AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They’d departed in Corey’s beat-up old Ford F-150, leaving his Three Vets truck in the driveway and Dianne’s Mercedes in his attached garage. The Mercedes was nine years old, bought for her by Aaron as a wedding gift, but the perception of wealth was not an image they wanted to portray.
Once they’d made it past the reporters and the two scowling detectives, they’d taken a very winding route to Ed’s house, where they’d changed to a Chevy Suburban that Ed had appropriated from somewhere. Corey didn’t ask. He knew that Ed wouldn’t allow them to be connected to the vehicle.
They hadn’t been followed by either the cops or the media, and that made Corey suspicious. He’d assumed that someone would try to tail them, so they’d come up with the getaway plan in advance.
Still, better safe than sorry. Their camp’s location had remained a secret for nearly four years, and Corey wasn’t about to see that change now.
Dianne looked around, seeming to only now realize that they’d swapped vehicles. “Where are we?”
“My house,” Ed said gently.
“Are we leaving Corey’s truck here? Why?”
Corey patted her knee. “I don’t trust that we aren’t being followed. So we’re going to use Ed’s SUV for now.” None of their vehicles could be tracked through GPS. They routinely dismantled the location systems every time they either bought or appropriated a new set of wheels. But he wouldn’t put it past the cops or the media to have slipped a tracking device under his truck. “You just rest. It’s been a busy morning.”
“I am tired,” she admitted.
Some people were nasty drunks. Some got giggly. Dianne simply went to sleep, her escape of choice ever since they’d lost Liam.
Corey wished he could make her stop, but he was going to have to use her alcoholism to keep her out of the way for the next day or two.
Ed glanced up to the rearview mirror. “I still don’t understand why Rick and Jace did it. Why were they so desperate to get Aaron out of jail?”
This line of questioning had also been planned. If Rick and Jace were going to talk to anyone, it would be Dianne. She was just drunk enough to spill secrets without passing out first.
“Did they say anything to you, Di?” Corey asked.
She hesitated, looking away. “I overheard Rick talking to Aaron a few weeks ago. Rick kept asking if they could live with us again. Aaron eventually said that they could.”
Having his brothers go live with Aaron again would have been a gift. They’d started out with Aaron and Dianne after their mother had died but had come to live with Corey when Liam had gotten sick. Dianne hadn’t been able to cope with Liam’s treatment plus two more kids.
Corey had done his time taking care of the little assholes. He’d housed, fed, and clothed them for more than three fucking years. He’d tried to teach them some respect, but they’d fought him at every step. Especially Rick. Corey was done. “But that still doesn’t explain why they were so desperate to get Aaron out of jail.”
She looked apprehensive. “Aaron didn’t say yes at first when Rick asked if they could live with us again. He said he wasn’t sure. Used my drinking as an excuse. Now I know he didn’t say yes at first because he was already planning to run away to the Bahamas with that whore Sandra. At least that won’t happen now that they’re both in jail. At least God gave me that.”
Corey agreed that Aaron’s girlfriend was a whore, but he needed Dianne to focus. “What about Rick?”
She sighed. “When Aaron first said no, Rick asked him about emancipation.”
“What?” Corey had to rein in the quick flash of temper. “From who?”
She recoiled at his fury. He rarely let her see it. “Um... from you.”
Anger roiled up in his gut. Ungrateful little bastards. Corey had given up a lot to take care of his asshole brothers and this was the thanks he got?
“What did Aaron say?” he gritted out.
“Aaron told Rick that they could live with us again. Not like there was ever an ‘us,’ ” she said bitterly. “Aaron was blowing smoke like he always does. He lies like he breathes. I should have told the boys that Aaron was planning to run to the Bahamas with that whore. He never intended to keep his promises to them or to me. If they’d known that Aaron was a dirty, cheating liar, maybe they wouldn’t have been so stupid and done what they did last night.”
“What about Jace? Where was he in all this?”
“Jace is never the leader, Corey. You know that. I don’t think he even knows what ‘emancipation’ means.” She bit her lip. “Will you still help them if you find them?”
“Yes. Of course,” he lied. At least this newest tidbit would make what he had to do to Rick easier to swallow. He’d had a tinge of doubt that he could kill his own brother. Now? Not so much. Emancipation, my ass.
She exhaled in relief. “Thank God. They’re just children. Don’t be too harsh with them.”
They weren’t children. Rick was sixteen and Jace was fifteen. At that age, I was working to help my mother put food on the table because my bastard father was in prison. But he understood Dianne’s emotion. Having lost Liam, she wanted to mother Rick and Jace. When she was sober, anyway.
