“I don’t know yet. I’m trying to put it all together before the city ends up as nothing more than rubble and ash. I have a really bad feeling that I need her.”
“You can’t trust her.” Dovie’s tone held old hurt and betrayal. She knew better than anyone just how untrustworthy Reeve could be.
“I know, Dovie. I don’t trust anyone.”
Race snorted and reached out to grab his sister in a one-armed hug. I could see by the expression on her face that she knew the gesture was more for him than it was for her. “Isn’t it already too late to worry about this city burning. The people in it can’t help but feed the flames?”
I agreed with him, so I just shut the door behind me and stalked to where Bax was raking Reeve over the coals while Brysen watched with wide, confused eyes. I heard his deep voice bark, “You bitch. I should put your head through that wall after what you did to Dovie. She thought you were her friend.” I wish they were just idle words that he was speaking, but Bax didn’t make threats he wasn’t ready to follow through on. It didn’t matter that Reeve was a girl. To him she was the enemy who had put Dovie in danger. He would treat her like any other threat to his woman.
Reeve blinked those unusually colored blue eyes slowly, and I sighed as she went really pale and still under the onslaught of Bax’s anger. I hated that somewhere deep in my gut a little bit of pride cheered for her when she refused look away from him.
“No one has friends in the Point . . . at least that’s what I always thought. I’m trying to make it right.” I reached the little party just as Reeve’s voice cracked and her lower lip started to tremble faintly.
I intervened just as Bax was gearing up to lay into her some more. I reached up to pop him across the back of the head with an open palm. I rarely got the drop on my brother, his instincts were honed too sharp, so I took the shot because he was so focused on his prey he never saw me coming and also because I didn’t like the way his threatening Reeve had all my protective instincts flaring to life. She was the last woman in the world I needed to feel protective toward, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to shove my brother away from her.
“Leave her alone, asshole. She’s trying to help.” I let both my annoyance and frustration snap at him as he turned around to shift his glare to me.
Reeve looked between the both of us, and was smart enough to bolt while she had an opening. She left without saying anything to either one of us, but I could see the way her hands were shaking as she pulled open the front door to the police station.
“Who on earth was that?” Brysen sounded bewildered and her bright eyes were full of confusion and questions.
Bax retaliated to my smack across his head by tagging me in the gut with a balled-up fist. He never pulled any punches, so the force made me grunt and double over as I glared at him.
Bax turned his dark eyes to Brysen and bit out, “Reeve Black. She’s the person who told Novak that Dovie was on her own the night he had his guys grab her off the street. She got into bed with him over a blood debt and he called it in and used it to hurt Race and Dovie. She should be in jail for capital murder, but she cut a major deal with the feds and went into Witness Protection. She’s supposed to be as far away from here as they could put her. I told this idiot”—he pointed at his finger at me—“if I ever saw her again I wasn’t going to be responsible for my actions.”
“And I told you to stop saying shit like that to me. Remember, I’m a cop.” I warned him about his loose tongue and violent temper all the time. My brother had it in him to kill; I didn’t need to be reminded of it every time his wild nature slipped the chains he had strapped on it since he fell in love with Dovie.
“Why are we here, Detective?” I hated it when he called me that in such a contemptuous tone.
I scowled at Bax and flicked a narrow-eyed look at Brysen as well. I crooked a finger and motioned for them to move closer so that I wasn’t spilling secrets all across the station. It sucked that in a place like the Point even the good guys could be bought if the price was right. I trusted no one.
“I got a call from one of the federal marshals handling all the witnesses in the Novak case. Race and Dovie’s old man was murdered last night in the secure location WITSEC found for him. Hartman was willing to give the names of major arms dealers, drug suppliers south of the border, where the money was stashed, and all kinds of other information the RICO unit was chomping at the bit to get their hands on in this case. He had a full security detail, was located out in the middle of goddamn nowhere, and someone still managed to get to him.”
Brysen made a noise of distress and bit down on her lip. “How are they handling the news?”
I answered as truthfully as I could. “Dovie is a sweetheart, so I think she’s mostly worried about Race since he hasn’t said too much. Her asshole father tried to have Novak kill her, so I think she’s just relieved that that’s one threat she’ll never have to worry about again. Race just kind of zoned out; I’ve never seen him like that before. That’s not all, though.” I rocked back on my heels and put a hand on the butt end of the pistol attached to my belt. “With Hartman being so insulated, we know the hit had to come from the inside. It had to be someone handling his move and relocation.” I didn’t want to admit that part even to myself, but it was clear there was no other explanation.
Bax swore. “A fed?”
I nodded solemnly. “Probably.”
Bax dropped every dirty word he had in his vocabulary. “Not enough we have to worry about the bad guys, now we gotta worry about the good guys too?”
“That’s about the shape of it.”
“Why was Reeve here, Titus?” It was a sharp change in subject but I knew it was coming. Bax wouldn’t be happy that Reeve was back no matter what the reasons for her sudden reappearance were.
“Because she has information I’m going to need if I have any chance of flushing out our dirty fed.”
“What kind of info?”
I had to shake my head and I rubbed my hands over my crop of short hair. I told Bax in a flat tone that left no room for any kind of argument, “That’s the line where brother and cop cross, Shane. Leave her alone, I need her so I can do my job and I will be seriously pissed if you get in my way.” I used his real name so that he knew I wasn’t fucking around.