Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
“What kind of horse crap is this?” Fowler seethed, standing up so abruptly that his seat behind him hit the wall with a crack. “This is my fucking police station. Get out!”
Rafe stepped inside and shook his head, eyeing Fowler like he was unimpressed.
It was, indeed, his police station. But it wouldn’t be for much longer. I wasn’t sure that Fowler had ever seen that particular side of the interrogation room table.
“Actually,” Rafe drawled. “This is no longer your police station. As of right now, the Texas Rangers have opened a corruption investigation of this office and all officers associated with it due to the recent events. There is no longer a functional police station in the city of Hostel.”
Fowler’s face went beet red.
“You can’t…”
“No, but I can.”
A Texas Ranger in full uniform walked straight up to Fowler and held out his hand. “Pending the outcome of this investigation, you are officially relieved of duty until such a time as you are either exonerated of the charges that have been leveled against this office or you are otherwise deemed fit for duty.”
I knew that wasn’t going to happen.
Any decent investigator would see this farce of a police department as the fucking den of dishonesty that it is.
Hell, I hadn’t even been here for the last four years—although I did have first-hand knowledge of how corrupt these cops were, seeing as I went to jail either because of their inability to adequately conduct an investigation or, even worse, their role in framing me for this crime.
I also now knew that there were at least two dirty police officers in Balthazar’s pockets. My brother and Fowler.
“You can’t…”
The Texas Ranger grinned. “I just did.”
And that was that.
Chapter 28
If a boy gives you butterflies, your heart is in danger.
-Fact of Life
Kennedy
I dug a hole in the ground.
My hands were blistered. One finger was bleeding due to a splinter, but I wouldn’t stop until the hole was big enough.
I hiccupped on a sob as I scooped out another shovelful of dirt.
“Would you please, for the love of all that’s holy, let me help you?”
I shook my head at Rafe’s insistence and kept scooping.
The hole I was digging was large, but it wasn’t large enough.
Not to hold a deceased dog of Gertie’s size.
“God, this is the hardest thing in the world to watch.”
I glanced up to see that I’d gained another man in my audience.
This one was a man in full uniform.
A Texas Ranger, if I had to guess.
“That’s what I’ve been saying for the last hour,” Rafe grumbled to himself. “You get Evander home?”
“I did,” the Texas Ranger confirmed. “He was released on his own recognizance about half an hour ago. Though, I don’t think that he knows that his woman is out here doing this, or he wouldn’t have insisted on going to the hospital looking for her.”
I frowned. “Why does he think I’m at the hospital?”
The Texas Ranger looked at me. “Apparently, you were supposed to be there undergoing some tests.”
I had been…over two hours ago. Now I was here, doing this.
“Rafe?”
Rafe looked at me, his gaze unwavering.
“Yeah?”
“If I let you finish, will you go pick up Evander and bring him back here?”
Rafe nodded, looking relieved.
“Yeah.”
I let the shovel drop from my limp hands, and then sat on the edge of the hole and waited.
Rafe disappeared sometime later, and I could tell that men were still surrounding me.
At some point, two got into the hole and started digging around me.
They made short work of it.
Made it look so much easier than I had.
I didn’t care, though.
I didn’t speak.
I only waited.
It wasn’t long.
Maybe fifteen minutes at most.
I heard the motorcycle before I saw it, and then turned my head to watch as Evander came barreling around the curve of the driveway. He came to a stop directly in front of where I’d been digging, and then threw his leg over the bike before marching toward me.
I stood up, and with very little effort on his part, he hauled me up into his arms and buried his face in my neck.
“Are you okay?” I asked him shakily.
He didn’t reply, only squeezed tighter.
I wasn’t sure whether to take that as a yes or a no.
“I was digging a g-g-grave,” I said. “For Gertie.”
Evander’s big body shuddered.
He still didn’t reply.
“Do you want me to get them to bring him out here?”
He couldn’t stay in there much longer.
His large body had been covered with a sheet in the middle of the living room.
Unfortunately, with everything else that was going on, including Evander’s house being a crime scene, I couldn’t do any more until they’d officially released it back to us.
And that hadn’t been for another eight, long hours.
If we had waited much longer, it would have begun to smell.
And I didn’t want Evander to remember Gertie like that.
“I’ll get him.”