We All Sleep Alone (Finley Creek #11) - Calle J. Brookes Page 0,122

in the city with her Barratt cousins. Annie had originally been headed there after her shift, but she’d decided to stay to help. Virat would be in to take over for Allen as soon as he could.

Izzie appreciated it.

Nikkie Jean was somewhere, having ended up with a ten-year-old with a rupturing appendix. To Nikkie Jean’s dismay, the surgeon with her tonight was going to be Izzie’s father.

Izzie promised Allen she’d stay in the surgical waiting room. It was a small room, with an exit leading to the hallway for the 500s rooms. The other door led straight to the surgical wing of the hospital where Allen and Nikkie Jean spent most of their time.

Izzie made herself as comfortable as possible, after giving her official statement to Detective Evers, whose blue eyes were almost as pretty as Allen’s, and tried to breathe. To wrap her head around what had happened.

They’d caught the shooter.

He’d been hired, Jake had told her, to get revenge against W4HAV.

Random coincidence that it had been she who was there.

Izzie wasn’t certain she believed in that.

Too much random had happened in her life lately.

104

Jennifer hadn’t said a word. Wallace knew she was frightened. He’d always known when something frightened her.

He hadn’t meant to kill Kyle. He’d watched that boy grow up, just as he had Reggie. But to know…

More than a decade. She’d been sleeping with that boy for more than a decade. He was…way too young for Jennifer.

Hell, Kyle was Reggie’s age.

She should have known better.

“Why? Why did you sleep with him?” Wallace asked.

“Because of Jody. Remember that little whore?”

It took him a moment, but he finally remembered. She’d been a CNA in her thirties, a good ten, twelve years ago. “Why?”

“If you could sleep around for decades, why shouldn’t I?”

He started to say something but couldn’t. She was right. He couldn’t argue with that. “What you did to L—Izzie?”

“Who do you mean, Wallace? Our daughter Elizabeth Rosemary? Or that little whore you screwed around with who was blackmailing you?”

Screwing with Izzie? He wouldn’t…he hadn’t…

He stared at her, gun clutched in his hand as he drove with the other. “I never slept with that little girl. I wouldn’t. She…she’s our…dau—” He bit off what he was going to say. She wouldn’t understand. He knew it.

Then again, he didn’t understand Jennifer anymore, either.

“Sure, you didn’t. You were always a fool where your dick was concerned. I led you around by it for years until I decided, what you did, I could do, too. Kyle wasn’t the first.”

Wallace tried to fight the rage. He did.

This woman…he didn’t know her at all. “What else have you done to Lizzie, Jennifer?”

“Lizzie? Can’t you even remember her name? Or have you slept with so many bitches you can’t even remember their names?”

Wallace struck out, the hand clutching the gun slammed into her cheek. She cried out.

Something…something in him just cracked.

Wallace knew exactly what he had to do.

It was time to end this, just as he’d planned.

Only this time…he’d do what he had to do to protect Lizzie. The way he always should have before.

105

She’d looked up the instant someone had entered the waiting room. The little girl in with Nikkie Jean had had her grandmother and her mother. There apparently wasn’t a father in the picture. They’d decided to take a walk through the halls until they got the word the little girl was fine.

The little girl would be fine; Nikkie Jean was one of the best. Izzie was glad the waiting room was empty. It was a small room, only about two hundred square feet, with far too many hard plastic chairs crammed in there.

She stayed by the door. Cage had told her about how long it would take, but there were never any guarantees.

Jake texted her; he wanted her to stay at the hospital until he picked her up. And no one else.

Well, he could come here—but she was going home with Allen. Whenever that was.

Allen would probably choose to stay here, to be near his sister in case she needed anything. It was a simple procedure, and she’d most likely be discharged first thing in the morning.

Izzie was on the schedule for ten p.m. until seven a.m. She’d curl up for four or five hours in the small breakroom and catch a few hours’ sleep. After she spoke with Jake.

And spent some time with Allen and Shelby.

She called Josey, Annie’s sister, and asked her to keep Oliver all day, if she could. Josey was intending to go to vet