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“I’m in place.”
Since I didn’t know where in the apartment T was, I waited until I heard Ronan knock on the door and announce himself as an employee for the utility company. I hoped his ploy about investigating a gas leak would work. I gave him a couple seconds, then dropped down to the landing just outside the window. The glass was dirty and scratched, but I could make out T sitting on the couch in front of a TV. A woman was heading for the door.
As soon as she opened it, T jumped up and pulled a gun out of his waistband. But instead of pointing it at Ronan, he ran down a hallway. I rushed to the next window and saw T storm into an almost empty bedroom.
Empty except for the car seat sitting in the middle of it. I didn’t hesitate at all to fire right through the window. I saw T go down before he was able to get off a shot and as I kicked in the window, Ronan appeared, the woman following.
“He’s okay,” Ronan called as he approached the car seat. I kicked in what was left of the glass and stepped into the apartment and then went around the car seat. Relief flooded my system at the sight of Henry’s scrunched up face. He let out a loud wail.
It was the best sound I’d ever heard.
I knelt down and unbuckled him from his seat and lifted him to my shoulder. “I’ve got you, Henry,” I murmured as I patted his back. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the caterpillar toy and handed it to him. He settled quickly as his fingers closed around it.
“Come on, let’s go find your daddy,” I said. Even though Levi wasn’t Henry’s biological father, he’d most certainly earned the title and then some.
Ronan grabbed the car seat and, with the woman in tow, followed me from the apartment. I heard him talking on his phone, presumably to Declan Barretti, a captain in the Seattle Police Department. The man and his extended family had become close to Ronan and several of his men over the past year.
When we exited the apartment, I was glad to see that Levi wasn’t just outside the apartment building. He’d kept his word because as we rounded the building, he was still sitting in the car. As soon as he saw us, he jumped out and ran to us. I gladly handed him the baby as he cried and thanked me and when he put his arm around me, I hugged him back.
I just hoped it wasn’t for the last time.
Chapter 25
Levi
I didn’t hear the knocking on the front door at first because I was too busy staring at the spot where my brother’s bed had once been. After his death, I’d taken every one of my brother’s possessions, along with the twin bed, and carried them down to the dumpsters. I’d done it on the day the garbage was being picked up and I’d waited until after my father had gone to work to do it. He’d beaten the shit out of me for it when he’d gotten home that night, but I hadn’t cared.
It had been worth it.
Because nothing of my brother had remained after that.
I’d even gone through the family albums my mother had left behind and found every single picture of Ricky and removed them. I hadn’t even once considered saving any of the pictures for Henry because I hadn’t wanted him to know anything about his father. I hadn’t really planned how I’d handle it when he grew up, but now it didn’t matter.
Because Henry was gone.
I’d thought I’d been prepared to let him go, but it had nearly killed me. Maybe because I hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly after getting him back. I’d still been reeling from the fact that T had taken him in the first place. Then Phoenix had carried him out of that apartment, unharmed, and I’d lost it. Less than an hour later, a woman from Children’s Services had shown up at my apartment to take Henry away.
She’d said it was until things could be straightened out with custody since Dina was dead.
But I knew there’d been nothing to straighten out.
Henry was gone and it was for the best.
Phoenix was gone too, but only because I’d pushed him away.
As we’d gotten back to my apartment building after the cops had arrived at T’s place, I’d taken Henry into my apartment and answered the questions the police officer who seemed to be friends with Phoenix and Ronan had asked me. Both men had stayed with me throughout it all, but when I’d told the cop that I had a confession to make about something, Ronan had stepped in and asked his friend to give us a minute alone. When the cop had stepped out, Ronan had told me that neither he nor his husband wished to see me go to prison for something I hadn’t done.
