Chapter Twenty
LUCIFER
There’s nothing to find in Jake’s house that helps us catch a killer or decipher a hitlist. I look. Ana looks. The police look. To complicate matters, CSI is delayed and arriving from a bigger city. Towns of six thousand just don’t have those kinds of resources. With limited options for proceeding, at least here at Jake’s place, Ana and I are back outside the house, standing with the chief, when a car screeches to a halt. A moment later, a woman exits, wearing pajama pants and a sweater, and screaming, “Daddy! Daddy!”
Olivia, Jake’s daughter, who I’ve met on several occasions in the past.
“Sometimes I hate small town word of mouth. I really want to throw up right now,” Ana says, “but I’ll talk to her.”
She takes a step in Olivia’s direction, and I catch her arm. “No,” I say firmly. “I need to talk to her.” I don’t give her a chance to debate. I step around her and close the space between me and Olivia, who is presently standing in front of a police officer, shouting at him. She appears to be alone, with no coat on, and her long dark hair damp from the light rain that’s now falling again.
She must sense my approach as she turns, her eyes going wide, her face crumpling in a new round of tears. Me being here sends a message. She knows what that means. “No,” she howls as I get closer. “No! No! No! Don’t you even say it.” She points at me. “Don’t you even say it!”
Holy hell, carve me into pieces already. I step in front of her and she punches at me, fighting anything and anyone who can speak her new reality. I catch her arms. “I will do anything I can to help you.”
She throws her arms around me and sobs. I hold onto her, and I swear, time is eternal as she cries until I think she will cry herself into her own grave. An EMS team approaches, and I ease her back a bit. “Let the medical staff give you something to calm down a bit, and then we can talk.”
“We don’t need to talk,” she argues. “I just need the facts. Did someone kill him? Was this murder?” Her voice is raspy, raw, angry. Her eyes are bloodshot and swollen.
I slide out of my jacket and wrap it around her. “Yes.”
“And what are you going to do about it?” she demands.
I wave away the medical staff. “What do you want me to do, Olivia?”
“I want you to kill anyone involved in this. He was happy. We were so happy to be together again. Family is supposed to be together. And I’m pregnant. He was going to be a grandpa. He was so excited and now he will never know his grandson.”
And her mother’s been gone for years.
Her voice lifts. “Do you hear me? He won’t know his grandson. How am I supposed to do this alone?” She sobs, but her spine straightens, her lips curling around her teeth. “Kill the bastard who did this.”
“I will. You have my word,” I promise easily. I will kill anyone involved in this. “Now, let’s get you to the medics, okay?”
“Yes,” she whispers. “Yes, please give me something to numb what I feel right now.”
I lift my hand and motion toward the EMS truck, but then hold up one finger to indicate I only want just one medic to come to her now. I don’t want her overwhelmed. “Where’s your husband?”
“Dead,” she says. “A tractor rolled over him last month.”
Holy hell, I can’t take it. This woman’s pain is just too much, but I don’t tell her I’m sorry. It won’t do anything but imply pity, and she’s not a woman who wants to be pitied. That’s not how Jake raised her, and that’s definitely not how Jake lived.
The medic joins us, a tall, red-headed man. Once he’s checked her vitals, it’s not long before he injects her with something to calm her down. During the process, my cellphone keeps ringing, which I ignore, and someone offers me another jacket that I slide on.
When I finally leave, confident Olivia in good hands, I leave her with the intent of getting the hell out of here. Ana is quick to step to my side. “Is she okay?”
“No, she’s not fucking okay. I’ll see you in the car. Have someone bring you to me when you’re ready.”
She catches my arm and damn it to hell, I feel it all the way to my damn cock, which apparently is immune to the death and hate all around me right now. “You can’t walk alone when you’re on a hitlist.”
“Why do you care, Ana? They’ll just finish what you started.” I jerk away from her and begin walking again.
She rushes forward and steps in front of me, her blue eyes tormented. “Don’t say that. I do not want you to die.”