Deploy, Part One (Rawlings #1)(92)

“Then what?” Providence asked, stopping Declan.

“You tell me. You’re the one with all the leads.”

“Ghost trails,” Providence said.

“Nothing feels closed to me.”

“It needs to. You got a woman and a son. New chapters starting up.”

That he did. For close to two years now Declan had been planning his tomorrows. Providence was making a killing as a bounty hunter, had more work than he could handle. Tobias was already hunting, too. Declan had a spot waiting on him.

The job by no means was as safe as sitting behind a bar with his dad, or a garage with his grandfather or any construction job he could get. But it would put the warrior in him to good use. He’d have more control, he’d call the jobs he’d take and the ones he wouldn’t. And under it all, he’d play his roll as an informant, and watch as the Souter’s fell, one by one. Until the moment his town was one he wanted his son to grow up in.

“You want a Rawlings with you because you trust the instinct, mine says this was no accident and it says it’s not over,” Declan argued.

“And that right there can take you in two different directions.”

Declan shook his head and walked on. He’d worry about that down the road, right now he wanted out of this f*cking station and to be home with his son and his woman.

Providence gripped his arm, and jerked him back. “We’re going to push on Murdock about what he did to your girl when we’re ready to take this house of cards down. He’ll be the first to fall.”

Declan stared him down, ultimately deciding he trusted him. It was no secret that even when Declan signed on with Providence he’d still be hunting for revenge. He’d spent one too many months thinking about all the hell the Souters had put his family through. About everything Murdock had done to Justice.

“Any day now,” the deputy yelled from down the way.

Declan stuffed his emotions down and walked forward, only offering one calm nod at Providence.

Yes, it was his truck. No doubt about it. At a slow prowl Declan circled it. The front windshield was shattered, and pushed deep. The deep scratches gouged down the side caused by the dirt from the river’s bottom had dried making it look any other color than it was.

He pried the toolbox open. When he saw Nolan’s essential gear still in place, he gritted his teeth and slammed it shut.

He wasn’t even listening to what the deputy was saying to Providence, what had been done, processed and found. His mind was stuck on the last ride he took in this truck.

Declan reached for the cab door and Providence tried to stop him.

“It’s been cleared,” the deputy said.

Providence didn’t care if was cleared or not, Declan needed space from this, staring down the place your brother died was not a stellar idea, not this close to coming home.

Declan jerked the door opened and held his breath so he wouldn’t breathe in the river. He reached in looking through the console, all around, for something, anything. He didn’t know.

Then he saw it.

On the floorboard tucked behind the seat, wedged next to the tracks that moved the seat up and back.

When he rose with it in his hand and his stare met Providence—Providence knew a war had just begun.

Blood was going to be shed.

A baseball.

Just one.

It was all Declan needed to tell him why his brother might have veered off the road.

Four years before, when they were in Nolan’s truck that f*ck Murdock had thrown baseballs at them, and had a deadly aim.

Coincidences like this—there were no such things.





Twenty-Four


Justice was prowling the hall before the door that Declan went through feeling far too uptight.

“Eat something,” Dawson said.

Justice shook her head, and walked back toward the front. She was determined to get one of the deputies to take her to the back. She knew the last thing Declan could handle right now was seeing what she saw yesterday—that watery coffin being lifted from the river.

She had decided the Sheriff was the devil—the only reason he was doing this was to hurt the family more.

Right as she rounded the corner she slammed right into Murdock. In a beat his hand was on her throat. “Heard you were here.”

She kicked him pushing him across the hall but he was on her again. “Let’s get this over with. I’m going down for arson you are going for murder.” Justice shoved him again but before she could figure out what the f*ck his issue was, she heard a punch and watched him fall.

It was Declan. He’d come out of nowhere and lost it. Murdock was fighting back and managed to get a few licks in but it was hopeless for Murdock. Declan was a trained killer, who had found a reason to attack.

Before it was all over, it took four deputies, one at gun point, to get Declan off of Murdock and cuffed. He wasn’t the only one in cuffs. Chasen, Atticus, and Tobias were, too. Even Providence was being held. All of them had tried to stop Declan and the deputies saw it as them causing a riot; one too many punches were thrown.

Murdock lay unconscious and bleeding on the floor. The very sight of it had frozen Justice. She was right back in her father’s shop, smelling the gas, oil, and blood.

“Don’t look, baby!” Declan yelled her way, more than once taking a punch in the ribs from the deputy every time.