AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Michael brought them to our doorsteps, and Andrea did her part canoodling with Matias. We still didn’t know his position in the cartel, but he proved to be important.
The explosion that took Zach away damaged the structure of part of the original building. The insurance was covering it, but the renovations weren’t complete yet. Until then, we were renting a smaller space downtown, close to By Any Beans, Izzie’s coffee shop.
I entered our temporary base and found Haley at the reception desk. It always felt like a punch to my stomach whenever I saw her at her desk without Zach hovering around, both stealing moments to be closer.
“Morning.” I leaned down to kiss her cheek and noticed the dark circles around her eyes.
“Hi, Danny.” Her attempt to smile didn’t fool anyone.
“How are you hanging up?”
She just shrugged. “One day at a time.”
“What about Gabe?”
Her eyes turned glossy, and I felt like a jerk for bringing that up. I was worried about the kid, but asking about him was bringing more pain to sweet Haley. “He’s still so confused. I tried to explain it to him as best as I could without saying the actual words, but he insists thatZachyis still alive. He stopped asking me when Zach is coming back, but every chance he gets, he stands by the window, waiting for him. I don’t know what to do.” She choked, and my anger at the world arose. If anyone deserved their happy ending, it was Zach, Haley, and Gabe.
Life had a cruel way of ruining beautiful stories.
“Is there anything I could do to help? Maybe we should arrange more play dates between the kids. It could take his mind away from it all.”
“I’d like that.” She nodded in gratitude, then hesitated before whispering, “I’m still worried about her.”
Right after the funeral, I left Mia at her place—where she lived with Haley and Gabe. I was grateful for not leaving her alone. After weeks of showing no emotions, she reached her limit. After her outburst with me, she tore her room apart, breaking everything in sight. It was as frightening as it was heartbreaking.
It said a lot about her that she destroyed her space, but not where Haley and Gabe might see. That was their safe place, their haven after living through hell, and she made a point of not marring that for them.
The only thing she did outside of destroying her bedroom was to lean down every single photo of the house so she wouldn’t look at Zach’s picture anymore. The frames were still there, she couldn’t break them or throw them out, but the images were facing down, not to be seen again.
“Anything new?”
She shook her head. “She’s still not talking much. She interacts mostly with Gabe and Hugo, but even that seems to be painful.” She peered behindme to check on Mia’s office and resumed quietly. “I also think there’s something wrong with her health.”
“What do you mean?” Had I missed something?
Before she could answer, Ben walked in. He noticed our somber moods but didn’t have time to question us about it as Mia left her office to find us.
She waved weakly in greeting and jumped right into our work. “I think we have a lead on theAlacráns.”
That left us alert. I looked back at Haley, who looked pale but nodded at me to go with the guys, our paused conversation hanging. We crowded her office, and I missed our old space.
As we settled, Ben asked the same question he’d been asking since our fateful day. “How are you, Mia?”
She just nodded and forced a smile to pretend she was fine, right before she took charge of the questions so she didn’t need to talk about herself. “How are the kids? Fee and Duckie?” Duckie, also known as Teddy.
“They miss you,” Ben answered quietly.
She closed her eyes, pain clear in her features. “Please, don’t,” she whispered.
Ben mirrored Mia’s distraught, and I felt useless yet again, not knowing how to fix a situation that was beyond all of us.
“I’ve been looking at some files, and I think we found one of their bases,” she resumed, closing back her small window of emotion while rubbing her left hand.
“How did you find it?”
“I had some intel,” she dismissed me vaguely. Ben stared at her in suspicion but didn’t push. “I think we might find some answers there. It seems to be one of their main bases in the area, but they use it only for appointed meetings, they’re not there all the time.”
“We should check it out.” Ending them was becoming an obsession. They’d taken too much already, and I wouldn’t put it past them to take more.
