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“We’ll check it out,” I said, and ended the call. I placed my beer on the small table next to the sofa and stood. “We need to head out.” I didn’t say more than that, not with Cade standing and listening to everything being said. I shot off a message to Lola, telling her I had to head out but that I would be back and to just wait for me.
“We’ll meet you outside,” Ryan said, walking out of the room with Jord and Kyle on his tail.
“Son.” I stared at Cade. “I need to head out. You gonna be okay here for a few hours?”
“Yeah.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m nearly sixteen, Dad. Not six.”
I puffed out a breath. “Yeah, all right.” I pulled out my wallet and handed him a twenty. “Get yourself something for dinner, and lock the door behind me. Lola might turn up while I’m gone. You okay with that?”
I waited until he nodded, and then headed outside to the guys. Ryan and Kyle were already in Ryan’s SUV, and Jord was waiting next to my Mustang. They’d suited up, ready for whatever was about to happen, so I popped my trunk and pulled out my gear. My gun was already attached to my belt along with my badge, so all I needed was to put on my bulletproof vest, and I was ready.
I pushed into my car, switching the engine on, and giving Jord the run-down so he could relay it to Ryan and Kyle. What should have taken me sixty minutes, took more like forty thanks to the power of my Mustang engine. The closer we got to Cresthill, the more my gut churned.
“Something is happening,” I said to Jord when we were a couple of minutes out from the warehouse.
“Yeah, I feel it too,” Jord said, sitting forward in his seat. We’d always listened to what our guts told us, no matter what it was. It had saved our lives several times over.
I slowed the car right down, the gravel crunching under my tires, and pulled to the side at the opening of the road. We needed to go unseen until the last possible moment.
Ryan pulled in on the other side, and we all filed out, heading toward the warehouse in our usual formation. Jord in front, then me, Kyle, and Ryan taking up the rear. The lights in the warehouse cast a glow onto the gravel outside the house and illuminated a car I hadn’t seen before, but that wasn’t what had me halting with my han
d in the air to alert the guys. It was the figure holding a knife while standing over a limp body.
What the…
We all drew our guns, our instincts kicking in as we moved closer. “Put the weapon down,” Jord commanded, aiming his gun at the back of a woman. A woman I knew. A woman who shouldn’t have been here.
What the hell was going on?
Jord took a couple of steps forward, and I finally kicked into gear. I stowed my gun away, knowing the guys had my back, and walked past Jord.
“Brody!”
I held my hand up, silencing Ryan, and stepped closer. My gaze flitted over to Hut lying on the gravel, blood flowing from his neck like a river, but his chest wasn’t moving, and I didn’t need to check to see if he was alive. He wasn’t. And it had been at the hands of—
“Lola,” I said, my voice soft.
Her body stiffened, and she slowly turned, looking away from Hut’s body and at me. “Brody?” Her wide eyes and pale face told me she was in shock, but it was the sadness along with hope that had me wondering what had happened here. I reached forward and took the knife out of her shaking hands, handing it to Jord who was at my back in seconds.
“What happened?” I asked, needing to know but not wanting to. This wouldn’t be good for her, and the fact that we’d turned up would just be another nail in the coffin. Had it been anyone else, they’d have investigated it and found out the facts, but we had history, and that wouldn’t serve her well.
“He...he...oh god.” She choked on a sob, her hands gripping her chest. “I killed him.” Tears ran down her face, mixing in with blood that I wasn’t sure was hers or Hut’s. “I killed him.”
I swallowed, not sure how to feel about the fact that she’d clearly stabbed him in the neck, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting her out of here and away from the body. But there was only one way to do that, and just as the thought occurred to me, Ryan was sidling up next to us.
“We’re gonna have to take her in, Brody.” His lips were in a flat line, telling me he didn’t like this either, but we didn’t have a choice. If we took her in, at least we had control over the situation and could get to the bottom of it while keeping Lola at the forefront of our minds. Another cop wouldn’t do that. He’d lock her in a cell and probably try to throw the book at her. The worst things possible were springing to mind, and all it did was solidify what I was about to do.
“I know.” I pulled in a deep breath. “Get techs down here, we’ll take her to the offices. Meet us there once this place has the right people examining the scene.”
Ryan nodded and pulled his cell out, already calling it in. I stepped closer to Lola, careful not to touch her. “We have to take you in, darlin'.” I hated the words coming out of my mouth. Hated that I had to say them to the woman who I’d vowed to protect from the man who was on the ground. The man who was now dead.
She didn’t say anything. She didn’t acknowledge me, and she didn’t even flinch when I gently encased her forearm with my hand. She was a shell of the Lola I knew, and that destroyed me more than anything.
I threw my keys at Jord. “Bring the car down. You can drive us in.” I expected a joke about me letting him drive my baby, but he didn’t. He just caught the keys and jogged ahead of us.
“Lola?” I pulled us to a stop behind the car parked on the gravel, spotting the headlights of my Mustang as Jord turned the engine on. “Lola?”
She looked down at the ground, blinking rapidly as she stared at her blood-coated hands. I wanted to know what was going through her head. I wanted to wrap my arms around her and tell her everything was okay, that I’d protect her, but I couldn’t. Not when she was like this.
