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That kid wasn’t scared. He knew he was with the best in the business. He also knew how to scare the shit out of his brother. I didn’t have the patience to watch it play out, though. “Well played, kid. Now get in the fucking car and keep your head down.”
Those were the last words I said before I let the fear slip away, and once again became the operator I never wanted my kid to see. The one who would take out Trey fucking Gosling.
29
EVERLY
Twenty-minutes earlier
I appreciated Bex getting Skylar and I out of the house. Seeing the fear on my daughter’s face had definitely made me want to find the fucker and castrate him. I did nothing to him, yet he thought he was entitled to… what? My time? My attention?
And from what everyone could determine, he’d thought that for quite a while. My God, the dates on the magazines those pictures had come from was as old as my debut album. The thought that this fucker had been looking for me in all that time made me sick.
“Mom?” Skylar’s voice reminded me I had bigger problems. Keeping her safe was all that mattered. I needed to mitigate the trauma that the asshole had inflicted on my daughter.
I turned to the backseat to look at her. “Yes, honey?”
She looked over at Bex in the driver’s seat, then back at me. “Do you think dad will, you know, kill the guy who is doing this to you?”
“Uhm.” I looked at my friend next to me.
Bex blinked once and took in a breath before she looked at my daughter through the rearview mirror. “Killing someoneis almost always our last resort. Whether pulling a trigger or something more physical, it's never easy taking a life. Even when you know it's the right thing to do.”
“I don’t want my dad to have any more nightmares.” She leaned forward and rested her chin on the back of my seat. “I want him to keep my mom safe and I want him to… I don’t know. I just don’t want him having nightmares.”
She wanted her dad to have peace, and she didn’t know how to articulate it. I swallowed hard and rubbed the top of her head. “Honey, the best we can do is trust him. He’s getting help and doing what he can to keep us safe.”
“Many of us have nightmares.” Bex checked her phone and frowned. “I think the only one of my brothers who doesn’t get nightmares is Nick. But my dad had forced him into therapy almost as soon as he left the army. Your dad and Oliver lost their teams, the men they were supposed to lead. Jake had seen something no decent person should ever have to witness. But we all deal with it and make sure the world is safe for those we love. That’s what your dad is doing, too.”
It had to be noted that Bex spoke as if she had nightmares as well, but she never elaborated on it. But I needed to console my daughter. “We’re surrounded by a team of badasses, honey.”
Bex's phone pinged and she recited her code to me. “It’s from Jared, read the text, please.”
I picked up the phone, entered the code, and went into the messaging app. “Delivery guy is Neville Cartwright. He has an apartment —” I looked around the area we were in. “In this neighborhood by the look of things. Can we check out the place? I just want to knowsomething. Anything. We won’t need to get out of the car. But I need something, please.”
A long and weighted exhale escaped Bex. As soon as she could, she stopped at a traffic light. “Let me see the address?” I handed her the phone and she tapped her screen for moreinformation. “Let me just put it in the maps app to see if we can get an idea of where it is.”
Once we started driving again, I frowned over at her. “Thank you. I didn’t think you would agree.”
“We’re just going to see where it is.” She turned sharply, as if she finally had a purpose for driving around aimlessly. “No one gets out of the car. Skylar duck your head, I would feel better if you were out of sight.”
Without question, Sky slipped into the footwell of the backseat. Bex followed the instructions from the robotic female voice, driving cautiously and not attracting any attention. Finally, she pulled up to an apartment building.
“There it is.” She pointed at the building ducking slightly to look at it. “Not all that impressive. And it's not exactly in the safest part of town.”
She was right. I had expected something a little different. Then again how many underground delivery men were there. Perhaps he needed to travel for work. “This may not be his permanent residence. He could be subletting while he has the job to do for G.”
“You may be right. I mean what are the chances that he would actually be living this close to Marina De Ferrier. Still, if this is where he is now, it's a good indication that we shouldn’t be.” Bex frowned and looked a little closer at the building. “What the fuck? Is that Trey walking out of the entrance?”
I looked in the direction she was frowning. It wasn’t like I had a lot of interaction with the man. Except for that day on the side of the road and the night at The Reverse Cowgirl. Oh, and there was that day when he was leaving the diner as I arrived to drop Sky with Tess. Wait. My mind placed all those incidents together. Except for a few glimpses when he was at Noah’s office, I had only seen Trey on the days that something bad had happened to me. My car, the snake, and the break in. And nowhe’s walking out of the building of the man who delivered God knows what to me.
Before I had a chance to share my theory with Bex, she was out of the car, not even bothering to close the door. “Trey, what are you doing here? Did you get the message from Jared as well?”
What happened next was so quick, it was like living in a slow-motion scene from an action movie.
Trey’s eyes went big. “You’re not supposed to be here.” He looked over towards the car, an ugly smile lifted his mouth as he spotted me. I didn’t know much, but I knew I had to protect my daughter. With as little movement to my lips as I could manage, I spoke. “Sky, stay down. Don’t lift your head for anything. Do you understand?”
“Mom?”
