31
Kane
Work To Do
It takes everything in my body to slide out through the back dock of the police station rather than run into the boardroom and snatch Jess up. She argues with her family – shouting my innocence and pleading for my freedom.
She’s so sure I’m a good person, but I’ve never shown her that. I’ve committed crime after crime in front of her, and yet, she so vehemently believes I deserve freedom.
I slip into the darkness without bothering to hide my face – the security cams will see me leave, and they already know it’s me. I simply run through the garage door and hit the street at a sprint.
I have ten minutes before they figure it out.
I have a lot of work to do tonight.
I sprint through moonlit front yards without a single weapon on me. Alex took them all when I was arrested, and without them, I feel naked. Vulnerable. Way too fucking exposed.
I duck under a mulberry tree and jump a low fence. I outrun a snapping dog and swear when house lights flicker on.
Alex will be able to follow my trail so fuckin’ easily, I may as well tie myself to a tree in Main Street and wait for them.
But I won’t, because I have men to kill. I have work to do. I have to find Jay. And I have to find Abel, because I bet my left fucking nut he’s right here in town.
His passport says one thing, his flight itinerary backs it up, but I know better.
I race through a well-kept front yard on a street that every mid-income family lives in, dash up the front stairs, push through the front door, and start collecting supplies.
Every step through the home I take, I pray I’ll stumble across Jay. Like maybe he’s been here all along. Like maybe he’s still hungover and resting, and my Jess-filled brain just didn’t see him.
But that’s not true.
My brother is dead, and I don’t know where Abel put his body.
I’ll find that out, too, before Abel is dealt with.
Jay deserves a proper burial. He deserves somewhere safe to rest. Somewhere Jess can visit on my behalf and send him love.
“Bishop?”
Spinning, I glance up the stairs and stop when my eyes meet Eric’s. With a silver and wood grain Sig Saur clasped in his large hands, he watches me. “Are you ready to move?”
I shake my head and keep going. “Not yet. I have loose ends to tie up.”
“The girl?”
“Is none of your business. She’s safe for now. She’s at the cop shop.” I stop at the safe with my backpack in one hand and work the combination, sliding guns and magazines in when it opens. “She’s a fuckin’ twin, Eric. Did you know that?”
“Ah, nope.” He lazily moves down the stairs and stops beside me. “Can’t say I knew that. I didn’t look her up, since you so stubbornly told me she’s none of my business.”
“Identical! They’re fuckin’ identical.”
“Abel doesn’t know that.”
“I dunno. He never mentioned it. But now he has two targets. I gotta make it safe for them first.”
“You said she’s with the cops. She’s safe.”
“She’s not safe!” I slam the now empty safe closed and begin working guns into my clothes. I strap holsters to my thighs and think of her. “She’s not safe. Turner will do his best, but he doesn’t know what we know. He doesn’t even know she’s truly in danger.”