Chapter 20 #2
“You don’t know that,” I shouted, giving up on trying to keep my head straight.
“You’re just bumbling around, gathering up things you and your sister find like it’s a game, or another scavenger hunt.
It’s not anything like that. I know you want to clear Ford’s name, but he asked you to let this go.
He’s out of prison. There aren’t any charges hanging over him.
He doesn’t need this, and neither do you. ”
“Don’t fucking tell me what I need,” Avery said, dropping her hands to her sides and coming to her feet in a surge of anger. “I want to know who killed my father. I have a right to know. ”
“No, you don’t,” I said, suddenly exhausted.
“You have a desire to know, not a right. Look, I’ve been a cop a long time, long enough to know sometimes you don’t get the answers.
Sometimes, all you get are question marks, and you have to live with that.
But that means you live. Whoever wanted to keep Anna Novak quiet got what they wanted.
Stop trying to make yourself the next target. ”
“And do what?” she demanded. “Just walk away and hope you find the answer? Are you even looking anymore?”
Helpless rage choked me. I’d been looking, goddammit.
I’d been looking for any clue I could find since Prentice had been shot.
I lay awake at night wondering what I’d missed.
This would never be over for me. Not until we found Prentice’s killer.
With Anna Novak’s murder, the stakes had changed. Avery was in danger.
I waited for her to apologize. She wrapped her arms around her chest and raised her chin.
I tried again. “You need to keep yourself off his radar, Avery. Hawk and I can’t protect you all the time. And even if we could, you’d hate living like that. You know you would.”
“I’m not giving up,” she said through gritted teeth, her brown eyes sparking fire.
“You go anywhere near my open case, and I’ll arrest you for obstruction of justice,” I said, regretting the words almost as soon as they left my mouth. But I didn’t take them back. I didn’t know how else to make her listen .
“That’s an abuse of power,” she said, her hand coming up to point at me, her finger stabbing the air.
“Not if you’re actually obstructing my investigation, which you will be if you fucking get yourself murdered,” I said, struggling to believe we were having this conversation. Avery was a smart woman. Why did she have to be so stubborn?
“Are you serious?” she asked, her dark brows flying up. “You’d really arrest me?”
“In a heartbeat,” I said, meaning it. “I won’t let you end up like Anna Novak, even if I have to throw you in jail to keep you safe.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said, shoving her hands in her pockets.
“You’re fucking nuts. I’m sorry that woman died.
” Tears sprang to her eyes. She dashed them away with the back of her hand.
“I’m sorry,” she said again, her voice cracking.
“I’m so sorry she died, and I’m so, so sorry if what Sterling and I did brought the killer to her door.
But doesn’t that make you want to find them more?
They killed my father. They killed Vanessa.
And now they killed this woman, who of the three was probably the most innocent. Where will they stop?”
Finally, she understood. “That’s my goddamn point, Avery. They won’t. Especially not if you’re in their way.”
“I’m not in anybody’s way,” she shouted. “I don’t even have my evidence file anymore. You can’t just come in here and shut me down. I don’t work for you.”
“I’m the fucking Chief of Police,” I reminded her, trying frantically to figure out how to drag this fight back into the land of reason. I couldn’t. Not if she wouldn’t recognize she had to get as far from this investigation as possible.
“I’m not breaking any laws at the moment.” Her voice caught, and she forced out the rest. “So, I think you should leave.” She swallowed hard, yanking her hands from her pockets and crossing her arms across her chest.
“Are you kidding?” I asked, wondering how this had gone so far off the rails so fast. “I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“No, you’re trying to control me. You aren’t my boss or my father. I don’t need this from you.”
What was she talking about? I was trying to save her. “You don’t need this from me?” I shook my head. “You don’t want me to look out for you? To protect you? You just want a good fuck and then I get out of your way?”
She stared back at me, her eyes flat. Finally, she shrugged. “Right now, I just want you to leave my brewery.”
I turned and strode from the building without another word, my chest hollow and my lungs fighting each breath. That hadn’t gone the way I planned. Not that I’d planned it very well.
She’d come around. She had to. I wasn’t going to lose her over a stupid argument.
The image of the dead woman flashed into my head again.
No, I wasn’t going to lose her to a knife or a bullet.
And if her hating me was the price of keeping her safe, I’d have to find a way to live with that.
Because whatever happened, I wouldn’t let Avery’s body be the next one we found.