She cracked a smile. “Ow, that hurts.”
My teeth ground together. “Let me finish cleaning you up.”
I worked quickly but effectively, trying to get the dried blood off her soft skin while attempting to ebb the flow of the cut on her eye. She was a mess of bruises, but still just as beautiful.
I stayed on the edge of her bed for what felt like hours, watching her as she was in and out of sleep, and as soon as the sun shone through the window in her room, I stood. I was going to cash in my favor with Ford so he could watch her for a couple of hours while I set everything in motion.
Sitting back and letting everything play out was no longer a viable plan. I had to be proactive and get her the hell out of here.
Chapter Seventeen
BRODY
I clicked over to another page, my brain consuming all the words at lightning speed. I’d come to the run-down house under the guise of wanting an update on Ford, but that wasn’t the real reason. I needed to get into the system and check for safe houses.
My vault of secrets was locked up tight, but I was afraid that they’d leak out anytime now. I’d been so close to confessing everything to Lola a couple of nights ago at the diner. Her eyes begged me to tell her, my heart screamed at me to show her what she meant to me, but my head had won out.
The agent in me had me backing away, using words that meant nothing to her but everything to me. I promise. I hoped she could stick to that, but I wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t
Hope, hope, hope. It flowed through me like rain in a storm drain, rushing and swirling, trying to find its rightful place.
I clicked the mouse again, searching for answers, but they were nowhere to be found. I had to get Lola away from all of this mess, I had to keep her safe. It didn’t escape me that I wanted to get her far from this place and from everything that surrounded me. But I was in a panic. It was only a matter of time, and when she found out who I really was, nothing would be the same again. I couldn’t let that happen, I had to ease her into it slowly, make her see I was doing it all for her.
Ringing echoed around the room, and I was hyperaware of the guys surrounding me. One wrong move and they’d see what I was planning. I knew they’d understand my need to get her out of that house if they had witnessed what I had only hours ago, but for the first time since I’d built this team, I didn’t trust them with the truth. They’d think I was doing it because of my relationship with Lola, and part of me was, but the bigger reason was to just make sure she was safe.
Finally, a safe house a couple of hours away came up on my search in the system. I took a picture of it with my cell, and then I backed out of the system, erasing all my history.
“Yeah, okay,” Ryan’s gruff voice said. “We’ll be watching.”
No sooner had he ended the call did my own cell go off. I pulled it out, clicking on the message from Hut and frowning.
Hut: Meet me at Old Man Pike’s place. You have 15 mins.
“I’ve gotta go,” I announced, shoving the cell back into my pocket. Maybe this would be where Hut would confront me. Lola’s plan rolled around in my mind, and I had no choice but to deny it, for her safety and mine.
“That was Ford,” Ryan said, stepping closer to me. “He said Hut is acting strange.” I raised my brows. “Stranger than usual,” Ryan amended.
“He wants me to meet him at Old Man Pike’s place.”
“We’ll follow.”
I nodded, spun around, and jogged out of the house and to the car. The engine roared to life, but it didn’t have the same effect as my car back home. There was no comparison to my Mustang. Just one more reason to get this case done with sooner rather than later.
I made it to Old Man Pike’s in ten minutes and parked toward the back. I had no idea what I was walking into, but that wasn’t anything new. I pushed out of my car, scanning the lot and spotting Hut’s SUV and another car that Jace and Ted used. Those two never went anywhere without the other one, but I’d seen the tension between them lately. It was just another thing to add to the rung.
The old house was out in the boonies, run-down and barely standing. It had a slight tilt to the left, and an eerie vibe to the small porch where a broken swing sat. It was silent as I walked closer, and when I pushed the door open, a thump rang out. That wasn’t good. My hand was already reaching for my weapon.
“Took you long enough to get here,” Hut grunted from the opposite side of the wall, a bored expression on his face. Now I’d learned how to compose myself in any situation, but how he could just ignore the squealing man tied to the chair was beyond me. It took every ounce of strength not to sprint over to him and beat him the same way he’d done to Lola only last night.
I shut the door, encasing us in semi-darkness, and moved toward Hut and Ford. “What’s going on?”
“Found our skimmer,” Hut said, looking way too pleased with that fact. I wasn’t in denial about what Hut did to people who crossed him, but I didn’t want to witness it firsthand. This was it. This was the moment where he’d slip up, and I could tie him to this case.
Hut stepped forward, shaking his head. “Who would have thought it’d be Jace?”
My head reeled back, and I took a closer look at the bloodied man in front of me.
“Tell me,” Hut started. “Why did you think it’d be a good idea, Jace?” Hut clasped his hands behind his back, looking like a headmaster who was reprimanding one of his students for being caught with a joint behind the bleachers.
“I didn’t...I didn’t do shit, Hut.” His stuttered breath rang out in the room, and I winced. He’d already taken a beating, and from the looks of Ted’s hands on the opposite side of the room, it’d been from him.
“Ford,” I murmured, moving closer to him.
Hut’s gaze flicked over to Ford and then back to me. “I only got here a few minutes ago.” Ford was trying to tell me that he had no idea what was happening either. “Lola’s safe,” he whispered. He took a sidestep closer to me. “Hut asked if you and Lola had a thing, and I said you didn’t.” I tilted my head in acknowledgment.
Hut tsked as he grabbed Jace’s head, yanked it back, and stared down at him. “You know what I can’t stand more than thieves?” Hut didn’t give him the chance to answer. “Lying thieves.” Hut let him go and moved over to Ted. “Show him how much I hate lying thieves.”
Ted didn’t hesitate and stepped forward, his fist connecting with the side of Jace’s face. Jace’s groan surrounded us, and I schooled my features, pulling the mask over my face that I was so used to now.
“Fuck!” Jace screamed. “Please, Hut, I swear, it wasn’t me!”
Hut ignored him, stopping in front of Ford and me. “Glad you two could make it just in time.”
Neither of us said anything, but we all moved to stare at the door as it opened. Quinn barged in, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. “I found it,” he announced, not once looking over at Ted who had now taken to throwing his fists at Jace’s chest.
“Good.” Hut nodded and waved his hand at Ford and me, signaling for Quinn to join us at the back wall. He held his hand out to him, and Quinn placed a device in his palm. Hut strolled over to the other side of the room, staring down at it. A muscle in his jaw ticked, the longer he watched, the angrier he seemed to get.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked out of the side of my mouth, not really sure who I was asking.
Ted threw one more punch at Jace. “You fuckin' snake!” Jace screamed. Ted moved closer, his arms so tense they resembled boulders. But he didn’t say a word, he just kept on throwing punches at Jace, his knuckles ripping open from the force.
“Ford,” Hut called. “Draw.”
I frowned, turning to look at Ford as he pulled his gun from his waistband. His eyes met mine, doubt in their depths. He didn’t want to do this, he didn’t want to be here, but he didn’t have a choice. Not right then, anyway.
“There’s pressure being at the top,” Hut said, leaning against the wall, his
gaze flitting over all of us. “I have to trust those beneath me, which means I keep my circle small.” He shrugged, looking like he was talking about the weather. “But it also means that I have to keep secrets like, I don’t know, say cameras in places you’d never think of.”
My blood ran cold, my hands clenched at my sides. Was he telling us he was watching all of us? I’d been careful, too fucking careful, but not when it came to Lola. She’d unlocked a piece of me, and I had no control over what happened when she was around.
“So, when one of your men comes to you and tells you he knows who’s skimming, you want to believe what he’s saying, right?” No one answered him, because we all knew he wasn’t talking to us but at us. “Especially when that person is in your inner circle.”
Ted’s fist faltered, his chest heaving, and he backed away. His eyes widened, and I could sense rather than see when his fight-or-flight instinct set in. He was backing away, and it all became clear what was happening.
“You should have known better,” Hut sneered at Ted. “Not only did you lie to me, but you tried to get Jace to take the fall. Bad move, bro. Bad fuckin’ move.” Hut glanced at Ford and clipped his head in a nod. “End him.”
I wanted to shout for Ford not to pull the trigger, I wanted to tell him he had a way out, that he should refuse, but the bang rang out before I could get a single word out.
Ted’s eyes widened, a single bullet wound sitting in the middle of his forehead. It was as if his body took a couple of seconds to register what had happened, and then he went down, hard.
The silence surrounded us, suffocating all the air out of the room, but I kept my back to the wall, my mask in place, and my eyes on Hut.
“Let this be a warning to you all. You cross me, and I end you.” I was desperate to correct him. He hadn’t ended Ted. He’d had Ford do it. Maybe it was so nothing came back on him, but I had a sneaky suspicion that it was because he couldn’t stomach it himself. “Quinn, clean this shit up. Ford, Brody, you’re with me. We have a body to show our good friend Carson.”
BRODY
Hut strode out of Carson’s club like a goddamn peacock, all he was missing were the feathers. My blood pumped through my body at an alarming rate, my pulse going haywire. He was fuckin' happy with making one of his men take someone else’s life, and he didn’t blink twice as he made Ford and me present Ted to Carson like a fuckin' trophy.
“Take me home, Ford. I need to clean up before I pay someone a visit.” His brows wagged up and down, and I swear to god, I wanted to rip his face clean off. “Oh! Before I do.” He halted next to the passenger door and stared at me. “Have you been fuckin' my sister?”
My head reeled back, my mouth opening and closing like a goddamn fish. I’d known he would ask me at some stage, but right here? Right now? “No,” I ground out. “I know the rules.”
His eyes focused on me, he was silent for way too long, and then he clipped out, “Good.”
I didn’t say a word as they got into the SUV, a dark cloud hanging over Ford. The thought of being in a confined space with Hut made me want to knock myself out. Surely that couldn’t have been the extent of him asking me about Lola, or maybe it was another one of his stupid tests? I acted on autopilot, moving to my car, and starting it up when my cell pinged.
Jord: Need you back at the house.
I blew out a breath and leaned back in my seat. I wanted to see Lola before I entertained what had happened, but I couldn’t let her see this side of me. I had to keep it locked away. She had enough shit going on without needing to witness mine too.
Darkness was enveloping me from all sides, and I didn’t know what I could do to stop it, so I pulled out of the lot and headed to the house. I reasoned that Hut would be heading back to their house right now and I wouldn’t be able to talk to Lola, not if we wanted to keep the pretense with Hut up. Plus, I had to tell the guys what had happened.
My fist connected with the steering wheel over and over again, my knuckles turning bright red from the force, but I couldn’t feel a thing. That was what scared me the most: I’d lost the compassion. I’d lost the care to want to do anything the right way—the legal way.
No, that wasn’t right. I did care. I cared about getting Lola out of that house and making sure Hut couldn’t get to her. Things had changed. Hut had shown me a side to him I hadn’t witnessed before. Not only was he watching us, but he now had a hold over Ford, no matter what the guys did to turn him. Sure, he was giving them information, but what was that really if not a few words?
I pulled up outside the house, scanning the area like usual, and then heading inside. I halted just inside the door, all the air being sucker punched out of me.
“Sir?” I stumbled forward, my palms running down the side of my thighs. The dried blood stained my skin like a beacon shining from a lighthouse. There was no way they’d not see it.
“Brody.” Aaron, my supervisor, nodded as he stood on one side of the table with the guys on the other side. “Come and take a seat.” I didn’t like his tone or the way he stared at me with his assessing blue eyes. They narrowed the closer I got, wrinkles appearing at the edge, and he ran his hand over his face. “Please tell me that blood is not yours.”
“It’s not,” I croaked out. “It’s Ted’s.”
“Fuck.” Aaron slammed his hand down on the table. “What the hell happened between this morning and now?”
I slid down into one of the open seats, not really taking anything in. It wasn’t that I hadn’t witnessed a dead body before. I’d just never been in such close quarters as I watched a life drain from someone.
I tried to fill them in the best I could, but I knew I was missing out vital details and backtracked, trying to make sense of it myself. My body was drained, my brain tired, and they could all see it clearly.
“Jord, get officers down to the crime scene,” Aaron barked out. “This just makes it all the more easier.” I frowned up at him. “You’re out.”
“What?” I choked on the single word, standing up, and finally feeling a little like myself again. “You can’t take me off the case.”
“I can, and I have.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I’m too close.” I placed my palms on the table, leaning forward and growling, “We’re too close.”
“I know,” Aaron said. “That was apparent after your search this morning.”
I hung my head. “Shit.”
“What?” Jord asked. “What search?”
“You wanna tell them, Brody, or should I?” I hated the way he said my name with authority. It was a reminder of who I was outside of this case, a reminder that was getting closer and closer to being revealed.
“I was looking for a safe house.”
“A safe house?” Kyle frowned and looked between our supervisor and me. “For who?”
“Lola,” I breathed her name out, the syllables giving me renewed energy. “She wants—no, needs—out. We can help.” I ground my teeth together. “We’re meant to be the good guys, yet we’re willing to use her to take down—”
“That’s a lie,” Ryan barked out. “You’re fucking her. That’s why you want her away before she finds out exactly who you are.”
I puffed out my chest, getting sick and tired of his bullshit. “Watch your mouth.” I pointed at him to stop myself from diving across the table to grab him. “I won’t warn you again.”
“Or what?” Ryan asked, stepping closer to me, and that was all I needed.
“I’ll fuckin' end you, you bastard!” I pushed forward, my body vibrating with anger. Jord’s arms wrapped around me from behind, stopping my forward motion, and Kyle grabbed Ryan. “You have no idea what she’s going through. No idea the shit she has to deal with!”
“Enough!” Aaron roared. “This is just another reason why you need out.”
I stopped trying to get out of Jord’s hold at his words and pulled in a breath, but it did little to calm me. “You know if you pull me out, we won’t get another man inside, no
t for a long time.” I stared at Aaron, hoping what I was saying was enough to persuade him. His eyes narrowed, and I had a feeling he was thinking about why we wanted to take Hut down, the personal connection he had. “You know this is our only chance.”
He placed his hands on his hips, blowing out a tired breath. He stayed silent for what seemed like minutes, and finally said, “I think you’re right.” He pointed at me and stepped forward. “But after what you did today...” He shook his head. “Go home for a week, remember who you are and what your goal is: to take this motherfucker down.”
I opened my mouth, about to refuse to go, but Jord murmured, “Take what he’s saying. He could pull you off altogether.” I understood what he was saying, so I nodded, thankful when he let me go.
Aaron stayed for a couple of minutes, catching up with each of the guys, but he didn’t say another thing to me, just squeezed my shoulder and nodded. He’d want me in his office tomorrow morning, that went without question.
“You fucked up,” Jord said when Kyle and Ryan had left the house, and I couldn’t say anything to him because he was right. “Is she really worth it?”
“I…” I scrubbed my hand over my face. “Yeah, she is.”
“You need to be sure about that, Brody, because this will—”
“I know what will happen.” I met his intense stare, reading the silence like a letter. “I know exactly what will happen but”—I rubbed my chest at the ache leaving her caused—“I’ve never felt like this. It’s more than wanting her. Fuck, Jord, I need her. I need her like I need my next breath.”
Jord was quiet for so long I wasn’t even sure he was still listening, and then he cursed. “Well, shit.”
“Yeah…I gotta get her out of there. Hut beat the shit out of her last night because he thought he found out, and then Ted… Shit, I have no idea what he’ll do to her next time.”
Jord looked around the house, finally halting his gaze on his computer. “I need to show you something.” I raised a brow and stared at him as he opened up the bottom drawer to the unit under the desk. He pulled out a manila folder and looked back at me. “After the last time we talked about you flipping her, I had a feeling that you wouldn’t.” He held the folder out to me, and I took it. “We’d investigated her at the beginning, but since you’ve been under, we haven’t—”
Fallen Duet: Brody & Lola: Free Fall & Down Fall (Easton Family Duet Boxsets Book 1) Page 19