Page 131 of Forbidden Fate

“There was cocaine in Hawk’s truck. He realized after the fact.”

“That wasn’t me. The coke was already there.”

“What?”

He clears his throat. “When I was casing the property, I noticed Hawk’s truck in the driveway. There was a large amount of cocaine in the back. Why the hell he had so much, I have no idea.”

My mind flashes back.

Hawk’s truck.

The horror of finding Eagle.

The confusion.

The way everything seemed connected and disconnected at once.

And fire surges within my core.

I shove Cruz.

Not hard enough to knock him back.

But hard enough to make him feel it.

“It made the scene easier to explain,” he says. “There was already a trail. Eagle had a history. I opened one of the bags to make it look like he’d used it.”

My stomach roils.

Cruz did it all.

“You made it look like Eagle took cocaine from Hawk’s truck,” I say.

“Yes.”

“You made us believe he relapsed.”

“Yes.”

I remember Eagle’s face.

Not from before.

From after.

Or what I saw of it.

Blue lips.

Sweat.

Vomit.

Twitching limbs.

His body fighting for life while I screamed his name.

My vision blurs.