Chapter 22
I want to be your favorite place when you have a bad day.
—Quincy to Hollis
QUINCY
Iarrived back in town with TaiteDeRosa under arrest.
Afterbooking him, and fully expecting him to lawyer up, I made a call to a contact in NewHampshire where it was said that AlanaElDorado was holed up and asked him to take a look into her for me.
Afterfinishing up, I saw that my desk was surrounded by my brothers, as well as a mostly empty bakery box that said ‘PieHard’ on the side of it.
Mylips twitched as I saw it.
“You got anything you want to tell me, bro?” Gable asked curiously.
Ilooked up to find him with a cookie in his hand, staring at me curiously.
Ifrowned. “Like what?”
“Like when you decided to ask your girl to marry you.” He took a bite of his cookie.
Mymouth opened, and then closed. “Um, what?”
“She was buying a wedding cake sampler when I saw her at this bakery that just opened up down the road from our apartments,” he said.
Ishook my head. “I regret to inform you that we’re not getting married.”
Hegrinned. “Then why was she buying a wedding cake sampler?”
Ihad no idea, but I intended to find out.
Rightafter I finished looking through my notes for the case I caught this morning.
“I might have pissed her off, though,” Gable said. “So maybe she’s not thinking about marrying you anymore.”
Mybrows rose. “How did you do that?”
“Well, first, I told her you flew to Kentucky. And she was surprised because you didn’t tell her, or leave a note, or text or anything. WhenI said you were probably busy, she smiled sadly. ThenI commented on how you had a lot of your shit out of your apartment already, and how your house was coming along, and she looked at me so hurt. I’m guessing you didn’t tell her you were building a house, either?”
“No,” I admitted. “But to be completely honest, we’re still really new, and there really hasn’t been time. There’s a lot of stuff that’s been going on.”
“That doesn’t mean you can’t communicate with her that you’re leaving,” Quaid pointed out.
Hewas right.
Ishould have at least done that.
ButI hadn’t.
Isent out a text telling her I was home from Kentucky, but still had a few things I needed to do at the station, then looked into the bakery box to find nothing but crumbs. “Y’all didn’t save me a single thing?”
Myphone pinged.
Hollis:
**Thumbs up emoji**
“That looks like a bad sign,” Quinn said as he stared over my shoulder. “And there’s nothing left because we were hungry, and we bought the damn things over six hours ago.”
Whenhe put it like that…
“Son,” Dad called as he walked up to me. “What did you get?”
“TaiteDeRosa’s teary-eyed confession.” I paused. “AfterI read him his MirandaRights, he sang like a canary.”
Dadblinked. “He what?”
“Like. A. Canary,” I said more slowly. “I arrived at his hotel room to find him holed up there. He looked like he’d been there for days. Apparently, he couldn’t leave because he, and I quote, ‘couldn’t believe what Alana made him do.’”
Dadshook his head, his eyes going to the interrogation room where Taite was now sitting, refusing a lawyer.
“So do you think he’s gonna keep suing Hollis?” Atlas asked as he came up, a bag of Skittles in one hand, and a stick of beef jerky in the other.
“How do you know about that?” I asked.
Atlasgave me a look. “You called my best friend.”
Imentally slapped myself on the forehead.
“Oh, yeah.” I chuckled. “I guess I assumed y’all were still fighting.”
Atlasand ZoeyMetz had tried the ‘dating’ thing before. It hadn’t worked out, and for a short time they’d lost their way. That didn’t mean the family didn’t still love Zoey, though.
So, despite them ‘not talking’ we’d still treated her like one of our own.
Andsince I saw her in the station every other week with a client—she was a fantastic criminal defense attorney—I’d just assumed they were still avoiding each other.
Apparentlynot.
“I want to listen in,” Auden said as he stood up and headed toward the interrogation viewing room.
Theyall went, and I gathered my notes before heading that way, too.
Iwouldn’t be the one to do the questioning. Another detective by the name of WillisGraves would, and he was damn good at his job.
Plus, I had a bit of a biased opinion of the man. It wouldn’t do to compromise this case in any way.
Holdingmy hand out for some Skittles from Atlas, we all took a lean against the far wall and listened in while Willis started the questioning.
“Mr. DeRosa, are you sure you want to waive the right for a lawyer?” Willis asked to start.
Taitenodded. “I am.”
Willisglanced at the one-way mirror and gave us a pointed look before beginning.
“What happened on the night of May first?” Willis asked.
Taitelooked up, his eyes bloodshot.
“Alana and I broke up,” he said. “We fought. She accused me of fucking someone else. We left pissed as hell at each other. ThenI found some girl in the bar as I left for the night, brought her to my hotel room, and fucked her.”
Thecrude words didn’t cause any of us to flinch. ButI did curl up my nose at his apparent uncaring attitude toward the life that was lost.
“I don’t even know her name,” Taite said. “When we were done, she started getting dressed, and that’s when Alana showed up. Shit was said between her and I, and I sent the girl home. She left, running the entire way, and Alana yelled at me some more. I got pissed as hell and left, deciding to see if I could piss her off some more by finding that girl. I found her, too. At the gas station. I asked her to get into my car, and that’s when Alana roared up in her car. We fought some more, and at some point I pushed the girl away from me and she fell. She hit her head on the corner of the building, and I don’t know. I just freaked. Alana left, and I stuffed the girl in a garbage bag in hopes that she wouldn’t be found.”
Ishook my head, not wanting to hear anymore.
Theloss of life was horrific.
Theutter lack of caring on Taite’s part was unsettling.
Evenworse, Alana had witnessed it all and hadn’t said a word.
Nowthey both would be seeing prison time.
“I’m gonna get out of here,” I grumbled as I headed toward the door. “I have much better places to be.”
Dadchuckled. “Good luck trying to make up for being a dumbass.”
Ifit hadn’t been my dad, I might’ve turned around and decked him.
Asit was, I figured he was right.
Iowed her an explanation.
Ormaybe I owed her a couple.