22. Aubree
22
AUbrEE
TRUTH OR DARE
“ I ’m clocking out.” I duck my head through Minka’s door and wait for her too-tired eyes to drag up to mine. It’s infusion night for her, and she’s working herself to death… again. Which means Archer will be by soon to scoop her up and get her home. “I packed my DBs away, and emailed you the preliminary reports. I found nothing we didn’t expect to find.”
“Ballistics?”
“I sent the bullets off a couple of hours ago. Ballistics officer acknowledged receipt and said we can head over to the precinct in a few weeks when he can clear his schedule to test them.”
“Tox?”
“I sent requests to the lab, since this is homicide. But Raquel is backed up and will take a while to get to them. Cases have been pended. Yours?”
She plops her elbows onto her desk and rests her chin in her hands. “Same. Everything you just said: same. Doctor Flynn wrapped hers up, too, which means we’re essentially done as far as that case goes. It’ll take months for everything else to come back, so we just…” She blinks. Slowly. Sleepily. “We move on.”
“You need to go home and medicate before you fall on your ass. What time is Archer getting here?”
“Soon.” She tilts her head and checks the time on her computer screen. Then she repeats, “Soon. You wanna wait for us? ”
“Nah. I’m meeting Tim at the bar, and my stomach is rumbling already. I’ll text him when I walk outside, so he can start my dinner. By the time I sit down, my plate should be waiting for me.”
“Be careful.” She waves me off, sending droopy eyes back to the computer screen. “He’s probably already waiting for you outside. But if he’s not, call and talk to him while you walk. That’ll keep you safe.”
“I’ve walked these two blocks like, seven million times before. Alone. Safe.”
“Uh-huh. But now you’re dating Timothy Malone the Third. That sort of thing comes at a price. Make the call and stop being a stubborn pain in my ass. Swing by the apartment tomorrow morning before work, if you want. I wanna talk to the guys about the Booth case.”
“It’s not their case.”
“No. But they’re gonna have inside information anyway. I wanna hear it before it hits the news.”
“It’s too bad the vigilante only kills the pedophiles and scum.” I grin when her eyes swing back to mine. “Nathan Booth could do with silencing, don’t you think? It would make our lives more peaceful.”
“You make it sound like the vigilante is for hire.” She glances down again, making a point of studying her computer screen once more. “Personally, I’m happy to know they’ve been quiet and, ya know, not killing anyone lately.”
“Shame. Since Booth’s existence annoys me.” I turn from the door and snag my coat and bag from the back of my chair, then dragging the first on, I walk and work on the zipper as I go. Snow drifts from the clouds outside, sticking to the sidewalk and threatening to drop me on my backside during my trek to the bar. But I step into the elevator, and out again nine floors later, only to discover when I move onto the sidewalk outside, Tim is not, in fact, waiting to walk me home.
“Bummer.” I huddle into my coat and sigh when the wind whips my hair around. But I fold my arms and wish for a hat to keep my ears warm. Gloves, for my fingers. Tim, to wrap himself around my body and press my ear over his heart. Then I start walking, as anxiety leeches into my blood and the neon sign two blocks away becomes my beacon. My buoy.
“Hey, lady?”
It doesn’t take a genius to know whoever is calling me lady in the dark isn’t coming for a friendly chat, so I quicken my steps and keep my head down. My body trembles, not only from the cold, but from what I know is trouble. But I push on. Faster. Determined .
“Hey!” Footsteps echo against the sidewalk, then a pair of strong hands grip my sleeve and yank me around. My feet leave the concrete for a beat, and my heart jumps to the base of my throat, cutting off my air and seizing my lungs. But then he tosses me toward the wall, air bursting free again and the back of my head rapping against the brick.
Black sludge and nasty vitriol spread throughout my veins, while a pair of almost black eyes stare into mine.
The desperate hunter and his prey. Helpless, and yet, not.
“My boss has been looking for your brother today, Doc.” He leans closer. Closer, until the tip of his nose almost touches mine. “Seems he’s in hiding.”
The stench of body odor and bad choices invades my senses, forcing my nose up and my face away to escape the smell, but he grabs me, digging his nails into my cheeks and forcing me back around.
“Call him. Tell him to pay up.”
“Call who ?” I shove him back, yet his six-foot-tall, two-hundred-pound body doesn’t move a single inch. “Who the hell are you?”
“Your baby brother owes us a lot of money, Doctor Dead. If he doesn’t settle up, you might be the one performing his autopsy. Consider this your one and only warning.”
Anger pounds in my blood as I grab his wrist and dig my nails in. I break skin and yank his hand from my face. “Don’t threaten my family.”
“It’s not a threat. It’s a promise that if Duane isn’t square by morning, he’ll be dead.” He shoves me against the wall again, slamming me back until bells ring in my ears. “Pass the message on, cutie. I’d hate to have to ugly up your face just to get his attention.”
My breath races in short, sharp, choking pants that sting my throat and send lances of panic scalding through my blood. But I try to focus. I look left, and then right. I search the faces of people who wander past, clueless to what just happened right in front of them. I count my thundering heartbeats and stretch my toes in my boots, searching for a way to ground myself before I crumple into an unwanted panic attack.
Calm down.
Relax. And then think.
My phone trills in my back pocket, bleating in the darkness and vibrating against my butt. So I reach around and find Tim’s name flashing on the screen. “Oh God.” My breath shudders again. Emptying my lungs and destroying the work I’d done to calm. But I swipe to answer and bring a shaking hand to my ear. “Hello?” My voice crackles, though I attempt to keep it steady. “T-Tim? ”
“What’s wrong?” His tone turns deadly in an instant. “Aubree? What’s wrong, baby?”
“Um…” I sniffle and turn to continue in the direction of the bar.
“Aubree!?”
“Some guy just wanted to talk, I guess.” I swallow and nervously brush the front of my jacket down. “I don’t even know his name. He didn’t say.”
“Where are you?”
“About a block away.” I hate that my voice rises. That emotion makes it bubble and steals the fierceness I wish I could ride into battle with. “I’m walking your way.”
“Alone?” He stalks through the bar and bursts through the door, so the sound on his side of the line changes from a muted buzzing of chatter to the constant hum of traffic. “You’re walking home alone, Aubree? What the fuck?”
“I walk home alone all the time!” I try for angry, but my voice breaks anyway and ruins my attempt. “Don’t get mad at me because I’m doing something I have every right to do.”
“You’re right. I know.” He starts running in the dark, his powerful form eating up the sidewalk as tears burn in the backs of my eyes. “I’m so sorry, Aubree.” His breath comes faster as he pushes himself in my direction. “I didn’t mean to get mad at you.”
“Hurry.” I drop my hand and kill our call, and though a smart woman would consider watching her surroundings, my eyes are all for him. My pounding heart and yearning stomach. I refuse to break eye contact with my hulking hero, then I open my arms and choke out a sob when he runs straight through me, picking me up on the fly and crushing my chest to his.
“I’m sorry.” Frenzied, he presses me to the brick wall and pushes hair off my face, his thumbs scraping beneath my eyes to collect the tears I hadn’t realized were falling. “I’m so sorry, Aubree Grace.”
“It’s okay.” I bury my face against his neck and burrow in deep. “I’m okay.”
“What happened?” He twines his fingers in my hair and attempts to pull me back. “Aubree? What happened?”
“The guy pushed me against the wall. He said Duane owes him money, and he’s sick of waiting.”
Fury burns between us like a tidal wave of lava. But he yanks me from the brick and turns to move toward the bar. Men march behind us. Men with guns. But before the panic can rear up in my blood and take me, I study their faces and recognize who they are. Guards. One from Felix’s wedding. And another, the driver who brought us home from the airport.
His men.
“You’re safe.” He tucks my face by his neck and croons by my ear. “I promise you’re safe. And I’ll make sure Duane is safe, too.”
“What the hell is going on?” I shove back again, forcing him to rearrange his grip or risk dropping me. “Duane’s in trouble?”
“You don’t have to worry about it. I’ll go find him now and take care of it.”
“You’ll find who? Duane?”
“I’ll sweep him up and put him somewhere Booth’s people won’t touch him.”
“Booth’s?” I unravel my legs and stretch until he has no choice but to put me down. “You knew Duane was doing something wrong?”
“No, I?—”
“I didn’t mention Nathan Booth! You did.”
“Aubree—”
“Just tell the damn truth! For the first time in your life, tell me something real. You knew about Duane?”
“Yes!” He grabs the back of my neck and turns me, forcing me to keep walking. “Yes, okay? I knew Duane was getting into trouble. I knew who he was getting into trouble with. So I’ve been intervening and trying to make it better.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I didn’t want to make you worry.” He makes us walk faster, gently tugging my bag from my arm and handing it off to someone else. Anyone else. “Your brother is doing dumb brother stuff right now. He’s still young, and he’s making shitty, impulsive decisions. I knew he was brushing uncomfortably close to Booth, so I stepped in.”
“And what?”
Confused, he massages the back of my neck and searches my eyes. “What?”
“You knew he was coming up near Booth, so you stepped in and what ? What did you do?”
“I told them to fuck off.”
“Why would you do that? Duane’s not your problem. You hadn’t even met him before two days ago.”
“Well…” He firms his lips, his head on a swivel as he searches the street ar ound us. Then he cuts right and leads me through the bar door. “I intervened a while ago. When I found out he was making a dick of himself.”
I stop on a dime, only to stumble when he keeps going and his hand remains on my neck. “Tim? You acted like you’d never met him before when I introduced you at the wedding!”
He turns me to the doorway and leads me up the stairs. “I was omitting information so you wouldn’t worry.”
“You were lying!”
“Semantics,” he counters callously. “The point is, Duane is a shitty card player, and he owed some vicious assholes some money. It came to my attention he couldn’t afford to pay that debt, so I did it for him.” He slings his apartment door open and moves me through the way he’s done a million times in the past. “I paid, I told Duane to get his head on straight, and then I went on with my life.”
“So if you paid, why are they asking for more?”
“Because he’s a really shitty card player, and he doesn’t learn a lesson when it’s slapping him in the face. He went back again. Lost again. Now Booth is under attack down at the bay, so his troops are sweeping the city and scrounging their pennies together. It just so happens your brother owes him a few of those pennies.”
“So they thought they could threaten me in the street and, what? Coins would fall out of my pockets?”
“It’s about pressure points,” he grits out, dragging me back and crushing me against his chest. His heart pounds almost as fast as mine. But where I default to tears, he moves to anger. “They want their money, and if Duane is less than cooperative, their next step is to press down on the people he cares about. Them threatening his sister is the fucking spot I knew would eventually come.”
“So you just… you knew these things were happening and never once mentioned it? You didn’t think to share with me that I should watch over my shoulder? I have seven siblings, Tim! That leaves six more pressure points out there, living their lives with no clue they might be slammed against a wall. Three of my siblings are female. They have kids too. They’re vulnerable, and you said nothing?”
“I don’t believe you’re Duane’s pressure point.” He yanks me in and rests a kiss on the top of my head. Breathing so warm air bathes my scalp. “You’re mine.”
“Yours?”
“Duane is a baby fish in a massive pond. They want the marlin, Aubree. Not the goldfish. They know Malone means money, but putting pressure on your sisters isn’t gonna be nearly as effective as putting it on you. I predicted this a while ago, so I’ve been watching the situation and keeping you safe. But Nathan is desperate today, so they skipped a few fuckin’ steps and jumped ahead.” He pulls back and rests his forehead on mine. “Stay here and I’ll take care of it.”
“Wait!” Panic lances in my blood when pictures of war form in my mind. Carnage. Bleeding men and smoking barrels. “You’re not leaving.”
“I am.” He backs up to the door and opens it to accept the bag his man offers in silence. “Nathan Booth has outstayed his welcome. I let shit slide when it didn’t affect me or the people I love, but he destroyed that leniency when he approached you tonight. Get the car,” he murmurs to the guard. Then he closes the door and sets my bag down. “I’m gonna get your brother and put him somewhere else for a while. Then I’m gonna do what I was supposed to do from the start. I’ll eliminate Booth and take back my city.”
“No.” I charge forward in an instant, wrapping myself around his strong body and linking my fingers at his back. “I’m saying no.”
“Aubree—”
“I’m saying this is non-negotiable. If you walk out that door tonight, I won’t be here when you get back.”
“Aubree!”
“I’ll leave and freeze you out for the rest of my life.” I pull back and search his eyes. “I’ll move out of my apartment and scare the little pigeon who visits my window away, and I’ll leave this city if that’s what I have to do to cut you off. If you walk out this door and go in search of those men, then I’m walking too.”
“I’m trying to keep you safe! Dammit, Aubree. I’m trying to shield you and your stupid fuckin’ brother from men whose go-to is violence and depravity.”
“So send one of your guys to pick Duane up if you have to. Put him somewhere if you absolutely must. But if you leave, we’re through.”
“I’ll risk it.” He grabs the door handle and forces me back with his other hand. “I’ll come back and beg for you if I have to. Eventually, you’ll forgive me, because you love me. That’s what we do. We piss each other off, and then we make up. I’ll save your brother’s life and eliminate a threat, you’ll throw a tantrum and trash my apartment, and then tomorrow, we move on with our lives.”
“I’ll move on,” I agree, my heart in my throat and a headache pounding at the base of my skull. “Without you. If you become the monster you’ve spent three decades avoiding, then I don’t want you anyway.”
“Aubree! You cannot expect me to stay here and tolerate them touching you! They scared you. So I’ll kill them.”
“Kill them, and I’ll file for a divorce.” I stand taller and challenge the mafioso who chose a different path in life. And then I smile when his eyes flare wide with guilt. “Truth or dare, Malone. Wanna play?”