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“He had a call-out and I told him I didn’t want to be alone. It’s okay though, I left things good with him, he doesn’t know why I was really here.”
“This is bad.” Cole shakes his head as he assesses the crime scene.
“I know, but we’re gonna fix it.” I give him a stern look. “Leia’s mom and sister are at the spa, they could be back any time, that’s our most pressin’ problem.” I lay it out, hoping one of them's got an idea.
“That’s easily fixed, Leia, go get changed. You can go meet ‘em. Just keep ‘em out the house until we’re done,” Cole tells her as if it’s gonna be that fuckin’ simple.
“And how’s she gonna act normal, Cole? She just killed her fuckin’ father,” Garrett points out.
“I can do that.” Leia puts on a brave face, staining her cheeks with blood when she wipes away her tears with shaky hands.
“You can’t, it’s too much,” Garrett disagrees. “Wade, drive her back to our place, tell Maisie to take care of her, then get your ass back here.”
“What about her mom and sister? They can’t come back here and find this,” I point out.
“I’m on it.” Garrett lifts his phone out of his jacket and makes a call.
“Dalton, I need you and Tate to head to that new spa resort near Billing, you do whatever it takes to stop Mayor Walker’s wife and his daughter from leavin’…Idon’t know, be fuckin’ inventive!” he snaps, showing how stressed he is before he hangs up the phone.
“Take her home, Wade,” he orders, pointing to the door and staring at the body of the man who we all wanted to make suffer. I sense his anger and take Leia’s hand so I can walk her to the door.
“Wait.”
Garrett quickly thunders toward us, patting Leia down until he locates her cell, then pulling it from her pocket he quickly types out a message and hands it back.
“What was that?” I ask.
“Her car wasn’t parked out front, so I’m assuming her husband dropped her off.”
“Yes, he had a call-out.” Leia nods back at him.
“Well, then he’ll be expectin’ to pick ya back up. You just told him your dad’s taking you back.” Despite Garrett’s temper almost running out, he’s still thinkin’ with that clever head we need right now.
“Come on.” I go to lead Leia out of the house, unsure how much cool he has left, and not wanting her to be around when he loses it.
“There’s something else.” Leia stops me, and I brace myself for whatever the hell that somethin’ might be.
“It wasn’t just Breanna he killed.” She closes her eyes and looks like she’s building up some strength. “My dad killed Aubrey Mason too.” My eyes move immediately to Cole and when I see the shock on his face turn to aggression. I grab my girl’s shoulder and get her outta there fast, leaving Garrett to deal with the aftermath of what she just said.
“Cole, I need ya to stay calm.” Wade does the sensible thing and drags Leia away, while Cole’s shoulders start to heave and the anger builds up inside him.
“I can’t.” His words come out like a warning as he grips the edge of Walker’s desk.
“Cole!” I shout to get through to him. “Wade’s in some real shit here, he needs us to deal with this.”
“How the fuckam I supposed to deal with the fact he killed ‘em both, Garrett?” He comes at me like I’m the one he’s gonna hurt. And I stand strong, if taking a swing at me is gonna make him feel better, I’ll take it. What I need right now is for him to get focused. He grabs at my shirt and shoves me into the wall, and instead of raising his hand, he breaks down, tears filling up his eyes as the strain he’s holding on to me with weakens.
“I get it,” I tell him, clutching onto his shoulder.
“No, you don’t. You ain’t ever gonna get it. Yeah, we all lost Bree together and we all wanted to make him pay. But look what you got, Garrett. You're gonna go home to your wife and your kids when this is done, and all the dark you got inside ya will disappear. Wade’s got Leia. Don’t ya see? I was meant to have all that with her. I was gonna findusa way.” The pain in his eyes is hard to look at.
“Cole, I’m—”
“Don’t say you're sorry. I’m fed up with hearin’ people are sorry. I needed to make the people who hurt ‘em pay. I was livin’ for it.”
I got nothin’ to offer him, no words, no assurances and I feel useless.
“What do I got now?” He releases me, wiping his huge forearm across his face to brush away his tears.
