Love to Hate You (Hope Valley #9) - Jessica Prince Page 0,92
free and trailed down her battered cheek. “I’m so—”
I placed my hand on hers and gave it a squeeze. “Stop it. I’m just glad you’re okay. That’s the only thing that matters to me.” She closed her eyes for a second and pulled in a breath to get control of herself before looking back at me. “Why’d you do it?” I finally asked, that question had been plaguing me for days. “Why’d you run, Charlie?”
“I didn’t have a choice,” she whispered, her voice small and weak from everything she’d endured. “He called me. He’d found out something from my past and was using it against me.”
My fingers around hers clenched. “What did he have on you?”
“He—he found out about my sister.”
The air expelled from my lungs as my muscles locked up. “You have a sister?”
“I haven’t seen her in years. I don’t even know where she is. But he found out somehow, and he threatened to track her down if I didn’t find a way to meet up with him without Dalton knowing.”
I shook my head, trying to comprehend what I’d just heard. “Charlie, I—”
“You can’t tell anyone,” she insisted. “I don’t want anyone knowing. If they do, they’ll go looking, and I’ve stayed away all this time to keep her safe. She didn’t grow up the way I did. She had a good life. I don’t want to screw that up for her.”
God, that killed. “Darlin’, don’t you think she’d want to know you? You’re her family.”
“I’m no good,” she gritted, that steel and stubbornness returning right before my very eyes.
“Charlie, you aren’t—”
“Just promise me, Micah. Swear you won’t tell anyone.”
I hesitated, my gut twisting painfully. It was a promise I didn’t want to make, but I’d do it anyway. Because it was for her. “All right, sweetheart. This stays right here.”
Relief flitted across her features, and slowly, the Charlie I’d come to know and love reappeared. “I met your girl, by the way.” She smiled as best she could with most of her face still swollen. “Just in case you’re wondering, I totally approve.”
It was my turn to pull in a calming breath. “I know what you did,” I told her on a husky whisper. “She told me you saved her, and for that, I owe you everything.”
“Micah—”
“You’re absolutely incredible, and I’m so thankful I get to know you,” I stressed. The quiver in her chin came back, but I wasn’t done. “For the rest of my life, Charlie. You’ll hold a special place in my heart no one else will ever be able to touch as long as I live. You got me?”
She sniffled and nodded her head.
“You have family here, darlin’. Whether you want us or not. You’re stuck. You’re the best person I know.”
A tear broke free. “The feeling’s mutual.”
Epilogue
Micah
Three weeks later
To say things had been tense since my woman shot and killed that piece of shit Cormack would have been a massive understatement. When word got out it was one of our own that had killed Darrin Callo simply because the man was a good cop, it had shaken the whole department. After that nightmare of a day, things in his operation began to unravel quickly.
After it came to light that the deputy in Hidalgo had been framed for Callo’s murder, a task force was put together, led by me and Leo. Two other Hope Valley officers were arrested for being a part of his drug ring, as well as a handful of cops from Grapevine and Hidalgo. That wasn’t counting the people involved who weren’t in law enforcement.
We were dismantling Cormack’s operation, piece by piece, and we weren’t going to stop until there was nothing left.
“Langford,” I heard Hayes call. Lifting my head from the report I’d been filling out, I looked over and saw him jerk his chin toward the entrance of the bullpen.
When I shifted my focus in that direction, my whole body locked tight. Sidney Callo was climbing the last step and heading in our direction.
“Look alive,” I muttered to Leo just as the young woman reached our desks.
“Detective Langford,” she greeted before tilting her chin to Leo. “Detective Drake.”
“Afternoon, Mrs. Callo,” I returned. “What can we do for you?”
There was still a sadness in her eyes that I feared might never go away, but I guess that was to be expected. However, even with that, she looked a bit better than she had the last time we’d seen her.
She clutched her purse in front of her, her fingers gripping