“Yeah, I don't much like being in the dark.” Monroe looked back out the window. “I am so sick of all this shit. All of it.” He rose to his feet suddenly. “I need some air. I'll be out back, stay away from the windows.”
Amelia sat down on the couch with a sigh. She heard the back door slam behind Monroe and wondered, not for the first time, how everything had gotten so fucked up. Would it ever be normal or what passed for normal again? Was that even possible? She stayed away from the window, even though she was sure that Danny and Monroe were just being paranoid. It wasn't like there was actually going to be a sniper perched across the street waiting to make a move. If Nightshade's business went wrong and someone came after her, she was quite sure that it was going to be long, loud and messy, not quick and painless.
Her phone rang and she reached for it. She figured it was Danny; he was the only one who called her. “Hey.”
“Hey.” It was a female voice. A familiar voice.
“Jackie?” Amelia almost fell off of the couch. “Jackie, where the hell are you?”
“I'm in New York, with my cousin Elaine. I'm sorry, Amelia, I know that it must look bad that I took off but that bitch... that bitch was saying terrible things and trying to get me to say things. Things that I didn't know.”
“What did you tell her, Jackie?”
“I didn't know anything to tell! And she didn't believe me! She told me that Nightshade was going to come after me, told me that Royal was the one who killed Earl. I know that can't be true. When she didn't shake me with that, she threatened to take the kids away from me.”
“Jackie, how did you get away from her?”
“She had nothing to charge me with. She had to release me. She'd released my mother and the kids the day before. I told my mother to leave, to get in the car and drive. She did and I followed.”
“I'm glad that you're okay.” There were a million thoughts running through Amelia's head, not the least of it was what if this was Harris making her move. What if she'd turned Jackie? What if Jackie did have something to bargain with?
“How are you? I heard about the house. I'm sorry.”
“How did you hear?”
“My mother talked to her neighbor.”
“Why are you calling now?” Amelia moved through the house, over to the back windows and tapped on one because she hoped to get Monroe's attention, but he didn't hear her. “What's going on?”
“I hoped that you could ship some things for me. I can give you the address and send you the money to send them. I want my things. My cousin helped me find a nice apartment, there are three bedrooms and I can work at the complex and they'll take money off of my rent. I'm not coming back, Amelia. I can't.”
“What about Earl's grave?”
“I don't need a grave to be close to him. If you can't send my things, I'll call someone else. I understand you might see this as a betrayal of Nightshade, but I just can't.”
“I'll send your things.” Amelia walked over to the kitchen, found the notepad she used for the grocery list. “Give me the address.” She wrote it down when Jackie rattled it off. “I get why you don't want to come back. I really do. I just wish things were different.”
“I wish that, too. You don't know how much.” Jackie's voice cracked. “I'm sorry. I should go. I'm not supposed to get upset.”Jackie ended the call as abruptly as it had started. Amelia stared down at the address and the phone. She really did get why Jackie would stay away. It would be a lie to say that she'd never thought about leaving again.
Right after Fiona and Taylor had been found, she'd nearly done it, but the thought of Danny stopped her. She might have lived through her time without him, but that was all that she'd done. She'd simply survived from one day to the next. There had been no joy. It had just been about putting one foot in front of the other, always moving but heading nowhere. Amelia would much rather swing with the punches that came with being in Detroit and being with Danny. It might not always be simple or easy, but there was no doubt that they were alive.
Monroe came in the house a few minutes later, smelling like the weed he'd been smoking out back. Despite Jackie's call, the smoking seemed to be a more pressing issue. Not that she had a problem with it, but James would be required to give any amount of urine, blood or hair for the drug tests the department would insist upon if he went back to duty.
“You didn't go for a cigarette break, did you?”
“No Mother, I didn't.” James scowled at her as he walked over to the fridge. “Just say what you want to say.”
“What about drug tests?”
“What about them? Oh, the department. The thing is they aren't going to drug test me. It's official, one hundred percent official, that I am no longer a member of the department and I never will be again. They're mailing me whatever is left in my locker. Like I fucking want it.”
“Oh James,” Amelia had known it was a possibility, they'd all known that it was a strong possibility but to actually hear it.
“Don't.” His voice was thick with emotion, which made Amelia realize he must have just gotten the call. “Don't go all girl on me. Please.” He laughed, but it was a weak sound. Amelia moved forward. He fought her at first, but once her arms were wrapped around him, he relented and hugged her back.
Amelia kept holding him when he started to weep, rubbed her hands in what she hoped were soothing circles on his back. She murmured nonsense into his ear, soothing words in a soothing tone that she hoped brought him some comfort.
James was another Nightshade casualty, along with Fiona, Taylor and Earl. Or maybe he was a Harris casualty. The truth was probably a little of both, but all Amelia knew was that it wasn't fair, not to him or to any of them. He'd always been a good cop and even a better detective. She wasn't sure how long they stood there; certainly she wasn't going to pull away first because she wanted to give James whatever he needed.
When he pulled back, he'd composed himself. “I love you, Amelia, you know that right?”
“And I love you. And this sucks, but it'll pass. We'll figure something out.” Ever since the night he'd knocked her down at that bar there had been a sinking feeling in her stomach when it came to him. It was the fear that he was going to end up hurting himself. “You know that I couldn't take losing you, not after all that I've already lost.” She pulled back and cupped her hands on his face. “Promise me that you're not going to be stupid, James. Promise me.”
“I don't like making promises, Amelia. You know that.”
“Fuck that. I want you to promise me. I know that you keep your word, so give it to me because lately I've been thinking that you just might try to eat your gun.” Amelia kept a grip on him. “That is not you.”
“What is me? I've got no family left. My grandmother was the last one, and she's gone now. I've got no job. No place to live. The woman that I loved....” He trailed off. “She's dead. Taylor's gone. Some mornings, I don't even want to get out of bed, or these days more accurately get off of the couch.”
“You've got me. You've got Danny. You've got Nightshade. And I'm sorry for everything and sorry that Fiona never saw the way that you looked at her.”
“I don't want to talk about this. End of story, Amelia. End of fucking story. I'm going back outside.”
She knew that he was going to smoke more, or maybe take a drink from the flask he didn't realize she knew he carried. Amelia let him go because she'd done all that she could do for him. The rest was up to him, and she could just hope that in the end he'd be okay.
<#<#<#
Amelia awoke to the sound of breaking glass and a loud shot. She was out of the bed by the time she heard the gunshot, her own gun in hand as she barreled out of the room and down the stairs. Her heart was going to come out of her chest, she was sure of it.
The lights were out. Whatever was happening was in the living room; furniture crashed and Amelia made her move. She flipped the light on with one hand, aimed her gun with the other. “What the hell are you two doing? W
ho the hell is shooting?”
Monroe and Paco pulled apart from each other. “He startled me,” Paco admitted. “I didn't expect to find him camped out in the living room.”
“What the fuck were you breaking in the back door for? Haven't you ever heard of knocking?” James demanded as he got to his feet. “I could have killed you.”
“I could have killed you, too,” Paco shot back.
“Enough!” Amelia interrupted before the two could start bickering in earnest. They'd had arguments which lasted for days. She didn't have time for that. “What's going on Paco? Why didn't you just knock?”
“I didn't want anyone to see me. I came through the back yards. And before you say anything, I know that I haven't been answering my phone. I've had a lot on my plate.”
“Who is going to see you? The cops aren't watching the house.”
“That you can see. They've got two teams on you. Both in abandoned houses. Harris is laying low, but she's not gone.” Paco rose to his feet, dusted his shirt off. “But she's not important.”
“What is important then, Paco? Why this cloak and dagger bullshit?”
“A few weeks ago, I saw Lily James when she was walking her dog. You remember Lily, right?” Paco moved to sit down on the couch.
“Yeah, she lives across the street from the house. What did she see?”
“She saw someone going to the house the night that they disappeared.”
Amelia moved to sit down on one of the arm chairs. “Who?”
“She didn't want to tell me at first. She didn't mean to say anything. And once she told me, I knew why. You're both going to think that I'm crazy, which is why I had to find proof. And I did. I talked to Rosa, and she saw more than she admitted.”
“Just spit it out. Who is it?” James all but growled the words. He had his hands clenched into tight fists. Amelia knew that when Paco named the name, it would take an act of God to keep James from killing them.
“Missy,” Paco said finally. “It was Missy who killed Fiona and Taylor. It was Missy who burned the stash house.” Silence followed the statement. To Amelia it felt like the world had slowed down. She was going to be sick right there in the middle of the living room.
She'd known that something was up with Missy and that Missy had known about Fiona and Taylor, but for her to be the one who killed them? It didn't make sense at the same time that it made perfect sense. “How are you sure?”
“Rosa and Lily both saw her,” Paco replied. “Her salon tripled their order of pure acetone. Acetone was used in the stash house fire and the fire at your place, Amelia. I broke into the shop, inventoried the acetone on hand. Accounting for regular use on the customers and personal use by the employees, there's still about three gallons unaccounted for.”
Eyewitness statements and a smoking gun in the form of nail polish remover. Amelia's stomach churned more. “We need to bring this to Nightshade, now.” She pushed to her feet. “I left my phone upstairs.”
“Wait.” Paco cleared his throat. “There's one problem. It's a big one.”
“What problem?”
“Rosa and Lily don't want Royal to know that they saw anything. They're scared that he's going to do something to them because they spoke against Missy. Everyone knows that Missy is untouchable.”
“This isn't her being a twatwaffle to the pass-arounds or prancing around playing Queen of the Hill. This is about MURDER. The murder of my family.” Amelia moved to stand in front of him. “I get that they're scared but this is... this is bigger than them.”
“You're right. It's big. It's huge, and that's why we've got to be smart about it.”
“Are you sure that it was her?” James spoke. His voice sounded odd, deeper than normal, as if he were coming down with a sore throat.
Paco didn't hesitate. “Yes. I'm sure. I'm pretty sure that Earl figured something out, too, and that's why he's dead. I was on the phone with him that day. He got all quiet and weird. I can't prove it, though.”
“I'm going to kill her.” James started for the door.
“James. No.” Amelia knew that he would do just what he said. She also knew that if he just went to the Davenport house and killed Missy, Royal would kill him without hesitation. She got up from the couch, moved over to him. “She needs to be punished. She deserves to die, but if you go there now, you're going to die, too.”
“I don't care. She'll be dead.”
“I care. I care.” Amelia tightened her grip on him. “I need you to not do this right now. I need you to bring this to Nightshade with me. I need you, James. Please.”
“She has to pay.”
“She will pay. You know Nightshade as well as I do, James. You know that the penalty is going to be severe.” Amelia tuned out the voice in her mind that said Missy being who Missy was would make everything different. Even if Royal wanted to, how could he protect her? She'd killed someone who was protected, as well a child. She'd burned a stash house. “Please James. I need you to trust me.”
“I do. But you need to know that if Nightshade doesn't get justice for them, I will.”
“I know.” Amelia stretched up on her toes to kiss his cheek. “You used to date Lily's sister, didn't you?”
“Yeah. Kelly.” James nodded.
“It ended on good terms, right? She moved away or something?”
“Yeah, she moved to New York. We talked about me going with her, but we both knew it was the end. She sends me Christmas cards and we talk online sometimes. Why?”
“Lily might talk to you. We need her to tell Royal what she saw. I'll try to talk to Rosa. We worked together once.” Amelia barely remembered the woman; they'd both been cashiers at a grocery store. “Maybe she'll hear me out.” Or maybe she wouldn't. There were too many ifs, but she couldn't focus on that.
“I'll talk to both of them again,” Paco offered. “They're just scared, and you can't exactly blame them. So, we'll talk to them. And until then, we'll keep it to ourselves.” He looked directly at Amelia. “That means that you can't tell Danny. He'll be obligated to tell Nightshade.”
Amelia felt sick to her stomach all over again. She didn't like the idea of keeping something, or anything for that matter, from Danny. At the same time, she knew that Paco was right. He would take it to the club immediately, and without proof, it would just cause problems for them all. “Alright,” she said finally. “For now, it's our secret.”
<#<#<#
Rosa wouldn't talk to her, or more accurately Rosa wasn't around for her to talk to. Amelia had gone to her house early, armed with coffee and doughnuts, only to find that the place was empty. Completely cleaned out, from what she could tell looking through the windows. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
If there had ever been a shred of doubt about what Rosa had saw, the fact that she'd packed up her family and run in the middle of the night would have obliterated it. There was no doubt in Amelia's mind, after she'd spent the rest of the night curled up in an armchair in the living room to be sure that James didn't just take off.
Danny hadn't come home. He hadn't called, either. It was part of the reason why she'd come to visit Rosa so early. She'd left James and Paco sleeping or maybe passed out. She hadn't wanted to spook the woman, but now she was feeling a little spooked herself. Had the family disappeared the way that Fiona and Taylor had? Were they dead somewhere? Was Missy capable of pulling that off?
Amelia got back in the car, locked the doors and leaned her head back against the seat. She reached for her phone and did something she'd normally never do. Danny answered on the third ring. “What happened?” He demanded.
“I just want to make sure that you're still breathing.” Amelia had heard the annoyance in his voice. “Seems like you are, so I guess I'll just let you go.”
“I'll call you back.”
Amelia didn't reply. She just ended the call and regretted making it in the first place. Danny might have been annoyed that she called, but he was also going to be worried. Distracted. If something happened
to him now, she'd only have herself to blame. Fuck. This day just kept getting better and better.
She was just about to pull away from the curb when she saw a familiar pickup truck pull up behind her. James looked nothing but pissed as he stepped out. Amelia got out as well. “Are you fucking kidding me? With everything that's going on, you just can't walk out of the house without letting anyone know where you are.”
“You found me,” Amelia pointed out.
“I used to be a detective, and I think that I'm pretty smart. It wasn't that hard to figure out. You need to be more careful.”
“I'm sick of being careful. I'm sick of hiding. I'm sick down to my soul that we know who killed my family and yet we're still just sitting around.”
“Let's do something about it, then. Let's go and talk to Lily. Let's see if she'll talk,” James suggested. “Let's get the proof we need to put that bitch in the ground.”
Amelia followed James to Lily's house. Her stomach churned sickly at the sight of the burned out ruin which had been her home for so long. There were so many memories there; she'd been looking forward to seeing Jackie and Earl make new ones with their family, but now that was never going to happen. While she wasn't sure she believed Jackie's story, she did believe that the woman would never return to Detroit.
Lily was quite obviously not expecting company when she opened the front door. “What's this?”
“We need to talk, Lily. Now.” James spoke and Amelia was surprised how hard his voice was. He stepped forward so that Lily had no choice but to let them inside. Amelia shut the door behind them. Her stomach was twisted. She had a fucked up feeling that this wasn't going to be a friendly conversation.
“Fucking Paco. I told him not to tell anyone. Get out. Get out of my house. I didn't see shit.” Lily was screaming, sweating more than the temperature of the room warranted. Yeah, she'd seen something, and she was terrified.
“Where's Jake?” James demanded.
Make It Right (Nightshade MC Book 1) Page 20