Page 11 of No Broken Promises

My voice, full of the emotion from that day, and every day since, barely breaks above a whisper. “You're not the same coward that you were, Linc. Don't let her marry someone else.”

His eyes, which a second before had been filled with indignation and rage at the fact that Kennedy would marry someone who wasn't him, go flat—lifeless, even.

“Nothing to do about it.”

“You still carry her picture,” I point out. I've seen him, on more than one occasion, pull the faded photo from his pocket and stare at it longingly. “That means something.”

Linc sighs and then pats his chest. “Well, this has been nice. But I have to work. Mom, you and Emma are good to get home, right?”

Rose, who has been blatantly listening to our conversation, nods without saying another word, and Linc leaves.

“He's not gonna let her marry someone else.” Emma's conviction fills her words, and Parker finds herself hoping that the younger woman is right.

“I don't know about that one…” Rose whispers more to herself than anything. “We might have to interfere.”

“I'm not doing shit,” I tell her. “Kennedy's my best friend, and I'm on her side.”

Mama waves me off. “I wasn't talking about us, us. I was talking about me and Mona.” Mona, Kennedy's mother, and Rose had practically raised all of us. Both of them were the mothers I didn’t have after my parents died in a car accident when I was younger.

Emma stares at me, widening her eyes by a fraction when she sees the glint in her mother’s eyes. “We’re all in trouble,” she mutters. “The woman’s got grandbabies on the brain.”

I snort, coming to stand next to my sister-in-law. “Maybe from you. I’ve already delivered the perfect specimen of a grandson for her.” We both watch as Rose goes back to playing with Nox, like she frequently does, even though she dropped a bomb.

“Just wait,” Emma warns me. “She’s going to try and find you another husband too.”

I choke on my French toast as thoughts of Remy spin through my mind before vanishing into thin air.

“Never gonna happen.”

But the way both Emma and Rose look at me tells a different story.

Fuck my life.

5

REMY

I hold off on stalking Parker for a month. Then I can’t stand it anymore. I drag Carter Malone, the new officer I am helping train, to a birthday party where I know Parker will be with her son. I don’t want to talk to her, at least that’s what I have convinced myself.

Even enduring Kennedy’s torment of Carter isn’t enough to drag my attention away from her.

Halfway through the kid's birthday party, we get a call on the radio about an officer needing assistance. I’ve never moved so fast in my entire life, except when I was racing through the desert overseas to the downed helicopter holding one of my friends.

I have to hold Carter back as we watch his brother die. Keegan Malone, one of the officers who started with Birch right out of college while I was in the Marines, is shot in the line of duty. He never makes it home.

Our entire county mourns his death, and sliding the black band onto my badge will never be okay. I hadn’t even known Keegan all that well, but losing him still cuts deep.

The funeral fills the entire church, with officers from all over Maine and New Hampshire in attendance. I don’t even make it through the eulogy before I find myself wiping a stray tear from my eye. I am not the only one, either. When Keegan’s brothers speak, it brings tears to every eye in the crowd. My gut clenches as I listen to his brothers speak about his life, a haunting shadow of the words that were said during Danny’s funeral.

I sit there, wishing more than anything that I wasn’t alone. That I had someone by my side to hold my hand and reassure me that I would be missed if it were me in the casket. But my hand is empty, the seat next to me filled by another officer in our department.

After the ceremony, every other officer in our department files out, except for me. I keep my eyes on the Malone family, waiting for a chance to talk to Carter and his remaining brothers.

The haunted look in Carter’s eyes when he sees me could have been mine. It had been mine when I lost Danny. Death fucking sucks.

“A drink right now sounds amazing,” one of Carter’s brothers says as I approach their group. “Yeah, I think that’s a great idea.”

“Thank you, Remy.” Carter’s voice cracks, and the emotion he feels fills the air between the group of men. “For helping.”

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