“Call nine-one-one!” she shouted. “Now!”
*
Trey’s heart lodged somewhere in his throat when they pulled up to Annie Hawkins’s house to find it surrounded by emergency vehicles, including an ambulance.
Brantley threw the truck in Park, and the three of them bolted out, racing toward the house, bypassing the cops who were attempting to maintain a perimeter.
“What the hell happened?” Brantley barked at Detective Mathis, who was stepping out onto the porch.
Behind him, Trey saw a body being zipped into a bag, and his heart stopped beating. Charlie? Please, God, don’t let that be Charlie. If it was, this was all his fault. He’d been partnered with her last, and he should’ve insisted she get with him before she did anything else. Instead, he’d brushed off her concerns to focus elsewhere.
“There was an … incident,” Mathis said, his tone somber. “A confrontation ensued, and she took a knife to the torso. It was a fatal wound. She was dead before the ambulance arrived.”
Trey swayed on his feet.
“You can go in; just stay away from the scene.”
Trey followed Brantley and Reese, his heart pounding in his ears, his eyes glued to the gurney being rolled out, the body bag closed, hiding the death it held inside. Flashes of memory took root, at the hospital the day Kylie had been hit by the car. He could still smell the sickly sweet mix of antiseptic and death, the loss of a member of his own family so great it had choked him.
“Hey.”
The voice barely registered because Trey was still staring at the bag, and he briefly wondered if it came from inside. Was Charlie talking to him? Was she—
“It was an accident.”
Trey spun around as more words registered. He saw Charlie standing there, alive and breathing, not covered in black plastic and being carted off.
For a second, he thought his knees would give out, his relief was so potent. She wasn’t dead. He hadn’t lost another person he knew.
“She was calming down,” Charlie explained. “Lowered the knife and Annie Hawkins jumped on her. Nancy landed on the knife.”
“You all right?” Brantley asked her, his gaze sweeping over Trey momentarily.
“I will be,” she answered.
Trey took a deep breath, let it out slowly. He stood taller, wanting the eliminate the concern in his brother’s eyes.
“Cedric Hawkins?” Reese prompted.
“He’s fine,” Charlie told him. “Doped up on whatever Nancy drugged him with, but the EMT said he’d be fine. They’re taking him to the hospital.”
“And Annie and Mallory?” Reese asked.
“Arrested for murder. It was just as you suspected; they conspired to kill each other’s husbands.”
Trey looked around at all the fancy furnishings in the fancy house in the fancy neighborhood. Not for the first time, he was content with his humble life.
His thoughts drifted to Magnus, to the way the man had taunted him in the driveway, promising to come over to collect on the debt he claimed Trey owed him. Trey had spent that night alone because Magnus had come over, but Trey hadn’t bothered to answer the door. And last night … well, last night Trey had avoided his house altogether, staying at the barn simply because he wasn’t man enough to own up to the feelings he was developing for Magnus.
Later he would blame it on the adrenaline coursing through him and the overwhelming relief that Charlie was all right, but at the moment, he knew he would be seeking Magnus out. It was time they had a conversation.
Chapter Seventeen
Friday, September 17, 2021
By the time Friday morning rolled around, Reese had a strange twitch between his shoulder blades.
He wasn’t sure what or who was spurring it.
Now, as he perched on the corner of an empty desk, listening while JJ ran through the itinerary for the upcoming training session at Sniper 1 Security, he glanced from one person to the next.
Charlie was a bit solemn after yesterday’s events. She had apologized profusely about going on her own, something Brantley apparently couldn’t even wrap his head around and had told her as much. Reese had sat by while she promised never to do it again and Brantley threatened to fire her if she did.
Baz was also more subdued than usual, his attention continuously going to the phone in front of him. The one that continued to buzz every so often.
Reese also noticed the way Luca was watching Baz, as though he knew a secret and desperately wanted to tell the man. However, if it looked as though he was going to say something, Holly would reach over and poke her brother in the arm, shaking her head firmly when he would look her way. Reese was curious but not enough that he was willing to interrupt Brantley to get the details.
“I want everyone on the road by nine,” Brantley instructed the team. “That should put you in Dallas no later than one. Grab lunch when you can and we’ll meet at the simulation building no later than two. Baz? You and JJ ridin’ together?”
“That’s the plan,” Baz answered, hitting the button on his phone to silence it.
“I’ve got room,” Trey announced, “if anyone wants to ride with me.”
“If you don’t mind the company, I’ll take you up on that,” Evan replied.
“Me, too,” Jay added.
“I’ll drive,” Slade offered. “So I’ve got some room, too.”
Luca looked over, raised a finger as though signing up. Darius also took him up on the offer.
Reese observed while Elana, Holly, Becs, and Charlie figured out their travel arrangements. They were still hashing it out when Baz’s phone buzzed again.
“Take the goddamn call,” Brantley snapped at him, drawing everyone’s attention.
Baz looked both traumatized and furious as he grabbed the phone and stood. A second later he was marching out of the barn.
Needless to say, this was going to be an interesting weekend.
And Reese was sure it was only going to get worse from here.
*
Baz stepped outside the barn, trading one form of chaos for another.
To be honest, he would’ve much preferred to listen to the ruckus inside the barn than the overly emotional woman on the phone. Of course, ignoring her hadn’t done any good.
“What do you need, Molly?” he ground out through clenched teeth when he finally answered.
“Where are you?” she pleaded, her voice dripping with tears. “I need to see you. Where are you?”
Baz had gotten familiar with this conversation because it now took place two to three times a day. Every. Single. Fucking. Day.
Now that she was nearing her due date, she’d become more emotional than usual, and Baz knew her to be unstable on a good day. Problem was, he didn’t know how to solve the problem. At the same time, he couldn’t very well ignore her since she was having his baby.
“I’m at work,” he answered, keeping his tone light, easy. “Where I am every day.”
“I thought you were going to come by,” she said with a sob.
“I did come by. Last Saturday.”
“You didn’t stay.”
“No. And I don’t plan to stay, Molly. We’ve talked about this.”
“No, you’ve talked about this.”