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“It wasn’t you. I made the choice to go after the drugs.”
She nodded once and threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. “You’re a good person Jims. You aren’t a person to be sacrificed. You’re someone the whole world will embrace and love.”
“Sacrificed?” Gabe asked, concern evident in his furrowed brow.
“It’s a long story.”
“One we need to hear, Heather,” Draegan said, glancing at Allister and Harley as they approached.
“Dons said I was the cancer that needed to be cut out of the family. Every generation, our family sacrifices one family member for the greater good. According to our family history, it becomes obvious which family member has to go as time unfolds. I’m an addict and I’m not like the others.”
“Why, because you prefer men to women?” Draegan’s face hardened. Markie was his best friend and might as well have been a walking, talking billboard for the gay rights movement. Draegan despised anyone who judged others for their sexual orientation.
“No. That’s not it. My brothers finally accepted my choices.”
“Somehow, I’m not buying that,” Draegan muttered.
“Really, they did. We are just different. I don’t believe the same way they believe.”
“Care to elaborate?” Allister asked.
“Come on guys.” Harley stepped in the room then. “Jims has been put through enough for one day. Give him a break.”
Draegan turned to Jims. “If you can give us anything at all about your brothers, anything that will save my brother…” He hesitated and looked at Allister with brotherly love and admiration. “We’d appreciate it.”
“Allister, for what it’s worth, I know you didn’t kill Dons.”
“Thanks. If you know who did…”
“I don’t, but if I had to put my money somewhere, it’s on Toms. If you’re looking for a weapon, you’ll find it in the well we just left.”
“You’re saying he’d just throw it down in an open hole?” Justin didn’t see Toms being that stupid. Then again, he didn’t know the man.
“No. It’s in the wall. That’s where they hide everything—the book of family secrets, any weapons they’ve used in murders, syringes they’ve used to drug girls who’ve left here, and pretty much anything else you’d want to find and they’d want to hide.”
“Thank you,” Draegan said, leaving then with Harley and Allister on his heels.
“Will you be all right?” Heather touched his cheek.
Jims shrugged. “I wasn’t good, Heather. I wanted to be but in this family, there are three links that bind us together—killing, drugging, and sacrificing together.”
Heather’s eyes watered and she shook her head. “No. I just don’t believe it. I can’t.”
“It’s true,” he said with regret. “I want as far away from here as I can get. I’m cutting a deal and giving the cops everything they want. In turn, they’ve promised to grant me a sentence far away from my brothers and this place.”
“Oh, Jims. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. As much as I told myself they made me do it, the fact is, I did what I was told. We all have choices. We can walk away from all situations. I didn’t. Now, I’ll pay the price and that’s okay. I deserve whatever the Feds and locals throw my way. I’m praying for a life sentence. That way I can spend the rest of my days trying to right all my many wrongs.”
Chapter Eight
Allister was cleared an hour later. Jims had shown detectives the hidden wall in the well where he and Heather had been kept. Soon after, the knife used to kill Dons had materialized. It was still coated in his blood.
With the freedom to leave, the guys had gone back for their vehicles while Detective Brice questioned Heather. Gabe refused to leave. “I’m staying in case she needs anything.”
Detective Brice grimaced. “Are you always a pain in the ass?” When he didn’t answer, he turned to Heather. “Is he?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But I hope to find out.”
