Page 88 of His Reluctant Savior

“Trust me, babe. Rubi will be at peace, as will you.”

Dalton and I leftOwen behind at The District with Luca as the best babysitter. Luca had brought along his protective CaneCorso, Cleo, knowing she would also protect Owen, while we camped down the street from Deputy Chief Mardsen’s three-story brownstone home in Georgetown.

Meanwhile, Dante, Malik, and Easton handled Speaker Rush. They would subdue him until we got over there after we wrapped it up with Mardsen. Malik rarely involved himself directly on an assignment, and I appreciated the hell out of him for it.

We parked on O Street, which was busy enough not to draw attention to ourselves as we stared at the white brick home built in the early 1900s.

“Nice house,” I said. “What do you think it costs?”

“It’s got to be at least six million for this area.”

“And how much does our Deputy Chief make?”

Dalton shrugged. “At most? Around two hundred thousand.”

“So, he couldn’t afford a house this nice?”

“His wife is a fairly successful lawyer, so who knows? Or maybe he has a wealthy family.”

“God, who cares!” Sully snapped from the backseat. “Just get his ass home, and let’s do this. You alloweme for the company reorganization.”

“Shut up and put in your headphones if you don’t want to listen,” I said.

“Touchy, touchy.”

I eye-rolled and shook my head as Dalton smiled. “Pain in the ass.”

I only chose to bring Sully because he would do the hard job while I witnessed it. Dalton insisted on coming, and this way, he wouldn’t get his hands dirty either… or see me get my hands dirty.

And yes, it was also a handout to Sully, who complained non-fucking-stop about the change in direction, to at least get him to shut the hell up.

“Remember, Sully. We are encouraging him to take his own life. We don’t want it to look forced. I have his suicide note, so we need him to sign it, then do whatever he wants to take his life.”

He put his hands together in a praying motion. “Can I make him hurt just a little?”

“Jesus…” I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose. “I should’ve brought Easton. That would be a no.”

“You’re even less fun than Mal.”

“You’re biased. I’mwaymore fun than Mal.”

A minute later, a white Lexus pulled up to the front of the house. Mardsen got out and walked up the short flight of steps, unlocked his front door, and stepped inside, turning on his porch lights since it was dark outside.

“You’re up, Sully. Subdue him and text us when he’s ready. We’ll come around back, so we go in unnoticed. Andnotoying with him,” I added as he got out of the car and shut the door behind him.

“Do you think he’ll listen?” Dalton asked.

“Who knows? He’s always a wild card. It’s hard to control someone like Sully. Malik is only good at it because Sully is obsessed with him. At the end of the day, Sully does what Sully wants, but despite all his complaining, he generally abides by the rules. He’s very good at what he does. Malik trained him well.”

Ten long minutes later, I got a text from him that Mardsen was ready.

Dalton and I put on gloves before getting out of the car. We walked toward the alley behind the house and inside through the back door Sully had left open. Then, we continued through the house until we reached his office.

We found Sully sitting on the edge of the desk, twirling a knife through his fingers as Mardsen sat at his desk and watched the movement warily.

He was a mousy man, close to sixty years old, lean, and not very tall. His ash-brown hair was thinning at the top.

“My wife will be home shortly. You’re making a huge mistake threatening me,” he said.

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