I . . .
. . . Bear.
I killed Bear.
It’d been Bear . . .
Bear!
It was Bear, and I’d killed him.
Time needed to stop.
I needed to stop feeling.
Right. Now.
Business.
Take care of my mom.
Trace—Trace!
I needed to find out what was happening with Trace, tell Trace, and then I’d deal.
I’d deal later.
“They got my uncle. They tried to kill Ashton.”
“What?” I was on the phone, but this time we were at Leo’s house. I was in his study while he was in the living room with my mom. I needed some time, and I wanted to check in with Trace. I also just wanted to hear his voice because that was the sappy-fool-in-love part of me now. I supposed I’d need to resign myself to this pattern. Something happening and me needing to feel connected to him so I felt more centered.
Also, I was worried. “The cops filled me in, said they had calls coming in from all over the city, that something was going down.”
“Stephano’s dead, and they tried to kill Ashton. Remmi called, said two guys tried to shoot her. We’re still taking inventory of what all they hit.”
His uncle? The head of the West family?
I didn’t even know how to process that. I frowned. “They tried to shoot your sister in Vegas?”
“Not Vegas. Apparently she’s here, staying with my father. She’s been there this whole time.”
“Your dad?”
“She said he wasn’t there. She has no idea where he was, but her security guards got off a couple shots. They got away, nothing substantial against them or who they were.”
A really horrible thought was coming to me. “Trace.” I felt sick, thinking about it.
“What?”
“You said there’s a leak. What if it was Bear?”
“I don’t see how it could’ve been unless he was working with someone else in my family. Bear’s connected to the old neighborhood, but the information leaked about our warehouses was all new information, info that he couldn’t know unless, again, he was getting that information from someone else on the inside.”
“You said information was leaked to law enforcement. He could’ve been the go-between.”
“He could’ve, but if he was, then we’re still looking for a second leak. I didn’t know Bear. Ashton didn’t. The leak is someone we know. That’s basically the only thing we do know.” He dropped his voice. “Are you okay? I’m worried about you.”
I drew in a breath; my insides were starting to shake. A little. “I am. I mean, I killed Bear. My mom is a wreck, and right now, I’m just focusing on her and doing what I need to do. Bear—I’ll process that later. My focus now is hoping that my mom doesn’t start drinking again.”
“How’s she handling it?”
“She hasn’t stopped sobbing. Leo steps away from her, and she breaks down all over again. She’s in his living room, wants all of us to sleep there together. She’s too scared to be without one of us around her.”
“How did Leo know to go to your house?”
“I put a call in. He said he heard it on the scanner.”
“That was fast.”
“He said he was already coming over.” I let out an unsteady breath. “What are you doing tonight?”
He was quiet at first, then lowered his voice. “Are you asking because you want to know? Or are you asking because . . . I don’t know. What are we doing here?”
I shook my head, leaning back and resting it against the back of my chair. “I don’t know, Trace. I just know that my mom is alive. I killed her childhood best friend, and you’re the first person I called as soon as I could. So whatever that means to you is what it means to me.”
He chuckled, softly. “I’m glad you called. It means something. I think we might be getting serious.”
I grinned, holding back a laugh because that felt inappropriate. “Don’t say things like that. A girl might get all kinds of ideas.”
“Maybe I want this particular girl to get those ideas.”
“Then maybe you should say more.”
He barked out a laugh. “I love you. I’m assuming since you’re at Leo’s house that I’d not be welcomed to come and slip into bed with you.”
I let out a quiet laugh, standing. “I do not want another reenactment like what just happened at my mom’s house, so no. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Hey, Trace.” I was heading for the door and turned the light off before I opened it.
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry for what happened to you guys tonight, but I’m glad that they didn’t try to shoot you.”
“They didn’t know—” He stopped, cursing swiftly.
“What?”
“They didn’t know where I was. No one knew. I slipped my guys because I wanted to see you, and I didn’t want to be bothered with the business. I didn’t want to bring my guards with me. No one knew where I was.”
We both were quiet, letting that sink in.
I murmured, “You were at my house all day.”
“Yeah. Bear brought your mom home there late afternoon. He knew I was there.”
“You were there until late evening.”
We were both arriving at the same conclusion.
“He’s not the leak—”
“—or they would’ve come for me at your house.”
“Yeah.” Shit. Shit!
“What does that mean?”
I shook my head. “I have no idea.”
“You sure you want to stay at Leo’s house? I could do with feeling reassured there are no bullet holes in you all night long.”
“Me, too, but no. I need to stay here for my mom. It’ll be fine. Leo’s family.”
“Okay. I love you.”
I said the same and put the phone away. I was replaying the conversation in my head, opening the door. The hallway was dark. The light was on in the living room from the television.
“Jess?”
A shadow flashed across the living room, and my mom came to stand in the doorway, looking down to where I was at. Everything was dark except the living room, so I moved forward a step.
“Mom?”
“Oh, there are you.” Her relief was clear. Her hand went to her chest. “I must’ve dozed off and just woke.”
“Oh. No.” I held up my phone. “I went to call Trace, but I thought Leo was with you.”
“No. He’s not. I got scared. You both were gone.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. “What?”
She gave me a look back. “What?”
“Leo left you?”
She nodded, motioning behind me. “He’s gone. I don’t know where he went. Looked through the house, but I couldn’t find him.”
That was . . . That was not right.
My gut shifted. Something was wrong.
Something . . . I couldn’t put my finger on it. He wouldn’t have left her. Maybe be in a room away, but within earshot. He wouldn’t have totally left. He wouldn’t put her through that, if she woke and no one was around.
“Mom,” I murmured, distracted, and starting to look around.
“Hmmm?”
“Do me a favor?” I began guiding her backward. “Go into the bathroom.”
“Bathroom?” she echoed, sharply.
“Yeah. Just to be safe.”
“Be safe?”
I moved her back, found the door to the bathroom, and pushed her inside. “Stay here.”
“Jess—” She grasped onto my hand, as if to hold me in place.
I needed to find Leo. Something was off. I needed to figure it out. I said to her, trying to be gentle, “I’m going to close this door. You’re going to be fine.”
“What are you doing, Jess?”
I couldn’t explain. There wasn’t time. I moved back, shutting the door, and I whispered through it, “Lock it. Just to be safe, Mom.”
“Jess—”
“Lock it!”
I heard the lock click into place, and then I turned.
Leo was family.
She said she looked through the house. So, he wasn’t in the house.
I started for the back, mulling in my head.
Leo was family, but so was Bear.
And Bear wasn’t the leak, but someone was leaking information to the police. That could be anyone.
But Leo was family. Bear was family.
What was I doing? I was making a mountain out of a molehill.
But where was Leo? He wouldn’t have disappeared on her.
Leo had told me he checked on my mom. Bear had said the same. Both had lied. Trace had said it himself.
“What is your problem with me, Travis?”
“Nothing except I don’t like dirty cops.”
He’d looked at Leo as he’d said that.
Leo.
Not me.
Leo.
Leo was dirty.
But, no. No. That was crazy.
Right?
I looked down.
My gun was out. I didn’t remember pulling it, but I grasped it with both hands and started thinking.
Jesus. I wanted to be wrong. I needed to be wrong.
He’d go where he couldn’t be heard. Outside. His garage. He kept a fridge out there, a ready-made excuse if he needed one.
He must be. I was betting everything on it, but my heart was pounding.
This wasn’t like last time. I’d just gone through this. The adrenaline spike had hit me, carried me through shielding my mom. The shock had hit me later, then had worn off, and right now my body was tired. It didn’t want to go through this again, but as I eased to the side door, my heart began speeding up.
The sound was loud in my eardrums.
My breathing sounded like it could shatter glass.
One foot. Two. Three. I kept going, reaching for the door, finding it unlocked.
I was right. He’d gone out this way.
I opened it, and it made sense. It was the quietest door; there was no sound.
I eased out. No lights were on outside, but there was one in the garage. I saw it and moved toward the building.
Gun drawn. I didn’t have my phone this time. There’d be no backup. It was just me.
After moving to the side of the building, I stood so I was as small as I could be, heading for the door.
There was a window open, and I paused, right underneath it.
“—no! They’re here. Yes. She’s here. No. I don’t know. He got there before me. He was probably there to stop me. Who the fuck knows. I’m aware, boss!”
Boss.
He was there to stop him? “He” as in Bear?
The air was suddenly sweltering around me. My body began moving, weaving.
Stop. I felt impending doom coming on, but no. No way. I shoved that shit down. I had a job to do.
“It’s not my fault that everything was fucked. Bobby fucked up too. Your kid never took the ‘Mom is alive’ bait. That whole idea was for nothing. Now this tonight? You made a move tonight, and nothing happened. Killing Jess makes no sense. Yeah. Okay. I’ll do it. I know! I know. I’ll do it, but I gotta figure something out to say to her mom. The job was never for me to kill them both—because I already killed the dad! He was my best friend.”
I was wheeling.
Leo was the mole.
He—I gripped my gun tighter, making sure I wouldn’t drop it.
“Okay. Okay! I’ll take care of it. I’ll take care of it. Say I got word and need to show her something. She’ll go with me. She trusts me, always has. Yeah, yeah. We’ll deal with her mom later on. Fine.” He began cursing to himself, moving around the garage. A door opened, shut, but it wasn’t his.
I eased back, waiting, but—I had a different idea.
Fuck this. I was done.
Done.
I opened the door, stepped inside.
He froze, then started to bring his gun back up.
I shot at it. Not him. His hand. He dropped his gun but started to fumble around. He had a carton of milk in his other hand but threw it at me as he swooped down, grabbing for the gun with that hand.
I stepped aside, dodged the milk, and as soon as he touched the gun, I shot at that one too.
“Aaghh! Why are you doing this? Stop, Jess!”
He was bleeding from both hands. He had no other options, except—he considered barging at me. I raised my gun. “Don’t do it.” I said it softly, calm. I was locked down. My heart was pumping. I could hear it going fast, but it was like it was outside of my body. “I’ll put you down.”
I would. He knew it, looking at me. I knew that he knew it.
I raised the gun to his forehead. “Sit. Down.”
He looked around, groaning as he kept bleeding out, but he moved to the red couch behind him. It was a piece-of-shit couch, moved out here for when he liked to have beers with his buds. I thought the color of it fit the theme perfectly tonight.
I’d never liked it before. I loved it now.
He lowered himself, grimacing from the pain. “Jess. I’m going to bleed out. Call an ambulance.”
“You suspended me. Right?” I was taunting him.
“Oh, come on. Jess! Please!” He tried to raise his hands up.
“I’m sure that’ll help with the bleeding.”
“Come on. I’m going to die if you don’t call for help.” He was panting now. Sweat broke out over his face. He’d be woozy soon.
“Who’s your boss?”
He frowned at me. “Huh?”
“I heard your call. Who is your boss? Who made the move tonight?”
“Oh, God. Jess. Seriously. Call 911. You don’t want to kill me. I know you don’t. You already killed Bear. That’ll be two of us. They’re going to ask questions, but I can . . .” He had to stop, catch his bearings. The room should be spinning for him now. “I can cover for you. I will. I promise. I’ll say whatever you want, but call 911. I’ll tell you everything.”
“You’ll tell me everything now.”
“Jess! Come on!”
“Now, Leo. Before you bleed out.”
“Jess! Now!”
I waited. I was finding that I wasn’t having a moral dilemma here. Not one bit.
“Agh! Come on! Are you serious?! Fine! Fine! I work for Dominic West. Always have. I went in undercover when I was a cop. It’s how I met your dad. How we got close. He was my target, but things got complicated.” He choked off, breathing hard. Harder. He began slumping down. “I . . . I . . .”
“Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“Dominic was behind the hits tonight, wasn’t he? The ones against Trace and Ashton?”
He moaned. “Jess, I don’t have long.”
“Then tell me everything. Now!”
He raised his head, squinting at me a little before sighing. His head fell back down. “Yes. It was Dominic and Nicolai Worthing. Nicolai’s been trying to push in. He gave your uncle a proposition, but Stephano didn’t bite. But Dominic, he did. He made the call tonight that everyone was going to go. Everyone. He’d take over the family business, and he’d work with Worthing, let them in on their deals.”
Right. Okay. That was a lot to process, but I’d deal with all of that bullshit later. “Did you kill my dad?”
He nodded, frowning, eyes fluttering like he couldn’t see straight anymore. “Yeah. That was a long time ago. Stephano ordered it, but Dominic’s been holding it over my head the whole time. Said he has evidence on me. Forcing me to keep working for him, giving him information.”
“How?” That word ripped from me.
He drew in a deep breath, then began coughing. Blood was coming up. “D-d-doped up your brother, made him think he killed him. He was all broken up about it, why he didn’t fight the conviction. Said he had to go in, pay penance for you and your mom.”
“Why did he want me dead? Why tonight?”
“His kid wasn’t killed tonight. Couldn’t find him, so he gave me this order to hurt him. Trace is in love with you, but Jess, I didn’t want to do it. I wasn’t going to. I was going to figure something else out. I swear.” Other liquids were seeping down his pants, and he groaned. “Jess, I don’t have long here.”
“Then hurry the fuck up.” Cold. Ruthless. I was out of my body, not recognizing who I was, but she wasn’t fucking around.
“Aghofhygod. Please, Jess! Please.”
“Talk!”
His eyes rolled up, then around. “Oh my god. I’m dying. Everything is going black. Jess. Come on. Please . . .” He was whimpering. The life was draining out of him before my eyes.
“What was the plan?”
“Dominic was the one giving information to Worthing, who’s got cops on his payroll. Said he had to make it look like they tried for him, too, had them shoot his own house when he wasn’t there.”
“What does this have to do with Bear? Why was Bear there tonight?”
“I don’t know. I think he was there for me, knew I was coming to kill you tonight. Only thing that makes sense. He knew Dominic West too. Fact, I always thought he was being paid to keep tabs on your mom. Like I was paid to keep tabs on you. It’s why I recruited you to be a PO for me.”
I was sick, all over again.
He’d set me up. Everything.
Everything he was showing, panting, chest heaving, liquids coming out of him, was what I was feeling inside. The difference was that it wasn’t my body dying. It was my soul.
“Why were you supposed to keep tabs on me? Why was Bear supposed to watch my mom?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t.” He couldn’t lift his head up, so he rolled it to the side to see me. “Oh, God. Jess. I’m dying. Please call for help. I swear. I swear . . .”
He didn’t finish, and I didn’t care.
Maybe I would. One day.
Not today.
I turned to go and braked.
My mom was at the door, and she had her phone in hand. “Yes.” She spoke, giving them Leo’s address. “We need an ambulance to the garage. There was a shooting.” I could hear them asking more questions, but she pulled the phone back and hit the button. She ended the call.
I didn’t blink an eye. “How much did you hear?”
“Enough. Too much. You shot Bear in self-defense, but I won’t let this piece of shit’s death be on your conscience.”
I had to blink twice to make sure this was my mother in front of me. She was standing, looking calm, speaking clear. There were no hysterics like before. “Why are you suddenly so calm? You were pissing your pants ten minutes ago.”
She studied me a moment. “I think I’m in shock. Again.”
