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“He didn’t,” Everleigh said.
“Just one second, Everleigh,” Dr. Price said as he waved me toward the hallway. “She needs to be examined,” he explained. “And she could use some calm. You’re all over the place,” he said, and, well, he was right about that. “Go cool off. Let me look over her, then come back in when you calm down.”
“Okay,” I agreed, knowing she deserved the best of me after what she’d been through, and that I was nowhere near that. “Take care of her,” I said, getting a knowing nod from him.
“I will.”
With that, I turned and moved out front, wanting to take five minutes to get my head on right. So I could go back in there and comfort her.
But then my gaze landed on my brother who was talking to a uniform, likely the one whose cruiser we’d stolen.
“You motherfucker,” I hissed, charging toward him.
The anxiety of Everleigh’s health lessened, the rage I felt toward him for putting her in this position came back.
“It’s okay,” Dallas said to the officer as he took a step away. “Watch your fucking tone,” he warned as he moved toward me.
“I’ll talk to you however the fuck I want,” I countered. “When all of this was your fucking fault.”
“I was doing my job,” he insisted, glaring at me with eyes so much like my own.
“Your job. Dragging innocent women in on bullshit charges while the real bad guys got away? Doing a great fucking job, man.”
“Her fingers were all over the box.”
“And seeing as sheworkedthere, that was not enough to bring her in on. So busy trying to get more feathers in your fucking cap to actually do a thorough job.”
“You don’t know a fucking thing about my job.”
“I know I managed to do it for you in less than a day. And do itright.”
“You’re just pissed off because you were fucking the woman.”
“I wasn’t,” I countered. Because I wasn’t. Not at the time, anyway. “I just knew an innocent woman when I saw one. Everleigh? Fucking seriously, Dallas? Probably the most innocent woman in this entire fucking town.”
“What the fuck can you possibly know about innocence?” he shot back.
“What the fuck happened to you?” I asked, exhaling hard.
“Me?” he asked, letting out a humorless laugh. “What happened to me? What happened to you?”
“What happened to me?” I scoffed. “I had a dad who couldn’t work, a brother who needed to be provided for, and bills piling up every single fucking day. I was drowning in responsibilities I didn’t ask for, and no way to handle them save for finding a job that would give me a lot of money in a short amount of time.”
“Don’t you dare blame me and Pop for your life decisions.”
“How did you think the lights stayed on, Dallas? When Pop was in bed for months on end, when the disability paychecks barely covered putting some food in the fridge? Who handed him the two grand you needed to go to the fucking Academy in the first place? Even when you stopped speaking to me.”
That seemed to shock him enough to silence whatever he was going to spit at me.
“Why?” he asked.
“Why what?”
“Why would you pay for me to train to be a cop when you were a criminal?” he asked.
“Because it was your dream. And because you were my brother and what you wanted mattered to me. Regardless of how you felt about me and my choices.”
It was like I’d knocked the wind out of him with that.
