Double Tap (13 page)

His large, callused hand found mine, and he brought my knuckles up to his lips, then kissed them one by one. “I’m here if you want to talk about it.”

The rest of our day was spent running a few errands around town, grocery shopping and getting grain for the horses.

We went to eat at The Back Porch where I took another trip down memory lane with the man who used to own the butcher shop where my mom had sold bread at.

Luckily, he’d been in a hurry, otherwise I’d have had to endure another trip when I most definitely didn’t want to.

We ended our day with a phone call. One that had taken Nico’s good mood and shattered it into a million, tiny pissed off pieces.

Nico

Rob Johnson’s dead. It was supposed to be you.

Rob Johnson was the officer who’d taken my car because his own had been in the shop getting the new KPD stickers placed on it.

Rob Johnson’s dead. It was supposed to be you.

Those were the last words Luke had said to me over the phone.

“Someone shot Johnson. Straight through the back glass.
The sniper
shot from the old water tower on Fuller Road. There was a note addressed to your parents explaining why. It was supposed to be you. He would’ve known it wasn’t you if he’d looked at the front, but from the back he couldn’t tell you from Johnson
,” Luke explained for the third time.

I was numb.

My hands had lost feeling shortly after he started talking from my hands being clenched too hard.

“The note?” I rasped.

Luke handed me a piece of paper in an evidence bag.

My eyes scanned the note with a growing dread.

An eye for an eye. We take care of our own. Your son took my daughter, it was only fair to take his life too.
Repayment.

The note wasn’t signed, but I knew exactly who it was from.

I knew going into that night I helped Luke that it’d be a mess. I just never thought it’d be like this. I never thought innocents would pay for my transgression.

Who else had I put into danger because of this?

“It’s Alexi Artem. I know it,” I said.

Alexi Artem was in prison for laundering money.

The CIA had put Reese’s ex on the job
undercover. He
had faked a marriage with the daughter of Alexi Artem, and
been charged with watching Anita Artem to see if she ever tried to contact her father. In the interim, he’d cheated on his
‘wife’ openly, and Anita had started to get suspicious.

Except when she’d realized he’d been cheating, she’d wrongly assumed that it was Reese he was cheating with, and not the woman that he’d
actually
been cheating with.

It also didn’t help that Anita had been pregnant.
Not only was she emotional, but she was hormonal.

The agent in charge had wanted to keep perpetuating the lie, wanting to catch Anita now that he’d had evidence that she’d been in contact with her father again.

Luke and Reese had reluctantly gone along with it, even going as far as staying away from each other for weeks.

I’d been charged with watching over Reese, as had all the other members of the SWAT team. Sure we could’ve had another cop do it, or one of
Special Agent Nathan Lawrence’s men do it. We liked to keep it between us, not wanting to bring the rest of the force into it if we could help it.

The too high levels of hormones and emotions from Anita didn’t mix, and she’d started killing people.

It started with killing a police dog then went on to killing Reese’s ex-boyfriend and then his current girlfriend.

Finally, she was going to kill Luke and then Reese.

She’d settled with Luke first, shooting him while him and Reese had been eating at a restaurant.

I’d been watching over Reese when Luke had been shot, and I’d sent her to the police station and stayed with Luke.

Luke had been shot twice in the head, and I’d taken the only action I could at the time.

I’d shot the pregnant woman.

Then I’d kept her alive long enough for paramedics to take over.

They’d been able to save the baby, but Anita had been lost.

And it’d been haunting me ever since.

And now this.

“Rob’s wife…did anyone go talk to her yet?” I asked.

Luke nodded. “Mary took it pretty hard. With all that’s happening over the city, the shooting a few weeks ago. She’d been understandably worried. Now,
though, she’s pretty devastated. I bet she’ll have a hard time of it for a while. The guys have started a collection at work to pay for his funeral.”

I felt sick to my stomach.

And I was seconds away from losing it.

It wouldn’t do to let them see me cry.

“I’ll be at home,” I said gruffly.

We’d met at the station, but the station had been flooded with news cameras and reporters, and we’d decided to take it back to Luke’s place.

Luke walked me to the car, and he watched as I drove out of his driveway and straight to the one place that would give me clarity. Would give me the
comfort I needed right now.

Home
.

Home where Georgia was waiting for me.

Life sucks then you die.

-Coffee Cup

Georgia

“I’m going to stay with him for a couple days. They put him on administrative leave pending further notice. He’s upset,” I said, shoving things into my bag.

Ace nodded, leaning against my doorway.

“Okay. Make sure you let your job know what’s going on,” he said, eyes fastened on the amount of stuff I was packing in my bag.

“I already did. Other than the one meeting I had scheduled with a potential adoptive couple, I’m free for the next three days,” I explained.

He nodded, but kept staring.

I stopped and looked at him. “What?”

He took a deep breath, his chest puffing out, then he let it out before he said, “Darby’s gone again. Hasn’t done any of his chores this week. And I’m pretty sure he’s been gone since last night. He went out dressed for a night on the town, and he’s not answering his phone.”

I sat down heavily on the bed and looked down at my hands, flexing and unflexing them.

“Change the locks,” I said, not knowing what else to do.

He nodded. “That was going to be
my suggestion to you. I don’t want to do it, but if he brings home the same shit he tried to in Houston, we’ll never get him out of it again. I don’t even care enough anymore to try.”

I nodded, my eyes starting to water.

Standing, I walked into my brother’s arms, locking my hands around his thick chest.

His shirt smelled like dirt and hay, as it had his entire life.

Even when we’d lived in Houston he’d worked on a farm.

It was in his blood and always would be.

Darby, though… I didn’t know what was in his blood. Definitely not hard work.

He didn’t try at all, to be honest. He’d been a royal asshole from the moment he became a teenager.

He’d even seen multiple therapists for his PTSD…something we all had done.

Darby though, hadn’t benefitted
one bit from the therapy. Instead going off the beaten path…down a dark alley…then straight into a fuckin’ lion’s den.

It took us a while to see what was going on, and by that time he’d already been in the thick of it.

And he hadn’t just chosen any gang. He’d chosen the worst gang in Texas. The freakin’ Blue Slayers.

“If he comes around, call the cops. Leave all of his belongings at the end of the driveway in some plastic trash bags. Make sure you label what they are so the trash doesn’t pick them up,” I sighed.

He nodded his head against mine, rubbing his beard along my head.

I smacked him and stepped back. “Let me know if you need anything, Ace. I love you
little brother.”

He ruffled my hair and followed me outside, staying on my heels all the way to my car.

When I went to shut my car door, he stopped me. “Just…be careful, alright?”

At my confused look he explained. “Obviously there’s more to Nico’s story, and you need to get yourself up to speed on those matters.
Weigh the cost with the benefits. Just know that
there’s something dangerous out there…and that something has Nico in his sights. And also know that we love you and we’d be broken without you.”

A tear squeezed past my stronghold, and he grinned. “You’re such a girl.”

I slammed the door, then gunned the engine, kicking up dust and smoke around him.

As I turned out of our driveway, I could see him coughing and laughing.

Dork
.

When I pulled into Nico’s driveway, I was surprised to see if full.

There were six trucks as well as two police cruisers.

Instead of walking inside where I knew the crowd was, I walked to the barn.

I shook my head as I got close, seeing the huge panel that had replaced the old one.

Nico had told me about all the work he was going to do to the barn so the horses were never put into jeopardy again, and I was relieved.

I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed Nautica until I saw her again.

I’d thought that she was sold along with all the cattle we’d had at our place after the deaths. I hadn’t let myself feel how much it bothered me until I realized that she wasn’t gone after all.

After staring at the panel for long moments, trying to figure out how it worked, I finally decided to start punching in numbers.

The first one I tried didn’t work. That was my birthday. The second didn’t work either. That was his birthday. The third, however, did work. It was the day I came home. 05152015.

The door’s lock clicked, and I pushed inside, closing it and re-arming it behind me.

I knew, for a fact, he’d have a cow if I didn’t re-arm it. I didn’t know what he’d do if he wanted one of the horses to come out. It wasn’t as if they were toys that only came out when you wanted them to. All four of the horses, Nautica included, needed daily exercising, as well as pasture time each and every day.

There was no way he was going to be able to
arm the entire pasture.
He couldn’t keep the horses safe all the time.

Or my brother’s cattle.

Which tended to not like gates when the grass was greener on the other side.

Nautica nickered as I made my way inside, knowing it was me instantly.

I stopped by the large fridge kept in the corner of the room, withdrew the bag of carrots, and walked to the stalls.

As I passed Nico’s horses, I handed them each a carrot.

The three of Nico’s were all roans, and very beautiful.

They were also all female.

Seemed Nico was partial to the females.

They snuffled thankfully, scarfing the carrot as if they’d never had anything so delicious before; something of which I knew differently, since I’d seen the apples in the fridge as well.

By the time I made it to Nautica’s stall, I had to laugh because she was nearly slamming the door with her nose in her exuberance.

“I know, I know,” I chided as I opened her stall door.

She came out gratefully, rubbing her large nose against my face.

It felt like velvet against my skin, and my tears nearly threatened again.

“God, I’ve missed you,” I whispered softly to her.

She neighed then snorted, blowing the hair back from my face, causing me to laugh.

“Beautiful horse.”
A deep male’s voice said from behind me.

I screamed and turned, heart pounding to find a large man with blonde hair and a scar on his face staring at me.

He had his hands up in a placating gesture.

“I’m sorry. My name’s Max Tremaine. I’m the one who did all the security on the barn. I was just checking it over one more time before I left,” he said soothingly.

I deflated somewhat. He wouldn’t have been able to get in here if he hadn’t known the code.

“Jesus, you scared me,” I said, resting one hand against my thundering heart.

He smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry. Like is said, I was just double checking. Anyway, I’ll get out of your hair. I’ve got to go give the information to Nico about how to get in here. Although, I see that it wasn’t too hard for you to figure out.”

I picked up a hint of accusation in his tone. “He used a special date.”

His eyes narrowed, and his head tilted slightly. “Gotcha.”

Then he was gone.

I listened this time, hearing the familiar beeps that showed the barn was rearmed, before I turned back to Nautica.

She nodded her head up and down quickly, and I smiled.

That used to be a sign for she was wanting to ride, and right now I was willing to give it to her. I needed some time to think on what my brother had said.

That had been the real reason I hadn’t wanted to go see Nico quite yet.

What Ace had said had really hammered home how traumatizing being with a cop could be to a woman.

I would have lot of things to consider if I became Nico’s wife.
The main one, though, was having to deal with the fact that my significant other would be putting his life on the line for strangers.

He could possibly not make it home. Then what would I do?

What would happen if I had kids with him?

Would they be able to deal with it?

Was I able to deal with the huge ‘what if’ that always seemed to hang over our heads like a thunder cloud?
Just waiting for it to pour down on us?

I contemplated that as I typed in the passcode to the back barn door, leading Nautica out by just her halter.

I didn’t plan on riding her long, only a few minutes at most, so I didn’t bother with a saddle.

I walked over to the large fence, pulling Nautica along with me.

Although, she did go willingly.

I would have mounted her like I used to, just by the strength of my own body using Nautica’s mane, but I didn’t have that kind of strength nor coordination anymore.

So I climbed to the top of the fence and mounted her as she walked up alongside me, smiling when she did so willingly.