And walked right out of the room.

Evie

“Just so you’re prepared, when you enter that room, your brother will be chained to the table,” Hank told me.

God, I thought.

“Fine,” I replied.

“No physical contact,” he went on.

“Again, fine,” I said.

He stopped outside a door and looked down at me.

“Eddie’s in with him now and Eddie will remain in that room with you. He’ll try to be unobtrusive, but he will not leave. I’ll be watching through the one-way. And Evan, I gotta share how far this not-being-a-private chat goes. Anything he says that might incriminate him or anyone he knows, or any information he provides about criminal activities, he will be further interrogated about after you leave. Do you understand?”

I looked right in his attractive, whiskey-colored eyes and declared, “I know a policeman was killed, Hank. I know my brother was in possession of the gun that did that. I know he knew he had possession of that gun, and instead of turning it over to the police, he kept it safe for whoever to do whatever they intended to do with it. So, if he incriminates himself about being involved in this sorry business, that isn’t on me.”

His face gentled and he said, “I’m not asking you to get him to talk—”

But I didn’t let him finish.

“If you were, I’d say yes. This isn’t about that, but if you want to make it so, I’m in.”

His chin shifted to the side in surprise before he replied, “Just do what you came here to do and what comes of it, does, Evie.”

I nodded.

Hank turned the handle on the door and shoved in.

I heard my brother in the middle of saying something, ending with, “…this harassment bullshit. You can’t let every asshole and their brother come in and—”

He abruptly stopped when he turned his head to the door that Hank had gotten out of the way of so I could fully push open and he saw me walk in.

He then paled, jerked in his chair like he was intending to stand, making his chains rattle and Eddie warn, “Cool it, Gardiner.”

I felt the tightness in my cheek, how it was pushing up into my eye.

I also felt the burn in my other cheek, and I knew that graze against concrete broke skin.

I had not had a look at myself, but I could tell by Mick’s reaction the results of my short time with Snag were dramatic.

I glanced in Eddie’s direction where he was standing, arms crossed, in the corner.

He gave me a nod.

I moved in.

“Evie,” Mick whispered, reaching both of his bound hands across the table as I sat down opposite him.

“I’ve had an interesting day, Mick,” I told him, purposefully resting my hands in my lap.

“Sweetheart, honey, oh God, what the fuck?” He started this with coos and ended it with clips.

“You did this to me,” I said.

He blanched further on a flinch and moaned, “Evie.”

I guessed that was the end of my line because I leaned deep into the table and screeched, “You did this to me!”

Mick dropped his head.

I stared at the top of it, but I didn’t see it.

I saw the spray of Mag’s blood on my fucking living room wall.

“You know, the whole time I was captive. The whole time he held a gun on me. The whole time he was tying me to a chair. The whole time he was asking me the same question over and over and over again until he got sick of it and lost it and hit me. The whole time I was lying on my side in an empty warehouse in the cold, tied to a goddamn chair, all I could think about was one thing. When Snag shot Danny in my living room, if Danny had survived.”

“God, this got so dicked up,” Mick told the table.

“Look at me,” I bid.

He shook his head.

“Look at me!” I shrieked.

He lifted his head and now his face was red, so were his eyes, and they were bright with wet.

Once upon a time, that look would register on me.

Once upon a time, that look would bring me to heel because I so badly wanted to be everything a sister should be to my brother.

It was no longer that time.

“He shot my boyfriend in my living room.”

“Evie, I had no idea—”

“You knew.”

He shook his head again. “I didn’t. I had no idea. Things were hot for Snag. They were up in his shit, thinking he had what was in that bag, so he needed to unload it for a while, and he promised me he’d get clear and take it off your hands as fast as he could. No one was supposed to know you even had it. He told me he’d be sure when you grabbed it no one was around. He promised me you’d be safe. I swear to God, Evie, he promised me.”

“So, you admit it. You did this to me. You did it to Danny. You did this to us. You put us right in the line of literal fire, and for what? A favor to a friend? A friend who’s a pimp?”

“I owed him.”

“You owed him, and as usual, I paid.”

“Sweetheart—”

“Fuck you,” I bit out.

He blinked in shock, going so far as to sit back heavily with the weight of it.

“Were those drugs in that bag yours?” I asked.

He began to look shifty and then he sounded it.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

God, I was sitting there looking like I did and telling him about my day, and he was covering his own ass.

How had I not seen this before?

It was a new definition of love being blind.

“Liar,” I whispered. “You’re in the clink and you not only needed someone to look after a murder weapon you promised some piece of slime you’d keep safe, you needed someone to look after your stash.”

“I was just paying on a marker I owed. That’s it. I got nothin’ to do with anything that mighta been in that bag. I was just paying a marker.”

Such a liar.

“You’re dead to me,” I told him.

His eyes got big and he leaned forward, again reaching out with his hands. “Evie, don’t say that.”

“Leave me with one good memory, Mick. If you know anything, anything at all, that will find the man who killed that cop, you tell Detective Chavez.” I jerked my head in Eddie’s direction.

Mick’s face closed down and he spat, “I’m not gonna rat.”

“I can’t imagine why not, considering you’re a complete rodent.”

He looked stunned, wounded, and then he looked ticked.

“Well, fuck you too, Evie,” he snarled.

Really?

Really?

This was where we were now?

Trading fuck yous?

I gave him a long stare before I replied, “You didn’t have to say that, Mick, considering you’ve been doing that all my—”

I didn’t finish.

The door opened and Mag walked in.

His arm was in a sling.

His face was murderous.

And his attention was focused on Mick.

“Honey,” I called.

He looked down at me and grunted, “You done?”

I looked to Mick and decided I was.

So I stood, leaned into a hand on the table that separated us and gave him the words he gave me.

“Do right by your sister, Mick. Do right.”