Chapter 25
Make sure Levitz talks to Ada Dator, a nurse at the hospital. K told me she had a thing with Henry and is suspected to be stealing pills. Might be worth looking into.
Parked in her garage, Krystal read Berkley’s latest text, saw more dots appear, then disappear. So whatever she’d been about to say, she decided against it.
Krystal texted her back, then shot off another one to Levitz and Peter. At this point, Levitz was working with them and not against them. She didn’t bother to include Dewey because he was useless. She got immediate responses from both men so that was good.
You’re sure you’re good at Storm’s place? She texted her sister one more time because she couldn’t help herself.
OMG, I’m good. Thank you for checking but please don’t worry about me. Then a picture of a massive pool came through, followed with a selfie of Berkley and a golden retriever named Sunshine, who was also, weirdly, smiling too. So her sister actually was good and not just faking it.
Seeing Berkley smiling so goofily even with all this going on warmed Krystal’s big-sister heart.
She was always going to worry about her siblings.
That was simply the way it was. Their mom had been murdered, something that was still hard to think about since it had never been solved.
And their dad, useless man that he’d been, had abandoned all of them so it had been up to her to take charge.
Luckily she’d had Apollo helping out that first year but then he’d joined the military…
and she was just wasting time in her head instead of going inside.
Her sister was safe at the moment and that was what mattered. She just needed to figure out how Henry’s and James Reed’s murders were linked.
At least she was close to getting a warrant on Cain’s bar.
She’d gotten enough overtime approved for one of their younger officers to hang out at the bar today and they’d gotten a lot of pictures similar to the ones she, Peter and Micah had taken, with known felons moving in and out of the back of the bar.
But more than that, they’d gotten pictures of the bartender serving two underage girls and a couple other petty crimes.
Which meant they had enough for a warrant.
She had no idea if Cain had murdered Reed or was even involved, but Reed had owed Cain money, and the only way to get someone like Cain to talk was to force him.
Because he wouldn’t make a statement on anything if he didn’t have to.
And since they couldn’t even find a cell phone bill linked to Cain, they couldn’t track who he talked to.
The man operated as a ghost, likely using burners.
She still couldn’t figure how he’d be linked to Henry but the pills were coming from somewhere.
The hospital was a likely spot to be funneling pills.
Though it was hard to imagine that prick Henry doing something like that.
And she was officially done for the day. She needed to eat, shower and sleep. Or just sleep.
Exhausted before she’d even walked in the house, she tried to mentally prepare herself to see Mike. He’d texted her an hour ago asking if they could sit down and talk.
The optimistic part of her hoped this was a good thing. Before the past six months, they’d had no problem communicating. Things hadn’t been perfect, but they’d been pretty damn good. And she’d looked forward to going home, unlike now.
Steeling herself, she stepped into the kitchen and paused. Blinked.
Looked around.
Countertops were clean, no dishes in the sink, dishwasher running. And the biggest thing of all—or maybe second biggest—there was a candle lit on the island top. And she realized that wasn’t a big thing, but her husband had cleaned cleaned. Not some half-ass bullshit. Everything was sparkling.
And the biggest thing she noticed, there was a pot of…yep, chili on the stove. It was simmering and smelled amazing. Two bowls were set out along with a bag of Fritos and shredded cheese.
Okay, so maybe tonight wasn’t going to suck.
“Hey.” Mike stepped into the kitchen, his hair damp, expression tentative.
“Hey. You cooked.” Wow, way to state the obvious.
He gave her that boyish grin she’d fallen for long ago and she felt her heart do that little flip she’d forgotten about. “Yeah, I’m pretty overdue.”
“We both are.” They’d been living off takeout and that wasn’t good for any of them. They’d lost all their structure over the last six months, something she had to take partial responsibility for.
“You hungry?”
“Starving.” She hadn’t thought she was when she was sitting in the garage, all tense and worried, but something had loosened inside her now.
“I’ll make you a bowl…but first, I’m sorry for being such a shit. No excuses, just sorry,” he blurted, standing by the stovetop, looking lost.
She shoved her hands in her jeans mostly so she wouldn’t cross the distance between them and hug him. Because that’s what she wanted to do. She missed his arms around her, the way they used to fall asleep holding each other.
“Have you cheated on me?” She needed the answer. That was the one thing she wouldn’t forgive. Well, she wouldn’t forgive other things, but this was the only thing weighing on her.
His eyes widened in surprise. “The fact that you’re sincerely asking means I haven’t been doing a good job as a husband.
Something I already know. And no,” he added.
“I could never. There’s no one for me but you.
And I know I acted like an asshole about that picture.
I know there’s nothing between you and that cocky prick. ”
She snorted. “Nothing but annoyance.”
“On your end. He still wants you.”
She shrugged and stepped closer to Mike. “Probably true, but I only want you.” Since practically the moment they’d met.
He shoved out a sigh and covered the rest of the distance between them, pulling her into his arms. “I’ve got some stuff to tell you. Stuff that’s going to make you mad. But I know we can work through it.”
“I’m not loving where this is headed,” she said against his chest as she hugged him back. As long as he hadn’t cheated, they could work through whatever was happening. “So dish me some chili and let’s talk.”
He stepped away to grab their food, and while she was tempted to open a bottle of wine, she was worried she might get called back in to work. “You want a beer or anything?”
“Water is good. Jett reminded me to ‘hydrate’ as he left today.”
She let out a startled laugh. “That sounds exactly like him. ‘Mom, you’re drinking too much caffeine!’ As if that child knows what too much means.”
“He’s not wrong.”
“I know.” She loved all three of her boys equally but Jett had a covert caretaker’s soul. He was always looking out for all of them in little ways. “Where are the kids anyway?” She’d known they weren’t here since it had been so quiet.
“Playing basketball with the Jensen kids.”
Good, that meant they’d be out for a couple hours. “So, what’s this stuff that’s going to make me mad?”
Sighing, he set the bowl in front of her before sitting across from her. “There’s no good way to say it. I took half my retirement account and invested it in the startup. It’s why I’ve been working around the clock the last six months.”
Um. What. The. Hell. She blinked, beyond surprised he’d done something so stupid, and without even discussing it with her first. But she also knew she couldn’t say that if they wanted to have a productive conversation.
“Say something. Yell at me.”
“No… I don’t know what to say. That was…a choice.” A really stupid choice. Also something she couldn’t say—or shout, because that wasn’t going to be productive.
“It was insane, I know. But we’re already in the black.
” She saw a glint in his eyes she hadn’t seen in months.
He was excited about this. After leaving his old tech company, he’d broken off with some coworkers to start their own, and she could admit she wasn’t a hundred percent sure what they did.
It involved a lot of math, statistics and a bunch of stuff that made her eyes glaze over.
But her man was smart with that kind of stuff in a way she could just scratch the surface of.
“That’s good.”
“It’s incredible. We didn’t think we’d make a profit until at least the two-year mark but things…look good.” There was that glint again, a little brighter.
“From that look I’m guessing better than good?”
“If things keep on the same trajectory, I’ll be able to re-fund my retirement account over the next few years to get it back to where it was.”
“You’ll have lost all the interest.”
He held up his palms, his chili still untouched. “I know, but it was worth it.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me, then? Not ask me, because at the end of the day, it is your account.
Technically,” she added. “Because our retirement accounts affect both our futures.” And it hurt that he hadn’t run such a huge financial decision past her.
It wasn’t like him. If anything, he usually over explained things to her.
“I…don’t know. I was scared. Not of you, just scared, I guess, to take this chance. I didn’t want any outside noise—and I’m not calling you noise—”
“You kind of are,” she murmured.
“Fine. I wanted to do it and I didn’t want to have a discussion about it or the possibility that you’d say no.
I was thinking that I’d do it and ask for forgiveness later.
And I know that’s messed up. I was selfish and ended up throwing myself into the programming so much that the guys finally told me I was going to burn out. ”
Yeah, she could have told him that. “You’ve had no work-life balance. No work-family balance,” she added.
“I know. I already talked to the boys. Game nights are back on and there are going to be some changes around here.”