Chapter Thirty – Arms of Fire
Chapter Thirty
Cooper
ARMS OF FIRE
Performed by Brothers Osborne
I was flirting with zombie territory after another sleepless night. My head ached. My body was stiff. I needed food and rest, but what I got was another cup of burnt coffee I reheated in the station’s break room and a stale granola bar.
When Cleaver had called, tearing me from a night in Andie’s arms, I’d been more than a little irritated.
But that had slipped away when he broke the news he finally had something to show for his time undercover.
Evidence that just might link the drug case to the burglaries and bring them both to a close.
After days off the grid, Randy had finally returned to their grandparents’ cabin shortly after the break-in at the artists’ colony.
Cleaver said he’d been covered in blood.
It could have been deer blood, like he’d told Cleaver, but the timing was too damn coincidental.
I’d bet just about every last penny in my bank account that we’d get a DNA match to Sookie Blaze.
Goddamn Randy had left a teenager to take the fall for him—on a fucking murder rap, because the hospital had called an hour ago to let me know Sookie had passed over night.
He’d put his bloody clothes in a garbage bag, but instead of dumping them in the trash, Randy had taken the bag into the forest. He’d come back an hour later, soaked through from the rain, carrying a muddy shovel.
Now, Cleaver was stuck waiting for his brother to leave again before he could search for the hole and retrieve the clothes without tipping Randy off.
In the meantime, I was trying—and failing—to get Judge Farling on the phone for a search warrant.
Apparently, he was out of town with his wife, kids, and grandkids for Thanksgiving.
Dad said if we didn’t hear back within a few hours, we could try Judge Ackers in the next county, but he’d avoid it unless we were desperate, as Ackers’s default answer to any warrant was no.
As I headed back to my office with my poor excuse for a breakfast, I glanced at the government-issued clock in the hallway, and the hour hand creeping toward nine flooded me with guilt. I’d promised Luca we’d buy the materials for his half-pipe today. Promised I’d show up.
One look out the window told me the weather wasn’t on our side.
Low clouds clung to the mountains like a warning.
But even if we couldn’t start building the pipe today, getting the lumber and cement mix home would be something.
It would be proof I meant what I’d said and that I’d keep my promise to him. It was a step in the right direction.
Luca had gone too long without a place to skate.
The front door of the station slammed open with a clang, slicing like a bullet through the quiet and causing my hand to slide automatically to my weapon.
When Luca burst inside, breathless and wide-eyed, my pulse skyrocketed.
“Luca—”
He all but slid toward me in obvious panic as Andie stumbled in behind him.
For a split second, my mind tried to make sense of the dark streak along her jaw, tried to file it under something harmless. Dirt. A shadow. Anything but the truth—that she had blood trailing down her cheek.
The coffee mug slipped from my hand, hitting the counter hard enough to slosh over the edge. I sprang across the room, demanding, “What happened?”
“Some loser in a black 4x4 threw beer cans at us!” Luca shouted.
I scanned my son, only slightly reassured to find no visible injuries, and then turned my attention back to Andie. A bruise was already coloring her cheek, and her left eye was swelling as blood ran from the corner of it.
Fuck! She’d been hurt on my watch.
I grabbed her elbow and guided her through the security gate to my office with Luca and the dog on our heels. I left her on the couch while I ran to grab a first aid kit.
When I got back, Akela was standing on alert at her side, and my son was returning from the break room with a couple of ice packs.
Squatting down next to her, I grabbed the antiseptic wipes, tore one open, and said, “This is going to hurt.”
I wiped her cheek as gently as I could, and she inhaled but didn’t let out a single whimper.
With the area cleaned, the pressure in my chest eased a hair more.
The cut wasn’t deep. It might not even scar.
Still, something nasty rolled through my gut at the possibility of her beautiful face receiving one more mark.
Her bastard of an ex may not have left this one behind, but there was a good chance it was whoever was messing with her now.
And goddamnit, they’d come at her in broad daylight. With my son at her side.
I bit the inside of my cheek, mouth filling with a sour, metallic taste.
Andie put a hand on my arm as I went to grab a bandage from the kit. “Cooper.”
For the first time since they’d stumbled in, I finally met her gaze. She was scared, but the remorse shining in her eyes only increased the ugliness burning in me.
“This isn’t on you,” I told her.
Her lids closed as she fought tears. “Luca… They could have hit Luca.”
I looked over at my son. “You hurt?”
“Nah. I saw the first one coming and ducked, but it struck Andie right in the head.”
“Someone start at the beginning,” I growled.
“Here, Andie,” Luca said, shoving the two ice packs at her.
She opened her eyes to take them, giving him a watery smile and a soft thank you. She placed one on her eye and the other on the left side of her head.
Luca was the one to rattle off the details, explaining their walk on Main Street and the black 4x4 with the man throwing shit out the tinted windows before it had hightailed it out of town.
“Did you get a plate?” I demanded.
Andie’s eyes widened, and she shook her head. “No. I didn’t even think—”
“It started with F27,” Luca cut her off. “I didn’t get the rest because cars blocked my view.”
I stood and ruffled his hair. “Good job, kid.”
He grinned briefly, but it was wiped away when his gaze settled on Andie again.
“You’re sure it was a man?” I asked them.
“I’d say yes,” Luca said. “From his size, and it was definitely a guy’s voice when he yelled at us.”
“Wait. Back up. He spoke to you?”
Andie nodded, saying, “He told us we weren’t welcome here—any of us—and to get the hell out of Rivers.”
I clenched my fists, nails biting into my palms as the truth struck. This wasn’t about her. This was all me. I’d been the one to put a bull’s-eye on their backs.
Akela’s panting filled the stormy quiet that fell between us. The dog’s tongue hung out, but every muscle of his large body remained tense and on alert. He was protecting my kid and Andie. He’d been there when I hadn’t.
“Akela needs water. Take him to the kitchen, Luc.”
He called the dog and headed back down the hall to the break room.
I sat next to Andie on the couch, grabbed the ice pack she was using on the side of her head, and held it for her. “I don’t think this was about you.”
The brow above her good eye raised. “You don’t?”
I shook my head. “They wouldn’t be trying to send you out of Rivers without getting the money they think you have.
This was much more likely about me and what’s been going on since I stepped into Dad’s shoes.
Things went down last night that put a spotlight on my main suspect.
I think he saw Luca and wanted to deliver a message. You just happened to be in the way.”
My chest squeezed again. I’d sworn I’d protect her, but my job inherently would expose her and Luca to danger.
In LA, even if a suspect knew about Luca from Eden’s constant social media posts, it would be unlikely for a perp to come across my son in the normal course of a day.
They’d have to purposefully seek him out.
Here in Swift Rivers, the chances of Randy, or any other criminal, seeing my kid were dramatically increased.
“I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse,” she said.
She put the ice pack on her lap, and the swollen side of her face made my stomach churn.
“Luca… He started to go after him. I had to hold him back, but he got away from me and started running after the truck. I haven’t been that terrified in a long time, Cooper.
I was so scared he’d be hurt trying to stick up for me. ”
Her eyes welled, but she held the tears back.
She’d looked after my son. She hadn’t had a panic attack or collapsed on the street.
Her natural instincts had been about Luca.
I fully took her in for the first time. She’d dressed down again today, wearing jeans and a sweater partially covered by my jacket. I liked seeing her in my things. Liked that it claimed her as mine just like she’d insisted she was.
I pushed a strand of her long hair behind her ear, finger trailing along her jaw.
“Thank you for trying to look out for him.”
She shook her head. “He looked after me more than the other way around. He’s a natural protector. A really incredible kid. I don’t understand how Eden could just—”
She stopped as the sound of Luca’s sneakers squeaking on the linoleum floor announced he was back.
He handed Andie a water bottle and uncapped another he’d brought for himself. As he chugged the first few swallows, his eyes fell on the board I’d set up with the drug case laid out on it. He took several steps closer to it, and I called him back.
“Luca, that’s not for you.”
“All these kids…the ones who’ve died or OD’d…
they hung with a high school group Wysteria calls the Plastic Royalty.
Her friend Ashley’s older brother is sort of the leader of the pack, if you know what I mean.
” When Luca turned back around, anger had turned his face red.
I’d never seen my son so furious. I’d seen him sad, hurt, rebellious, and even annoyed, but this…
it reminded me of me when I’d been pushed too far.
“I’ve seen Ashley’s brother pick her up in a black truck before.
Not raised like the one today, but that could be a recent change, right? ”
I stood. “What’s Ashley’s brother’s name?”