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I frowned as I took the paper, then started to unfold it.
The moment the familiar handwriting met my eyes, I wanted to throw up.Saint,
I know that by the time that you’re reading this, you’ll realize that your mother is dead and your father was nearly killed.
I want to say how sorry I am for not protecting your parents better. It was my job to keep them safe, and I failed.
I know who the shooter was, though, and I want you to know that I’m tracking them.
I will not be contacting you via normal means. The people that are responsible for the murder of your mother, and the attempted murder of your father, are good. They’ve already breached my phone, so don’t accept any calls or texts from me as ‘from me.’
I’ll contact you as soon as I have more information.
As of right now, that’s very minimal. However, I would like you to know that going to your chief of police was a good move. Tell him that the man he has looking into it, the mayor, is a good man to have on his side. Also mention that Bruno, the mayor’s right-hand man, is very good, but he’s not good enough to fool me. I know he’s been in my house, and I know that he’s put a bug on my car. For now, I’ll allow it to stay because I like knowing someone is at my back, even if they’re not sure I’m good or not.
Phillipe and Daniel protecting your father is also a good idea. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are good and on your father’s side. However, now that the media knows about your father, whoever is responsible for this will try to ramp up their attempts to finalize their mistake in letting your father live. He saw the shooter’s face. I did not.
When he wakes, ask your father immediately if it was anyone in his inner circle. Those are the only people I would trust enough to allow your father to be alone with them.
Don’t make the same mistake of trusting them like I did. Someone is a traitor to their country. Don’t trust them to back off now.
Also, you need to protect yourself and your girl. If I got in, others will, too.
Don’t let them.
BradHis words literally made me sick to my stomach.
But relief at knowing that Brad wasn’t responsible—though I’d always kind of thought it but wasn’t willing to admit it—was like a weight off my shoulders.
I had Brad.
I had Phillipe.
I had Daniel.
Those were three of the most trusted men that I’d always had in my life.
Carolina, realizing that I was done, took the note from my trembling hands and read over it.
Her face scrunched up when she got to the last part.
“You’re going to leave again, aren’t you?” she asked softly.
I nodded.
“I don’t like that idea.” She tossed the note down on the counter next to the sandwiches and reached for mine. Once she handed it to me, she reached back for her own plate and took a bite of her sandwich. Once she’d chewed, she leveled me with a glance once again. “I don’t agree that this is what you need,” she said, looking at me carefully. “But if you feel like this is the only way, then I’m not going to argue with you. If you need to pretend for a little bit, that’s fine. But don’t let this go on too long, Saint. I don’t want to wait forever.”
Her words were like a balm to my soul.
“I won’t wait forever,” I told her. “I’m going to go give this to Luke, though. Who can pass it off to the right people.”
A frown formed on her face.
“I’m leaving Smoke here,” I said. “He’s off for a week anyway. He can help protect you.”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s why you’re leaving, isn’t it? To make sure that nothing does happen to me?”
When she said it like that it made me feel dumb.
But I had a gut feeling that the less ammo I gave whoever it was, the better it would be.
With one last longing look, a grab of the note, and a swift kiss on her mouth, I walked out the door and didn’t look back.
Not even when Smoke barked at me to come back.
• • •
“He’s good,” Luke said as he eyed first me, and then the mayor. “If he made Bruno, then he’s really good.”
Bruno, the man that Brad referred to as the mayor’s right-hand man, didn’t look nearly as pleased.
“So pretty much, you have nothing more to go on other than you think Brad didn’t do it based on his words alone,” he said.
I patted my chest.
“I know Brad. That was why it was so difficult for me to believe that about my father and him. That man took a bullet for me when I was a young kid. He also has sustained multiple broken bones through protecting my father. A man like that doesn’t just change. He’s been with my father since the beginning. The very first day. I think of that man as a second father. If he said it wasn’t him, I believe him.”
