“Bullshit,” he says and crosses his arms over his chest. “Try again.”
“I’m serious,” I reply. “Not to mention, things were moving really fast. Too fast. We want different things.”
“Still not buying it.”
“Do or don’t, it doesn’t change it. Ben isn’t the one for me.”
I pull a piece of paper out of my handbag and pass it to him, holding my finger over my lips so he doesn’t read it aloud.
I have this under control. Trust me. Please don’t interfere.
His eyes whip up to meet mine and he cocks his head to the side, scowling. I shake my head, keeping him from speaking.
“So, I think I’m going to take a day or two off of work and get my shit together. If you need me, text me, okay?”
“Okay.” He’s searching my face, worry written all over him. “Are you okay?”
“I’m actually doing just fine. I’m going to be great.”
That, at least, is true.
“Call me if you need me,” he says, and I can hear what he’s not saying. Call me when you can tell me what the fuck is going on.
“I will.” I give him a brief hug and walk to the front door. “Tell Callie I said I’ll see her soon.”
And with that, I shut the door behind me. I need my family to know that something is up with me, but I can’t tell them exactly what. Not yet. Not until I have this all figured out, and I know without a doubt that no one can hurt them. Declan is the one who can read me the best, and I can trust that he’ll wait for me to reach out to him. The others would push me aside and try to slay my dragons for me.
I don’t need that.
I toss my cell phone in my handbag, fully intending to ignore it for the next few days, and pull out a throw away phone that I bought this morning. I pull away from Dec’s house and keep an eye on my rear view.
Someone is following me. They followed me here from my house. I don’t know how much they can hear, or what they might have wire tapped, so I bought this disposable phone.
I dial the number that I haven’t had to call in almost two years, but one I’ll never forget.
“New Orleans Police Department, Lieutenant Jacobs’ office.”
“Hi, this is Savannah Boudreaux. I need to talk to Lieutenant Jacobs, please.”
“Savannah, we haven’t heard from you in a while,” Lieutenant Jacobs’ assistant says. “I’ll put you right through.”
“Thank you.”
The line is silent and then he’s on the line, his voice low and firm. “Savannah?”
“Hi. I need your help.”
“How quickly can you be here?”
“I’m headed there now. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
He ends the call and I take the long way to the precinct. I get on the freeway and speed up, weaving in and out of every lane to lose the tail. To my utter shock, it works, and I take the next exit, then double back to the police department. I park and hurry inside, straight to Lieutenant Jacobs’ office.
“It’s been a minute since I’ve seen you,” he says as he holds his door open for me. “No calls while I’m in this meeting.”
“Of course,” his assistant replies.
He closes the door behind us, and rather than sit behind his desk, he sits in the chair next to mine. He was always good at making me feel comfortable with him, and aside from my dad, there’s no one else I’d trust more to help me. Lieutenant Jacobs has to be nearing sixty. He has salt and pepper hair and brown eyes that have seen more than their share of horrible things.
“What’s going on?” he asks.
“A lot. You might want to record this.”
His eyes narrow, but he reaches for his phone, opens the app, and sets in on the desk in front of me. “Okay, we’re ready.”
I nod, take a deep breath, and spend the next hour telling him everything that’s happened over the past few weeks, beginning with Ben and I deciding to start seeing each other. I recount Ben being poisoned, the car accident, Ben getting beat up, and every other thing I can think of, including the accidental mix up in Ben’s mom’s medication.
Then I show him all of the photos.
He doesn’t say anything until I’m done with the story.
“Larry took you, against your will, to the prison?”
“Yes.”
He nods and then sits back and looks over at me with hard brown eyes.
Cop eyes.
“That mother fucker.” I blink rapidly, surprised. “I knew we should have had a restraining order against Larry as well.”
“That’s on me,” I reply. “I truly believed he was different. I didn’t realize that he and Lance were in cahoots.”
He blows out a gusty breath and asks me to go through it all again. It’s an exhausting afternoon.
“Can you help me?” I ask.
“Darlin’, not only will I help you, but we’re going to make sure that they can never try to hurt you ever again. I thought we accomplished that before, but we didn’t wrap it up tight enough. You have my sincere apology for that.”
“He’s evil,” I reply with a shrug. “No normal person would ever dream that he’d come up with half of what he’s done. Am I going to have to go back there? Wear a wire, or something?”
The thought of that alone makes me break out into a sweat.
“No.” He smiles kindly. “I would like for you to spend the next forty-eight hours doing what you’re doing. Play along while I get my team in place to take them down. There will be no mistakes made, no reason for a lawyer to come back with a hole in our investigation. These men are all going away for the rest of their lives. Can you do that?”
I cringe, but nod. “I’m hurting my family by lying to them, but I didn’t see another way. He threatened them, and I know him. He would follow through. So I thought that if it looks like I’m playing along, he wouldn’t hurt anyone before I could come to you.”
“That’s absolutely the best thing you could have done,” he replies. “I’m going to get working on this right now. I don’t want to call your cell phone if I have news.”
“I bought a disposable.” I rattle off the number for him.
“You’re a smart woman.”
“I’ve learned a lot in the past two years,” I reply with a sad grin. “I can protect myself.”
“Good. I’ll call you the second we have them in custody.”
I nod and stand to leave, then turn and give him a hug. “Thank you.”
“You’re going to be just fine.”
I nod and walk out, confident that Lieutenant Jacobs will take care of Larry, Lance, and whomever they’ve hired to help them take my family apart.
He made a big mistake in thinking that I’d roll over and take his shit.
***
“No one can reach you on your cell phone,” Beau says the next afternoon as he walks into my office. “I’ve received calls from Mom, Gabby, and Mallory today. Actually Mallory called three times.”
I do my best to keep my face neutral, hating myself for lying. “I must have forgot it at home. Sorry they’re bugging you.”
“Also, you’re acting weird.”
I frown and look around my office. “I’m working. How is that acting weird?”
“I don’t know.” He leans against my desk and taps his lips with his forefinger. “But when you ignore Mal, I get to hear about it. She thinks something’s up.”
“Well, this is one time that she’s wrong.”
“She’s wrong once in a while,” he concedes and then hurries to say, “but don’t tell her I said that.”
“Your secret is safe with me.”
I seem to be keeping a lot of secrets lately.
“Seriously, is everything okay? I heard about Ben.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t bully your way into my office to grill me about that.”
“I rarely bully,” he says. “And I thought you might need a little space.”
> “You’re right. I guess I’ve been processing a lot the past few days. That’s probably why I forgot my phone this morning. If you get any more calls, just tell them that I’ll call them back later.”
“Mama wants you to come over for dinner tonight.”
I sigh and push my fingers through my hair. That’s a no-go. I can’t lie to my mama.
“Do you mind telling her that I just don’t feel up to it?”
“Is there anything else I can do for you?” he asks sarcastically, making me smile. “Change the oil in your car? Order in take out? Pick up your dry cleaning?”
“Yes to all of that,” I reply with a sweet smile. “Thanks for being awesome.”
“Now you’re trying to soften me up for something,” he replies.
“You always assume the worst.”
“Of course I do,” he says. “I run a business.”
“We run a business.”
“Well, you help sometimes, but mostly we gave you this big office to make you feel important.”
I laugh now, a full out belly laugh and it feels fantastic. “Oh good, I can just stop reading all of these boring reports and instead have them all sent to you.”
“On second thought,” he says, “maybe you do work more than a little bit.”
“Maybe I do,” I agree. “I needed that laugh.”
“I know.” His face sobers now. “If you think that you’re fooling anyone, you’re wrong. We love you, and we can see that something isn’t right.”
“Beau—”
“Let me finish. When you decide to let us in, we’re here. All of us.”
“I know. But really, I’m fine.”
“You’re better than fine, Savannah. You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met.”
I simply sit back and stare at my brother in utter shock. “I won’t tell Mallory that either.”
“She knows,” he replies with a smile. “And she gets it. You are pretty great, and that’s why we all start to worry when it looks like something might be wrong. Because of all the people in the world, you deserve a break.”
“Beau, I love you. And I have everything under control.”
That, at least, isn’t a lie.
“Okay then, that’s all I needed to know.”
He kisses the top of my head and then walks out of my office, closing the door behind him.
Please call me, Lieutenant Jacobs. I need this shit show to end.
Chapter Eighteen
~Savannah~
Day two of the hostage situation, as I’ve come to think of it, was more exhausting than day one. I shouldn’t have gone in to work, and if it weren’t for the fact that I have to make things look as normal as possible, I wouldn’t have. It’s not like I’m getting much done. I stared at the same report for two days straight and never turned the page.
I finally left the office an hour early today and took a drive around the city. Driving calms me. I like to listen to music, or turn the radio off altogether and enjoy the silence.
Also, I’m ninety-eight percent sure that my car isn’t bugged, so I can relax a bit.
I’ve just turned down my street, toward my house, when the throw-away phone rings.
“Yes,” I say.
“It’s done,” Lieutenant Jacobs says on the other line. He’s the only one with this number, so there’s no question of who it is. “Larry is in custody, as are the two men they hired to survey you and your family.”
“We’re safe.”
“You are. I have more to tell you, but I have a ton of paperwork to get through here, three men to interrogate, and I need to go have a meeting at the prison.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome. Go live your life, Savannah.”
He ends the call as I pull into my driveway, right next to Eli’s car.
I frown and then shrug. It’s not unusual for Eli to drop in, although it’s not as common now that he has a wife and a baby.
I walk into the house and freeze at the scene before me.
Eli is sitting on the couch, and every single photo that Lance gave me is spread out before him on the coffee table. I laid them out last night, as a reminder to myself of why I had to be strong and trust that Lieutenant Jacobs would take care of things in the right way.
But I certainly didn’t intend for my brother to see them.
“Hello,” he finally says. I turn to close the door, but instead find Declan, Beau, and Ben walking up my steps. I whirl around to look at Eli and he just nods. “Yeah, I called them.”
“Great,” I mutter and walk into the room. I haven’t figured out how to explain this yet. I was taking it one minute at a time.
And now I have four angry men in my living room. Ben won’t even look me in the face, but he’s looking at the photos. They all are.
“Savannah,” Declan says, his voice full of pain as he looks over at me.
“How long?” Eli asks before I can say a word. “How long has this been going on?”
“First, I need to tell you that it’s over,” I reply and stand firmly, my hands on my hips. “As of about five minutes ago when Lieutenant Jacobs called me.”
“So you do answer your phone,” Beau mutters and holds the photo of Mallory closing her shop after dark.
“It was a throw-away phone. My cell was tapped.”
“What the fuck is going on, Savannah?” Eli demands, his voice deceptively quiet.
“Don’t you dare swear at me,” I reply. “Put the photos down. They don’t matter anymore.”
They do as I ask, and then they all just stare at me, except Ben, who still hasn’t said a word and won’t look at me.
I’ve lost him.
“It seems Lance didn’t take kindly to me moving on with someone else,” I begin. It takes me a while to tell the whole story again, as I don’t want to leave anything out. When I finish telling them about the call I received this afternoon, the room is quiet.
“You didn’t have to do this alone,” Declan says.
“You shouldn’t have done this alone,” Eli agrees. “Van, why did you keep this from us?”
“Because you would have tried to fix it.”
“Of course we would have,” Beau says. “That’s what family does, Van.”
“No.” I shake my head and sigh in frustration. “I spent the majority of my adult life living in fear because I thought I was protecting you. All of you. And damn it, I was protecting you now, but not out of fear. Not this time.
“I didn’t need you to fix this for me. I fixed it. I knew what to do. He scared me at first, I’m not going to lie. But nothing I did after I left the prison was out of fear. It was strategic, and it kept us all safe while the police did their jobs.”
“Jesus,” Beau whispers and pinches the bridge of his nose. “I want to throttle you and hug you, all at once.”
“Daddy said the same thing,” I reply and smile when they all look at me in shock. “I dream of him sometimes. He said that to me the other night.”
I swallow hard and then look them all in the eyes. Especially Ben. “I’m sorry for the worry and now the fear that I caused you. I love you all so much. I know that you feel like you need to protect me, and I wouldn’t have you any other way.
“But I’m a strong person. Stronger now than I ever was before, and I need you to trust in me. I need you to know that I would never do anything to betray you, or hurt you. And damn it, if there’s a threat against my family, I’ll do whatever it takes to protect them.
“He threatened to hurt you. To hurt the babies.” I let a tear fall. “I can’t have that, and I’ll be fucking damned if that evil piece of shit is ever going to think he can do that to me again. He underestimated me, and he lost.”
“You’re incredible,” Declan says and takes my hand in his, giving it a squeeze. “I also want to throttle you, but I get it. We all get it.”
Eli and Beau nod, and Ben has walked to the window. His hands are in his pockets, and he’s s
taring outside. He hasn’t said a word.
“I’m going to have to go through another trial, and it’s going to suck, but that’s okay.”
“And for that, we’ll be with you,” Eli insists and pulls me in for a strong hug. “No more lies, Van.”
“No more lies,” I agree. “I’m not good at it anyway.”
After a few more hugs, my brothers leave. Ben’s still at the window and silence screams around us.
I sit in a chair and wait, watching his muscles twitch under his black T-shirt. Finally, he turns around and locks his eyes onto mine.
“I’m so fucking pissed off,” he says. His voice is steel, matching every tight muscle in his body.
“I’m sorry.”
“No,” he says, shaking his head. “I mean, yes, I’m not happy with you, and we’re going to talk about that, but this rage is directed at him. All over again.”
“I took care of it,” I insist.
“He sat in a room with you and showed you all of the ways he wanted to destroy you and your family,” he says, making me swallow hard. I hadn’t thought of it like that. “He sent out people to terrorize you.”
“And you,” I reply. I shuffle through the photos until I find the one of the sniper. “He bought the house across from yours and had a man there with a rifle ready to kill you. Ben, he’s the reason you got sick, and your brakes were cut. He made it clear that the longer I stayed with you, the more he would make sure you suffered.”
“Being away from you was more suffering than he ever could have inflicted on me,” he says, stunning me. “You let him come between us.”
“Only until they were arrested,” I insist. “But if I’ve screwed this up so badly that you’re done, I understand.”
“I feel…betrayed,” he says and lets his hands fall to his sides. “You did this on your own, and I thought we were partners. You didn’t let me save you.”
“Ben.” I finally walk to him and cup his face. “You already saved me. It was time I saved myself.”
He crushes me to him, his strong arms locked around me. His face is buried in my neck, and it feels like he’ll never let me go.
“Don’t ever let me go,” I whisper.
“God, Angel, you destroyed me.”
“I’m so sorry,” I reply and kiss his cheek, his chin. “I had to play along, or else he would have done something horrible. And if anything were to happen to you, Ben, I don’t think I’d survive it.”
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