Golden Trail (The 'Burg #3)(14)

He didn’t finish when Merry’s eyes sliced to him and he growled, “Yeah, you took a hit.”

He was talking about Layne getting shot.

“I didn’t mean that kinda hit, Merry, the hospital bills wiped me out. It kills to say it but I can’t focus on that right now. I gotta take cases that pay.”

“You’re off on this one,” Merry declared and Layne felt his neck muscles contract.

“No, Garrett, I’m not,” he said softly.

“Yeah, Tanner, you are,” Merry shot back. “You’ve been blown.”

“You can’t work it,” Layne pointed out.

“I won’t be. Rocky is,” Merry returned.

Every muscle in Layne’s body contracted.

“What?” he whispered.

“She’s gonna cozy up to Rutledge, get in on the inside,” Merry shared.

Layne’s fingers curled into fists and he turned fully to face his friend. It took a lot out of him but he didn’t grab his collar and shake some sense into him – or beat it into him – both of which he’d prefer to do.

“Are you f**king insane?” Layne asked.

“She’s all over it,” Merry retorted and Layne sucked in a breath and it made a sound like a hiss.

Then he looked at the yard.

She would. Rocky would. She’d be all over it.

He now had proof that Raquel was just as nuts as ever and her brother surpassed her by a long f**king shot.

“She doesn’t know what she’s doing,” Layne pointed out.

“We’re talking. She’s learning. She’s good,” Merry replied.

He looked back at his friend. “News flash, man, I took three because of this shit six weeks ago and I know what I’m doin’. You want that to happen to your sister?”

Merry leaned into Layne and he saw it in his face. It wasn’t stark, he was trying to control it, but it was there.

Fear.

“It was her idea,” he whispered.

“Fuck me,” Layne whispered back and it hit him.

She knew. Merry told her everything. She knew there was a dirty cop in the Department. She knew it was Rutledge. She knew Merry couldn’t work it so he farmed it out to Layne. She knew Layne got too close and Rutledge got tweaked and Layne got ambushed. And, it was worthwhile to repeat, she knew there was a dirty copy in the department.

And she knew her father’s partner twenty-four years ago was a dirty cop. She knew that her father knew it. She knew that her father was working at proving it and he got close. And she knew because she’d heard the break in, she’d heard her mother’s shouts, the partner’s replies, she’d called 911 then she’d heard the shots and she only stayed alive because she was smart enough to hide and the partner had to get out before he could find her because the sirens were approaching. Before the cops could stop her, she saw her mother’s dead, bloody body in the front entry of this same f**king house. And she knew her father had been hit the same night and left for dead but, by a miracle, he’d survived. Dave hadn’t made his wife’s funeral because he was in a hospital room with a tube down his throat. Merry and Rocky had gone with their grandparents. He also knew she’d testified at the hearing.

And Layne knew this because she’d told him, in the dark of night, in their bed, her body pressed to his, hers trembling like she was freezing to death.

And Layne knew one last thing.

Raquel Merrick Astley would do anything to take down a dirty cop.

“I can’t talk her out of it, man,” Merry was still whispering.

“You should have never told her, Merry, Jesus!” he exploded. “What was in your f**kin’ head?”

“She… Tanner… f*ck,” Merry hissed. “When you got shot… f*ck… let’s just say, Roc was not good. She kept at me, wanted to know what you were workin’. And, big man, you know, you know, when Rocky keeps at you, you got no choice but to talk. Fuck, more than once in my career I wished I had her in an interrogation room with me. She’s the master.”

He knew this. She wanted to know something, she was a dog with a bone, and not just any dog, a vicious pit bull. She never let anything go. Hell, their first Christmas together, she knew every last present he gave her before she opened them. He’d learned to go shopping last minute on Christmas Eve or the day before her birthday and then come home and keep her occupied in a multitude of ways where she couldn’t use her mouth to speak and he’d had to do it for as long as he could so she’d be exhausted or she’d always know what gifts he’d bought her.

He’d thought it was kind of cute and he definitely liked the exhausting her part.

Now he did not find it cute.

Merry interrupted his thoughts.

“Did you hear me, Tanner? She was not good when you –”

Layne cut him off, his mind on other things, namely keeping Raquel Merrick Astley alive until her next birthday.

“I’ll talk to her,” he declared.

“Oh boy,” Merry muttered, rocking back on his heels and looking to the heavens.

Layne ignored him. “She start this gig?”

“Not yet,” Merry answered.

“What’s her plan?”

“You’re not gonna get it outta her head,” Merry warned.