had spoken often about her parents, longed for them. Neither Orion nor Jaclyn did that. Jaclyn.
Orion wondered if her family would even bother turning up to claim her.
“Due to the circumstances surrounding everything, local media is already outside waiting,” Maddox explained.
Circumstances, Orion thought. Nice euphemisms there. Half cop, half politician.
“It’s only a matter of time before national news gets down here,” he continued. “And all hell breaks loose.” He glanced to his partner. Orion noted that he was taking great pains to avoid her gaze. She wondered if it was because he didn’t trust himself not to lose his police mask, as he had when he walked in. Or maybe she disgusted him now. A memory of where he’d failed.
Maddox looked toward Shelby. “As for family, Ms. O’Reilly, your parents have been notified, of course, and as long as you approve it, they will be meeting you at the hotel. They wanted to be here, but we managed to convince them it was best if they stayed away from the media.”
Tears leaked out of Shelby’s eyes and her hand covered her mouth. A muffled sob escaped.
Maddox turned to Jaclyn. “Ms. Murphy, I’m sorry, we couldn’t locate your mother or your father.”
Jaclyn rolled her eyes, but Orion saw the slight glassiness in them. “No surprise there,” Jaclyn muttered.
“We were, however, able to reach your grandmother. A Mrs. . . .” Maddox trailed off, again looking at Eric.
“Deborah Connor,” Eric finished for him.
Jaclyn straightened her spine and narrowed her eyes, exactly as Orion had expected her to. She’d heard stories of the parents who had abandoned her, the grandmother who had beaten her, and the grandfather who did whatever he damn well pleased.
“Oh no!” Jaclyn snapped. “Fuck that evil bitch. I don’t want to see her. Not today. Not ever. I’ll leave our reunion for when I meet her in fuckin’ hell.”
The corner of Orion’s mouth quirked ever so slightly.
Maddox nodded once, not smiling. “Understood.” Then, as if he were moving through sludge, he turned to look at the space above Orion’s head. His cop mask slipped again. He rubbed the back of his neck. Another nervous tic. “Ri-Orion, I, uh . . .” His brow furrowed as he stumbled over his words.
“Oh, just spit it out,” she snapped. “I think I can handle it. You know, considering what I’ve already been through.”
Another flinch. Another score for Orion. She didn’t know why she wanted to hurt him, but it felt good to see him squirm.
“I’m so sorry, Orion. They’re gone,” Maddox finally said, his eyes avoiding hers at all costs.
Orion could only guess as to whether he had to deliver such information before. He was a cop in a big county with a lot of crime. Surely he’d had dozens of experiences like this. But he sucked at it.
Orion didn’t change her expression, even as a chasm opened inside her, a reaction she hadn’t expected and hated herself for having. “How?” she asked, voice flat, and he finally looked at her then.
“Your, um, dad . . . he got in a bad wreck a few years after . . .”
Orion almost smiled at the cliché. “Drunk?”
Maddox nodded. “Took two people with him.”
“Of course he did.” She shook her head. It wouldn’t be enough just to end his miserable life after ruining hers, her brother’s, her mother’s . . . he had to go out with a bang.
“Your mom, she kind of lost it after that,” Maddox continued. “Then she got sick. Cancer. She passed about a year ago.” He paused, swallowing visibly. Then, it seemed, he found a bit of gusto, and he stood a little straighter.
Orion hated that she reacted to that more than she did at the news she was an orphan.
“And my little brother?”
Adam crossed her mind then. Her sweet, empathetic, kind-hearted little brother. Her only other friend outside of April growing up. He wasn’t here, fighting his way past orderlies or doctors, demanding to see his sister. That told her everything she needed to know about how much he missed her, thought about her, unlike her own constant thoughts and daydreams about the little brother who acted so tough for her when they were kids, even if they wanted to kill each other sometimes.
She wanted to be wrong. She wanted him to be living in Europe, in some mansion, or trekking through the Himalayas, living the kind of life he deserved. He was trying to get a private jet, transportation right to the hospital door. That’s it.
“Maybe we