Chapter Thirty #2
Jake didn’t look up from his tablet as he answered her. “A drug that sends a temporary paralyzing agent into your muscles, limiting your movements while also having similar effects to PCP. Users have been known to see hallucinations.”
“Why would someone want to take something like that?” Angel rasped.
“It’s not a drug you use on yourself,” Grayson murmured darkly.
“No, he did not sell Nightwalker. When he was dealing drugs, it hadn’t even been developed yet,” Jake informed us.
“Someone needs to go talk to Tucker.”
“Leave him be,” I said. “Let’s handle Herman first and hand him over to Humbly. We don’t need to piss off the sheriff any more than we already have.”
“He’s right,” Margo warned. “Humbly’s fuse gets shorter by the day with you boys.”
“Yes, but can he hold Herman?” Dominic asked.
Jake took a seat on the coffee table in front of Angel and me, his eyes warm and when he spoke, he wasn’t talking to the rest of the room.
He was talking to my starlight. “Angel,” he began softly, taking her hand, “Thomas told me he was instructed to keep an eye on you because you meant something to Ash. He got a job at Margie’s Place three weeks before you did. ”
“Yes, I know. We had to do some on-the-job training together.”
Jake glanced at me. “Angel, he confessed to killing Felix.”
God dammit.
I wrapped my arm around her, pulling her close as she sucked in a sharp breath. “Why?” she croaked. “What was his motive? Felix didn’t even know Ash.”
A muscle jumped in Jake’s cheek, and I knew he was debating about telling her the complete truth. I jerked my chin. “Tell her.”
“When I asked him why he killed someone who wasn’t his target, he said, ‘because he pissed me off.’ This gives me plenty of reason to believe that Felix Kolby’s murder had nothing to do with you or Doss.
” He took a long breath, closing his eyes.
“He has also confessed to killing an elderly woman—his landlady.”
Her hand slapped over her mouth, stifling a cry that burned my insides. Margo and Carrie were both near tears.
“That bastard killed Joann?” Margo whispered hotly, anger dripping from her words, tears running down her face.
“Easy, Temper,” Hayes cooed, putting his hands on her shoulders.
She whirled on him, finger in his face. “I want five fucking minutes with him.”
Hayes shook his head. “Can’t let you do that.”
“Whatever you want to do to him,” Dominic interjected, “I can do for you.”
Angel stood, looking down at me. “I want to talk to him.”
“Baby—”
“Felix was my friend,” she whispered as I stood, cupping her face.
My eyes bounced back and forth between hers, and I wished we were anywhere but here.
I wished I could take away her pain, even if it meant never healing from my own.
I wanted to take her far away from here, from the memories, from the agony. I wanted my starlight to shine again.
My thumb hooked underneath her jaw, guiding her head back. “Is that what you want?”
“Please,” she rasped.
“Then you’ll have it.”
Someone cleared their throat. My neck twisted to find our new receptionist, Dana, standing in the doorway, holding up a hot pink sticky note in her hand.
There were bags under her eyes, and her long, blond hair was twisted up into a bun at the top of her head.
“Dr. Morris is here,” she announced, looking at Hayes and Grayson.
“You want me to show him the holding room?”
“I’ll do it, Dana,” Hayes said. “Thank you.”
She nodded. Dana was just a few years older than Angel. She was married to an EMS paramedic and for some reason felt the need to work whenever we did, despite her hours being from nine to five.
“Go home, Dana,” Gray called as she left the room. “Take tomorrow off!”
“Sure thing, Boss.”
I grabbed Angel’s hand. “You ready?” As I led her down the hall, I heard Grayson tell Dominic to call Michael and loop him in.
Just outside of Herman’s holding room, we saw Dr. Morris go into Tucker’s room.
I stared through the small viewing window.
Tucker was passed out and handcuffed to the small cot with an IV in his arm.
Jake’s handiwork. Dr. Morris prepped his tray, unfazed by Tucker’s unconscious state.
“Ash?”
“Right here, Starlight,” I murmured, looking down at her. “I’ll always be right here.”
Then I let her into Herman’s room. He was handcuffed to the wall, sitting on the bed and panting like a wild animal.
“Let me out of here!” he barked at me, his eyes red and filled with fear.
I said nothing and stepped to the side. At the sight of Angel, he shut his mouth and looked her up and down. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“I want to talk about Felix,” she said calmly, folding her hands in front of her.
Keeping my eyes on him, I backed up to the wall and folded my arms over my chest. “Try anything, and I’ll rip your intestines out and feed them to you.”
“Fuck you,” he spat, chest heaving. He yanked on the cuffs, thrashing and growling. “I want to talk to my lawyer! I have rights!”
“Not in here, you don’t,” I returned, keeping my voice level. My blood was pumping and I’d love nothing more than to smash this fucker’s head into a wall for hurting Angel. “Answer her fucking questions.”
“I don’t have to answer shit! Where the fuck is Rom?”
“Rom is fictional,” Angel said. “He doesn’t exist. Just like the forty-million-dollar reward.”
He snarled, baring his teeth. “I didn’t waste three years of my life for this.”
“No,” she muttered, lifting her chin. “You wasted your entire life doing dirty work for others, ruining lives without any consequence.” She looked around the room. “This is your karma.”
“I don’t believe in that shit, bitch.”
In a flash, I was off the wall, and my fist connected with his jaw. He fell back against the concrete wall, howling in pain. “Call her that again,” I dared. “Please do so. I may not be able to rip Tucker apart right now, but Jake got everything he needed from you. You hold no value to me.”
“Ash,” Angel protested.
I twisted my neck, looking at her over my shoulder. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips parted. Her composure was gone. “Please.”
Jaw tight, I stepped back. “Say what you need to say. I don’t like you being in here with this filth,” I growled.
She nodded and looked at Herman. “You’re a vile human being.
” Whether it was her words or the gentle delivery that caused him to flinch, she’d gotten past his rage.
“Felix was a good human being. He was wholesome, driven, and an artist. He craved finding the good in people, doing so through their love of food. He was strict, yes, but only because he knew you and I and everyone else in Margie’s kitchen had potential.
He saw it in you. He begged you to be something more than what you were too afraid to be.
The truth is out, and though you don’t seem to have a heart, I will still take great pleasure in telling you this: You will not be missed.
No one of value will remember your name.
Your bloodline has ended with you. You will not be talked about one random Sunday afternoon or during the dinner rush at the restaurant.
No one is going to cry over the loss of you in the deep freeze.
” A single tear landed on her cheek, but she didn’t move to wipe it away.
“Felix Kolby will be remembered. Not only will his work as a chef, his recipes, be carried out through Margie and me, but we will bring him up on Sunday afternoons. We will cry over him in the deep freeze. We will stand in the parking lot after our shifts, staring up at the moon, listening to the sea, and reminiscing about how good of a man he was. He will be missed. You will be forgotten.”
With that, she turned, opened the door, and left.
Slowly, I pushed off the wall and shut the door.
Herman flinched, his throat working, but he didn’t meet my eyes. He was staring straight through me as if Angel was still in the room. “I mean something,” he whispered.
Oh, yeah. She broke him.
“No, the fuck you don’t.”
Just before I walked out, he asked, “What’s going to happen to me?”
“Sheriff Humbly is on his way to arrest you for the murders of Felix Kolby and Joann Martin.” I smiled at him. “You’re going to spend the rest of your life in prison.”
He began to stammer. “No, no. I’ll get a lawyer.” I shook my head and left.
We could still hear his screams in the elevator.