AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I turned to Lucy and pasted on my best patient older sister look. “Now, Lucy, just because someone ghosts you, it doesn’t mean that they’ve gone missing.” I forced a laugh and smiled at the cops. “Teens.”
Did it feel good to gaslight my own sister? Hell, no. But what she was doing right now was the equivalent of juggling flaming chainsaws, and she seemed to have no idea.
“Ghosted you, eh? Give us a name and we can see if we can run it through the system for you, check if he’s been hospitalized or anything like that.”
“Surely that’s a misuse of police resources,” I argued. Thank fuck I had no social life and watched court shows at night. “He has a right to ghost someone if he wants.”
“Let us worry about police resources, Miss Burke. We were just offering to make sure a young man hasn’t been hurt or gone missing. That’s a just cause.”
“Still, I’m sure it’s fine. We really have to get going now. I’m so sorry for wasting your time.”
Detective Whitely stared at me for a long moment before shifting his focus to Lucy. "What did you say his name was?"
I shot to my feet. “Okay, like I said, this is all ridiculous. I’m so sorry to be a bother.”
“Why are you so upset, Lucy, if all that happened was your boyfriend,Miguel, ghosted you?”
Shit.She’d already given them his name. Now if his body showed up… I swallowed down a sudden bout of nausea.
“Don’t you remember being a teen? This stuff is life or death at nineteen years old,” I quipped before cringing guiltily at my words.For fuck’s sake, Charlie, get a grip. Taking my own advice, I took a deep breath and let it go, smoothing a pleasantly bland expression over my features. “Now, we’ll just be going,” I muttered and yanked Lucy to her feet.
She stumbled into me. She was subdued, like someone had snuffed out the light inside her. She came willingly enough when I pulled her toward the door. Neither of the detectives made to open it, and I stared at them.
“Are you holding us here in an official capacity? Are we being charged with something?”
Detective Vane raised her eyebrow as she approached us, taking her sweet time. “Do you think you should be charged with something?”
“I love armchair psychology as much as the next person, but we need to be going,” I said firmly, refusing to participate in her little game of chicken.
The detectives watched us closely the entire way out of the precinct. I dragged Lucy three blocks away before stopping.
“What the hell, Lucy?” I demanded. Yikes. I never called her by her full name. I was madder than I thought. “What was the point in creeping out of that place last night when you’re determined to put a target on our backs?!”
“I didn’t know what to do,” Lucy muttered, scrubbing a hand over her pale face. “I got a call while you were at work, on my cell.”
“What call? From who?” I didn’t want to hear the answer. Dread had dropkicked me in the belly, and I struggled to breathe.
“I think it was Miguel’s boss. The one who sent the message to his phone.” Lucy’s lips were bloodless. “I think they know about me.”
“Shh, it’s okay.” I reached out and pulled her close, hugging her petite body hard. “It’s going to be okay. I’ll take care of everything.”
I had no clue how, but the words just flowed. I’d always taken care of my sister and I always would. She was still and unyielding in my arms. Lucy always pulled away when she was upset and shut me out. It was her coping mechanism.
“Why did you go to the cops? You could have waited until I got home,” I gently reminded her. The service sucked in the hospital’s locker room, where I had to leave my phone during shifts.
“I thought maybe if I reported Miguel missing, the cops would find him themselves, and then their investigation would find the drugs and the killers…” She sighed and rubbed her temples, drawing back from my embrace. “The police would get the killers, and the drugs would get confiscated, and the dealers would drop it.”
I smoothed my hand down her hair. I got it. Lucy was sheltered, despite having only an older sister as a parental figure. I’d made sure that the worst of the life we’d lived in sketchy neighborhoods and group homes hadn’t touched her. She still believed in the system. In Lucy’s unspoiled mind, the cops had power and caught the bad guys. I’d lived long enough to know that wasn’t always the case.
“It’s okay, I understand. It makes sense,” I reassured her. Once her shoulders stopped shaking, I leaned back and looked her in the eye. “But remember this. We have no one but each other. The police can’t help us; in fact, they might even think you were involved. They aren’t on our side. Worst of all, if we tell them what happened and they investigate, do you think the De Sanctis family will just sit back and let the police build a case for murder against one of their men? Of course they won’t. They’ll eliminate the problem, which is us. You think the cartel will be cool knowing that we saw what happened to Miguel? They might want the money for the drugs fromyou.”
I touched her hand. Her skin was cold. “We have no one but each other. We need to get rid of the phone, now, before I have to go to La Leonora,” I told her.
She looked at me for a long moment, biting her lip. Finally, seeming to win a war with herself in her head, she nodded.
“Let’s go to the shore,” she suggested.
I tightened my grip on her hand. The Burke sisters might have shit luck, but we also had each other. We’d survive another day. I wouldn’t allow anything else.
