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“You look so serious.” Rainy chuckled through her whispers. “You look just like… your daddy.”
Then she began to cry.
Killion was quick to his feet and started for the nursery but stalled. She’d asked him not to follow her. He listened to the soft sounds of her sobs and raked his hands through his hair, unsure what to do. It was too much, he had to leave.
Killion rushed to the front door and looked back at the space when he heard her say. “I love you.” Hearing those words hurt like a sucker punch to the gut, and his heart shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. It made him angry and that sense of fear that had been haunting him was back and raging stronger than ever because… he wished she was saying those three little words… to him.
12
Killion turned from where he stood on the rooftop deck to see Wit walking through the door to join him. He nodded, then turned his attention back to his thoughts with his gaze fixed on the riverfront view several stories down.
“Thought I’d find ya up here,” Wit said, taking to his side.
“You were looking for me?” Awareness quickly settled in, and panic followed. “Is everything okay? Rainy and the babies?”
“Everybody is fine.” Wit patted Killion’s shoulder to calm him. “I went lookin’ for you, and when nobody answered your door, I let myself in and found Rainy and the little varmints sleepin’. Knew you wouldn’t be far.”
“I, uh, just needed to go for a walk,” Killion admitted.
“Everything okay?”
“Yes.” Killion didn’t make eye contact or elaborate. He just did what he did best. “Anything new on the case?”
“Well, seein’ how it’s only been a couple of hours since you left the Lair, not much has transpired.” Wit chuckled. “We like to move fast, but that’d be a record, even for us.”
“Feels like…” Killion turned to him, eyes red and pained. “Feels like it’s been hours. Maybe days even.”
“I’m sure it has. We got some of the families in the building already, and the jet was wheels up about twenty minutes ago, headed to Montana.”
“Good. It sounds like everyone is safe for now. That’s all I can ask for,” Killion said.
“It’s all we can all ask for. This doesn’t just land on you, buddy.”
Killion shook his head. “Yes, it does. I’m tired of the looks of sympathy and the encouraging words trying to convince me that it doesn’t all fall on my shoulders. This is my fault, Wit. Every bit of it, starting with what happened to Rainy.”
“Whoa. Whoa, buddy. Let’s reel in the soap opera a bit here and get off the stage because that performance ain’t winnin’ shit.” Wit laughed. “You tryin’ to play martyr or…”
“Fuck off.”
“Now you’re talkin’. Get it all out, man. What’s really goin’ on here because you and I both know you’re smart enough to know that this is the work of a crazed lunatic and there’s no way you’re responsible for anything that’s happened to my sister. You didn’t even know her back then when everything first went down.”
“I don’t mean that. I mean… a few months ago. The shit with Langley. She almost died. The babies almost died. I wasn’t there to protect them.”
“You hit your head on somethin’, Killion? You seem to have a little bit of memory loss. I was there, remember? You figured out she was in danger, and Langley was the mark before anyone. It was you who went hog-ass wild tryin’ to get to her before that son of a bitch did,” Wit reminded.
“But I didn’t get to her.”
“Ya did. I was there, right next to ya, remember? Your sister was in my lap clingin’ to life, and my sister was in your lap clingin’ to life.” Wit pinched the bridge of his nose and paused, recalling the moment, and fighting the pain-provoking emotions that came with it. “When only one ambulance arrived on the scene and they grabbed Aye, you picked up my sister and ran four blocks with her in your arms to meet the second ambulance halfway and refused to let them put her on a gurney. The way I heard it, you sat on the gurney and held her the whole way there. Caused quite the scene at the emergency room too.”
“I was just speeding up the process.”
“That you did. The EMT said he never drove so fast in his life. You scared the tar outta those boys.” Wit snickered. “You might’ve saved her and those babies for all you know.”
“That’s all I was trying to do. They didn’t deserve what they got, and I wanted to make it right.”
“I know that, but do you? Sounds like you’re second-guessin’ yourself a bit,” Wit questioned.
“What else is going on down in the Lair.” Killion grew uncomfortable and preferred not to turn his self-loathing into self-praising, so he changed the subject.
