Wren Delacroix Series Box Set

by V. J. Chambers

  Wren didn’t have a phone anymore. It had been taken by the Freemans. He’d gotten his phone back when he left to call for help, but he couldn’t even call her.

  So, there was nothing to do but go and find her.

  He could have sent someone else to talk to Wren, he supposed, but he felt like he should be the one to do it.

  He had an Uber pick him up from the hospital and take him to Wren’s place.

  She opened the door when he knocked. “Reilly, geez, why aren’t you in the hospital?”

  “I’m fine,” he said. “I signed myself out.”

  “You were stabbed a lot and your nose… is your nose broken?”

  He gingerly fingered the bandage. “They set it. It’s fine. Anyway, what about your nose?”

  “Not broken. Bled a lot, hurt like a bitch, but fine now.” She opened the door wider. “Well, come in. You’re crazy, and you should go back to the hospital, but if you’re insisting on being stupid, you better come in.”

  He did.

  She shut the door behind them, gesturing to her couch. “Sit.”

  He sat.

  She came and sat down opposite him on an easy chair. “Did they tell you anything?”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “When they got to the house, was he there?”

  “Hawk?” said Reilly. “Yes, he was. He was out of it, barely coming to, and they didn’t have any trouble subduing him. He’s in custody for shooting Karen in the head. The rest of it, we don’t know if we have a case yet.”

  “You mean, he’s not being charged with the other murders?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Does that mean you didn’t find any evidence out there? No trophies, nothing like that?”

  “Nothing,” said Reilly. “We need to get back to the office, regroup, see what we can put together. But it might not matter. We both watched him shoot that woman in the head. That’s murder, and it’s ironclad. Maybe it’s enough.”

  “But Major,” she said. “If he’s innocent…”

  “Yeah,” said Reilly. “Well, we’ll work on it.”

  “Was he…?” She shook her head.

  Reilly waited.

  She never finished the sentence.

  “How are you?” he said. “This has to be a lot for you.”

  “I’m not great,” she said wryly.

  “Yeah,” he murmured.

  They were quiet for several long moments.

  “The girls? Jessica and Natalie?”

  “They’re with Child Protective Services,” said Reilly. “I don’t know more than that, unfortunately.”

  “Terrence? What about him? Did they find him?”

  “He’s dead,” said Reilly. “He bled out in the woods.”

  “So, the girls are orphans.”

  “Yeah, they are.”

  “Those poor girls. They’re all alone.”

  “They’re free from their crazy parents who were probably feeding them human flesh,” said Reilly.

  “That’s true,” said Wren. “But it’s all they’ve ever known. Do you think they’d let me see them?”

  “I can’t see why not.”

  “I don’t know if I’d be any help or not,” said Wren, “but I feel like… I can’t stop thinking about them. I’m worried about them.”

  “You should go and see them, then,” said Reilly. “You should definitely do that.”

  “I think I will.” She gave him a wan smile. And then it faded. “The other officers. Anderson? Miller? Did either of them make it?”

  Reilly shook his head. “Unfortunately, no.”

  “Hell,” said Wren.

  “There are going to be memorial services,” said Reilly. “We’ll go.”

  “Of course,” said Wren. “We owe them that. They were working for the task force when this happened. We put them in danger.”

  “We did.” Reilly studied his knuckles.

  “In some ways, their deaths are on us,” she said softly. “In some ways, it’s like we killed them.”

  “We didn’t,” said Reilly. He raised his gaze to hers. “But I did kill Terrence. I stabbed him, and he bled out, and if it weren’t for that, he’d be alive. I killed a man.”

  Her lips parted and she gazed at him.

  Reilly couldn’t keep eye contact. He looked back at his knuckles. “I had to. He was trying to kill me.”

  “You did. You absolutely had to. You shouldn’t feel…”

  “Guilty?” said Reilly, looking back up at her.

  “No,” she said.

  “Did you feel guilty after you shot Kyler Morris?”

  Now she was the one who wouldn’t look at him. “Why are you asking me that?”

  “I, uh, I don’t,” said Reilly. “Feel guilty.”

  She looked up. “No?”

  “No,” said Reilly. “He… when I was doing it, it wasn’t like he was a human being, it was like… like he was a monster. Or an animal. We were both animals. I was the prey, and he was hunting me, and it was…” He raised his shoulders and dropped them. “What I feel, mostly, is terrified. Still. Afraid that he’s out there in the shadows somewhere, waiting for me. Afraid that I didn’t kill him after all. It’s kind of…” He sucked in a breath. “I’ve never felt afraid like this.”

  She got up from her chair and went and sat next to him on the couch. They didn’t touch.

  He looked away. “Listen to me, going on about this when you’re dealing with all of the fallout from Hawk. I shouldn’t—”

  “You’ve been through hell, too, Reilly.” She put her hand on his shoulder.

  He turned to face her. “Yeah, but how are you?”

  She laughed a little. “Peachy.”

  He leaned his head back on her couch.

  They were quiet.

  “I can’t believe you signed yourself out of the hospital.”

  “They told me it was fine as long as I had someone to watch me,” he said.

  “But you don’t!” She sat up straight, turning sideways on the couch to face him. “You have to stay here. I’ll take the couch, and you can sleep in my bed. Unless that’s weird. I mean, if you’d rather the couch—” She broke off. “I guess you’d actually go to Maliah’s, right?”

  “Uh…” He dragged a hand over the top of his head. He didn’t know what the hell was going on with him and Maliah, and he was pretty sure a night on Wren Delacroix’s couch wasn’t going to earn him any points with his girlfriend. Was Maliah his girlfriend?

  “I can drive you to her place,” said Wren. “You didn’t come in your car, and you shouldn’t be driving anyway.”

  He patted the couch. “This thing seems pretty comfy.”

  Wren gave him a crooked smile. “Yeah? You want to stay?”

  “Sure.”

  “Good,” she said. “I’d rather not be alone. Also, if Terrence Freeman is a zombie and comes to the door, scratching to get in, I can protect you.”

  “Really?” He shook his head at her. “I confide in you, and you mock me?”

  She winked at him. “It’s our dynamic, Reilly. I can’t help it.”

  “I see how it is.” He picked up one of the cushions on the couch and hurled it at her.

  She ducked, squealing.

  * * *

  Wren opened the door to headquarters for Reilly.

  He walked in, glowering at her. “You know, I’m not an invalid.”

  “No, but how many times were you stabbed again? Like five times?”

  He stalked down the hallway. “You could have taken me to my car. I could have driven.”

  “Relax, I’ll drive you to your place after work,” said Wren. “It’s really not that big of a deal.”

  He turned and pointed at her. “If I can’t drive, then I’m probably not in any shape to be at work, am I?”

  Wren spread her hands. “It was your idea to come in. You said, ‘Let’s get coffee,’ and then while we were at the coffee shop, you said we might as well check in at headquarte
rs, and so here we are.” She lifted her caramel double-shot latte to her lips and took a sip.

  “Yeah, well, I want my car.”

  “Is it because you feel emasculated without it?” said Wren. “Without the car, you’re missing something, like, I don’t know, your penis?”

  Reilly guffawed, spewing coffee all over his shirt, which was still the hoodie he’d purchased at the hospital gift shop. He wiped at the back of his mouth. “Okay, that was uncalled for. When have I ever—”

  The door to Maliah’s office opened.

  Wren saw Reilly’s eyes widen and he stopped speaking.

  “Oh, don’t let me interrupt your banter,” said Maliah dryly. “What were you talking about? Cai’s dick?”

  Wren glanced back and forth between the two of them. “Okay, well, I think I’ll just be going down to my office now.” She gestured, plastering a big smile on her face.

  “Wait, Delacroix,” said Maliah, and she suddenly sounded chagrined.

  Wren raised her eyebrows at the other woman.

  “I heard about Hawk. About… everything,” said Maliah. “I’m really sorry. I can’t imagine how you must be feeling right now.”

  Wren felt a lump rising in her throat. Her face twisted. She looked down at her coffee cup.

  Now the silence was deafening.

  Wren struggled to get herself under control. “I, uh, I really do have… things… in my office.” She turned and fled.

  * * *

  Reilly gazed at Maliah.

  She sighed, staring after Wren. “Shit, that was the wrong thing to say, too.” She eyed Reilly. “I suppose you know just how to comfort her.”

  “Hey, Maliah, this isn’t what it looks like,” said Reilly.

  “You haven’t been home,” said Maliah. “You don’t have your car. You’re wearing…” She looked him over. “What are you wearing?”

  “Wren took my pants while I was sleeping and washed them,” said Reilly. “So, they’re clean.”

  Maliah raised her eyebrows.

  “I mean, she didn’t take them off me,” said Reilly. “They were already off.”

  Maliah raised her eyebrows higher.

  “I took them off and folded them. And set them next to the couch. Where I slept.”

  Maliah crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Look, nothing happened. I went there because I needed to fill her in. And then, it was late, and they told me at the hospital it would be better if I wasn’t alone, in case something happened.”

  “Yeah, I went looking for you at the hospital,” said Maliah. “You didn’t even call me to tell me that you left.”

  Reilly rubbed his forehead.

  “I don’t think this is going to work, Cai,” Maliah said softly.

  His gaze snapped up to meet hers. “Look, Maliah, it isn’t like you’re thinking.”

  “I know,” she said. “Delacroix’s a piece of work, but she’s not ready to hop under the sheets with you, not after everything she’s been through. I can tell that.”

  “Okay, good,” he said. “There’s nothing between her and me.”

  “It’s platonic, right?”

  “Right.”

  She nodded. “I believe you.”

  “Okay, then… So?”

  “We don’t work,” she said.

  “We haven’t even really tried,” he said. “And besides there are…” He lowered his voice. “Things that work very well between us.”

  She smiled a little, but it was a sad smile. “You’re right. We have that, Cai, and it’s good, but it’s all we have. We have nothing in common. We have nothing to talk about. We’re not in love with each other. We were running away from things, and we ran into each other’s arms. We were never running towards each other.”

  He opened his mouth to disagree, but he didn’t say anything, because she was right. They really didn’t have anything in common besides work.

  “We work together,” she said. “I don’t want it to be awkward with us. I feel like… if we kept trying at this, we’d get more entangled, and it would be even more painful when everything broke up. Better to end it now. Better to move on.”

  His jaw worked.

  “Cai?”

  He sighed. “Maybe you’re right,” he told the carpet.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Someone was rapping on the door to Wren’s office. She swiped at her eyes, rubbing the heels of her hands over her tears. Taking a deep breath, she got up and opened the door.

  It was Reilly. He saw her, and creased his brow. “Hey, are you—”

  “Fine,” she said brusquely. “I’m fine. What about you? You in deep shit? You want me to talk to Maliah, explain that—”

  “She just dumped me,” said Reilly.

  “Oh, hell!” Wren put her hands on her hips. “That’s not even cool. I am going to talk to her and tell her that I have no interest in—”

  “It’s probably a good thing,” said Reilly. “I think I was only pursuing that relationship to make myself feel better.”

  “What?”

  “You know, if it was real between Maliah and me, like if we were in love, then it was less horrible what I did to Janessa.”

  “Oh,” said Wren.

  “But it wasn’t real,” said Reilly. “It never was.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Wren.

  “No, it’s cool,” said Reilly. “I’m fine. I came down here, because I assume we have work to do.”

  “Right,” she said. “Evidence. We need evidence from Hawk. Or a confession? Maybe a confession? I mean, he confessed to me in the house out there, and I saw him trying to hurt those girls. But something formal and signed, that would be better.”

  “Are you ready to go and see him? To talk to him?”

  She hesitated.

  “Let’s table that idea for now,” said Reilly. “Like I said, we’ve got him for Karen Freeman’s murder. He’s not going anywhere. We have time to build a case against him.”

  “But what about Major?” said Wren. “If he’s innocent, we need to get him out. And he might be able to help us build the case against Hawk. I think I could handle going and talking to him right now.”

  “Okay,” said Reilly. “But if we do that, you’re taking me back to my place first. I definitely need a change of clothes.”

  * * *

  The superintendent of the Eastern Regional Jail and Correctional Facility cleared his throat. “Listen, this is all highly irregular.”

  Reilly straightened his tie. “You bet it is. We’ve been here lots of times to talk to inmates in custody, and we’ve never had to go through the warden.”

  “Superintendent,” said the superintendent. “That’s my title. I thought it best that I talk directly to you about this. You see, we can’t honor your request to talk to Major Hill, because Mr. Hill is, unfortunately, deceased.”

  Wren’s lips parted. What?

  Reilly glanced at her and then back at the superintendent. “What are you talking about? We were here with him days ago. He was fine then. What happened? How can he be dead?”

  “Hung himself,” said the superintendent. “He used sheets from his bed. It happened last night.”

  Wren’s voice came out scratchy. “Did he have any contact with Hawk Marner?”

  “Marner?” said the superintendent. “He was just brought in. Hill, on the other hand, has been here for quite some time. I can’t see any reason why they would have interacted with each other. It would go against proper procedure.”

  “Hawk found a way,” Reilly said flatly.

  “Hawk talked Major into it,” said Wren. “He can do that, you said. You saw him do that.”

  “But why?” said Reilly. Now, they were talking to each other, ignoring the superintendent. “Why would Hawk want Major dead? They were friends.”

  “Major knew things about the murders,” said Wren. “Without him, it weakens our ability to form a case against him.”

  “What does he care? We have him for murde
r. You and I both watched him shoot Karen Freeman in the head. He’s going to be locked up for life regardless. You don’t think he thinks he can wriggle out of this?”

  Wren spread her hands. “People sometimes get out on parole on a single murder charge. It happens.”

  “Bastard,” said Reilly. “That…” He looked at Wren. Touched the bandage on his face. “Sorry. I shouldn’t call him that.”

  “It’s fine,” said Wren. “You’re not wrong.”

  “This isn’t going to stop us,” said Reilly. “We’ll find the evidence we need to tie it to him. Besides, you said he confessed to you out there. So, you’re a witness.”

  “Yeah,” said Wren. “And I’m not the least bit biased.”

  Reilly sighed.

  The superintendent spoke up. “I really am very sorry about this. It’s not often that inmates find ways to harm themselves here. It really is a safe facility.”

  “We don’t blame you,” said Reilly. “We’ll see ourselves out.”

  They left the jail and went out to the parking lot, where they got into Wren’s car. She insisted on driving until Reilly was fully recovered. He agreed, but only—he said—because he didn’t want her to make more comments about his masculinity if he argued with her.

  Reilly sat down in the passenger seat and yanked the seatbelt on. “Is it, uh, is it too soon to ask you about why Hawk did all of this?”

  She looked at him, considering. Then she turned away. “Yeah. A little too soon.”

  * * *

  Natalie was sitting on a park bench, clutching a stuffed teddy bear. Her sister Jessica was on her feet, gazing longingly at the swing set, but it was clear she wasn’t going anywhere without her sister.

  The girls might have been too old for playgrounds. Maybe other girls their age would rather play with apps on their phones and experiment with makeup, but Natalie and Jessica were making up for lost time. They’d never seen playgrounds before coming out of the woods. They were enamored with swings and slides, or so Wren had been told by their new foster mother, a woman named Lori.

  Lori seemed like a nice enough woman, and she had agreed for Wren to take the girls on an outing. The girls were apparently excited at the prospect, considering Wren was someone vaguely familiar in this new world they inhabited. When she’d shown up at the door, they had both smiled at her, big smiles, and taken her to their bedroom to show her all their new clothes and their stuffed animals and toys.