Gone - Anna Brooks Page 0,66
out.
“I’m gonna kill him,” Gio states plainly. “When I find out who it is, I’m going to kill him.”
I shake my head, air finally scratching through my lungs again. “They have any leads?”
“Nope. Not yet, but I’m gonna go punt this over to Q. You want me to send a man over?”
Yeah, Q needs in on this now. We need to find whoever did this before anyone else can. “Not today, I don’t want to worry her. Judy will warn me if someone’s here.” I dare someone to come here and try to hurt her. Fucking dare them. I’d take immense pleasure in watching them die at my hands.
“I’m gonna get this info to Q. We’ll network this shit tomorrow, find whoever it was before the cops do.”
“You read my mind.”
Chapter 17
Izzy
My head is a little fuzzy, but it’s much, much better than before. I love how those little pills make the pain go away, but I hate how they make me feel. When I push myself up to sitting, I screech a little when I see Damien sitting on a chair in the middle of the doorway. He’s facing me, but the back of the chair is in the hallway, almost far back enough that he can see the living room, even though the house is as dark as the night sky. “Hi.”
“Hey, Izzy baby. How you feelin’?” He doesn’t get up to come closer, and I don’t like that.
“Better. My head feels clearer, the hand I bruised from hitting Gio is back to normal, but now my other arm is messed up. Go figure.” I laugh. “The ache in my ankle isn’t as intense as earlier but still sore. I’d get up and hop down the hall on my own, but I know you won’t let me. Can you get me some water, please?”
He stands immediately. “Anything else? You hungry?”
“Not really, but I know I should eat. Maybe some crackers or something?”
“Be right back.”
Judy is lying on the floor next to me, but her head is cocked to the side and her attention is hyper focused. “Hey, Judy.” Her ears twitch, but she doesn’t look at me. Weird.
Damien is back in record time, and he hands me an opened bottle of water, sets one on the nightstand, and gives me a bowl filled with crackers. “Thanks.”
He nods and goes back to the seat, and I pause with the bottle halfway to my mouth. “What are you doing?”
“I don’t know how to tell you this, but—”
“Are you breaking up with me?”
He scrubs his hands down his face and… growls a little. “Fuck no. Why would you think that? Do you not remember me telling you I’m going to marry you less than twenty-four hours ago?”
Just like with Gio, I do not like to be on the receiving end of his anger. “I don’t know why I said that. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t let it happen again, Iz.” He waits for me to whisper okay before he continues. “It wasn’t an accident. Someone cut your brake lines.”
The bottle slips out of my hands and hits the floor, splashing Judy, but she doesn’t move a muscle. Damien comes over to pick it up and grabs a dirty T-shirt that was on his dresser and throws it on top of the puddle.
“Gio already has Q on it, but tomorrow morning, the detective assigned to your case will be here to talk to you. We’re gonna find whoever this was before they do, but you still need to give the cops what they want. Now I need you to tell me if you have any idea who would have done this? I’ve already got my suspects, but I want to know your thoughts. If something happened that you didn’t tell me.”
Words get caught in my throat, and he sits on the edge of the bed. “Talk to me. Anything you can think of, no matter how small.”
“I know I should have told you when it happened, but I didn’t want you to lose it.”
“What?” he snaps.
“When we were at your grandma’s, Jordan cornered me in the kitchen when I was making lemonade.” Damien’s normally sharp jawline turns jagged as he grinds his teeth. “He basically told me I needed to stay away from his wife because what I did upset her. Warned me that I wouldn’t like the consequences if I caused her any stress ever again.”
He sucks air in and out of his nostrils, and the bed shakes with every exhale. “What else?”
“Well, he