Chapter 1
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Burton Hallmark watched Sammy disappear down the hallway. Learning that Talia’s husband may have been at the hospital again troubled him deeply. How in the living hell did Timothy Magnus get out of jail? That thought was messing with his brain. He immediately phoned Anderson.
“Are you kidding me? He should still be in prison—or at least at the jail in the sheriff’s department,” Anderson declared, his shocked tone amplifying the underlying worry.
“I know, but someone might have let him out,” Burton suggested.
“How are they getting away with this? It’s the second time that he wormed his way out of prison. What the hell is going on?”
Burton added, “Remember that we’re not certain it’s him. I called because, if it is him, we need to stay alert to the possibility.”
“Right, stay alert,” Anderson scoffed. “Alert to this guy causing problems and thinking my sister has some answers for him.”
“Did you locate the money?”
“Not entirely. If that’s what he wants, we can’t help. We’ve found some, but we’re unsure how much remains.”
“Tim probably wants anything he can get his hands on right now. Find the damn money, dude. We can’t risk it,” Burton murmured, scanning the area. “I’m staying put.”
“You need anything?”
“Not if Leland can relieve me later.”
“Great.”
“Problems?”
“Yeah, Pamela returns to work.”
“It’s been one week already? Good God.”
“She took that time off to help us out, but she has to get back to her real job,” Anderson explained in a low tone.
“That will put you alone with the triplets.”
“For now, yes.” Anderson sighed. “She’ll visit after her shift, though she’s working full days. Her job isn’t exactly relaxing either.”
“I didn’t think she would abandon us.”
“Hardly abandonment,” Anderson scoffed. “She’s been invaluable.”
A painful cry echoed in the background.
“What’s that?” Burton asked in alarm.
“The babies. … I swear these three are acrobats, I put them in the playpen, but they’re incredibly mobile,” Anderson shared, clearly frustrated. “I’m just containing them, but that won’t work for long. We need more equipment.”
“Equipment?” Burton chuckled. “Like what?”
“Something, anything. You know, something for containment.”
“You can’t build a damn prison for them. They are babies,” Burton noted, still chuckling.
Anderson laughed. “Nah, not what I had in mind. Yet a bigger playpen might help, and, with three of them, it’s still not a complete solution.”
“I know. I am just happy to not be where you are.”
“I don’t know how Talia managed before. It seems impossible for us nonmagical folks,” Anderson quipped, half-laughing. “Pamela did so well with them too.”
“True enough.”
“Consider what we can bring in, even temporarily. Anything to help.”
“I will.”
“And watch for Timothy.”
“Definitely.” He sighed.
“The big bosses Timothy was working for worry me too.”
“Same here. How much money or whatever else are they still seeking?” Burton asked. “I sure hope they’re not just tying up loose ends.”
“The loose end should be my brother-in-law, not my sister.”
“Consider what she might have witnessed though. They beat her severely, but, the fact remains, she was conscious for some of it.”
“The question is whether she saw enough to threaten them. Maybe the goal was her death,” Anderson shared quietly. “Maybe she wasn’t supposed to survive at all.”
After a pause, Burton responded sadly, “You’re probably right. In that case, this whole mess and the cleanup isn’t about money or things at all.”
“It’s about ensuring she never wakes up, making sure all loose threads are tied off … permanently,” Anderson whispered.
“I’m here,” Burton assured. “I’m keeping watch.”
“I appreciate it.”
“Don’t mention it,” Burton replied in a somber tone. “We have each other’s backs. Always have.”
“Right,” Anderson stated, audibly composing himself. “I get it.”
“It hits harder because she’s your sister, man.” Burton sighed again. “I understand the situation, and I’m angry, but I’m less emotional.”
“I know, and I value your balanced perspective.”
“There’s no perspective. Someone’s trying to kill someone they nearly beat to death. Her survival is remarkable, and we must give her time to recover. She won’t leave her babies without a fight. If she knew her ex was involved, she would want justice.”
Anderson laughed. “She’s not vengeful, but she won’t let him have the children.”
They agreed she would fight to keep the triplets safe.
“Keeping Tim away protects the babies and Talia, as he clearly prioritizes himself,” Burton said.
They discussed contacting his girlfriend about any money.
Alice Quinn was a tough nut, and they both had seen enough to know Alice would be pissed.
Anderson continued. “Whether it’s money, drugs, or blackmail material, the sheriff’s office has it all, but do Tim’s bosses know that?
The blackmail information is significant, but worthless in the hands of the authorities.
I think the big bosses will pursue us for information we can’t provide.
That’s why Talia suffered in the first place,” he noted.
Burton agreed. “She didn’t have what they wanted.
Your brother-in-law wouldn’t surrender the information.
Tim probably thought she was dead, so why care about her or the children?
Both actions are despicable. Tim’s true nature emerges in these situations,” Burton pointed out.
“We’re left managing the aftermath. Just focus on the babies. ”
Then another cry erupted.
“On it,” Anderson said, laughing and groaning simultaneously. “These babies are something else. I am hanging on by a thread here.”
“Take care of them, and I’ll be in touch.” And, with that, Burton ended the call.
Entering Talia’s hospital room, he reflected on how he often guarded rooms with vulnerable women, staying hidden from view, but this was different.
She was helpless, comatose in a bed with railings, going nowhere.
She wasn’t conscious and didn’t know what was happening around her.
The situation worried him immensely, especially since he had seen firsthand how extraordinarily dangerous someone with nothing left to lose becomes.
Prison time would be suicidal for many of these people, and they just wouldn’t survive. They wouldn’t consider themselves in any way responsible for their actions. So coming back to take out Talia—this defenseless woman they had already had one go at—would be minor to them.
She would literally be one step in a long series of things that the drug bosses had to do to get clear of whatever trouble they were in, and that really sucked because she was a beautiful person, was a beautiful human being, and her babies were gorgeous.
To think that Burton would ever even say that about children also blew him away because he was a die-hard, never-going-to-have-babies kind of guy.
But these Lisas? He burst out laughing to himself, checking down the hallway to make sure nobody heard him.
All three of these Lisas were absolutely adorable.
They still had no clue on the correct name for the right triplet, and Anderson was still calling them all Lisa.
Pamela was the only one who used all three names, and even she didn’t know which one was which.
Burton shook his head at that, wondering how such a thing could be, but the reality was, Talia was the one person who knew which triplet was which, and she wasn’t able to tell them yet.
Burton thought, if he could guarantee getting a partner like Talia, he would have half-a-dozen kids himself, and that was another thought that stopped him in his tracks. Yet it was true. For whatever reason, those little girls had completely changed the way he had previously viewed parenting.
He would never want triplets for himself, as that would be an absolute nightmare.
But to think that it was possible to have little girls just like that?
Wow, he just might be convinced to go that route.
He was still chuckling to himself when he stepped back out into the hallway and took a good look in both directions.
A door, about twenty-five feet down from him, was just closing.
He frowned at that because who the hell would that have been on an empty floor?
He walked over to the door, knowing it was already too late, and he wouldn’t see anybody at this point, but it unnerved him slightly.
The hallway was empty. It wasn’t just about somebody coming to this floor and not seeing him there in the hallway.
They could have taken that to mean that they were okay and safe.
However, it could also mean that, whoever it was, was doing a time check to see when he was on duty and when he wasn’t—something he had worked hard at varying so he had no established pattern for anybody to follow.
He had learned that in the military. Whether he liked it or not, he learned to be safe.
In this instance, it wasn’t just about keeping Talia safe, but a woman with a very special job in this life—to raise those little girls.
As much as he didn’t mind being on guard duty, it was also frustrating that he didn’t have more to do.
If he had some avenue to pursue, something that he could work on …
With that thought in mind, he quickly texted Levi, asking if there was any research he could do while he was on guard duty.
Levi, instead of texting back, picked up the phone and called him.
“Hey, I’ve got a roadmap into the organization that Tim works for,” he began.
When Burton started to say something, Levi snorted and cut him off.
“No, you don’t get to know where I got it from, but there was an effort to try and take down the entire organization a while back.
So, this is part of the research they had into the case.
Dingo, who seems to be a local crime boss, has always been one step ahead of the authorities, and no one has been able to pinpoint who the guy even is. ”
“Let me have a run at it.”