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I shake my head. “I didn’t see much before I was attacked. But he had a gun. He pointed it at me when I was down. He could’ve killed me but he didn’t.”
“Thank God,” Avery says, her voice lower, her tone getting colder. “He must’ve had a reason. Do you think it was one of the dealers you’re looking for?”
“I don’t know anything right now,” I tell her.
But whoever that was back at the house, I will find them.
One way or another, I’ll figure out who they are and what they were doing there. If it’s something drug-related, it’s only a matter of time before I take down the whole ring. I’ll use Wolfhound Security resources on top of everything else if I have to. I’ll hire more deputies and cleanse the entire fucking county of this plague until the people feel safe again. Until children can play in their yards and out on the sidewalks withoutstumbling into mindless junkies or aggressive dealers or getting accidentally stuck by discarded needles.
The situation is spiraling out of control, and the local council isn’t helping. I took an oath when I accepted the sheriff’s badge, and I intend to keep it. Down to the last word.
But if this isn’t drug-related, if this somehow circles back to Charlene in one way or another, I will rain down fire and fucking blood upon her. I will forsake every oath I’ve ever taken, and I will go dark side on her ass for bringing this sort of trouble to my doorstep. I never asked for any of this. She’s the one who lied, who snaked herself into our beds and our lives. Whose dark money damn near got us killed back in Iran.
I don’t know if she came to the hospital out of genuine concern or to find out how much I remembered. Either way, I won’t leave a single stone unturned. I will find the truth, no matter how far I have to go. The problem I’m facing now, however, is that I don’t yet know whether the attack on me was an isolated incident or the first of many to come.
20
Fallon
My brother barely made it out of that drug den alive. Whoever attacked him, they wanted him to know that they could’ve killed him but chose not to. That was a power play, and I have dealt with people like that before. But they’ve never dealt with someone like me, otherwise, they would’ve known better than to go after Kellan.
He chalked it up to his drug-related investigation, but Charlene’s presence at the hospital has me suspicious. Her behavior is suspect, and I am certain that woman wasn’t there purely out of concern. I can smell bullshit from miles away, and Charlene reeks of it. She can cover herself in layers of expensive perfume and fine silk but I will still catch that wretched scent of hers. I’m not buying the reformed criminal act, either.
I don’t believe in coincidences.
In the years that Kellan has been Sheriff of Lincoln County, he’s had his fair share of perps trying to come at him. He has dealt with aggressive actions before, but nothing like this. This was premeditated and well-thought-out. He never should’ve gone in there alone. He knows that, now. All we can do is keep our eyesopen and our senses on high alert from here on out.
The puzzle pieces are still scattered across the board for the time being. They will make sense soon enough. Until then, I decide to carry on with my life as usual. We’ve got a baby on the way, a woman to win back, and two little girls who need us. I think we need them more than they need us, but that’s not something I’ll say out loud just yet.
Kellan is out of the hospital and recovering back at the mansion. He goes into the office once a day, but only for a couple of hours and only to make sure his deputies are hard at work on finding the fucker who attacked him. We’ve got a tighter security detail on Avery, though she isn’t aware of their presence. We’ve got eyes on the school, as well. The last thing I need is another Daniel trying to come at them in order to hurt Avery or us. It’s better to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best.
“Any news on Toby?” I ask Luke. We’ve been on the phone for the past twenty minutes, talking about the current developments. I’ve just closed my garage and I’m headed down the street. Around the corner, my car is waiting, wedged at the end of an alley. One more security measure, just in case. “Do we know where he’s from, at least?”
“Not yet. I need his fingerprints,” Luke replies, and I can hear papers shuffling in the background. “One of us needs to get close enough to lift at least a partial from him.”
“That means getting close enough to Charlene. I can’t tell you how much my skin crawls at the thought of that,” I shoot back with a dissatisfied grumble.
Glancing around, I see nothing out of the ordinary. Just a typical evening in North Platte—people walking up and down the street,going in and out of various shops and cafes, supermarkets and drug stores. Some have just finished their shifts while others are only beginning theirs. The bars and pubs are open and some of the town residents have taken to a drink or two before going home. Slowly but surely, spring is thawing away at Nebraska’s frozen cheeks, and it’s nice to see the place coming back to life after a particularly hard winter.
The evening darkness and dim streetlights are making it hard for me to see everything clearly, but my instincts are sharp and so are my senses. Our training isn’t something that simply wears off.
“Toby’s been trying to get pretty close to Avery,” Luke says. “Why not approach him from that angle instead?”
“I don’t think he’s a fan of ours.”
“He doesn’t have to be. One of us just has to be with Avery when Toby’s around. We could lift a print off a mug or something.”
“Fair enough. I’ll see what I can do.”
Luke exhales sharply. “I don’t like this any more than you do, Fallon, but we have to be careful. As long as Charlene is on the loose, she could turn out to be a problem.”
“I know. I know! I fucking hate it, though. We were doing so good.”
“And we will get back there again. Sooner than you know. As long as we watch our backs and make sure Charlene has no way of hurting us or Avery.”
We agree to catch up later at the house, and I hang up as soon as I turn the corner into the narrow alleyway. There’s an emergency light above the service door right next to where I parked my car,but it’s out. The shadows appear longer and darker. A troubling sensation creeps up my spine, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The air smells dank, and it feels colder than it should be for this time of the year.
Footsteps echo behind me.
