Page 42 of The Doctor

“Listen to me.” Nick sat forward once more. “Lilly’s not here so I will have to talk it out with you. Because when I phone my sister back, I need to have a finalized plan, and not just the half-baked one she just gave me. We need to prioritize here. Dom never saw the driver. Which means the only way he could be arrested was if his friends implicated him, or if he came after Dom, or there was another way someone could identify him. Ifhe’s smart, he’ll… leave town and let his friends rot and never have anything to do with Dom ever again.”

“You make that sound like it's the best-case scenario even though an accomplice to the murder of two people gets away free and clear. What the fuck is worse-case scenario?”

Nick took a deep breath and steepled his fingers. “Well, he comes after Dom and basically implicates himself, if his friends haven’t already.”

I thought about what could happen. “Are you saying you’re going to use my kid as bait? Because you have to realize there is no way I’m going to sanction that.”

“Don’t be so dramatic. Dom will stay home from school while everything is heated. When he returns to school, the school will be given an extra resource officer. And one of us will be parked outside the school all the time.” He stood and paced. “Either that asshole would’ve abandoned his friends or he will make his move to help his friends.”

“Wait, you said they already had sketches of the men.” That made no sense. “Why didn’t they release them sooner? Dom was in danger because there was the potential he could identify them. If they knew who these men were, they could’ve arrested them long ago.”

Nick let out a long breath. “Apparently there was a jurisdictional dispute and the FBI wanted more evidence for their case. SFPD wanted to make the arrest as soon as the sketch had a positive hit. Up until this point, no one had shown Dom any mugshots.”

My brow creased as I tried to process that information. “Nick, that’s not right.” I stood and stopped his pacing. “This reeks of either gross incompetence or—”

“Or corruption. There is a leak within the system. Actually, I no longer think it's in the San Francisco police department. The killer knew enough to be in Marina De Ferrier.”

“That’s easy, it was an open adoption. We wanted to make it easier for him to contact us when he was ready.”

“But someone knew what was happening inside the police station.” Nick was talking but his mind was far away. “They had to know when Bex requested the break. They had to know when Dom was being interviewed, and his movements.”

I sat still as Nick continued to mumble to himself. Then he pulled his phone back out of his pocket. After a few taps it rang once and Jared answered. “Nick, what’s up?”

“I want to know everything there is to know about the Marshals, Agents, and the State’s Attorney involved in Dom’s case. Someone is dirty. I want to know who and why.”

“Am I doing legal or illegal searches?”

I took that as my cue. “They fucking shot my son.”

Jared sighed heavily. “Got it.”

24

BEX

Dom was sitting at the dining table of our new safe house. His arm was in a sling. He was at once groggy and moody. At least the meds kept the pain away, but the kid was pissed off. Not that I blamed him. I wasn’t exactly Sally Sunshine. I wanted so badly to find the asshole who shot him. As it was, I was instructed to bring Dom home and to stay there. After several back roads and even more back-tracking, we eventually made it to the new house. Ollie met me and talked me through all the security features. It wasn’t necessary since I had a part in designing the security system. We had cameras outside, and there wasn’t a single blind spot on the house. The alarm was triggered once someone entered the driveway or came up the front porch. Lights went on when activated by movement. And everything required face recognition and a thumbprint. No one was getting in the house unless one of us wanted them in.

“And once you’re in the house.” I was still giving Dom the security lecture. “You reset the alarm by pressing ‘three’, ‘five’. That allows you to walk through the house but the doors and windows are covered. If we ever get a cat, we would need to rethink things since he wouldn’t be able to get out.”

Dom did not look impressed. “Am I going to need to submit a DNA sample? Because I think that’s a violation of my privacy or something.”

“Oh, please.” I rolled my eyes as I sat opposite him. “You’re a teenager with a heavy social media presence. Privacy is not a thing you’ve ever prioritized.”

“You’ve checked out my social media?” I knew what he was asking, and I hated the hesitancy in his voice.

I nodded and tilted my head towards him. “Only once you came into our lives.” He narrowed his eyes as if he didn’t believe me. “I mean, it wasn’t as if I wasn’t tempted, especially after Lilly checked up on you. When she said you were fine and healthy, there was a big part of me that wanted to check for myself.”

“Do you think Logan checked on me?”

Everything in me melted. He wanted to know if we thought about him. I knew I could answer him honestly. “Lo is as nosy as they come. It was an open adoption and I had no doubt he watched your parents’ social media feeds to catch photos of you over the years. And then, when you were old enough to have your own social media, he would’ve checked what you were up to.”

His eyes turned serious but his voice went colder. “But you didn’t.”

“I tried once, but it hurt like hell, Dom.” I had to be honest with him. “Giving you up was the hardest thing I ever had to do. But I did take comfort that you had good parents.”

He nodded. “I did. It sucked when my dad died but my mom was awesome. And Bill was not bad to be around. He was just… I didn’t trust him. He was pissed about my dad’s money being in a trust for me. And that if anything happened to my mom, her portion would still go to me. At first, I thought he wanted to replace my Dad, but I think all he wanted was access to my money.”

Before we could continue, my phone chimed with a notification from the security system. Logan’s car was pulling into the driveway. I looked at my screen as the camera captured him getting out of the car. I was so entranced by him. He took out the baby car seat and left it on the ground as he reached back and took Landy from the toddler seat. Once he had Landy draped over his shoulder, he picked up the car seat. I watched him from one camera to the next until he was at the front door. He gently put the car seat down once more as he removed his key from his pocket and unlocked the front door.

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