Declan:Meet me later. We’ll come up with a better system for them. Can’t have Mia there without an upgrade.
Ransom:When do I meet them?
Becca:You don’t dude! No chasing them away.
Jonas:He didn’t like you, Becca. He can be polite when the situation warrants it. Ransom, Micah, lent me a book on child development. You can borrow it next so you don’t accidentally traumatize her young mind.
Maverick:Oh fuck.
Ransom:Is that a thing? I wasn’t going to fucking terrorize her Jonas. I’m not a fucking monster.
Nick:When was the last time you interacted with a child?
Kade:When we were fucking children!!!!!!! HAHA
Becca:You’ll have to pull that stick up your ass out if you want to make friends with her Ransom.
Ransom:YOU are the painful stick lodged in my ass, Becca.
Becca:Love you too, sunshine.
Me:Evie doesn’t want the apartment. She says she can’t afford it, and she won’t let me sign the title over to her. When I tried, she told me she’d take Mia and leave.
Zach:You fucking bulldozer. You need to use a little finesse, man.
Me:What the fuck does that mean? How am I supposed to finesse this?
Nick:He’s right. Finesse is called for.
Me:What the fuck am I supposed to finesse?????
Zach:Dumbass. Those apartments are empty. They cost us money every month to carry them. If she stayed there and paid some rent, she could actually save us some money.
Me:Oh.
Me:I didn’t think of that.
Becca:Zach, brilliant. I paid rent to Kade for the old studio at Knight St. No way would I take a handout. I understand where she’s coming from. She sounds like someone I want to meet.
Me:That might actually work.
Feeling like I might have a chance of keeping Evie around, I move back in front of the daycare windows and watch my beautiful new friend. About an hour after Evie headed upstairs, the elevator doors open, and she steps off.
Our eyes meet, and hers are bright, filled with emotion. I immediately tense up, preparing for her to go off on me again. She grabs the front of my sweatshirt and pulls me out of eyesight of the daycare.
“I need to talk to you,” she says, her voice tight. I nod and lean back against the wall. I have a feeling I know what this conversation is gonna be about.
“How was the interview?” I ask calmly.
“How was the interview? Colt, tell me about the letter.” She demands.
I wonder if I should play dumb, but the edge in her eyes tells me her tolerance for bullshit is slim to none right now. “A lot happened at your old hospital,” I say, eyeing her warily. “Once Brent was arrested, we started looking into the cops that were helping him. It wasn’t about you at the beginning, it was about wanting justice for Holly.”
I run my fingers over my short hair, remembering the pictures of Holly’s bruises. “She had gone to the police to report Brent, more than once. And every time those fuckers turned her away or buried the reports. They were supposed to protect and serve, and they didn’t do their fucking jobs.”
I can hear the rage in my voice. I take a few breaths, trying to calm myself down before continuing. “When Holly asked Declan to find you, that’s when we learned what they’d done to you. So we dug even further.”
“What does dig mean? How did you dig?”
