Page 144 of Last Man Standing

“Well… that too,” he laughs. “I mostly meant welcoming people onto our property who know…” Wary, he casts his eyes around those surrounding us. “Stuff. But I like this,” he decides with a nod. “I like the idea of opening our world again. We did what we had to do for as long as we needed to do it, but things have changed since the summer, and though it’s taking a bit of getting used to, I like to think my family can be free again.” He drops his chin in a show of respect. “I adore your sister, Lincoln. I doubt she’d say the same of me. But I do. I love her fire and commend her strength. Even when she doesn’t believe she has any.”

“She’s a good girl,” Linc counters gruffly. “She’s a damn good girl who deserves only the best.”

“Which means we’re in agreement.” Stepping back, Dad claps my shoulder. “The very best.”

I roll my eyes and prepare to toss my old man toward the explosive again, which feels like a better option than listening to him try to convince Linc why I deserve his sister. But then I catch a faint pop-pop in the air.

Like a bloodhound, I bring my eyes up and around. I search the sky for more. More information. More fucking context.

I get none. And still, I turn on my heels and run. Head down, shoulders down, hand in my pocket, I take out my phone and sprint. “Something’s wrong.”

45

SCARLETT

BUT, WHY?

“Idon’t understand.” I step out from behind Arabella’s protective stance and place myself between a gun and the woman I should probably want to leave without a shield. My life would be easier if she were no longer a voice in Sebastion’s ear. If she wasn’t a responsibility, mercilessly sat on his shoulders.

We’re happy when it’s just the two of us.

The happiest I’ve ever known.

“Detective Mills, I don’t…” Work faster, Scarlett. Think faster! “W-why are you here?”

“Do you know how much they pay detectives these days?” He speaks with the tone I’ve always known. It’s comfort, it’s kindness. It’s his fatherly voice, the one I’m certain he uses with his own children. But while he does that, he takes a step to the left and keeps his gun trained on Arabella behind me. “Not enough.”

“I don’t⁠—”

“Not enough! We put our lives on the line for ungrateful delinquents. We walk toward danger while everyone else sprints away. We’re forced to deal with the thugs and criminals, the abusers and manipulators, but we have to follow the rules. If I turn and run, those bastards will still shoot me in my back, but if they turn and run, I have to just… stop.” His eyes grow wider. Desperate. “They can beat me black and blue, but I have to ask them nicely not to resist arrest, and even when they don’t listen, and they’ve hurt me so I feel it for days after, I can’t hurt them back. I can’t hit them. I can’t even call them a fuckwit, because then the liaisons and quacks get involved and claim it's harassment.”

“Detective Mills…” I bring my hands up and step to my right. Point your gun at me. You won’t hurt me. “I don’t understand what’s going on.”

“They pay us peanuts, Scar. And men like Roy Daniels?” He spits my ex’s name with as much affection as when I say it. Or when Linc says it. “They hunt girls like you for sport. They terrorize you and make it a game, because when the girl inevitably smartens up and leaves his sorry ass, his best buddy becomes the next guy she meets at a bar. His brother tries to pick her up. His friend from school. His fucking dad. It’s just a game, Scarlett!”

“Yes…” I draw a shaking breath as fresh tears burn the backs of my eyes. “I know it. I experienced it.”

“So then you went and took care of it. You killed that piece of shit. Which was so smart, sweetheart.”

He knows. The cops know!

“So smart,” he groans. “Because he wasn’t gonna stop, and when I told him to cut the shit, he called my captain and screamed harassment.” His hand shakes as he inches a little further to the left. When he moves, I move. And when I move, Arabella moves. “I was going to be a Detective Sergeant, you know that?” He nods before I have a chance to respond. Before my brain even realizes I should. “I’d earned it. I’d worked my guts out for years and years and years. But the instant you stepped into my life and Roy Daniels realized I’d clocked him, he knew it was him or me. So he complained, and then complained some more.”

“I-I’m sorry,” I whimper. “I didn’t know⁠—”

“I don’t blame you!” He rushes forward two steps, only to stop again and exhale a shuddering breath. “I never blamed you. I only ever wanted to protect you, just like I would protect my own daughter.”

“I think of you like my dad.” I take a step forward, my hands lifted between us. “I care for you. But I don’t understand how…” I glance around the stables. “How did we get here?”

“Because I was going to be a Detective Sergeant.” He skips back a half-dozen steps and places space between us. “I guess he knew the right people, or he pressed the right buttons, because I only ever told him to leave you the hell alone, but he somehow convinced the brass I was a problem. Instead of getting that promotion I’d worked so damn hard for, I got demoted, and every demotion comes with a pay cut, ya know that?” His face wrinkles with rage. Pain. Fury. “I had a mortgage to pay. A family to feed. My daughter had just started planning her wedding. Then that rat bastard went missing.” His lips curl into a grin that makes my blood run cold. “Left town,” he snickers. “My ass. IA picked through every damn thing I’d ever touched, because a few days before he went missing, he’d plopped a new complaint on my captain’s desk. They wondered if I’d hurt him.” He searches my eyes with an odd twinkle in his. “You did what the brave girls do, sweetheart. You ended the game, and you did it at a time we’d both have alibis. When you told me you had no clue where he went… I knew you were lying, but I had no desire to prove otherwise.”

“You knew from the start?” My stomach flips with nerves. With anxiety and the rotten sludge that makes me want to puke. “You knew?”

He brings his free hand up and presses it over his heart. “In here, I knew. Not the details,” he clarifies. “And if I never learned about the delicious torment you served upon that prick, I would’ve gone on with my life content that he was gone anyway. But then Richard Aster called me.” He flashes a wide grin and meets Arabella’s hard stare. “Not about you. He never mentioned you. But you,” he brings his eyes back to me. “He explained his vested interest in keeping you safe, and he’d heard about my terrible luck on the job. To make up for some of the bullshit Daniels had put us through, Aster offered to pay me. All I had to do was keep an eye on you.”

Fresh tears spill onto my cheeks. “You were spying on me? And reporting back to Richard Aster?”

“He wanted to know you were okay! He cared about you, sweetheart, just like I do.”