the tension but he gives me my space. Lord knows Evan has his own secrets and if the man is good at anything, it’s respecting boundaries.
This time of night, there are fewer families in the rest stops than during the day, but this particular one has never been empty any time we’ve stopped here.
The interior is littered with cheap tables that are half-filled and the smell of burgers and fried food lingers in the air. There’s only one corner relatively vacant and I pick that one, ignoring Evan’s questioning look as he heads for the restroom and I don’t.
The legs of the chair grind against the speckled linoleum and I take a moment to compose myself before I call Delilah. The tips of my fingers are numb as fear and anger stir inside of me.
If he threatened her, I’ll kill him. I’ll find him and kill him. If anyone has a clue as to where Marcus hangs out, it’s me.
I don’t know where he lives or what he looks like, but with the information I’ve got, my team will find him. I’ll come clean, for her. I’ll confess everything.
If it wasn’t him who left the note and he knows who’s after her… then we have an even bigger problem on our hands.
Her number’s on speed dial and without thinking twice I hit number 8, my lucky number, swallowing thickly as I stare straight ahead, mindlessly watching two kids pull on their father’s jacket, begging for a cookie that’s larger than the size of their small hands. They’re all the way across the food court, but everyone in here can hear their pleas.
The phone rings and rings and just when I think it’s going to voicemail, Delilah answers.
“Cody,” she says and the longing and relief contained in the single-word answer does something to me. My heart sinks but in a way that’s difficult to describe.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there,” I tell her first, dropping my gaze to the gray lacquered tabletop. Fuck, I’m sorry for so much. The truth goes unspoken.
“It’s okay. I’m okay,” she answers quickly. “They found the kid, he works for a pizzeria and he’s the one who left the note. He said a woman asked him to drop it off for me. She told him she was my friend and it was an inside joke. He had no idea.”
A kid and a woman? The man I knew years ago as Marcus would never have involved children in his work. Never. Maybe she was right in the last message she sent. Two different situations, both colliding. My instincts tell me Marcus, at the very least, knew she’d be threatened. He has a hand in every sin that occurs in our city and I don’t believe he just happened to be there. If the last decade has taught me anything, it’s that there’s no such thing as coincidence.
“And Marcus?” Anger flares in my tone and I have to close my eyes to keep it at bay. When I open them, Evan is across the court, watching me but remaining at a distance. I wave a hand in the air to let him know I’m all right, but he stays where he is, diligently keeping an eye on the surroundings.
I’ll have to tell him something. I’ll think of some excuse. A partial truth maybe. Something happened to a woman I’m seeing. She’s shaken up and I need to get the hell home so I can help her. That’ll do it. Only Evan, though. The entire team doesn’t need to get wind of this.
When one of us is down, all of us pull together. But this? They can’t go digging into this.
Delilah’s inhale is easily heard on my end of the line before she says, “I only think the man who walked me to my car was Marcus because of the note he gave me. The number is untraceable, probably a burner and when they called no one answered. They tried to track it and they got nothing.”
Of course he didn’t answer. There’s no way he wasn’t watching her every move. He knows she told the cops what she suspects. I should feel terror at the realization because Marcus isn’t known for having mercy, but he told me how he felt about her once.
He wouldn’t touch her. He made that clear.
He better fucking not.
“You saw his face?” I question her, my hand forming a white-knuckled fist at my side. He’s a sick fuck and a ruthless murderer. It doesn’t make sense