Chapter Fourteen
Sunlight came home two hours before Winnie did. Price had expected her, and unlocked the door minutes before she was coming through it.
She had never ever been a fan of spending the night at other people’s houses. She’d have fun, sure, but as soon as she could get someone to take her, she was back to the house looking hungover despite not having a drop to drink.
Her friend Abagail had an early riser for a mother, so Price had expected her.
If his mind wasn’t working through a case in the background, he would have smiled at the predictability.
He did smile at her, though, as she trudged into the kitchen and dropped her bag next to the breakfast bar. She settled on one of the stools and reached her hands out with a pout.
“If you make me an egg bowl right now, I promise I won’t complain as much next time we have to rake the ungodly amount of leaves in the backyard.”
Price snorted and stepped to the side of the stove.
He had just finished scrambling one of his famous egg bowls.
“Remember you said that.”
Winnie dropped her head in defeat but didn’t complain.
“I’ll have no regrets as long as I can eat something in the next minute,” she said. “I love Abagail, I really do, but her family doesn’t believe in snacks. The last time I ate was yesterday at like six. Not to be dramatic, but I think I could eat even Corrie’s cooking at this point.”
Price grabbed her a bowl and started to fill it.
“Not to be dramatic, but I think I’d rather go hungry than chance Corrie’s cooking,” he said. “Remember when she tried to get the coffee shop to eat that weird turkey dinner thing she made for Thanksgiving?” He pretended to shiver. “I’ll take no-snacks Abagail’s house over that any day.”
Winnie agreed and took the bowl with a low bow and several thanks.
Price returned the gesture with a laugh and then started on the second of three bowls he’d planned on making.
“Did you at least get some sleep?” he asked over his shoulder.
Winnie said she did around a mouthful of food.
“We watched a few movies and I fell asleep toward the end of the second one. She might not have snacks, but her bed is super comfy. It also helped that her little brother was staying over at his friend’s house too. He wasn’t around to annoy us like usual.”
Price paused, spatula in midair for a moment.
Less than eight hours ago, Price had learned everything there was to know about JJ Shaw.
Lydia Ortiz.
She had gone from the quiet, unassuming part-timer trying her hand at a slower pace of life…to a woman living a double life, hell-bent on scorching the earth to find her little brother.
“So it was you who I fought in Josiah’s house that morning,” Price had asked once her story had finished.
JJ had looked apologetic at that.
“Josiah fit the description, age and circumstances to possibly be my brother. I was keeping an eye on him, trying to figure out how to go about finding proof that he was when I heard about his call to the department about the suspicious hole. I thought the department brushed him off and, when he rushed off to work, I decided to go head and check it out. That’s when you showed up.
To be fair, I tried to leave without fighting you. You were just, well, in the way.”
She’d given him a little smile at that.
Price had remembered her moves then. Not only had she hurt him, she’d been faster than him too.
“After that, though, I decided to lie low,” she’d added. “Then I found Josiah.”
They assumed Lawson, for whatever reason, had one of his men come in after her. It had only been a coincidence that she had seen him walking through the field.
“You were casing Jamie Bell’s house after you heard he was leaving town for a few months,” Price had guessed next.
JJ had nodded.
“I’m assuming Lawson heard the same news I did and, well, we decided to act sooner rather than later.”
It had made sense then. What she had been doing to the door.
“Let me guess. One of your sneaky skills is lock picking,” he’d said.
JJ didn’t even try to hide it.
She’d put three fingers in the air.
“Scouts honor I only use it for good, not bad.”
After that, she had promised that her behind-the-scenes sleuthing hadn’t included any other questionable activities. She had also been adamant that no one else knew about her existence and she hoped to keep it that way.
“I’m only here to find my brother and then figure out a way to keep him out of all of this long enough to find Dad’s evidence, or at least figure out a way to take Lawson and his group down permanently.”
Price had fixed her then with a searching look.
“If you find him, he might not want to stay out of it,” he’d pointed out.
At that, JJ’s expression had hardened. Her words had been just as hard.
“I don’t plan on telling him who I am.”
“What do you mean? You’re not going to tell your brother that you’re, well, his sister?”
JJ had shaken her head.
“I’m dangerous to him, with or without Lawson out of the picture.
Besides him, there’s still people in the organization who hate my dad.
If I can’t keep my brother from being targeted, I might have to put myself in their sights instead.
And if that happens, I can’t have any link to him.
No one can know that Able and Elle Ortiz had two children. ”
Price had been struck silent at that.
Now, scrambling eggs in his kitchen while his daughter sighed into her food, he still couldn’t find the words.
Only anger.
Rage.
And it all went to Lawson Cole.
He had already proven to be a problem at the convention center.
Now, in Price’s eyes, he was the only problem.
Price placed the newest batch of eggs into a bowl and started on the last one.
Winnie’s voice cut through his thoughts, bringing him fully back into the present.
“I guess I’m not the only one who was really hungry. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you put down two egg bowls before. I’m not sure it’s the best idea. Doesn’t the bacon give you heartburn? You’re going to need some TUMS.”
Price rolled his eyes and waved her off with his free hand.
“While your concern is truly touching, for your information this is for JJ.”
“Oh, you’re doing food delivery to her house now? Last night must have been fun.”
Price heard the footsteps echoing from the hallway behind them. He turned as Winnie made a sound between a cough and a sputter.
“Is that JJ? She spent the night?”
Before Price could answer, the woman in question came into view.
She had her hands up in a defensive gesture.
“I did but don’t get any ideas,” she told Winnie. “It was a stressful night, and we came here to talk about it after and, well, apparently that stress sent me straight to sleep. On the couch.”
She pointed in the direction of the living room.
JJ wasn’t entirely lying. Night had turned to early morning as they talked, so JJ had asked if she could stay on the couch until they reached a more acceptable hour to be potentially seen going home by her neighbors.
Price, knowing her neighbors, doubted they would be awake but on the off chance they were, he agreed avoiding that gossip would be nice.
That, and the simple fact that Price hadn’t actually wanted JJ to leave.
Sure, she had stuck around to tell him her story but that didn’t mean she would continue to stick with him to see the rest of it through.
He had already thought she would run into the night after they had first gotten to his house and he’d left her in the truck alone.
Would he have tried to stop her if she had?
Would he go after her and tell the department what was going on?
Would he still tell the department what was going on?
Price believed JJ’s story. He believed in her without any hard evidence, he had already realized.
Yet, that didn’t mean he wanted to let her out of his sight now.
She was a person of interest.
He just wasn’t sure what to do about that next.
Price handed the egg bowl over to JJ. Winnie was doing her best to change her expression from shock to belief. Price had to admit, this was the first time in her years of living that he’d had a woman spend the night.
He gave her some room to collect herself and took his food to the breakfast bar too. JJ settled down on the last of the three stools on the other side of her.
If this had been the JJ of yesterday afternoon, he wondered if she would have played shy and apologetic on repeat. Instead, she seemed oddly at ease.
“Corrie would have loved the party,” she said after a few bites of her food. “We schmoozed with a lot of people we didn’t even need to, but your dad here was a talking machine. I don’t think there was a person we met who escaped his conversation.”
That made Winnie jump in surprise. She laughed.
“Deputy Little says that Dad is a bad guy’s worst nightmare. He can just talk them into the ground if he needs to.”
Price rolled his eyes.
“The goal of last night was talking,” he reminded the ladies. “And, may I point out, Miss Shaw, that you never gave me a code word to help get you out of a conversation. So, I didn’t see a reason to limit my abilities.”
“Hey, I’m not upset at your chatter,” JJ said. “It meant less work for me.”
Price said he was glad to assist and, unlike the night before, Price simply listened as the two of them dove into small talk.
It was comfortable.
It made their small fight the night before feel like a dream.
“Lawson is clearly playing with fire—his man actually blew up half of a home—so don’t you think we should too? With the department on your side, you’d have more firepower yourself.”
JJ’s reaction had been immediate.
She’d been frowning so deeply that it seemed to pull her entire face down with it.
“The department has rules. Lawson has already shown that he isn’t playing by any.
I’m not going to either.” That frown had managed to deepen somehow.
“If you really want to help me, by association you’re also breaking the rules.
And, if something happens to my brother, or me, it could all come back to haunt you.
So, you really need to think about wanting to help me before you agree to follow me into what might happen next. ”
JJ had told him to sleep on it. He’d followed her request and had.
It was simple math, really.
He was the law; JJ had been breaking it.
Lawson had done bad; JJ wanted vengeance.
An innocent man was being targeted; an innocent woman was gunning for the one doing the targeting.
Seven Roads was in danger; JJ Shaw had become a ghost to try and fight against it.
A brother was in trouble; his big sister had sacrificed herself to save him.
No matter which way Price ran the numbers, it had always come back to him feeling sympathy and anger.
He didn’t have siblings, but he did have a daughter and there wasn’t a part of him that wouldn’t burn the entire world to save her.
Thinking about JJ’s parents having their children’s futures taken from them was hard enough, but now to know that their nightmare hadn’t ended?
Now to know that their daughter was shouldering it all alone to try and end it for them?
Price wasn’t sure which thought put more fire within him.
He’d told JJ the night before that he would think about it—really consider helping her while also keeping it a secret from everyone he knew—but the truth was, he hadn’t considered it all.
Because Price had already decided the moment he’d seen Lawson Cole’s hand around JJ’s neck in that elevator.
She wasn’t going to be alone ever again.
Not while he was around.