Page 45 of No Second Chances

Amie waits until the ambulance pulls away from Royal’s house before she shuts her body cam off and turns, waiting for me to do the same.

“I know how to hide a body,” she offers in complete seriousness. “My husband’s a lobsterman; you know that. Just need a hacksaw and some of his lobster traps. They’ll never even find the bones.”

Despite her good-natured appearance, I know Amie would help me hide a body if I needed. She knows who Royal is, who he’d been to Kennedy. Hell, she knows that if Chief Townsend finds out his daughter had been in a physically abusive relationship, he’ll lose his shit. We all know there was something wrong and that he hurt her, but not like that.

I seriously consider her offer for a second before shaking my head. “We can’t. You’d lose your job, and I don’t want to go to prison when I finally got the girl.”

Amie shrugs and then looks around Royal’s house. “He’s a douche, anyway. Constantly defending assholes who try to game the system. Do you think he’s going to have an alibi for today? To keep her from being able to press charges if she’d wanted to.”

“Oh,” I scoff. “Without a doubt. Might as well take some photos for the report, but I don’t think it’s going to amount to much more than that.”

I hide the tremble in my hand as we document the scene and then sign off. I’m still shaking, still trying to wrap my head around the trauma Kennedy must have faced at his hands when I pull into Remy’s driveway after work. Thankfully, I didn’t have a single other call after that, because I don’t know if I’d be able to get images of Kennedy, bloody like Mallory had been, out of my head.

Remy meets me at the door. “Heard about the call. Nox is out back with Rett. Do you want a beer?”

I don’t have to say a word. He just hands me the beer and leads the way to their backyard, where Nox is playing soccer with his friend, Everett James, the son of one of our high school friends.

When I tell him what we saw, what becomes more and more clear must have happened to his sister, Remy is more than ready to commit murder.

“I’m gonna kill him. I’m going to cut his body into tiny pieces, and then I’m going to drop those pieces into the middle of the ocean and nobody’s gonna know what happened to him.” Just like with Amie, I know for a fact that he isn’t kidding. He’ll do it, and I can’t blame him, honestly.

“I just don’t know why she’d protect him after that. I saw what he did to Mallory. What he probably did to Kennedy. I don’t know how she feels safe.”

“Because.” Nox gasps for air as he stumbles forward, showing that he’s been eavesdropping on our conversation. He and Rett share a look before he turns back. “Because you have her six.” He gulps for air again. “She said that you sit outside her house at night, protecting her. You’ve got her six, Uncle Linc. Why would she worry about anything when you’re there?”

Rett shoves him in the arm and they take off again, kicking the soccer ball around the yard like Nox hasn’t just gutted me with a word. Kennedy knew. The entire time. She knew that I was there. And she didn’t push me for more.

“I fucking love that kid.”

20

KENNEDY

“I can’t believe you’re pregnant.” I eye Parker’s stomach suspiciously. “And like, super pregnant. You’re not showing at all. You just look like normal Parker.”

“Shut up,” she bites out while stuffing her face full of hot dog. “I’m chunky, that’s why you can’t tell. You’re saying you can’t believe I’m that far along? I can’t believe it. I’m almost due, Kennedy.” She lowers her voice while stealing a taco off my plate as we sit at my usual table in the back of Lucy’s.

“I don’t share my tacos with anyone.” I glare at her as she fits the entire thing in her mouth in two bites. “You’re lucky you’re eating for my favorite niece now.”

Parker groans miserably. “You know this means we got pregnant like the first or second time we had sex, right?” She tilts her head to the side. “I wonder if it was the time it started with him grabbing me by the neck.”

“Oh, what the fuck, Parker?” I put my hands over my ears, trying to drown out her description like I’m a little kid. “I can’t believe you’d say that to me.”

She snickers and shrugs, taking the time from my distraction to grab another one of my tacos off my plate. My plate that is severely losing the tacos that Vi brought me.

“Can’t you just order your own tacos?”

“Yeah, but yours look so much better than mine would.” Parker bats her lashes at me. “Will you go with me to tell your brother about the baby?”

“Fuck no,” I say while shaking my head. “That’s your responsibility, not mine. I went with you to the appointment, which I didn’t even need to go to, I might add. That’s all on you, girl.”

Parker sighs and rubs her hand over her stomach with a wistful expression. “I just can’t believe I’m having a baby in the next three months.”

“If I wasn’t sitting in the room with you when she showed us, I wouldn’t believe it myself. Sheesh, Parker. Go. Tell Remy. You have like a million things to do before the baby gets here and I can’t start talking about it until you announce it.”

“Ooh.” Parker’s face lights up. “We should do one of those pregnancy announcements. Not like the one that started that wildfire, but something small and hilarious. Do you think Remy would do something like that with me?”

I stare at her like she’s grown a second head and then some and wait until she takes back her stupid question. Unfortunately, she is too busy eyeing my tacos to see the look on my face.

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