Evan tossed it back again, this time with less of a full-body shudder. “He’s been so fucking weird lately, so closed off. He’s my best friend, but I have no idea what he does half the day, and I tried talking to Dad about it. He told me to grow the fuck up and worry about myself. I wanted to bring it up to Uncle Howie, but I didn’t want him to get fired, ya know? This is the longest he’s had a job in…well, his entire life, and I don’t want to leave the ranch. I love it there.”
I watched as he started pacing again. “Evan, just tell us what happened,” I said gently. “You can stay here as long as you need, but I need to know what’s going on.”
He sat down in one of the chairs across from us and let out a bitter laugh. “I don’t know anything really, Em. They’ve been going through some old ATV roads to transfer drugs from the city. Down through Pine Shallows, Raven Creek, and into Sapphire Cove. I guess where the roads are, if they go through some of the ranches, it saves them a lot of area where the cops look out for them. Dad’s been on the payrolla while now, in charge of transferring shit and getting it there safer. That’s all I know.”
Wyatt and I traded glances, but he nodded. Clearly, he and I needed to have a conversation.
“Have you told Uncle Howie yet?” I asked softly.
He shook his head. “I couldn’t…he loves that ranch so much, Em. For him to know his own flesh and blood are putting all our family’s hard work in jeopardy? It isn’t fair to him. He took us in, Elliot and I. I wanted him to be proud like Grandpa was of you.”
“We’ll take care of it, Evan. Don’t worry,” Wyatt reassured him, but Evan just nodded. “There’s a guest room upstairs as well as a guest bath attached. Why don’t you go shower? I’ll toss some of my clean clothes on the bed for you. Get some sleep tonight, tomorrow we’ll get your uncle and get this taken care of.”
Evan nodded, and I got up to show him where everything was while Wyatt found him some clean clothes.
When he was finally showered and settled for the night, I dragged Wyatt to our bedroom and closed the door behind us.
“You and I need to have a chat,” I said quietly, refusing to yell and hit this man in the nose like I wanted to with my baby brother across the hall.
He sighed. “I should probably sit down for this.”
I watched as he sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes returning to mine.
“Tell me what you know and what you haven’t been telling me.”
He cleared his throat. “I received a call from Julian a few days ago, like I mentioned. I’d asked him if he knew anything about the guy who showed up and threatened you, who he worked for, if he was legit, that type of thing. Well,he did some digging, and that’s how I found out about the family your father had gotten involved in. The rest have just been…educated deductions based on what I’d already found.”
I stood there, staring. “I’m waiting, Wyatt.”
“I think your father took some shit on the side that didn’t belong to him, and he didn’t think anyone would notice, but these guys, Ember? They notice and they don’t take kindly to being stolen from. Do you understand what I’m telling you?” His deep blue eyes stared at me from across the room, and I found myself nodding.
“Yeah, I get it. They’ll kill us all if they think it’ll hurt him.” I cleared my throat and pulled my shirt off to get ready for bed. “I want to go to Detective Montague tomorrow. First thing in the morning. I want Evan to come with us and give him everything we have. I don’t want to do this anymore, Wyatt. I can’t. I just…I want to let the cops handle it, okay?”
He nodded. “You’ve got it, little flame.”
We got undressed and curled up together in his bed as I hoped to any of the fates listening that tomorrow would be better.
We were sittingin front of Detective Montague, rehashing everything all three of us knew—minus the parts Julian had helped with. Wyatt wasn’t comfortable bringing his boss into this, and I got it. I wasn’t completely sure everything Julian did was above board, so to speak, so bringing him in probably wasn’t the best idea anyway.
“So your father was behind your stolen identity, and you believe him and your brother are trafficking drugs throughyour uncle’s ranch?” Detective Montague questioned as he looked over the folder and the details we’d given him.
The three of us nodded.
“Do you know how hard we’ve been working with the FBI to bring down the Broderick family?” He raised an eyebrow and then pulled out his phone, dialing a number. It rang before a man answered. “Fields, got a break in the Broderick case. Get over here.”
He clicked the phone off and set it on top of the table, just staring at us, shaking his head. “Insane,” he muttered under his breath.
“Did you need us for anything else?” Wyatt asked.
Montague nodded. “Formal interviews and witness statements with Fields. He’s the FBI agent in charge of the Broderick case, and then you’re all free to go. Does your uncle know?”
Evan shook his head. “He’s a rather explosive man, Detective. I didn’t want him blowing up and ruining any chance you guys had at getting proof. I wanted my sisters’ shit cleared, and I need my father alive for that.”
I glanced over at him, my eyes wide at how much thought my brother had put into this. How much he was looking out for me. Reaching over, I took his hand and squeezed it gently. “Thank you,” I mouthed, and he just nodded.
“Smart move, kid,” Montague nodded.
The next several hours were spent with us going over our stories over and over again. Written out, recorded on tape and video, so much paperwork and repeating the same shit over and over, but if it would get everyone off my back? I didn’t even care.
