Page 174 of What's Left of Us

He’s our best chance at getting the answers we want. “Who’s going to get him?”

“Night shift is going to go over to his last-known address tonight. Kent and Lewis.”

I shake my head. “No. Tell them to leave it to us. We’ll go first thing in the morning.”

“Hawk—”

“I need this right now, Conklin.”

He doesn’t say anything.

“And we both know that Kent hesitates,” I point out. “He’ll drag his feet until it’s too late, and then Volley will get away. He and Lewis don’t know that Volley moves volume at night. It’s better to get him first thing in the morning.”

He knows I’m right. “You going to be okay?”

No.“I could use a drink.”

Or five.

“Come over,” he replies with no hesitation. “Marissa is about to make dinner. You can sleep here tonight if you need to.”

I stare at the paperwork on the floor, feeling my nostrils flare. “Yeah. I’ll be over in twenty.”

Because the last place I want to be is alone here with the noise in my head.

Georgia and her goddamn divorce papers can wait.

As soon as I arrive at Conklin’s place, Marissa gives me a hug, Cooper mimics her, and Matt hands me a whiskey with two ice cubes.

He clinks his beer bottle against it. “To new beginnings.”

I take a long sip as we settle onto the couch where a football game is playing, but I don’t cheers to shit.

Fuck new beginnings.

I never asked to start over anyway.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

Lincoln / Present

The good doctorwatches me as I clench my fists together and grind down on my teeth.

“What happened then, Lincoln?” she asks softly.

I shake my head, feeling the burn of bitter emotions rise up my throat. “You know what happened. Don’t make me relive that day.”

Don’t go.

When Georgia showed up the next day with that goddamn bottle of Johnnie Walker and offered me her body, I should have gone alone.

At least Conklin would still be alive.

Theresa Castro walks over to me and sits on the edge of the cushion beside me. “Jakob Volley was the one who made the decision to pull the trigger that day. It could have been anyone on the other side of that door.”

It could have been.

But it wasn’t.

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