CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN SOLACE
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
SOLACE
LUNA
After confirming everyone outside was safe—albeit shaken up—I returned inside to make sure the fires were still out and everything was good.
Or as good as it could be, given the explosive situation.
I hadn’t seen who threw the bottle. It’d been like slow motion, flying through the air to land with a crash and burn. But it had to be someone inside.
I moved toward the back, needing to see and touch Rhys.
Before I could reach him, my cell started ringing. I’d hoped it was Murdoch, but it wasn’t. It was a private number.
I swear, if this is a call about the fabulously fictional trip I won, I am going to use every resource I have to hunt the scammer down and make their life hell.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Oscar,” someone breathed. Rough. Pained.
“Captain?” My chest clenched, and unease skittered up my spine to raise the hairs on the back of my neck. I spun around to see if there was someone right behind me.
There wasn’t.
“Trust no one.” Another haggard inhale that ended in a heavy sob. “He asked to be your handler. I thought he was mending the bridge. Otherwise, I never would’ve…”
“Murdoch?” I whispered.
He told me he was assigned the role.
“It’s not just him. My squad. I trusted… You need to run. He’s coming for you next. It’s—” His words were cut off abruptly by more tears. “You’re not safe. I let you down, kid. I tried so hard. To protect you.” His voice was wobbly and faint. “There’s so much blood.”
“Where are you?”
The phone beeped as the call dropped.
Fuck.
Oh fuck.
This is bad.
I ran into the kitchen, my body colliding with Rhys.
His hands shot out to grip my hips to steady me. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
“No, my captain is. I’ve got to go.”
“Call it in,” Rhys said. “Let someone else go.”
“I can’t. I don’t know who I can trust.”
“Then I’m coming with you.”
His protectiveness was sweet. Romantic even. Unnecessary since I was the one with the gun, but still the sentiment was appreciated. I wasn’t putting him at risk, though. Not more than I already had by reporting findings to a crooked cop.
“You need to stay here and deal with the firefighters. Just be careful what you say. If the cops want to talk to you, ask for a lawyer no matter how simple the question seems.” I leaned to the side to see Judge standing behind him.
I met his eyes. “Are more brothers coming?” At his nod, my panic decreased by half a percent. “Good.”
I’d never seen them with guns or other weapons, but I was still pretty sure they carried. More than that, they had Rhys’s back.
Rhys pulled me to him. “Know this is your job, baby, and that you’re damn good at it. But stay safe.”
“I will. Promise.” I lifted onto my toes to kiss him.
And then he took over the kiss until the searing intensity burrowed under my skin. Warmth and love and acceptance. The promise of a future I had to stay alive to see.
He pulled back and wiped a few tears from my cheeks. I knew how hard it was for him, but he released me. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” Since I still didn’t trust my phone, we swapped before I said, “I’ll be back. Promise.”
“You break that promise, hellcat—”
“That’s never something you’ll have to add to my tab, barman.”
He must really think I’m stupid.
And maybe I am.
Moving carefully, I eased open the door of the last location Captain Talbot’s phone pinged according to my friend at dispatch.
It looked like it must’ve been a cafe or something with the heavy wooden counter, but the dank space had been empty for a long time.
It was also right around the corner from Murdoch’s apartment.
A ballsy move.
Gun drawn, I rounded a corner but stayed behind a pillar.
The hair on the back of my neck stood as I scanned outside the big window to the side of me.
I was technically out of view, but it was one of the worst locations for coverage.
It was all I had, though. I did my best to stay calm.
From my vantage point, I could see the body near the counter.
See the blood pooling around the captain’s coat and discarded phone.
The trickle of doubt became a rushing river of it, trying to urge my legs into action.
I didn’t let them move. I held my position behind the pillar.
“Captain?” I called out.
Silence.
I moved like I was going to head right back out the door.
“Help,” he called weakly.
I hate when I’m right.
I’d only made it a short distance from Rye before all the inconsistencies pushed past the fear and panic that’d choked me. My dad would’ve been pissed if he knew it’d taken that long. Going in hot and fueled by emotions was how people got killed.
And that was what they’d been counting out. That the distractions, misdirection, chaos, and red herrings would make me reckless.
What they failed to factor in was Lieutenant Anthony Oscar hadn’t raised an idiot.
I knew I was walking into a trap. And the tiny flicker of hope I had otherwise extinguished faster than the Molotov cocktail flame earlier.
“Those aren’t your shoes, Cap.”
The shoes on the dead body were Murdoch’s. I knew because he loved to brag about the fancy leather and was an asshole if they got scuffed.
“Dammit, you’re good,” Captain Talbot said as he peeked over the counter. “Why couldn’t you be this good on your damn case?”
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Are you hurt?”
Because setup or not, he’d actually been crying. The tears on the phone had sounded too real, and the quick glimpse I got of his splotchy face and puffy eyes confirmed it.
“Drop your phone and weapon,” he ordered instead of answering.
I dropped my cell.
“Weapon,” he prodded.
“And then what? You kill me?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know. This is a mess. It wasn’t supposed to go down like this. He said they were doing what was best for the city.”
“Were you compromised, Cap? Because this isn’t like you,” I said, trying to appeal to the good man inside him. Or that used to be inside him.
“It’s not me. I’m not the bad guy here. It’s this city.
It’ll suck and suck and suck until there’s nothing left.
I woke up every damn day for thirty-four years and tried to make it a better place.
To protect it and its people. Sacrificed my marriage.
My relationship with my kids. Everything.
And for what? It’s the same thing day after day after day.
One mess is cleaned up for ten more to spill before we even file our report. ”
“And they told you they would clean it up?”
“Exactly. I just had to look the other way about some stuff, but collateral damage would be kept to a minimum. No more gang wars. No more territory fights. No more senseless violence, kids selling drugs, robberies, any of it.”
“But what about the drive-by? How was that not senseless?”
“Because Walker is running drugs from his bar. Fentanyl-laced party drugs that killed those bankers last month.”
“No, he’s not.”
“He is. I put you under to find it. I told them that you could bring down Walker, the bikers, all of them without more bloodshed.”
That explains why he kept me under so long even though nothing was happening.
“Cap, they’re not doing anything illegal,” I tried. “There’s nothing to bring down.”
But he didn’t believe me. “You’re my best detective. Hell, you’re the best detective I’ve ever worked with. If anyone could do this, it was you. But you didn’t. You followed the wrong trail. And now they… they want me to…”
If the man wasn’t stating he’s about to kill me, I’d almost feel bad for him.
At least he’s broken up about it. A small consolation.
Very small.
Microscopic.
“How’s Murdoch fit into this?” I asked.
I didn’t actually expect an answer. It was a stalling technique, and we both knew it.
But Captain Talbot was feeling chatty in his stalling. Or maybe it was his crash-out running his mouth. Either way. “He came to me earlier with the link between the Irish crime family and Butler.”
He believed me?
Shit, now I feel bad for all those names I called him.
And the fact he wound up dead.
“More people know about that,” I said. “Even if you kill me, the secret isn’t dying in this room.”
“A jury would’ve believed two detectives. Now it’ll be the word of an upstanding citizen against the word of a biker gang, a drug-dealing bar owner, and the rest of their garbage group.”
“And me and Murdoch? How do you explain our deaths?”
“Walker found out you were undercover to investigate him, not protect him. Tracked you to a meeting with your handler. No one will buy a word from his mouth when I’ve got documentation to prove everything.”
“So you kill your best detective and frame an innocent man?”
“He’s not innocent. And I’m not killing you.” He tossed his gun over the counter, and it landed with a loud clatter. His voice was filled with tears when he said, “I can’t do it. Come arrest me.”
“Come out.”
Tension hung so thick in the air, I couldn’t breathe as I waited for him to make a move.
It was haltingly slow, but he eventually stood. Not just that, he had his hands in the air.
Confident in his setup.
A glimmer of light caught my eye outside, and I moved, too.
Not to duck for cover.
But to step out from the protection of the pillar before the captain got wind of what was happening and went for his discarded gun.
“I’m sorry about this, Detective. Truly. If it helps, just know the city will be a safer place.” Genuine remorse aged his weathered face, and I took a tiny bit of solace from that, too.
Microscopic again, but still.
“But I… I had no choice,” he finished.
“We always have a choice.”
Red dots swarmed together on Captain Talbot’s body. His face blanched as he gestured wildly to me.
The dots stayed in place.
“Wrong person!” he screamed frantically, spit flying from his mouth. “Wrong person!”
“No,” I said. “The FBI has the correct person.”
He staggered back, and the hint of color he still had disappeared. Leaving him looking like a walking corpse.
I made a fist and lifted it.
And the FBI swarmed.
Led proudly by Grayson.
“Get everything?” I asked as two agents cuffed Cap while others moved to clear the building.
“Every word,” my brother said.
“And everyone else?”
“Safe and sound.” He gave me a teasing smirk I wouldn’t have expected from my uptight brother. “Including your loooover.”
Good. My world isn’t collapsing.
It’s just shaken a bit.
My legs gave out, and I had to sit. My eyes landed on an old, faded sign. “What the hell is Mystic Stones’s Healing Beverage Oasis?”