She should have answered her sister’s call night before last. Two a.m. the call had come. CJ had just gotten to sleep after a twelve-hour shift.Absolute mental and physical exhaustion had rendered the decision easy to make.
She’d known how it would go if she had answered. Shelley would be drunk or high. She’d cry about her wretched life with its endless cycle of failed attempts at change. Then she would beg CJ to help her, big sis would send money, and all would be right in Shelley’s world once more. At least for a little while.
But CJ hadn’t reacted the way she usually did this time.
She pulled out her cell phone and played the voicemail she hadn’t bothered to listen to until after Braddock’s call.
“CJ! Oh, God, you’re not going to believe this! Okay, wait ... don’t worry! It’s not like you think. I know it’s two in the morning, but I’m clean. Six weeks and counting. No drugs. No bullshit.” She squealed! “You need to call me. I have something really, really important to tell you.” She sighed, the sound steeped in happiness. “I know I’ve never been good at anything. I’ve been nothing but trouble. But I promise it’s gonna be different now. You’ll see. Call me! Hey ...” There was an extended pause, then, “I don’t say it enough, but ... I love you.”
CJ had made a terrible, terrible mistake. Her eyes closed to contain the brimming emotion. She’d thought standing firm was the right thing to do. For years her one trusted confidante had been telling CJ that she had to stop enabling her sister’s destructive behavior.
Now her sister was dead.Murdered.
CJ greatly appreciated the overwhelming numbness that allowed only intermittent bouts of the emotional storm she knew was coming. It wouldn’t last. Reality would sink in and she would have to deal with the ramifications of her decision not to answer that call. She recognized the aura of denial. She’d seen it on hundreds of faces in the ER.
But maybe the numbness would get her through the next couple of hours.
Right now, she pushed to her feet. She had to identify her sister’s body. And face the fact that she’d failed the one person who’d countedon her to always be there. CJ walked out the door, closed and locked it behind her.
She stalled on the porch, surveyed the run-down neighborhood. Her whole life she couldn’t wait to get away from this dead-end place. She had dreamed of escaping to something better ... to something that mattered. Now there was no reason for her to ever come back.
Funny. While dreaming of and planning that grand escape, she’d never once considered the price.
Now she knew.
Chapter Five
“She’s here.”
He’d expected her sooner. Must’ve been hell getting a flight out of Baltimore on short notice.
His gaze cut from the foot soldier who’d reported the arrival to the window overlooking all that belonged to him. He reached up, traced the scar on his right cheek. Winced as if the knife blade had only just now sliced open his flesh. Fury roared inside him.
He had a news flash for that snobby doctor bitch. She’d better watch her step. He hadn’t forgotten what she’d done to him. Thirteen years or thirty, she would get what was coming to her if she got in his way.
“What you want me to do?”
“Watch her.” He braced his hands on either side of the window and leaned closer to scan the rows of streets that made up the mill village.Hisvillage. “I want to know where she goes and who she talks to. She might think she’s coming back here and gonna do some superhero shit, but she better think twice.”
“What about the cops? You know she’ll talk to Braddock.”
To hell with the police. And to hell with Braddock. He should’ve learned his lesson already. “Course she’ll talk to the cops.” He knew what Braddock was up to. Maybe the law round here thought he was born yesterday and got this awesome today, but they were bad wrong. “They don’t know nothing. Ain’t a one of ’em can find his dick with both hands.”
“Be hard to get close with the cops watching her.”
He laughed. Was that fear he heard? “That’s right.” He faced his loyal foot soldier. Dipped his head so he could look at the fool over his sunglasses. “But the cops ain’t your problem.” He bumped his chest with his fist. “TheKingis your problem. I’m the only one you need to be worried about.”
The fool rocked his head up and down like he was having some kind of fit. Probably messed himself.
“Now, go on and do what I told you.”
The man he called his “eyes” didn’t waste no time. He got the hell out.
That was the only way to maintain loyalty.
Demand it.
He turned back to his favorite view. Braddock had a hard-on for the King. Maybe he wanted to be chief of police or something. Whatever. That bastard had picked the wrong war.
