“It does.” His face closed down for a few seconds. “If I tell you something, you have to promise not to share it with anyone. No one can ever know.”
I blinked, surprised.
“I guess that really depends on what you tell me,” I told him honestly. “If it’s your safety that’s a concern, then I’ll be talking to whomever I need to to ensure that you’re safe no matter what.”
He looked away. “I… it’s a girl at school.”
I frowned. “What’s a girl at school?” I asked.
“A teacher,” he corrected.
“A teacher at school is doing something bad?” I asked for clarification.
He looked down at his hands. “I… she does things… yes.” He took a deep breath. “She corners me. Asks me things…”
Who knew that Pedro seeing me scared could cause him to finally let me in?
Who knew that I would find a second person that deserved to be taken care of, all because of Wake?
Who. Fucking. Knew?
CHAPTER 9
Success is like being pregnant. Everyone says congratulations, but they have no idea how many times you got fucked.
-Wake’s secret thoughts
WAKE
“You’re doing what?” I asked in confusion.
“I’m going to kick that old diner owner’s ass,” Danyetta seethed, her hands clenching and unclenching. “You remember how he used to treat me when I worked there? Well, now he’s doing it to an old lady that’s taking care of her thirteen-year-old grandson by herself. I just know it’s Martha.”
Martha Watson had been at that diner since the beginning of time.
She used to work there when I worked there once upon a time, too.
There was no way that she was still there.
“Where did you get this information from?” I asked carefully.
Dan licked her lips, then said, “I finally talked to her.”
Her being Dutch.
Things had gone a bit haywire over the past few months, and for the first time in a while, I was able to get a little time to myself.
Well, that was if you didn’t count the sheriff that was downright bothering the absolute shit out of me.
He’d taken it upon himself to make me the prime target to help him win his campaign for sheriff.
As in, find something to send me back to jail, so he could toot his horn to his constituents that he’d taken down a hardened criminal.
Well, that had won him his office a few elections ago, but it’d become abundantly clear over the last year or so that he was no longer up for the job.
There was nothing quite like you making a call about a burglar being in your house and the sheriff not responding until you’d already shot the burglar.
Generally, people liked to hold off on shooting people if they could help it. And by calling the sheriff, that’s what they’re hoping that they can do. But as of last night, there’d been eight burglaries gone bad in Sheriff Graydon’s area over the last few months—lawlessness was starting to take root—and people were losing patience.
People, as in nearly every single supporter that Graydon once had, were now highly unlikely to ever vote for him again.
“And how did that go?” I asked curiously.
I’d been watching her since I’d gotten out. I’d hoped that she would come to me, but she hadn’t.
And last night, I’d known that she’d finally done the deed.
Mostly because I’d watched over her while she’d done it.
Following her all the way to Texas hadn’t been in my plans over the last few days, but it’d definitely been the highlight of my year to watch her fumble her way through killing someone.
That probably sounded completely morbid, but Jesus Christ had it been a turn-on to see her take that man out while those filthy words had spewed from his mouth.
I hadn’t thought she could handle it at first. But the senator had signed his own death warrant by telling Dutch how much he enjoyed hurting his daughter, Lois. He’d also confessed to helping his wife murder herself by switching out her medication.
Needless to say, had Dutch not been able to finish the job, I sure the fuck would have.
I’d also taken care of the tracking device on Haskins’s briefcase while Dutch was in a truck stop getting a bathroom break on her way back home.
Which worked well, in my opinion, because Haskins appeared to have driven to the area on his own and just disappeared.
Dutch had chosen a great place to stop, so old that it didn’t have cameras or the best clientele. Nobody would remember her being there, and there wouldn’t be any proof because she didn’t stop to get gas or anything.
Hell, she’d even thought ahead and filled up gas cans so she didn’t have to stop anywhere at all to purchase a single thing.
I liked the way her mind worked, that was for sure.
“Not great.” Danyetta winced. “She was freaked way the hell out about something. The moment I mentioned your name, she got this big ‘uh oh’ look on her face.”