Cancer

by WL Knightly

  Bay gripped the back of his neck. “I don’t know anything anymore. This is all going to shit!”

  “Right now, we need to keep focused. Where would Mia go?” Darek needed to keep him on point.

  Bay looked exhausted. “I don’t fucking know. She has a few girlfriends, but she’s never just not come home.”

  “Okay, so call them,” said Darek. “With all of the family drama, I’m sure she just went to her friend’s house to clear her mind.”

  “I don’t have a goddamned Rolodex on her friends. The only person she’s been talking to lately is that asshole in the other room.” Bay jabbed his finger in that direction, and Darek thought he might not ever be able to leave the two alone in the same room again. Knowing what else Bay was capable of, he had to worry for Max’s safety, and he hoped his friend wasn’t helping Mia run away or anything else stupid.

  “Let me talk to Max, and I’ll get a full statement. I’ll have to wait a few more hours to put out an alert, but as soon as we’re able, if she doesn’t turn up, we’ll get it rolling. We’re going to do everything we can, okay?”

  “Fine! I’ll be in touch.” He got up and was about to storm out when Darek called for Darius to show him out.

  “Don’t go near Max, Bay. Do you understand?”

  “Yeah, I hear you, friend. Loud and clear. Find my girl.” He turned and pushed past Darius on his way out.

  Darek took a deep breath and couldn’t help but think this was the last fucking thing he needed. He stormed down the hall to his office where Max sat at his desk while Lizzy leaned over chatting something in his ear. They both looked up when they heard his footsteps, and Lizzy backed away.

  “Do you have any idea where Mia is?” asked Darek.

  “No, I wasn’t lying. We banged, I left, and she had told me she was going home. I don’t know anything else, man. But if you want my opinion, how do we know the Slayer didn’t have anything to do with her disappearance?”

  Darek knew Bay better than both of them put together, but that was a fact he didn’t want to share. “Bay isn’t capable. He’s my attorney; I’d know if he was.”

  “Well, Mia said she’d been trained to take it rough, among a few other things a girl her age shouldn’t know.”

  “Before you start throwing her age around, remember where you’ve been putting your dick. It’s no different. You’re what, one year younger than Bay Collins?”

  “He’s a married man, has a kid on the way. Mia said he sent her sister away and she came back and slapped her face. She had a black eye. I grilled her about it. She swears that it wasn’t him.”

  “What else has she said?” Darek didn’t need Mia talking to Max or telling him all of their secrets.

  “Nothing. We mostly fucked. Bay was right about that better thing to do with her mouth stuff.”

  Lizzy rolled her eyes. “You shouldn’t be messing around with those young ones. They’ll get you into trouble.”

  “Yeah, well, maybe you should have warned me sooner.”

  “Did you know he was messing around with the girl?” Darek wondered how chummy they’d gotten and if he’d told her about them.

  Lizzy answered the question before he asked it. “He told me he was seeing a hot, young thing, but I didn’t realize how young or I’d have discouraged it.”

  “Hey, call it a mid-life crisis if you want, but she was just what my ego and my cock needed.”

  “You’re a pig,” said Lizzy. “I should have had Darek let Collins take a swing. Maybe I should call him back in, that shoulder of his might need a little therapy.”

  “He will if he comes back near me, and that’s a promise.” He gave Darek a warning look. “You better tell your pal Casper that next time he barges in here threatening me, I’m going to mop the floor with him.”

  “I’m staying out of it. I told him not to come back, and I’ll tell you the same. Don’t go after him.” He turned and looked at Lizzy, wondering what she thought of it all. “We have to see if we can find her. I told Bay we’d do all we can. Start the clock and let’s alert the boys to keep an eye out. Max, you better get your statement in writing in case this ends badly.”

  “Do you think something might have happened to her?” asked Lizzy. “She’s probably at a friend’s house.”

  “I’m not sure, but better safe than sorry. I have a bad feeling about this one.” He had been waiting for the other shoe to drop. He hoped he was wrong.

  Chapter 23

  Darek

  As soon as he and Lizzy were done talking to Max, recording his statement, and making sure that everyone was looking for Mia, Max left for the day.

  Lizzy walked over to her desk. “I had a call from New Orleans Police while you were talking with your friend.”

  Darek felt a rush of excitement. “Did they have any news?”

  “Yes, they took a man into custody. He was the driver. They just picked him up and said if you call in the morning, they’ll have a statement ready.”

  Darek breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness something good came out of this fucking day. I knew Max was playing with fire, but I had no idea it was all about to implode like that.”

  “You knew he was with Bay’s sister-in-law, or you knew that Bay was fucking her too?” Lizzy gave him a sideward look.

  “Both, but hey, it’s not my place to judge any of them.”

  Lizzy shook her head. “I feel bad for his wife.” She turned back to her desk, and her phone rang. She took it out of her bag and answered it. “Hey, Sam, how’s it going?”

  Darek tried to act uninterested as he listened.

  “Okay, we’ll head right over.” She ended her call. “What a way to end the day. Is it a full moon or something? The DA wants us to go talk to Ken Sin. He needs us to make him break, one way or another. He doesn’t care which, but he’s sick of the man already.”

  “That makes two of us,” said Darek.

  “No, try, three. The guy creeps me out and pisses me off. But he’s making DA White look bad.” Lizzy grabbed her bag and downed the last of her coffee that was probably cold and nasty. Then they headed out to see Sin, who Darek hoped wouldn’t be expecting them.

  He followed Lizzy to the Rover so they could make the trip across town where Sin was being held. “I could have driven,” he said.

  “I know, but I like my car better.”

  Darek smiled. He knew she liked her driving better too. “Hey, I won’t argue. I’m just glad we’re back to riding in the same car.”

  She smiled at him. “Me too. So, do you want to play good cop or bad cop?”

  “I think to get him to break, we’re both going to have to be bad.”

  “So, do we push him to confess that the reversal was bullshit and he’s responsible for instigating the murders of all of those people and in the process draw this investigation out until it ruins our careers? Or do we make him confess the videotape was an alibi that he had waiting in the wings in case he ever needed it?”

  “I say the ace in the hole is our best bet. Fewer casualties on our end. He’s got to take the fall for this. I mean, come on, he knew enough. As much as I love working with you, I don’t want to string this out forever, and you’re right. His shit is going to make us both look bad. Besides, this is just the kind of move one of these psychopaths would play.”

  “You think so?” asked Lizzy as she drove out toward the prison.

  “Yeah, I think he’s a sick, stupid fuck that’s wasting everyone’s time. We might as well make him worth it.” He wondered for a moment if he was going to get a fight out of Lizzy when she didn’t respond right away.

  “I agree,” she finally said. “And if we get through this, we can make a play for your promotion, and then we won’t have to worry about hiding anything from Reed.”

  Darek reached for her hand. “He’s still not going to like us being together.”

  She laughed and squeezed his hand in return. “No, he’s probably not. But I won’t be your partner on the case,
so he can’t say much.”

  “Are you sure this is what you want? I mean, have you thought it out?” He wanted her to be certain that’s what she wanted.

  “Have you?” She turned her head and met his eyes for a moment before looking back at the road ahead. “I need to be sure you’re really in this time, Darek. I know things moved too fast before, but I think that’s your style, and I know what I want. I just don’t want to be a rebound from a rebound.”

  The words struck him funny. “You sound like Max. He said something similar to me.”

  Her eyes shifted quickly to him and back to the road. “He might have said something to me about us. Was curious.”

  Darek noticed she suddenly couldn’t look him in the eye. “You two have gotten really chummy. Did something happen between you two that I should know about?”

  She didn’t answer right away.

  “Lizzy?”

  She gave him an apologetic look, and his temper flared, seeing the guilt on her face.

  “Jesus, Lizzy. My best friend?”

  “It wasn’t like that. We went to dinner; we talked after, made out a little.”

  “You kissed Max? So, did it stop there?” The guilty look on her face gave her away, and he wished he hadn’t held Bay off of him. Darek punched the dash.

  She shook her head and slowed the car to turn into the prison lot. “You fucked some girl at a sex club and moved her in with you.”

  “Clearly, we were both out of our heads. But at least I was honest.” Darek wasn’t sure he could do this dance again.

  “After I caught you,” she snapped. “And you’re right, we both fucked things up. So, you know the truth, Darek. Are you in, or are you out?” She stopped at the gate and got the all clear to drive back through the sally port to the area where the guards parked.

  Darek kept quiet, stewing inside and knowing he would never trust Max again. The asshole could have told him any fucking time, but instead blew it off when confronted.

  He and Lizzy were approached by one of the guards who had been expecting them, and Darek was pissed that they couldn’t talk about it too much.

  “We’ll talk about that later,” whispered Lizzy, the quiet voice did nothing to stop her words from carrying down the halls.

  “Let’s just do this. At least we agree where we’re at with the case.”

  The guard led them to another area, and after some traveling through hallways and climbing some stairs, they were in a room with a wide table and three chairs. They sat down beside one another and Lizzy sighed. “It was nothing, okay? We weren’t together.”

  Darek frowned and turned his head to meet her eyes. “That doesn’t make it any better.”

  The door opened across the room, and Ken Sin walked in with his hands cuffed in front of him, sporting a big black eye and a much different disposition than he’d had before. He sat and stared down at the table, looking like a beaten dog.

  “District Attorney White wanted us to talk to you. Hoped you’d shed some light on this case and tell us the truth.”

  Ken Sin looked weary, a pale comparison to how he was before prison life had done a number on him. “I did tell the truth. You saw the video. I had my girl send them to you.”

  “You mean that premade alibi?” asked Darek. “Yeah, we saw that. It was a good effort, but come on, you know you’re the man in charge. Ophi, the space God. Whatever the fuck you want to call yourself, it doesn’t matter shit to us.” Darek didn’t care that his anger had gotten the better of him, and he had a feeling that Sin was about to get the brunt of it.

  “It was all an act, man. I didn’t do anything, so you have to let me out now.”

  “That’s the thing, Kenny. Even if what you did was create an elaborate scheme to try and make a name for yourself, you’ve still broken the law. You will still be tried and sent away. Besides, we know you have information that wasn’t released to the public.”

  The man shook his head wildly. “I took a wild guess. I don’t know dick!”

  Darek knew he had to get the asshole to stop squeaking out that tune. “You mean to tell me you really are that big of a dumbass?”

  Sin pegged him with a hard glare. “Fuck you. I can’t stay in here anymore! They’ll kill me. I don’t deserve to be in here with these murderers.”

  “You are responsible for the deaths of innocent people. Why should we show you any mercy?” Lizzy eased back in her chair, and as pissed off as Darek was, he couldn’t help but notice how sexy she was when she played it cool like that.

  Sin wasn’t as impressed. “Are you fucking deaf, lady? I didn’t do anything to anyone. I lied!”

  Darek stopped pacing long enough to give him a pointed look. “But we’re supposed to think that you’re telling the truth now, that you aren’t smart enough to pull off an intricate scheme to get yourself out when the place got to be too hard to handle. I mean, that was your plan, right? To be locked up, to show the world all about your power, your cause. Let them see what a great leader, a cool person you are, so they’d adore you and follow you?”

  Sin nodded. “Yes, that was the plan; that’s what I’m saying. I lied about the murder part.” He broke down, sobbing like a big baby, and Darek got up to pace the room.

  “How do we know that you didn’t concoct this story to get a lighter sentence and a safer block? You know you’re guilty. You confessed to unspeakable things with your followers.” Lizzy threw down the images of the victims, and Sin’s eyes lit up.

  “The public’s eating it up. I mean, sure, they think you’re a lunatic, but that’s what the world wants, right?” Darek stepped over and gave Lizzy a nudge before turning his back to pace some more.

  Lizzy nodded. “Yeah, that’s what they all want. A show to watch, someone to entertain them. With Manson dead, they’re looking for a new legend.”

  Sin sat up straight in his chair, his entire demeanor changing in an instant.

  Darek knew he had his ear. “Of course, maybe it’s like you said. You’re not some legendary cult killer or someone to be worshiped and adored, after all? Maybe you’re just some dumbass who thought he could play the system and got his ass beat? Someone who the world would laugh at. I don’t know. It’s a hard choice. Rockstar legendary killer, or Kenny, the laughing stock.”

  “He’s probably not even dangerous at all,” said Lizzy. She picked up her papers and straightened them on the desk, and as Darek turned around, still pacing feet away from them, Sin leapt across the table like a madman and slammed Lizzy’s head down on the table. He had her by the hair and wouldn’t let go, not even when Darek jumped on him seconds later.

  By the time Darek got him to let go of her, two guards rushed in and took Sin to the floor, knocking him unconscious. When Darek went to check on Lizzy, she pushed him away. “Don’t touch me!” she screamed. “Give me some space.”

  Her nose was bloody, and her lip was busted.

  Darek gave her the space she wanted, standing back against the wall. They had played on the man’s ego, and that was their biggest mistake. “I’ll tell White that we made him break.”

  “Yeah,” said Lizzy. “We really showed him.”

  Darek couldn’t take it anymore. He walked over to hold her in his arms. “I’ll take you down to the medic.”

  She looked up at him. “I’m sorry.”

  “You’ve got nothing to be sorry for.”

  “I meant for Max. It really didn’t mean anything.”

  “I know. I guess we all get caught in a vulnerable place now and then.”

  Lizzy pinched her nose as if hoping to stop the bleeding. “Yeah. I guess I just learned that the hard way.”

  Chapter 24

  Justin

  Justin watched as Brandy put the last bill back in its stack. Then she stepped back from the table, still naked from their second round which had taken place across the table right next to the cash.

  “Do you need to frisk me and make sure I didn’t take any?” She stepped into his arms as she br
ought her arms around him.

  He slipped his hand up her back and smiled. “You’re good, baby.” He turned and took his Glock from the cabinet and then found a loaded cartridge just in case his friends showed up again. He knew Jim’s style, and he wouldn’t let shit lie for too long.

  Brandy walked around the room, exploring a little, and opened up the narrow panel that led to the front room. Then she closed it. “That’s narrow.”

  “Yeah, it’s supposed to be discreet. I rarely use it.” From the other side, it wasn’t noticeable. It just looked like another piece of paneling, but it was obvious from the inside.

  He watched her from the corner of his eyes as she took a camo jacket and wrapped herself up in it. Then she walked over and picked up an empty magazine. He liked having her in his space and in his heart. “Do you really think I need a refresher?” she asked. “Didn’t I do good the last time you brought me to the range?”

  He had brought her a couple of times when he agreed to let her live behind the store. “You did a good job. I think we can skip any lessons until we’re properly dressed. Although I have to say, that camouflage looks damned good on you.” She had done well, but it had been a while. He still wasn’t sure she needed to be a part of the action.

  They shared a laugh, and he led her out of the safe room into his bedroom, leaving the secret panel open. He went to his dresser and grabbed a pair of shorts and pulled them on. Then, as she went to her room, he sat on his bed, placing his gun beside him as he checked his phone.

  He saw a message from Beth. You’re dead, asshole. He smiled and shook his head. Dumb bitch.

  Justin stared at the phone, thinking of Beth and Lolly’s timing. Things had worked out for the best that they were gone, but he wished they’d done it with less drama. He really hoped they’d stay away.

  “What’s that?” asked Brandy from the hall. She walked in and put the camo coat beside him.

  He looked up and found her in the doorway, wearing a pair of jeans and a tank top that showed off her gorgeous rack. “Nothing surprising. Just a warning from Beth. She’s not the smartest girl for giving me a heads up.”