Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 147967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
She nodded and attempted a smile. She wasn’t sure if she managed it. There was this feeling of numbness running through her.
“Thanks, Hack,” Matthieu said.
“Of course. I’d say anytime, but I hope it doesn’t happen again.”
Hack stood and left as her phone beeped. She glanced around, wondering where it was.
“Here it is,” Matthieu said, handing her purse over. Taking out her phone, she sighed with relief. “Well, that’s one less worry.”
“What is?”
“The puppies are all good. The team extracted them.”
“Already? They move fast.”
She nodded. It was one less thing for her to worry about.
Before she could say anything else, there was a knock on the door. Matthieu turned and opened it. To her surprise, her brother rushed into the room.
“Marlin? What are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here?” he repeated back to her. “I think the question should be why didn’t you call me?”
Um.
She had a feeling that the correct answer wasn’t that it hadn’t even occurred to her.
Nope. That seemed the wrong thing to say.
“Sorry?” she said.
“What the fuck happened? A buddy of mine called to say that your house was set on fire!”
“I’m fine,” she quickly told him. “I just have some superficial burns on my hand. Matthieu is fine too and so are my babies. Thank God. They could have died.”
She was managing to stop herself from thinking too much about that. But it was difficult. It kept wanting to infiltrate the wall in her brain that she’d erected to protect herself.
They could have died.
Her babies could have died.
Don’t think about it. Push it down.
“Thank God you’re all right.” To her shock, Marlin walked over and hugged her.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do, though. What are we going to do? Who did this?” she asked in a shaky voice.
“Vince did it,” Matthieu said grimly, looking up from his phone. “Brody just messaged me. He was caught on camera pulling off his mask before getting in his car. It was Vince who tried to kill you.”
Oh my God.
Vince. That bastard.
“Fuck,” Marlin said. “Vince? Are you serious?”
“Very serious.”
Marlin ran his hand down over his face. “You have video footage?”
“Yeah. We do.”
“Copies?” her brother asked urgently.
“Yes.”
“Good. Do not lose all of those. My father . . . he’s not going to believe this without seeing this proof. And . . . well, there has been some history on the force of crucial pieces of evidence going missing in certain cases. We do not want this to be one of those cases.”
“Oh, believe me,” Matthieu replied. “We are well aware of the corruption in the Billings Police Force. And how Vince is deep in that shit.”
“You are?” He shot his gaze to Maya. “Do you know why Vince might have targeted you like this? The other day you didn’t seem to want anything to do with him. Is there something I don’t know? I don’t see how he could be the person threatening our father. Vince is like a son to him.”
A throat cleared at the doorway and she glanced over to see Detective Reeves walk in. “Maya, I’m glad to see you’re all right.”
“Thanks,” she told him.
Marlin turned to him. “It was fucking Vince.”
Shock filled Reeves’ face. “You are fucking kidding me. I told that asshole that if he went near you again, I’d make his life a living hell.”
“Obviously, he didn’t believe you,” Matthieu said. “And now he’s going to pay.”
“By going to jail,” Marlin said.
Matthieu just grunted.
“We should all sit down and talk about this,” Reeves said. “Can you do it now?”
“Maya is exhausted. She needs to rest.”
“I know but the information will be fresh for both of you,” Reeves said.
“And Father is demanding a report,” Marlin added.
Her stomach was a tight knot. “Let’s just get it over with. I just want to check on my babies first.”
Matthieu eyed her for a long moment. “All right. We’ll go check on the animals and then give a report.”
“Good,” Reeves said grimly. “Meanwhile, I’ll send someone we trust to Vince’s house to keep an eye out for him.”
She figured that Vince wasn’t likely to return home. Then again, she hadn’t thought he’d throw a firebomb through her window, either.
“Let’s go,” Matthieu said.
Maya let him guide her back to Ink’s office as he messaged someone on his phone. “Just letting Ink know what’s going on. He and Brody will join us for the meeting.”
Butch was still standing outside the office door. He looked uncomfortable as he saw them.
“He said you wouldn’t mind him going in there!” Butch said hastily.
“What are you talking about?” Matthieu asked. “Who said that?”
“Captain.”
“He spoke?” Maya asked. “Like he used actual words.”
“Welll, not exactly. I asked him what he was doing. He gestured at me to move. I said, won’t Maya and Matthieu mind? And he shook his head.”
“Captain is in there?” Matthieu asked, reaching for the door. They walked inside.