Page 58 of No Second Chances

“Yup,” I admit without guilt. “I threatened him in the bathroom of the courthouse. Benton Mays, another attorney, was there and watched me do it. I told him to stay the fuck away from your daughter.”

Chief makes notes on a piece of paper on his desk. “Do you remember the date?”

“Nope. But I had court that day. And Benton will confirm it. I wasn’t exactly hiding it.”

He sighs deeply. “Anything else?”

“Yep,” I go on. “Last month, at Lucy’s. He did something to her. She was on the ground at his feet, crying. I dragged him into the kitchen and told him I’d kill him if he touched her.” I cough. “I don’t think anyone saw me but Kennedy.”

“Damn it, Linc. Could you not have left him alone?”

“No,” I admit. “I mean, I could have. But that ship sailed the minute I knew he hurt her. To be fair, I didn’t threaten to kill him until the day Amie and I responded to the call where he beat the shit out of Mallory.”

The chief runs a hand through his hair, and his shoulders slump. “Anyone else?”

Remy coughs. “Yeah. I may have spoken to his secretary and let her know that if Royal made any unexpected trips or cleared his schedule to let me know.”

I figured he’d do something like that, and I lean over to offer him a fist bump. Completely ignoring the scoff Chief gives us both, I nod at my friend.

There isn’t a chance in hell he’ll let his little sister become a victim. Not again.

Amie raises her hand, silently waiting for the chief’s attention.

“What did you do?” His voice lowers an octave, and he rubs his forehead with one hand. “Please tell me it stops with you.”

“I might have done a thing,” she admits while clearing her throat. “Technically, I think it amounts to a minor case of stalking. After he beat Mallory, I may have driven by his house and stayed there until I could build a case on him for domestic abuse.”

“Were you there last night?” There is almost a hint of hope in his voice.

“No,” Amie admits. “I was out of town. Otherwise, I’d have video of it.”

The chief’s face falls, and even though I feel bad for him, there is something else happening.

In the years since Danny died, I’ve pushed everyone away. Everyone except Remy. Well, and technically Dom, who deployed with us. Him and Ian. Our unit. The small group of men who relied on one another to survive. But now, things are changing. The chief wouldn’t be asking us if he isn’t trying to protect us. Amie doesn’t need to do anything about Royal. She did her job. But the look she shoots me tells me she did it for me. For Kennedy.

“I didn’t do anything nearly that bad,” Dom scoffs while leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. “But my mother, on the other hand, she definitely did.”

“I don’t know why, but I’m horrified to hear what he says,” Remy whispers next to me. “His mom is fucking terrifying.”

“She may or may not have called his parents,” Dom goes on. “I guess she knows them from the old days. When she used to be donation coordinator for the hospital.”

Chief actually laughs at that. “I don’t even care at this point. You guys couldn’t make my job any easier, could you?”

“Actually,” I snap, “I feel like we were protecting you. Protecting Kennedy, Chief. He’s obsessed with her. He hurt her. I know it. You know it. We all do. She didn’t have to report it for us to know.” I don’t tell him what she confided in me. “He beat Mallory to a pulp, and she wouldn’t press charges. He made her color her hair red. The exact same shade as Kennedy’s.”

There are murmurs of agreement from the other people in the room, and I can see that he agrees with us; he just can’t say it.

“If we didn’t do something,” I go on. “If I didn’t do something, it would be Kennedy dead right now, and not Mallory.”

26

KENNEDY

I sit, dumbfounded and confused, as Jake Findlay, our sheriff, and my boss, Maya, tell me what happened to Mallory. I try to care. But after everything she helped Royal do, I can’t.

“How did she die?”

“There’ll be an autopsy, of course,” Jake explains as gently as he can. “But she was found in the bathtub, and it appears that she drowned.”

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