Chapter 7
I give just about enough of a fuck to keep me out of jail.
—Texts from Hollis to Keda that’ll never get answered
QUINCY
6 months later
“What’s this?” I asked, catching the paper that’d just printed on the printer next to my brother’s desk.
Itilted my head, my brain playing some weird game of déjà vu with me at the name on the paper. One thing in particular, though, had my eyes fixated on it.
Aname.
Hollis.
Hollis.
Hollis.
Hollis.
“That is the comedian’s information. The one who’s coming to town tonight and playing at the CowboyStadium,” Quaid grumbled. “We’re working jointly with Ft. WorthPoliceDepartment and IrvingPoliceDepartment, because apparently this comedian dude is a big deal.”
Funny, if he was such a big deal, why had I never heard of him?
Iread off the information about him and drew a blank. “Never heard of him.”
Nowthe name Hollis was definitely ringing a bell.
“Me, neither,” Quaid admitted. “But he’s apparently number one on Spotify right now and thinks he’s hot shit because of that.”
Iflipped to the next page and froze.
Ihadn’t seen her face in six months, but I’d know it anywhere.
Itwasn’t every day that you told someone her best friend had committed suicide, and she lost her goddamn mind.
Thename definitely made sense, now.
“And that’s his stalker,” Quaid said, seeing the image I was staring at.
Stalker? What?
“What?” I asked in surprise.
HadI heard him correctly?
“His stalker,” Quaid repeated. “Or, at least, his alleged stalker. I read the judge’s report. Truthfully, I didn’t think he had enough evidence of her being a stalker to warrant a restraining order, but he still has one. Either way, we have to enforce it. If she’s seen anywhere near his vicinity tonight, she gets arrested.”
Ishook my head, trying to figure out how the shy, broken woman who was HollisAue, could also be TaiteDeRosa’s stalker. The two didn’t add up.
“Huh,” I shook my head. “I can’t see it.”
Inthe photo they had of Hollis, she was dressed in white. She was smiling wide for the camera, and her eyes were sparkling. She had straight white teeth, dark brown hair, and beautiful cognac-colored eyes.
Eventhe harsh way the printer framed her face didn’t detract from her beauty.
“If she’s a stalker, I’ll eat my shoe.” I shook my head.
Butseriously, there was no way this woman was a stalker. She didn’t fit the vibe.
“They are all crazy, Quincy. Don’t you know that by now?” Quaid jeered.
Iflipped him off. “Fuck you.”
Apparently, I had a rap sheet of crazy females I tended to date for long periods of time before I figured it out, so sue me.
Iwas attracted to crazy.
“What kind of evidence did they have?” I asked. “Why’d they give him a restraining order?”
Justas I asked that, Garrett walked up in plainclothes, looking a little worse for wear.
“What happened to you?” Quaid asked.
“Got in a fight with a suspect. Suspect decided to flee, I chose to chase. Caught him right before he was trying to go over a barbed wire fence. He fell into the dumpster, and I had to go retrieve him because dumb-fuck decided to fall on his carotid. Got a bit dirty,” Garrett grumbled. “Hey, that’s your hot chick from that suicide a few months back, isn’t it?”
Garrettdidn’t forget a face.
Thenagain, I didn’t usually forget faces either when they looked like hers.
Buthe was, in all seriousness, a genius. That was why he’d once upon a time been so good at undercover work. He could remember names, faces, and details that everyone else would forget.
“What’s this now?” Quaid asked, leaning back in his computer chair.
“This girl showed up and I swear I saw Quincy’s soul leave his body.” Garrett grinned. “But then she lost her shit because her best friend committed suicide. Quincy here had to console her, and I swear to God, I knew that one day they’d be together based on how he was holding her.”
“Well, joke’s on you,” I mumbled darkly, trying to resist the urge to fold up the sheet and shove it into my pocket to look at later. “We’re nothing.”
“Yet.” He shrugged. “Hey, do you still need me tonight? That guy fucked me over, got blood everywhere, and I need to shower.”
Quaidgroaned. “I need help, though.”
“You don’t need anything,” Garrett said. “You just like the help because it makes your life easier. Because you know damn well and good someone won’t show, and then you’ll actually have to leave your desk.”
“Hey,” Quaid said. “Fuck you. That’s not very nice.”
“Not very nice, but incredibly accurate,” I teased Quaid. “You’re at your desk so much now, you’re getting a little pudge.”
Garrettlaughed.
“You fucking asshole.” Quaid grabbed his stomach with both hands. “I am not getting pudgy. MartyMart, am I getting pudgy?”
MartyMart, better known as DetectiveMarten, looked over at the three of us. His gaze settled on Quaid, though, and he tilted his head sideways for a few long seconds before saying, “Well, you are at your desk a lot. I wouldn’t say you’re getting pudgy, though. Just maybe soft.”
Quaidslapped his hand onto his heart and said, “I broke my foot!”
“You broke your big toe,” I corrected. “And it’s been healed for the last four weeks. It’s time to get out of this little cubicle hell and start living again.”
Itwas more than that. He’d not only broken his big toe, but he’d also torn his Achilles tendon during a foot chase. A foot chase that he’d still apprehended his suspect during, then whined like a little girl for a week before our sister, Ande, finally convinced him to stop being a dumbass and go get it checked out.
Turnsout, it was torn, he had a broken big toe from the fall, and he’d been walking around on it all week like it was fine. Which it wasn’t.
Quaidthrew his arm around my shoulders, then pulled me in tight to his side. “So does this mean you’ll help me tonight if Garrett needs to leave?”
Iwas about to say no, but the paper in my hand felt like it was burning a hole through my palm. Almost as if I needed to do this just for the possibility of seeing her again.
Ifolded up the paper, glad I now had an excuse to keep it, and tucked it into my pocket. “Remember my day off.”
“Hey, you swindled me into covering your shift in two weeks. Why do you need so many days off?” Auden asked as he walked up, punched Garrett in the kidney, then knocked Quaid’s arm off my shoulder before pushing through us to his desk.
Hisdesk that we were all gathered around.
Whywere we gathered around it? BecauseAuden was the most likely one to have snacks, and we were all hungry.
Hemade a show of opening up his snack drawer, and we all acted innocent when he found it ransacked. “You are all such assholes.”
We’dall learned to pick locks when we were fifteen and sneaking out of the house to go drink and fuck girls in high school. We’d had to learn to be really fucking good at it, too—the lock picking, not the drinking and fucking girls—because our parents were cops. Sneaking around a bunch of cops who knew everything we did, and when we did it, wasn’t easy.
Butwe’d accomplished it anyway.
Oursisters were much nicer to our parents in high school.
Thenthey’d both flown the coop, Addison for the AirForce and Ande for nursing school, then as a flight medic.
WhenAddison had died four years ago, our lives had been irrevocably changed, and not a single day passed when we didn’t miss the hell out of her.
Dealingwith suicide was hard.
Thatwas why when I had to tell anyone about their loved ones doing the same thing, it broke my heart a little bit each time.
Mysister, Addison, had suffered at the hands of someone who was supposed to love her. A man we hadn’t even known was her husband until Addison had taken her life then left Ande a journal written in their own secret code that only she would be able to read.
Luckily, the man who helped put my sister into the ground had thought he could play with fire and not get burned. Ande’s now-husband, Keene, had caught Addison’s husband trying to hurt Ande when she’d found out about Addison’s abuse, and Keene had made sure that the douchebag I refused to acknowledge with his name would spend the rest of his life in prison.
Funnyenough, Keene’s best friend, Autry, who worked at the circus with him, had caught the douchebag and beat him up so bad that he was no longer right in the head.
Honestly, I was sort of glad that Autry and Keene had kept me out of the punishment and subsequent man hunt. I would’ve been obligated to stop the beating, and then the douchebag would be in a lot better position to beg for forgiveness.
Thedouchebag deserved nothing but the worst for the rest of his life.
“What has you scowling like that?” Atlas, Auden’s twin, asked as he rolled up between us, snatching up a snack-sized Twizzler. “You look like you’re about to commit murder.”
Iglanced up to see him staring at me, not Auden who was scowling about his snacks being gone.
Seeingno point in lying about why I was ‘murderous,’ I said, “I was thinking about Addie.”
“Ahh,” Atlas said, understanding covering his face. “I had one of those moments myself today.”
Weall did.
Itwas normal.
Atleast, that was what our therapist friend—JonathanDavy, who was the therapist for the police department—had said when he asked me how I was holding up, and I told him I wanted to murder everyone who ever abused another human being.
“Back to the matter at hand,” Quaid said. “Anyone else want to volunteer to work tonight? Pay’s fuckin’ great.”
“I get paid?” I asked, a gleam in my eyes.
Iwas currently in the process of building a house out in the middle of nowhere. I could use all the money I could get.
Thecommute to work was fuckin’ awful from the new place, but I got to pee off the front porch with no one around to tell me I couldn’t.
Honestly, it was like a breath of fresh air.
Though, getting called out at two in the morning for a murder fucking sucked when you had to drive thirty minutes to get there.
Luckily, almost all of my callouts happened at night when the roads weren’t as congested.
“How much is the pay?” Atlas asked as he reached for a snack-sized Snicker that time.
“Enough that it’ll be worth coming in,” Quaid said. “You going to check on your house today?”
Atlasscratched his head, a frown on his face.
Allof us were currently building in the same area our sister and Keene had built. My house and Atlas’s were the first to get started, and the rest were set to take place shortly after ours. The framer crew had already started on Atlas’s.
Minewas in the drywall/roof stage.
“Yeah,” he sighed. “Luckily, they did a pretty good job on Quincy’s, giving me a little bit of wiggle room with not going out there every day. Yeah, sure. I’ll help.”
“What about you?” Quaid asked Auden.
“Big fat negative. I have a date,” Auden explained.
Irolled my eyes.
Auden’sidea of a date and the rest of our idea of a date were completely different.
Thefolded piece of paper seemed to heat in my pocket at the thought of dating.
Iwas ready to settle down.
Iwas the oldest of our entire group, and I was starting to feel the itch.
Iwanted someone I could come home to every day after a terrible night of work. I wanted someone to talk to without judgment, and someone who would give me babies.
Therest of us kind of felt the same way, though Garrett tended to go either way at times.
ButAuden was firmly in the ‘I don’t ever want to settle down’ stage of his life after a breakup.
Truthfully, the dude was still in love with his ex, and he wasn’t willing to admit it.
Thenagain, that was a common theme in our family.
Quinnwas still in love with his high school sweetheart.
“Who wants to go eat?” I asked. “I have what, an hour and a half until I need to start?”
“Two,” Quaid said. “First, they’re going to the arena. I’ll just use you as crowd control in your police cruiser for that. Once they leave the arena, you can follow them to wherever they’re going. As of right now, it’s a club.”
Fuckin’ awesome.
Ihated clubs.
Turnsout, the one they went to was the worst of them all.
Myleast favorite out of a bunch of unfavorable clubs, this one was called Jett, and was owned by a douchebag millionaire with a chip on his shoulder. He also didn’t understand the fire code, and continuously overcrowded the club with no regard to fines. Plus, he was stuck up a buddy’s ass who just so happened to be a judge, and that meant Jett was never closed down despite multiple violations.
Ontop of it all, Jett also had fights break out all the time. Not to mention not one, not two, but fuckin’ four murders in the parking lot, bathroom, and surrounding area. It was a powder keg waiting to blow, and it’d never gotten better in the four years it’d been open.
Needlessto say, as I was walking around Jett, wishing I was anywhere else but there, I was in a terrible mood.
Ishould’ve just taken the night to myself like I’d originally planned.
Butagain, the piece of paper in my pocket burned against my leg, and the thought of seeing HollisAue was enough to keep me there.
Istill didn’t know why I was so obsessed with the woman.
Therewas just something about her, though, that kept my mind wandering back to her, even all these months later.
Itwas on my fifth circuit of the place that I passed the comedian.
Andwhat I heard had me rolling my eyes.
“What are you talking about? I’m fucking hilarious,” TaiteDeRosa crowed, raising his glass. “Kind of like that ugly toupee you have on your head.”
“It’s not a toupee,” the man he was talking to gritted his teeth. “This is my hair.”
“Well, it’s fuckin’ awful hair.” Taite grinned.
“Well, I guess I don’t have to tell you about how your car was just found with every single tire on it slashed but one, a new paint job that says ‘killer’, and a sweet new sun roof,” the man who really did have bad hair said.
Ipaused.
Thecomedian was no longer smiling.
Hewas leaning forward, his eyes huge. “That car is brand new!”
“Brand new, and in need of a new paint job.” Toupee guy shrugged. “Have a nice night, Mr. DeRosa. I’ll keep you updated on any other further issues.”
“Further issues?” the woman beside Taite asked.
Thewoman was new. I’d not seen her until this last pass.
“My fuckin’ number was spoofed, and it was reported to whoever the fuck deals with that, and they’re accusing me of breaking the law. I just know it’s that fuckin’ bitch again,” Taite grumbled.
“What bitch?” someone at the table asked.
“The bitch who is making my life a living hell!” Taite growled, answering the woman who looked like she could use about two more inches on her skirt.
“The stalker?” Short skirt asked.
“Yeah, her.” Taite lifted his lip in disgust, then curled his hand possessively around the new woman who’d just showed.
Mustbe a girlfriend.
“She’s terrorizing you, you poor thing.” She patted his chest.
Herphone beeped, and she pulled it up, a frown on her face.
Hereyes widened, then she was straightening up, no longer leaning on Taite.
“I, uh, have to go to the bathroom,” she said as she stood. “I’ll be right back.”
Curious, I followed her, my gaze going to Taite only long enough to see if he’d noticed anything wrong with his girl like I had.
Hewas too busy bitching about ‘the stalker.’
Thestalker being HollisAue, was my guess.
Itwas as I was two steps behind the girlfriend that a flash of white caught my attention.
Ifollow that flash of white out the door and to the right.
Inarrowed my eyes, because something about the woman’s body shape seemed familiar, and it hit me.
Ifollowed sedately behind as the woman pushed into a hallway that led to the back rooms. The girlfriend followed, and I was even more intrigued.