Page 153 of What's Left of Us

But a private investigator? “I don’t know, dude. Getting hired to follow cheating spouses doesn’t sound that interesting to me.”

“We do more than that.”

I eye him skeptically.

He relents, humor hidden behind his beer bottle. “Okay, we do a lot of that shit. But they aren’t the only calls we get. We recently got a case from the family of a murder victim. They don’t think the police are doing their job, so they want us to see what we can find that they aren’t.”

“Is that supposed to entice me?”

Knight shrugs. “I’m just saying that there are things you could help us with. My men don’t have the same training as you. And now that you’re free—”

“I still have another month before I’m done.”

He doesn’t argue with me about it. “Look, you don’t have to say yes. Just think about it. I know you, Hawk. You’ll be bored a week after you’re officially done. Then you’ll be driving everybody crazy looking for shit to do. This might not pay as well as your current gig, but the money is decent, and it’s better than sitting at home brooding alone.”

“I don’t brood.”

Knight has the audacity to snort. “Whatever you say, man.”

I down half my beer and wipe my mouth off with the back of my hand. “How did you and my sister even get on the topic of me anyway?”

His face twists like he’s trying to fight flinching, which makes me think I won’t like the answer. He neutralizes his face and says, “I asked how you were, and she mentioned your retirement.” I have a feeling that wasn’t the only thing that was said, but he doesn’t let me question it before he speaks up. “If you make up your mind, you know where to find me.”

He tosses his empty beer into the garbage and starts heading to the door.

“Hiring you guys to follow Georgia was what put the final nail in the coffin,” I say. “When she found out…”

I’ll never forget the look on her face.

The betrayal.

“You were right. I shouldn’t have done it.”

Knight turns to me. “For what it’s worth, I never thought it would end like that. If I were in your shoes, I’d want answers too. And she wasn’t sharing them.”

All I do is nod once.

“Lincoln…” He stops himself, sighing. “You know how we’d found some shit when you told us to stop trailing her?”

A heavy weight settles in the bottom of my stomach. “I told you I didn’t want to know.”

“Is that still true?”

I’m hesitant to respond because…Is it? And what did he know that he’s held on to this whole time?

“Let me know if you change your mind,” is all he says, disappearing down the stairs.

I’m tempted to go after him and ask what he knows, but something holds me back.

Once upon a time, Georgia had asked me to trust her. And I didn’t do that. Maybe if I had, things would be different.

So, I finish my beer, discard the bottle, and think about what comes next.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Lincoln / Present

Three days afterthe feds stormed the Del Rossi Group, Nikolas’s face is plastered on the front of every newspaper in Middle Point. The red-faced shot of the business mogul being escorted off his property by two police officers makes me want to call Beaugard and ask for the details, but the last time I got ahold of him, he’d told me to go get a life.

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