Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 141428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Devi bit her lip.
“Stop that,” he said firmly, reaching out to release her lip. “No hurting yourself.”
“I don’t know what to tell them.”
Hayes eyed her for a long moment. “You know who did this, don’t you?”
“I don’t know them. I know of them. And I know that they’re scary and I don’t want . . . I don’t want them to come back.”
He cupped the good side of her face with his warm, large hand. Devi was deliberately not thinking about the fact that part of her face was sliced up. That would take up too much mental capacity right now.
“No one is going to hurt you again. Understand me? No one.”
God, she wished she could believe him. She really, really wished that she had him to stand between her and the world.
That would never be the case, though.
And maybe it was an unfair desire. He’d get tired of doing that, right? No one wanted someone to be so dependent on them.
Devi didn’t really need that, anyway. She was fierce and strong and independent . . . and scared and tired.
Just for a while she could have it, though.
“They will come for me.”
He leaned closer. “They will not get to you because I will stop them.”
“But you can’t be here all the time,” she told him. “Once your job is over, then you’ll go home and I’ll be here with them.”
“Looks like my job here is probably over.”
It was?
“They . . . they caught the person threatening Mr. Stein?”
“No, but it seems Stein is going to jail. And Sondra isn’t interested in retaining our services. Donovan is grabbing all of our stuff and preparing to leave.”
“What do you mean? Why is Stein going to jail?”
This was the first piece of good news that she’d had all day.
She was happy at that news.
Was it because Stein had fucked up her brother’s case? Should he ask her if she’d written the notes?
That wasn’t really what was urgent right now, though. And he didn’t want to upset her any more than she was already.
How much to tell her about last night, though? Some of it he’d have to shield her from. He wasn’t going to implicate her in anything.
“Early this morning, Stein walked into the police station and confessed that he’d taken payments in order for your brother to lose his trial.”
“What?” she said. “He really did that? Why? Wait . . . you know about my brother?”
This part got a bit tricky.
“We were looking into Stein’s past cases to see if anyone held a grudge against him.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize you were looking into who was threatening him.” She looked kind of ill.
Out of guilt?
“Your brother’s case was one of the few that he lost.”
“He completely fucked it up,” she said bitterly.
“It now looks like that was deliberate.”
“But why confess that now? Because of those threats? Do you think the guilt got to him?” she asked.
“Stein doesn’t seem the type to let guilt get to him.”
Fuck. He wanted to tell her everything. But it was safer for her not to know. And he couldn’t tell her who had actually killed Marcus and set her brother up. Not without putting her in danger. Devi was a wildcard. She might decide to tell the cops or go after Freddy.
Hayes wasn’t happy about Lucan taking Freddy. He needed to pay for what he did. And he would. Hayes would see to that if he had to.
A mistrial would surely be declared and then a judge would have to decide if there needed to be a new trial. Which there probably would be without Freddy’s confession of guilt.
Yeah, something needed to be done about Freddy.
“I wonder if Freddy finally did something about him.”
“Freddy?” he asked. Did she know about Freddy’s part in all of this?
“Oh, sorry. He’s a friend of my brother’s. Rohan and Freddy are both Black Scorpions. They were also friends with Marcus, the guy that my brother was accused of murdering. I’ve never liked Freddy that much, but Rohan trusts him. Perhaps he leaned on Stein. And I probably shouldn’t have said that.”
“You can tell me anything. I’m not a cop. In fact, I want you to tell me everything.”
Hypocrite.
“I only want to do what’s best for you, understand? You come first,” he told her.
She blinked at him for a moment, looking shocked.
Had anyone ever told her that before?
“Do you think Rohan will get out?” Her face filled with hope.
Hayes wanted to give her some good news, something to hold onto. But he wasn’t sure he could.
“There will likely be a mistrial called and a judge will decide whether to hold a new one.”
Disappointment filled her face. “Oh, so he might not even get out and does that mean we need money for a new lawyer? I don’t think we can afford that. I had to sell his apartment and his car to afford Stein’s fees last time. And now that I can’t work . . .”