her mouth seems to make everything right and snap back into place. I grin against her lips.
“When I get back, you better be ready for that date.”
She chuckles, but the perfect sound is lost to a whimper when I walk out.
***
“Wait,” Kincaid urges as he holds his hands up. “Calm down and tell me what’s going on.”
For all the calm I felt in the last seconds I spent with Simone, I can’t manage to find an ounce of it now.
Jinx was agitated, gripping the steering wheel and spitting out all the things he plans to do to Jeremy Murphy Sr. on the way back to the clubhouse.
It made me realize the power of a mob mentality because I was fully on board with taking him to the woods and torturing him until he begged for death like my friend described by the time we made it to the parking lot at Cerberus. If that man lived in town, we’d already be dragging his body over the hot earth, ten steps into our devious plans.
But the motherfucker isn’t in New Mexico. He’s twenty-four hundred miles away, and unfortunately safe from our energetic plans.
“Okay.” Jinx takes a long, calming breath, but all it does is make me want to breathe harder. “Simone’s father-in-law—”
“Ex father-in-law,” I correct. “If the husband is dead, that makes him a fucking ex.”
Kincaid frowns in my direction, but eventually turns his attention back to my friend. “Go on.”
“Her ex father-in-law has been calling and harassing her. He’s not very happy that his piece of shit son is dead.”
“Grieving parents do crazy things,” Dominic, Kincaid’s brother adds. “And most parents struggle with accepting how bad their children are.”
“This man isn’t just some grieving parent. He’s as big an asshole as his son,” I add. “We left him alone because Max found out he never leaves Vermont, but now he’s making threats.”
“We can’t have that, boss,” Jinx says.
Max, our IT specialist steps forward. “Jeremy Murphy Sr. is a dangerous man. My research shows that he was just as abusive to his wife as Simone’s husband was to her.”
“Was?” I look at Max. “The mother was alive when you first dug into him.”
“Cause of death?” Kincaid asks, his jaw tensing.
“Umm.” Max takes a minute, his fingers flying over the keyboard of his laptop. “Ruled an accident. Blunt force trauma to the head after falling down the stairs.”
My boss lifts his head, eyes meeting mine, and I know we’re having the same thoughts.
“She died three weeks ago,” Max adds. “There’s a history of hospital visits from decades ago. She suffered broken bones, lacerations…”
My hands clench repeatedly as Max continues to list off the injuries Mrs. Murphy had suffered over the years at the hands of her husband. It’s difficult to listen to, but I’m grateful the list is so long. The more she suffered; the more willing Kincaid is going to be to make sure we can protect Simone from that sadistic bastard.
“It’s a vicious cycle,” Dominic mutters, drawing my thoughts back to the present instead of picturing Murphy begging for his life.
“What?” I look around confused.
“Yeah,” Max sighs. “The son had eleven visits to the ER. The first one was at eighteen months old, broken clavicle. They said he fell on a bottle. The last one when he was twelve was a head injury that left him hospitalized for over a month.”
“Jesus,” Dominic mutters, and I feel like I’m losing the battle.
“No one fucking stepped in?” Jinx hisses.
Max types away some more. “Social services were called several times. Teachers noted bruises on the kid on many occasions, but the family denied any and all abuse. Eventually, Jeremy Jr. dropped out of school halfway through his sophomore year.”
“We have to do something,” I mutter. “I won’t be able to sleep at night if something happens to her.”
I pray they agree with me. I can’t not do something.
“Wow,” Max mutters.
“I’m afraid to even ask,” Dominic says as he sits down at the conference room table.
“Simone wasn’t the first person her husband hurt. His high school girlfriend went to the hospital with injuries. She reported him, but from the looks of it, he was only charged with simple assault.”
“So, there’s also an issue with the police department as well as social services?” Jinx asks.
“Seems that way,” Max offers before snapping his laptop closed.
We’ve all heard enough, digging deeper will only make it that much harder not to actually kill the man when we come face-to-face with him.