Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
EVERS
My phone rang, dragging me out of sleep. My eyes blinked open and my brain clicked online.
Axel's ringtone.
I grabbed my phone off the nightstand.
4:12 AM.
"What happened?"
"Attempted break-in at the condo. Through the window of Mom's bedroom."
My gut clutched. "Is she okay?"
"Yeah. She twisted an ankle trying to get out of bed. Got tangled in the quilt. He set off the alarm and bailed, but he managed to get the window open. If he'd wanted to, he could have taken a shot."
"Did you get him?"
"No," Axel said, sounding annoyed and resigned. "I thought she'd broken her foot and I didn't want to leave her alone long enough to go after him."
"Fuck." Beside me Summer stirred, rolling over and looking at me with questioning eyes. I reached out to take her hand, running my thumb over her knuckles. "Did you talk to Cooper yet?"
"A minute ago. Mom and I are headed to Vegas as soon as I get her ankle checked out."
"I thought you said it's a sprain."
Axel sighed, and I had a moment of gratitude that I was in Atlanta, in bed with Summer, while he was stuck in Florida with our mom.
"It is a sprain. If she hadn't had a supersized gin and tonic before bed, she wouldn't have fallen in the first place. She's insisting she see her own doctor. Actually, she's refusing to budge from the condo."
"What are you going to do?" I wasn't sure I wanted to know.
"Take her to the doctor and then go straight to the airport. I'll carry her onto the fucking plane if I have to."
"Fuck," I said again, torn between guilt that Axel and Emma were saddled with our mom and rising fury that Tsepov had gone after her so directly.
I couldn't shake the mental image of her waking in the night, afraid, struggling with her blankets while one of Tsepov's goons aimed a gun at her head. Our fucking father had a lot to answer for.
Axel interrupted my thoughts. "Cooper said you picked up Smokey Winters."
"Yesterday," I affirmed.
"He's not talking?"
"Not yet. Claims he doesn't know anything."
"That's bullshit," Axel burst out, worry simmering beneath his anger.
I was pretty fucking pissed myself. We knew Smokey had information that would help get Tsepov off our backs, and he was sitting around sponging off Cynthia and Summer, taking care of number one and leaving the rest of us blowing in the wind.
"Make him fucking talk," Axel said.
Summer went stiff, and I knew she'd heard.
I didn't look at her.
I couldn't.
I knew what I'd see in her eyes. Worry. Distrust. Fear.
She wanted to look out for her dad. She wanted us to go easy on him.
Easy was done.
I had another flash of my Mom, alone in her bed, one of Tsepov's men coming through the window. Not again. We'd tried it Summer's way. Now it was my turn.
Axel pulled my attention back to our conversation. "Cooper wants you and Smokey in the office. Now. He was going to call, but I told him I'd pass along the message."
"Understood," I said. "We'll call you back when we're done. Give Mom my love, okay? Tell her we're going to fix this."
"Yeah, I will. And you fucking better."
Axel ended the call.
"Is your mom okay?" Summer asked. I rolled out of bed and looked past her, unable to stomach the reproach I'd see in her eyes when I told her what was about to happen.
"She is for now. Someone tried to get into her condo. She's a little banged up. Scared. I'm bringing your dad in."
"In for what?" she asked, voice tight with fear. She didn't need my answer. She already knew.
"For questioning," I said, shortly. "We don't have time for his bullshit, Summer. It would be different if they were coming after me or my brothers, but my mom deserves better than this. He's going to fucking talk, whether he wants to or not."
I was through the door before she could respond, heading for my room to get dressed. Ready to go, I went for Smokey, swinging his door wide, the room flooding with light from the hall.
Smokey was so deeply asleep I'd pulled him to a sitting position before his eyes opened. "What the hell? What's going on?"
"Get your ass out of bed. You're coming with me." I pulled him to his feet, pushing him in the direction of his dresser.
"Hey, man, back off. You can't make me—"
I dropped Smokey's arm and stepped back, drawing my gun from the holster at the small of my back and leveling it on Smokey.
"I can do whatever I fucking want. Get out of the goddamn bed and put your clothes on."
Smokey's face paled as he took in the gun. He was a weasel, but he knew I wasn't. I'd learned early—never pull a weapon I’m not prepared to use.
Smokey saw the intent in my eyes. Moving faster than I'd ever seen him, he pulled on jeans and a T-shirt, shoving his feet into a pair of worn flip-flops.
"Face the wall and put your hands up."
He did. I holstered my gun and pulled a pair of handcuffs from my pocket.
I had him cuffed and was shoving him into the hall when we almost bumped into Summer, pacing outside Smokey's door, her hair in a loose ponytail, wearing the bright yellow sundress she'd discarded last night in favor of that pink bikini.
I couldn't think of Summer in that bikini, of peeling it off her. Not now. Not if I was going to look after my family.
"I'm coming with you," she announced, dismay darkening her eyes at the sight of her father with his hands cuffed behind his back.
"Summer," Smokey said, sensing an advantage, "baby girl, tell him to let me go. Call the police or something. He can't do this. It's unconstitutional—"
"Shut up, Dad," she said, glaring at her father. To me, she said again, "I'm coming with you. I'm not letting you take my dad away. I'm coming with you."
"Summer," I started, but she cut me off.
"I'm coming with you or I'll report you for kidnapping. You can't just lock him up until he tells you what you want to know."
I could do exactly that. And I would. If I had to, I'd stop Summer from calling the police, too. I hoped it didn't come to that.
"Summer," I tried again. I risked a look at her face and knew she wasn't going to back down. Might as well let her come. At least I'd know where she was. "Fine, but stay out of our way."
Summer fell in line beside us, glaring at her dad and refusing to look at me.
I was fucking up again. I knew it, and I couldn't stop myself.
I was done babying her father. Maybe she wanted to lie to herself about dear old Dad, but I had to face reality.
Smokey Winters was a criminal who didn't deserve our consideration.
He had information we needed, and he was going to give it to us.
That was reality. Anything else was Summer fooling herself.
I'd fix things with her later. I had to believe I could.
For now, Cooper and I had one job. Get Smokey Winters to talk.
Cooper was waiting in the safe room when we got there. Lucas Jackson was with him. If I'd wondered about Cooper's plan, seeing Lucas answered my questions.
Torture wasn't our go-to when it came to extracting information, but Smokey Winters didn't know that.
Lucas Jackson is a good guy. A marshmallow when it comes to his wife. At 6'6", with shoulders as broad as a barn door, he made for an intimidating threat. He looked like a brawler, had spent some time undercover in a biker club, but at heart, Lucas preferred peace to war.
We'd brought him on knowing his military and civilian files had blank spots. A lot of blank spots. He'd done things he didn't like to think about, and he worked with us because we rarely asked him to access the darker side of his skill set.
He ran our division of computer experts. If you didn't know better, you'd never guess Lucas was happiest in front of a keyboard. He looked like the furthest thing from a computer geek, which just went to show that appearances are deceiving.
Smokey took one look at Lucas, and his eyes flashed wide with fear.
Good.
Maybe a little fear would loosen his tongue.
A table sat in the middle of the safe room, a chair on either side. I shoved Smokey toward one of the chairs.
"Sit."
Cooper took the other chair. Lucas stood behind him, arms crossed over his chest, his green eyes flat, dangerous, and trained on Smokey.
Smokey squirmed. Summer started forward, moving to her father. I closed my hand over her elbow and pulled her back.
"Stay out of it."
Smokey shot her a pleading glance, but she stayed where she was. Her quiescence wouldn't last.
She was thinking, trying to figure a way out for her father. There wasn't one. This wasn't a game. Not with my mom's life at stake. Smokey wasn't leaving this room until he told us what we wanted to know.
If it got ugly along the way, we were all going to have to live with that.
"How long did you work with my father?" Cooper said, starting with the easy question.
I could see the gears turning in Smokey's mind. Saw him consider a smartass response. His eyes, so like Summer's, flicked up to Lucas. He took in Cooper's resolve, his silent daughter beside me, and decided to give a little something before it was dragged from him by force.
"Off and on since 2003."
"What happened in 2003? Why then?" Cooper asked.
Smokey shot a look at Summer. "You don't need to be here, girl. Let your man take you home."
Summer went stiff. "What happened in 2003, Dad?" she asked, the suspicion in her voice telling me she knew she wouldn't like his answer.
Smokey was a mostly-absent father, but he knew his daughter well enough to tell when she wouldn't be budged. He held his breath for a long moment before it rushed out in a gusty sigh, carrying with it a flood of words.
"It was when Hugh died. I called. I wanted to come see my second cousins, or whatever they are. I wanted to see the kids."
"First cousins once removed," Cooper murmured.
"Whatever. Hugh and James were gone, I wanted to see—"
It hit all of us at the same time. Summer made a sound somewhere between a gasp and a wail. "You wanted to see if you could get any money out of them, didn't you?" she asked, her voice rough with pain. "That's why you called them."
"No, I wanted to see if they were okay. That was all, but—"
"Of course, they weren't okay." Cooper looked at Smokey with disgust, his face mirroring the expression on my own and Summer's.
"I never talked to any of them," Smokey said defensively. "Davis picked up the phone. Invited me to meet them, but when I got there, it wasn't the family. It was just Davis. He told me he knew who I was, and he wanted me to stay away from the kids. He, uh, he—"
"He offered to cut you in on some cash if you'd promise to stay away from the Winters kids," I finished for him.