“No way, Caitlyn. I can’t let you do this,” Bjorn’s voice whispered in her ear, barely heard over the pounding of her heart.
Terri darted out of the door, her eyes wide. “Bjorn, what are you doing?”
“I saw her reflection on the porch when we came in. She heard us and then looked like she was sneaking upstairs.”
“Jesus, she’s our friend! She was probably just going to her place!” Terri cried, her voice rising with each word, her gaze darting between Caitlyn and Bjorn.
Caitlyn struggled, but Bjorn’s arms tightened and the blade dug into the skin. “We can’t take a chance,” he argued. “I’m not going to prison, Terri. Not happening. Now, get some tape so I can keep her quiet.”
Terri hesitated then turned and bolted into their apartment.
Caitlyn’s mind raced through the scenarios for defending herself that her brothers had taught, but with the blade so near her jugular, she remained still, her breathing making the sharp edge prick.
A noise at the back door of the house had both of them look up, seeing Griffin walking through the door with Kyle right behind. “Help!” she screamed, instantly bringing Griffin and Kyle racing forward.
“No!” Terri cried out, coming out of their apartment door just behind them as Bjorn shouted, “Move and she dies.”
Griffin halted, growling, “Let her go, man. You gotta let her go.” He looked over his shoulder toward Terri. “Tell him!”
Kyle stepped forward. “You do not want to do this. Right now, I’ve got no idea what your deal was, but you’re looking at kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, and anything else I can throw at you, asshole.”
Terri whimpered. “Bjorn, don’t… this is messed up, babe. It was just supposed to be easy money. It was just peace, feeling good, making some money, and having fun. This… Bjorn, this isn’t right.”
“Shut up! I knew it was a mistake as soon as we found out she worked at the school with our people!” He jerked Caitlyn toward the front door. “Terri, get to the car… get it started. I’m going out with her, and we’ll get away—”
A horrific crack sounded, knocking Bjorn into Caitlyn, and they jolted forward. She threw out her hands to catch the stair banister, feeling Bjorn slipping to the floor behind her. Whirling around, she spied Margaretha standing behind him, a cast iron frying pan in her hand, her chest heaving.
29
Griffin and Caitlyn crawled into bed at about six a.m., the adrenaline having worn off hours ago. Looking at each other, exhaustion mirrored on their faces, she began to giggle, and he wondered if she was finally reacting to the stress. “Babe?”
“God, I’m so tired, and all I can think is holy moly, what just happened?”
He slid down under the covers and pulled her closer. “Come on, crazy girl. Snuggle up with me.” She immediately acquiesced and pressed tightly against him.
As a heavy sigh left her lungs, her sweet, minty breath blew over him and he smiled. Holding her gaze, he swept her hair back from her face. “You okay?”
She nodded, but he was worried.
“Babe, it’s okay to say that you’re not.”
She pressed her lips together, rolling them in for a moment, then sighed again. “No, really, Griffin, I’m good. I mean, my head hasn’t quite wrapped around everything yet, but you’re safe, I’m safe, a huge drug ring that affected my workplace and a lot of kids has been taken care of.”
“Yeah, but that involved four friends of yours, two as coworkers and two as neighbors. That’s a lot to take in.”
She sucked in another ragged breath before letting it out. “Yeah, that’s going to take some getting used to.” Her face contorted. “And the kids. The kids they used as carriers. It all makes me sick to my stomach and mad as hell!”
As soon as Margaretha hit Bjorn over the head, Kyle had jumped into action, kicking the knife away from Caitlyn, pulling out zip ties to secure Bjorn while Griffin grabbed Terri. Kyle called into the station, and soon his partner and other officers showed up. And that started the rest of the night.
Kyle reported that Carter and his partner had headed to the school to search Renée’s room and Jon’s office in the locker room, finding drugs in both places.
Tara, finding out what Carter was doing, had called in the rest of the family, and soon they all descended onto the Victorian. Margaretha was hailed a hero, and while she perched on her sofa, the detectives interviewed Caitlyn. Tara, Kimberly, Rory and Sandy, Erin and Torin, and Sean and Harper had filled the room, all checking on Caitlyn. Soon, Colm and Sharon made their way in as well, wanting to make sure their daughter was all right. Margaretha was going to make tea, but the McBrides had insisted she stay put and fixed tea for everyone.
More calls had come in from the Kings and various McBrides had fielded those, letting their friends know what was happening.
Considering the crowd, Griffin was sure the officers were glad everyone was in another apartment so they could search Terri and Bjorn’s place but assumed Kyle and Carter’s detective partners were used to the McBrides’ sense of family first.
As everyone had trickled back to their homes, Kyle let them know that the investigation would be ongoing, but what they had was a huge bonus to the department who’d been trying to crack some of the drug traffic going in and out of the high schools. “Right now, Renée is talking. It seems that Terri and Bjorn supplied the heroin and there was an out-of-state supplier of Fentanyl that Renée cut into the heroin. Jon made arrangements for kids who he could coerce to be their carriers and dealers. They tried to keep the operation contained but learned quickly that dealing with teens was difficult. They were in the process of pulling back and only using adult dealers, but Caitlyn stumbled into their operation before they had a chance to pull it out of the school completely.”
Caitlyn had slumped against Griffin, her stunned expression hitting him in the gut. She’d shaken her head slowly as her hand squeezed his. “I can’t believe it. Even when I saw the evidence in Renée’s room, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. And Jon? Oh, my God.” Bending forward, she’d placed her elbows on her knees and pressed her head in her hands. “All these people I know. How could I have been so blind?”
“Babe, they hid this part of their lives from you.”
She’d twisted her head around, holding his gaze before finally nodding.
After shaking Griffin’s hand, Kyle had bent to kiss Caitlyn’s head, saying, “Good work, sis. Love you.”
After everyone had left, he sat with Caitlyn and Margaretha. His mind hadn’t processed everything but wanted to make sure they felt safe. He didn’t need to worry… Margaretha brought out the wine, and even though it was almost three a.m., they drank toasts to catching reprobates, as Margaretha called them.
“I’m disappointed,” Margaretha had admitted. “I thought I was a good judge of character.”
“Hey, I used to help them with their business, not having any idea that part of their business was drug dealing!” Caitlyn had slammed back another glass of wine. “I wish I had them back here and I’d hit them with a frying pan.”