Page 164 of What's Left of Us

There’s no way he would want police anywhere near him or his business. “His father would never allow police to go near their family.”

Marissa takes Cooper. “I’ll let you two talk. I don’t think Coop needs to be part of this conversation.”

My eyes go up as she takes their son into a different room with his snacks and some toys. I look at Conklin. “Should I be worried?”

Clearing his throat, he leans back in the chair and grabs the Corona he grabbed from his refrigerator. “Hypothetically, let’s say Georgia did kiss Luca. Where does that leave you two?”

“With a sore hand, clearly,” I grumble, bending my fingers under the bag of peas.

He nods. “Sure, but when you talk to her, what are you going to say? Are you going to forgive her? Is this something you’ll break up over?”

“Whoa.” I reach for the beer he passed to me when I got here and take a swig. “Look, I haven’t thought that far ahead yet. When I got back from seeing Luca, her car was still gone.”

His eyebrows lift higher. “So, where did she go when she left?”

I give him a knowing look. “Where do you think?”

The gaping expression he gives me gets shaken off when he moves his head back and forth. “I’m just going to say it. I think we need to stop looking into her family.”

“What the hell, man. No way.”

He leans forward. “It was one thing to look into them when I knew they were estranged. You made it seem like she has no connection to them. I’m not saying the man is up to any good, but if Georgia is willing to be around them—”

“That makes it more relevant. We need to separate them, not encourage her to hear her father’s bullshit. You said so yourself that he’s not involved in anything good. I don’t want her to be around that.”

Conklin scrubs a hand down his tired face. “I hate to say it, but don’t you think that’s up to her to decide? There’s a reason you married her, and it’s because you love her. So maybe—”

“The reason I married her is because her father kicked her out when she refused to marry Luca-Fucking-Carbone.”

The silence I’m met with makes me curse. Closing my eyes, I drop my head back and take a deep breath.

Conklin pulls my attention back to him. “I’m going to need you to start from the beginning. Because what the fuck, Hawk? You married her because she got kicked out? And are you talking about the same Luca Carbone that I think you are? Because double what the fuck.”

I should have kept my mouth closed. “It’s a complicated story that would probably fill in a lot of gaps if you knew the whole thing.”

“Then start talking.” He gets up and goes to the fridge, grabbing two more beers from it and popping the caps off. Putting them on the table, he drops down onto his seat. “Something tells me we’re going to need these. Start spilling.”

Chugging the rest of the first drink he gave me, I take the second one with a sigh. “It all started at The Barrel…”

*

After two moreunanswered calls and an embarrassing amount of unread text messages, I pull up to the front door of the last place I want to be.

The second I see the smug look on Nikolas’s face, I want nothing more than to wipe it off. “It was only a matter of time,” he says in greeting.

“Is she here?”

It’s a dumb question. I parked next to her car.

“She doesn’t want to see you, I’m afraid,” Nikolas informs me. “We all knew this would happen eventually, Officer. You were going to mess up, and she would realize where she belonged all along.”

“Detective.”

“Ah. Of course. How could I forget?” He takes up the doorjamb to make it harder for me to storm in like I want to. “Howdoyou like that promotion? I hear it’s no more than a glorified secretarial position. Very little reward or glory. It must be hard getting all of those drug users off the road from behind a desk.”

He knew I wouldn’t be able to do the same kind of work putting away the users and dealers coming in from the city if I was promoted. I’d already figured that was his motive. WhatI still don’t know is what it cost him to make Chamberlin pull those strings.

When I give him a thorough once-over, I see something interesting. Eyelid tremors. Dilated pupils. The alcohol on his breath smells like expensive whiskey. Top shelf, I’m sure. But that’s not what’s making him fidget. I’ve made enough DUI arrests on drugs to know when someone is on them.

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