Page 83 of My Cruel Salvation

“It seemed like you guys were star-crossed, you know. And I always got the feeling you were a little bit haunted.” She shrugged. “I guess the truth is you were.”

“Yeah,” Devlin said with a hint of a laugh. “Secrets clung to me like ghosts back then.”

“But not anymore? I don’t mean with me. I don’t care if there are secrets with me or Lamar or any of that. But it still worries me a little. That you might go away again.”

“No,” he said with as much force and conviction as any statement he’d ever made in his life. “I don’t keep secrets from Ellie anymore. And I will swear to you what I’ve sworn to her. I’m never going to leave her.”

Brandy studied him for a minute, then nodded, looking pleased, “Well, okay then.”

“I asked her to marry me.” He hadn’t intended to tell her that, but the words rushed out of him. He immediately regretted them. Wasn’t that Ellie’s purview to tell her best friend? He wasn’t sure. All he knew was that in the context of this conversation, it was important to him that Brandy knew. Not only because he’d come to love her like a sister, but because he wanted to reassure her that he would never again hurt El.

Brandy gaped at him. “You’re engaged? Oh my God, I’m going to kill her. She didn’t say a word.”

“Yeah, well, I think I spoke out of turn. And, no. We’re not engaged. The truth is she said no.”

“No way.”

He laughed. “Believe me, I was as surprised as you are. But her reason is good.”

Brandy made a harrumphing sound and crossed her arms over her chest. “Yeah?”

“She wants to date. She wants to not have all of that sneaking around that you found so disturbing when we were kids. She wants something open, with more time in public together than we’ve had so far. And I get that. I even support it. So long as at the end of the day, she’s wearing a ring on her finger.”

“I like that,” Brandy said. “Thank you for telling me. And I’m excited for both of you. It’s like you’re engaged to be engaged.”

He chuckled and they shared a quick grin, then drove silently for the next few blocks. There was a wreck up ahead, so he shifted to a different route, going the back way to the precinct.

“So why are we doing this?” Brandy asked, and Devlin didn’t have to ask what she meant.

“Lamar seems to think it will help. He thinks that Walt might even drop the charges after this.”

“Do you believe that?”

“To avoid the publicity that you could throw on him? Yeah. I think we have a good shot.”

“But...?”

He chuckled. “You’re beginning to know me too well,” he said. “The but is that he’s a wild card, and I don’t know what —”

“Oh!”

Devlin glanced over and saw that she was looking at her phone. “What is it?”

“It’s from Ellie. She says there’s an emergency. That we need to go back right away. Shit, can you turn the car around? I just texted that we’re on our way.”

He already was, turning into the parking lot of a strip mall that was in the midst of renovations. He made a circle, avoiding the few cars and workmen’s vans that dotted the lot. He was aiming Shelby’s nose back at the street when those same cars gunned it, racing forward to surround Shelby.

Men in black wearing masks jumped out, guns aimed at them.

Two fired, taking out the tires. Four others aimed the guns directly at them.

Beside him, Brandy whimpered, and he reached for her hand, hoping to ease her fear even though he knew it wouldn’t help at all.

“Out of the car,” one of the men said. “You’re coming with us.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

Before…