Chapter Thirty-nine – The Day I Die
Chapter Thirty-nine
Cooper
THE DAY I DIE
Performed by Chris Stapleton
I wasted minutes I couldn’t afford explaining to Dawson who I was and why I was calling.
“Where is she?” her brother demanded.
“She was supposed to go straight to my parents’ place, but she’s not responding,” I told him. “What I need right now is to know what you found out about Eddie’s family.”
He went quiet. “Nothing good. Nothing I wanted Andie to know when she was already feeling stupid for falling for him and not standing up to him sooner. Eddie and Marla’s dad disappeared when they were teenagers.
At the time, everyone thought it was foul play because he was working for his wife’s family—Irish mafia out of Boston—but nothing came out of the investigation.
I’m not sure any of the cops really cared.
Just a bad actor taken off the streets. After that, Eddie and Marla went to live with their aunt, who was running the family business.
“The money Eddie borrowed? It was from his aunt. She’d moved to Vegas a few years earlier and was trying to muscle in on the gaping hole in the underground there made by the Puzo family going legit.
She’s made quite a name for herself since then, and her primary source of income these days is drugs. Heavy stuff.”
My gut tightened. “Speedball?”
“Not that I’m aware of, but I’m not tied in with the feds like I used to be. You think it might have something to do with what’s happening in Swift Rivers? With those teenagers overdosing?”
“You’re well informed,” I said dryly.
“Andie’s important to me. I look out for the people I love.”
He meant it, but it was also a stab in my direction that I didn’t react to. Instead, I asked, “Where’s Marla?”
“She’s been off the grid for almost as long as Andie. I caught a sniff of something at a surgery center in Switzerland, but it didn’t pan out.”
“What kind of center?”
“Weight loss reconstruction.”
The skin on my neck prickled. Misty wasn’t just involved in this.
She wasn’t some girl whom Eddie had kept on the side.
Misty was Marla. I might have suspected it if Andie hadn’t insisted Marla was helpless.
I should have suspected as soon as Andie said Marla had been at Eddie’s that day.
As soon as Misty had started dropping weird hints.
You lose two or three hundred pounds, dye your hair, change your makeup and clothing style, and you might just be unrecognizable. I cursed, voicing my thoughts aloud, and Dawson agreed.
“But she’d need voice reconstruction too. When she was living with Andie, she could barely talk, and it sounded like it hurt when she did,” Dawson said. “I’ll look up pictures of this Misty person on the Harrington website and run it against pictures of Marla, see if we get a facial match.”
“Tell me more about the aunt. Would she come for Andie after all this time, simply to recover money that has to mean nothing to her if her operation is as big as you indicated?”
“Absolutely. She’s known for carrying a grudge and turning on anyone who even thinks about being disloyal. I’ve thought, since I first found out about her, that she was the one who had Eddie killed. The goon who showed up at the hospital with Andie likely pulled the trigger.”
“Why haven’t you told Andie any of this?” I demanded.
“I didn’t want her to be even more afraid than she already was, and there was no hint, until recently, that anyone knew where Andie was. My friend Nolan has been working out of the Vegas office for years to try to bring Muirgen down.”
Ice settled over my veins. “What the hell is her name?”
“Muirgen Doyle.”
The face of the woman renting the Morwood place flashed before me. Andie had told me the woman had made her feel uncomfortable, and I hadn’t thought much about it. I’d told her to listen to her instincts, and then I’d ignored them.
Damnit. I was a fucking idiot.
At the light on the corner by the Emporium, I had to brake for a crowd of tourists flowing across the crosswalk. I turned on my lights and siren, and they startled, hustling across at a run.
“Does Andie have the money?” I hated myself for asking, but I had to know.
“Fuck no!” Dawson said. “Andie would have turned it over to the tribe if she had it. She felt distraught about stealing from the casino.”
“Where’d she get the money for the down payment on her house?”
“Look.” Irritation made Dawson’s voice go down a notch.
“I don’t know who’s been filling you with what kind of shit, but Andie is the victim here.
She was manipulated, abused, and threatened.
When she tried to do the right thing, her relationship with the FBI and the tribe was compromised, so she ran. But it wasn’t Nolan who turned on her.
“He knew as soon as she disappeared that I was the one who helped her escape, but he never once asked me to tell him where she was. Meanwhile, he’s been busting his chops to end this for us because he felt guilty as all hell that Andie was compromised on his watch.
He’s taken plenty of heat for it from his superiors too.
“And not that it’s any of your business, but Andie saved for most of the down payment over the years she’s worked her ass off for the Harringtons.
When she came up a few thousand short, I had to beg her to let me give it to her.
My wife and I have more money than either of us or our kids could ever want.
Andie knows that, and she still refuses my help more often than not. ”
No silver Eldorado was parked in front of our houses as I flew down to the end of the block, but Andie’s SUV was in the drive. Relief rushed through me. At least I’d found her.
But the unknown car parked in front of Beckett’s house ramped my concerns right back up.
“I’m at Andie’s house. Her car is here. I’ll call you back.”
I hung up before he responded.
Just as I opened the door of my rig, a gunshot broke the frozen air.
Andie!
Automatically, I reached for my holstered weapon, adrenaline surging.
I leaped up the porch steps, hitting my radio mic and calling for backup.
Another round went off inside the house, and I slammed my shoulder into the exterior wall, gun pointed inside the front door swaying in the wind and squeaking eerily.
Earth-shattering screams, the angry snarl of a dog, and another gunshot sent me flying inside, regardless of protocol. I barely registered the living room was clear as I sprinted toward the commotion in the kitchen.
Akela had his jaws locked on Misty’s wrist, the pistol in her hand pointing directly at Andie…and Luca! God fucking damnit. My stomach bottomed out.
“Drop the weapon,” I commanded, trying desperately to hold on to the last shred of control I had left and not disregard every ounce of training I’d had by ending this once and for all with a bullet to Misty’s head.
My gaze dropped momentarily to the body on the floor at Misty’s feet. Blood coated Muirgen’s chest. Her eyes were vacant, and the scent of death hung in the air.
My eyes shot back to Misty as she let loose another tortured scream as Akela’s teeth dug in deeper. His snout was a red-stained, ugly snarl of teeth and saliva.
“Drop the goddamn gun,” I repeated. And finally, the pistol clattered to the floor.
I lunged forward, kicking the weapon and sending it banging into the far wall, before grabbing the dog’s collar and commanding, “Release, Akela. Release.”
He obeyed but not before emitting another guttural growl I wanted to echo.
Every fiber of my being was straining to reach for Andie and Luca. To hug them to me, bundle them up, and shove them out of this fucking house and away from danger.
Instead, somehow, I did my fucking job and kept my eyes locked on Misty as I demanded, “Get down on the floor, hands behind your head.”
She fell to her knees but didn’t lie down. She clutched her destroyed arm, sobbing and ranting, garbled words I didn’t understand and didn’t fucking care to.
Just as I turned to hand the dog off to Andie so I could complete the arrest, Luca shouted her name. Andie sagged backward, and my son caught her.
Her face was deathly pale, her eyes rolling backward. At first, I thought it was another panic attack, until I saw the hole in the sleeve of my jacket that revealed bloody flesh.
My heart fucking stopped.
I dropped my hold on Akela’s collar, hurtling toward Andie.
Luca and I laid her down on the floor, and I gently pulled my jacket from her shoulder.
“She stepped in front of me, Dad.” Luca’s words were a mix of tears and fury. “She…she got shot protecting me.”
I couldn’t console him. I couldn’t speak. I tore at the sleeve of Andie’s dress, and she moaned.
Behind me, Misty continued to rant and rave. “I did it, Eddie. She’s going to die. She’s going to die. I shot her. I shot her. The whore got what she deserved.”
Rage blurred my vision, and if I hadn’t had my hands on Andie, if I hadn’t been trying to save her life, I’d have struck Misty. I’d have pummeled her until she was nothing but a bloody pulp.
What Andie fucking deserved was to be treated like a princess. A queen. To have one person actually believe in her, stand by her, and tell her she was the most important person in their life.
Instead, I’d let Misty’s poison in and doubted her.
It might have only been for half a heartbeat, but I’d still let it worm inside me.
I’d asked her brother where she’d gotten the down payment for her house, when I knew better, when I knew the truth in my gut, just like I knew she was mine, and I hated that I’d even hesitated.
Andie’s lids closed, her breathing turned shallow, and my chest convulsed.
“Andie, baby,” I said softly, tapping her cheek. “Wake up, Havoc.”
When she didn’t respond, I grabbed Luca’s arm. He was almost as pale and shaky as Andie, unable to tear his eyes from the hole in my jacket.
“Luc, get some towels.”
Boots clattered on the porch, Freeborn’s voice announcing his presence, and I hollered back that we were in the kitchen and to call an ambulance.