Page 26 of Break

“Yeah, you went to pick up her piece of shit abusive husband.”

“That’s right. So, guess where I picked him up at?” I ask.

Ethan shakes his head slowly. “Don’t play fucking games. Just tell us who that is and what the fuck you know.”

I stand up straighter, letting them read how fucking serious I am right now. I’m not playing a goddamn game with them.

“I just fucking arrested Danny Reed. That woman in there?” I point to the door behind me. “That’s Mina Bardot, his fuckingwife.”

“Mina Reed,” Cooper says slowly, correcting her last name while looking between the three of us. “You guys know the victim?”

Whipping my head to face down Cooper, I’m immediately irate when he labels her as a victim but bite my tongue because he’s not wrong. Sheisthe fucking victim right now, but it makes me feel uneasy labeling her as such.

“Wait,” Max says, shaking his head in denial. “That’s not Mina Re-”

“Fuuuuck,” Ethan breathes out. “I knew she was familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on how I knew her.” He looks at the closed door we’re all standing next to, thinking intently about the situation we’ve found ourselves in. “We saw her yesterday, Max, and I thought she seemed familiar then. Christ, she’s changed a lot since their wedding.”

“I don’t understand,” Cooper says. “Howdo you three know her?”

Slipping my hands in my pockets, I feel embarrassed for some unknown reason. “Her husband, Danny Reed, the one you just had me bring in-”

“Youarrested Danny?” Max bites out, and I curl my lip at him in warning.

“Yes, I fucking arrested Danny. He’s being processed now.Anyway,” I say sarcastically, then continue filling in my boss. “The three of us grew up with Danny, and Mina was his neighbor. We left after high school and came back to go to their wedding. That was the last time any of us really talked to Mina. We rarely see Danny because we all sort of just moved on with our lives. He was doing the married thing, Ethan was in the army, Max and I were at school.”

“Jesus. This is such a fucked-up situation,” Cooper complains, running a hand down his face, giving his short beard a tug. “We don’t have time to work through this new degree of crazy. Are you guys able to handle this, or should I call in someone else to work with her?”

He studies all of us, judging if we can be professional enough to get through working with a woman we’ve all known for decades.

Max is the first to pull himself out of the shock he received when I dropped the ‘Mina Bardot’ bomb and nods. “We’ve got this. Just give us a couple minutes to figure out a new way to approach her and we’ll come back in. That okay? Will you smooth things over with her before we speak with her again?”

“Yeah, just hurry. We have a small window to get her moved before he gets the chance to find out where she’s gone.”

I give Coop a weak smile. “We’ll figure this out. Let’s go to the other room,” I tell my friends.

Turning, I close my eyes briefly to the sound of shuffling footsteps behind me. The click of the door shutting breaks the silence once we’ve all entered the room.

“I’m going to fucking kill him,” Ethan hisses out, barely controlled violence lacing his voice.

“Danny is fucked,” I add, agreeing with the mood we’re all in.

Then we sit down and come up with a plan on a way to not only protect Mina, but destroy the piece of shit she married. Along with any chance this fucker has to abuse another woman again.

Chapter 13

Villains

Ethan

Jesus Christ, this feels like a joke.

“What do you know?” I ask Vincent after we each take a moment to understand the scenario we’re dealing with. I’m struggling. Knowing that Mina is in the next room after having been beaten by Danny is fucking with my head.Danny. The guy we’ve been friends with for most of our lives.

Vincent lets out a loud sound of frustration and leans back in his chair to stare at the ceiling. His knee is bouncing like he needs to expel energy and his hands are busy spinning a pen between his fingers. “Not a lot, man. He fucking did it though, that’s for sure. I don’t know how to wrap my head around that.”

“How do you know?” Max asks, and I shoot him a look of disgust.

“What do you mean ‘how does he know’? Did you not see her in there?” My question is answered with an eyeroll, pissing me off.

---