. But after everything she helped Royal do, I couldn’t.
“How did she die?”
“There’ll be an autopsy, of course,” Jake explained as gently as he could. “But she was found in the bathtub, and it appears that she drowned.”
My fingers clenched the arms of the chair so tightly that I felt the tips go numb. I swallowed, trying to get past the knot in my throat, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move.
Royal’s warnings started to replay through my mind. Every single threat he made against my family. My friends. Linc.
Don’t run, Kennedy.
If you leave me, I’ll kill you.
I’ll find you.
I’ll kill your sister.
Don’t leave me, Kennedy.
I love you too much to let you live without me.
Don’t make me hurt you, Kennedy.
This is all your fault.
If you come back, it’ll be different.
You stupid whore.
I’m going to kill you.
His voice. The reason I still had nightmares unless Linc was there in bed with me. The worst thing I could ever imagine, coming to life.
“I have to go,” I muttered.
When I tried to stand, my legs gave out from under me.
“Kennedy?” Maya reached out gently, trying to offer her comfort, but I didn’t want to be touched. Couldn’t stand to have any sort of physical contact. I needed air. I needed to leave. I couldn’t be there.
“Here.” Maya held out her hand, leaving it in my eyesight, giving me the time I so desperately needed to get my head on straight.
“Do you understand what’s happening here?” Her voice covered me like a blanket, offering protection from what I could see on the horizon.
My nod was broken, hesitating, and fractured. Immediately, I thought of Linc, and whether he would have told anyone what I confided. But just as quickly as the thought entered my mind, I knew he wouldn’t. He’d never do anything like that. He’d never tell a soul.
I took Maya’s offered hand, needing the strength she gave me. “I think so.”
“Royal Prince is a person of interest, Kennedy. But so is Linc. Royal’s official statement and alibi state that he caught Mallory and Linc having sex. That he was out drinking to forget about the pain of losing not one but two women to him.”
“Linc was with me,” I said quietly. Stubbornly. “All night. I got off work at four p.m., which you know.” I looked Maya straight in the eyes. “After work, we had dinner at Lucy’s, then went home.”
“Whose house?” Jake was scribbling down notes on my statement, and that’s when I froze up.
“Is this you notifying me of what happened?” My tone turned deadly, and I dropped Maya’s hand. “Or are you interrogating me for an alibi?”
Jake’s expression turned hard, and I watched as a silent battle took place between him and Maya. Right in front of me, they argued. And then there was a knock at the door. It opened to reveal Brian, Maya’s husband and Chief Deputy of Birch County Sheriff’s Department.
“Hey, Jake. Maya.” He stepped into the room and shut the door, then looked directly at me, ignoring both of them. “Kennedy.”
“Why does everyone seem to know something that I don’t,” I snapped. “Someone just spit it out already.”
“I was raped,” Maya said bluntly. Both Jake and Brian winced, but Maya’s knowing eyes, staring right into mine, told me that she’d seen the truth. “And I was stalked. When he couldn’t kill me, he decided to come back and try to finish the job. I won, and now he’s in prison for the rest of his life.”