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“I’m coming with you,” he promised, pocketing the phone. “Is he upset?”
“I can’t tell for sure.”
Jason grabbed his coat and escorted her out the door just as her father hung up the phone, his face pale and shocked. He stepped closer to his truck, shaking, then balanced himself against it, head bowed.
Mama curled up against him and lifted a palm to his cheek. “Marco?”
Gia ran to her dad, flanking his side and taking hold of his arm. “What is it?”
He tensed, swallowed, then lifted his head to stare at them all for a long moment. His weighty gaze steadied on Mila before shifting back to his wife. “Ricky Wayman is dead.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Fifteen minutes later, they sat around the breakfast table in her parents’ kitchen. Mama busied herself making coffee. Mila settled Little Tony in front of the TV in the next room, then put Bella in her playpen. Jason linked his fingers with her own. Daddy didn’t say a word.
“Who gave you the news? What happened exactly?” Gia asked finally as Mila entered the kitchen again and Mama sat down with her steaming mug.
Her father sighed. “Sergeant Miller called. He still works at the precinct, right?”
She nodded. “He’s retiring in March.”
“He thought I’d want to know that Wayman had been killed. Apparently, he got into a fight with one of his homies and it ended with a gunshot.”
Gia sat back in her chair, the shock still pinging inside her. A thousand emotions pelted her. Vindication warred with anger. Wayman had been an unrepentant thug, well known for selling drugs to kids. Whoever had shot him had probably done the human race a favor. But she’d wanted to arrest him and at least try to make him answer to a jury and the prison system for his crimes. His violent end shouldn’t be surprising, not when he lived so violently himself. Still, the suddenness of it left her reeling.
“Do we know why?” she asked.
Mila breathed a sigh of relief. “Do we care why? He’s dead, and I say good riddance. Wayman shot your brother in cold blood, and I hope he pays for what he’s done in hell.”
“I can’t disagree,” her father said gruffly, sipping at his coffee. But he still looked shaken.
Mama reached out and tucked her hand in his. “I know I should look at it differently as a good Christian, but that criminal took something from me—from all of us—I can never replace. I couldn’t bring myself to forgive him. Maybe now that he’s reaped what he’s sown, I can. I don’t know. But I also know there’s a mother out there tonight grieving the loss of her son. She will miss him at Thanksgiving and Christmas, every year his birthday passes, every time she sees something he would have enjoyed… Even if her son committed terrible deeds, my heart goes out to her.”
Daddy nodded fiercely and wrapped his arms around her mother, breathing loudly into her hair as if trying to get a hold of his emotions. A long moment later, he kissed her head. “His death probably saved lives. And right or wrong, I feel a sense of closure now.”
Gia didn’t. She was relieved in a way, but she also felt cheated. The swirl of emotions barely made sense to her. But right now had to be about her family.
Beside her, Mila sobbed quietly. “I know Wayman’s death doesn’t bring my husband back. But I feel better knowing that man doesn’t walk the streets anymore and can’t pull the trigger again. He can’t rob any other woman of her husband or son. Maybe now, we can all move on with our lives.”
Beside Gia, Jason squeezed her hand. She knew she should let go of her anger against Wayman and her driving need for revenge to focus on tomorrow, on building her own family with her husband. On the surface, that sounded great. But how did she just forget the fact that she’d needed to give her family—and herself—some finality before she moved on?
“We certainly weren’t going to get closure from DPD,” her father added cynically.
“What do you mean?” Gia frowned. Did her dad know something she didn’t?
“Think about it. A good cop died and no one lifted a finger? The story of an officer murdered on the streets within days of Thanksgiving barely made it to the press. And Patrick recanted his eyewitness testimony after a few days.”
“Yeah,” she drawled. “And I have little doubt he bought a boat with the bribe that made him suddenly ‘unsure’ of what he’d seen. I even reported him to Internal Affairs. It’s like…they’re stalling or they just don’t care.”
“That’s what I’m saying. Wayman was paying off most of the precinct, including the brass. I can’t prove that, but I know he targeted your brother because Tony refused to be bought.”
Gia sat back, feeling flattened all over again. It all made sense, and she should have seen it sooner. But no, she’d wanted to believe that the people she worked with weren’t corrupt assholes more concerned with lining their pockets than justice. She felt damn naïve.
How was she going to return to work when her stay with Jason was up and look those people in the eye without wanting to rail and scream at them all?
Jason’s phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and glanced at the screen, then stood. “I should take this. You okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
