AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Kaj thought of Jace and hoped he hadn’t lied.
Kaj held her on the riverbank in the waning sunshine while Phin and Oscar Romero sat on the dock. Finally, three NOPD boats arrived with officers, divers, and a CSU team.
One of the officers approached. It was Nolan, who’d been there the night that Rick had been dumped on his lawn and who’d accompanied them into the bayou the morning they’d found the remains of Corey’s camp. And the remains of Dewey Talley and Zach Monteith. Kaj relaxed, confident he was one of André’s good guys.
“Are you all right?” Nolan asked. “Do you need medical attention?”
“We’re okay,” Kaj said, able to hear a bit better now. He glanced at the dock and saw that Farrah’s father was standing over Phin protectively. “No immediate medical attention needed.”
Nolan looked sympathetic. “We have a few questions and then we’ll get you back to the city.”
Val lifted her head from Kaj’s shoulder. “Make it fast, please. I have a child to see.”
Jace or Elijah? Kaj wondered, then knew. Jace and Elijah.
When Jace recovered, Kaj was making sure that kid had everything he needed. Starting with a family who loved him.
Once Nolan had asked his questions, Val stood up and extended her hand. Kaj took it and together they went to where Phin still sat, silent and haunted.
“You ready to head home?” Val asked Phin. When he didn’t answer, she knelt beside him and cupped his face in her hands. “You did so well, Phin. You saved Elijah. You saved Kaj. And you saved me. Thank you.”
Phin looked up. “You had to kill him.”
“Bobby? Yeah.”
“Don’t you dare feel guilty,” he said fiercely.
“I won’t,” she assured him, and Kaj wondered if she knew something about Phin’s past that he did not. “Burke and the others are waiting for us. Let’s go home.”
Phin nodded once and followed them into the boat, steadfastly looking away from whatever was left of Bobby Landry under the dock.
Val, on the other hand, didn’t take her eyes off the sight until they’d rounded a bend. She looked grimly... proud. But not okay.
None of them were okay.
But they would be.
30
Mid-City, New Orleans, Louisiana
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 9:45 P.M.
VAL SHIFTED UNCOMFORTABLY in the chair in Jace’s ICU room, but she wasn’t going to leave. She’d promised Jace that she’d stay. She wasn’t sure if he could hear her, but it didn’t matter. He would not be alone when he woke up.
His surgeon was hopeful, so Val would be hopeful, too.
Burke was expected to make a full recovery. He’d had a room full of people when she’d stopped by to see him. They still hadn’t found his shooter, but the NOPD was searching.
CSU had determined that Burke had been shot from the house across the street. NOPD had searched the home, finding the owner tied up and blindfolded in an upstairs closet. The woman couldn’t tell them who her captor had been, but she wasn’t permanently injured.
Val, however, had remembered Corey and Bobby talking about Burke’s shooter when she’d been tied up in the back of MaryBeth’s van. They’d said “Ed’s guy” was a cop named Alex. After hearing that name, many of the cops who’d been patrolling Kaj’s neighborhood remembered seeing Officer Alex Cullen asking questions. Because he’d been a fellow cop, none of them had thought twice about it—until one of them realized that he’d never been listed on the protection detail. There were BOLOs out for Alex Cullen, but so far, he was still missing.
MaryBeth was also awake, but the doctors had told Jessica that she’d need more surgery and physical therapy because the bullet had shredded one of the muscles in her thigh. She might never skate with the QuarterMasters again. But she was alive, having ripped her crinoline skirt to use as a tourniquet for her leg.
Val was intensely grateful. And proud. Her friend was badass.
Val had seen Elijah when she’d first arrived at the hospital. He’d broken down in sobs when she’d hugged him. So she’d held him, rocking him, singing to him until he shuddered in her arms. But he was alive. Physically whole.
