Page 102 of Broken Halo
29
Criminal
Surprises are just that—a shock to your system. Other times, they’re a slap in the face.
Trig
“I’m coming with you.”
I reach out and tag her behind her head and pull her to me. After I press my lips to her forehead, I don’t lie when I say, “Not the kind of coming I like to hear fall from your lips.”
She rolls her bright, blue eyes. “Very funny. There’s no point in me staying here by myself since Griffin is with my parents. She might not have been my mother, but I loved her, too. I want to see the people she committed felonies with.”
I glare at her. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.” She throws her hands at me and doesn’t look remorseful for calling the woman who gave birth to me a criminal. “I’m totally serious. I just need to find my shoes in all the shit first.”
“You’re not going.” I raise my voice so she can hear me since she’s already disappeared into the disaster zone that will soon be our bedroom. I say that even though I know she’ll get her way. I can’t deny her anything.
“I can’t find my shoes. Dammit! Don’t you dare leave without me, Trig Barrett. It’ll be our first fight. I promise you, I will win, even if I have to get in my car and follow you there.”
It only took a couple of hours for me to get an email from Pettit with a file attached the size of an affidavit on a serial killer. It included everything I needed to know about the doctors my mother worked for.
Al Toussaint and Tommie Endo are worth a fucking mint and it didn’t all come from practicing medicine. Long hours and demanding patient loads suck their time, I shouldn’t be surprised they wanted my mom to move in with them after I left for California. Their daughter, Rino Endo Toussaint, sounds like she took after her adoptive parents rather than the biological idiot of a father we share. After attending the most prestigious private schools in Dallas, she went to Yale and even studied abroad at Oxford. Besides that, he couldn’t find any more on her.
My father made another run by their estate. This can’t wait—I need to warn them.
And I might as well find out what I can about my sister while I’m at it.
Trying not to think about the secret sibling I don’t know because my mother kept her from me, I stuff my wallet and fob into my pockets and cross my arms. When Ellie comes running back out, she’s holding a pair of pink flip flops, her hair is just as much of a mess as it was earlier, and she’s makeup free, exactly the way I prefer her. Even so, I don’t lie when I state, “You know, you still look like you could be in college—maybe even your senior year of high school. You’re gonna make me look like a dirty old man.”
My angel rolls her eyes as she tosses her shoes to the floor and wiggles her feet into them. “Whatever. And I can’t find shit in there. But I did put on a bra.”
“I know,” I add. “I can see it.”
“I don’t tell you what ties to wear—give me a break.”
“You can tell me what to wear all you want. In fact, I need to go shopping. Now that Griffin is in my life, my shit needs to be dry cleaned five times as often.”
A smile warms her face, showing me nothing makes her happier than me covered in baby goop, even if it’s my custom suits. “Maybe your sister will be there. Maybe we’ll get to meet her!”
I hold my hand out. “Let’s go before it gets too late to ring someone’s door on a Sunday night, informing them an ex-convict is casing their house and that person is your child’s biological father. Oh, and that I’m their daughter’s older brother. What the fuck could go wrong?”
She bounces on her rubber shoes and lays a quick one on my lips. “Don’t be such a downer. It’s gonna be great!”
With that, she grabs her chapstick off the counter and she’s out the door before me.
Every day, she’s more and more like her old self and there’s one thing for certain. My life with Ellie will never be boring.
* * *
Ellie
Holding hands, Trig and I walk up the long path to the front door of one of the largest and most impressive homes in Highland Park, and that’s saying something since everything in Highland Park is impressive.
“My old house could be this house’s pool house,” I whisper even though there’s no one around to hear us.
“The house we’re moving into could be this house’s storage shed,” he mutters back.
