I must have made a noise because Mag grunted, “Nothin’ about this is fucking funny.”
He was wrong.
I didn’t share that.
“It’s over, honey,” I reminded him quietly.
“Yeah, you wanna know how over it is?” he asked, and the way he asked it, I knew I didn’t want to know.
I still said, “Okay.”
“It’s very fucking over because Brett assured me not only that you no longer had to harbor any concerns that he might cause you or your friends any harm, you could rest in the knowledge that no one would cause you or your girls any harm or he’d intervene.”
“Oh my God,” I breathed, not wanting a cop killer at my back, and also wishing he weren’t a cop killer because evidence was suggesting this guy could be redeemed, if he hadn’t done something entirely irredeemable.
“Right,” Mag clipped. “So, you got yourself a champion, baby. Though not sure how he’ll keep his finger on that pulse, seeing as he’s particles. Cops have that gun. He knows the cops got that gun. So, it’s just a hunch, but I’d bet big money on the fact that Cisco is nowhere near Denver right now and has no plans of coming back.”
That’d be my hunch too.
He was creepy, but he didn’t give any indication he was stupid.
Mag continued speaking.
“They also have your dad. Eddie and Hank, Slim and Mitch want me to share the gratitude of the entire DPD that you sorted that for them. Though, as I mentioned, who they don’t have is Cisco, seeing as he’s got a sixth sense when it comes to the preservation of his own ass and he never showed at Glazed and Confused. My guess, he thinks your dad screwed him and is in the dark that it was you who tipped who had that gun, or he wouldn’t throw down for you.”
I homed in on one part of that.
“The cops have Dad?” I asked.
“Accomplice after the fact,” Mag answered. “I put two and two together, and his fingerprints found at your pad and on your car that they previously put down to him being your dad, now he’s being charged with vandalism and burglary. And a search of his home found that dope stash, which was too hot to move, but he was clearly willing to wait it out, so he kept it. This means they also got him on possession with intent to distribute. Considering he was found in possession of a weapon that killed a cop, even if it wasn’t his, he didn’t turn it in, the police are motivated to make something stick. So I’d brace, Evie, because he’s going down, one way or another.”
I looked to my lap and started to fiddle with the strap on my bag.
“Evie?” Mag called.
I stopped fiddling with the strap on my bag, faced front and said nothing.
But suddenly, I felt the mood in the cab lighten.
“Fuck, baby,” Mag murmured, reaching out and taking hold of my hand. “I’m sorry. I was a dick in how I relayed that.”
“It would hurt even if you were nice about it,” I told him, my voice flat.
He heard my voice, which was probably why he forced his fingers through mine, and with them laced, held on tight, pulling my hand to his thigh.
“Yeah, it would hurt,” he agreed. “But I should always be nice. I should never be a dick to you. It’s no excuse, but when you called from the mall, flipped out, then were cut off, and then Axl called it in that Cisco got you, it tweaked me. It was a certain kind of hell, knowing he had you, tryin’ to keep my head in the game as Hawk and the boys strategized a rescue mission. Then you called, and with how you did, I knew you were swinging your ass way out there, and that didn’t tweak me, it freaked me.”
Oh.
Well then.
One could say it didn’t once occur to me to think how it would feel to be on Mag’s side of this situation.
But now that he was sharing, I realized his day had been (almost) as bad as mine.
“Then my relief when the Nightingale team reported that you were safe didn’t last long when Cisco made it clear you charmed his shit,” he carried on. “I’m not a jealous guy, but I’m also not a guy who wants another guy openly into my woman. Definitely not throwing down for her. And definitely not someone like Cisco bein’ her latest fan.”