Rhett’s face drained of color, leaving it ashen. “Why the fuck would he lie to me about it then? It doesn’t make any goddamned sense. He knew that I didn’t care either way. I just wanted the truth. He could’ve told me he stayed on it, and I would’ve been happy that someone competent was working it.”

I swallowed. “That’s the other thing that doesn’t make any sense. His reports are like a fifth grader put them together. Totally basic. Lacking any useful information. It was almost like . . .”

“What?” Rhett demanded.

“Like he was stalling.”

“Why the hell would he—”

“I have no idea. Could he have been trying to help?”

From his narrowed eyes, it didn’t look like Rhett was ready to give Heath the benefit of the doubt. And, honestly, from what I’d seen, I was having trouble too.

“Show me.”

I grabbed the copies I’d printed out and handed them over. Rhett flipped through the pages, the line between his eyebrows deepening until they nearly touched. He kept his head down as he started to speak.

“Heath’s a competent cop. This isn’t even rookie work. I don’t know how his superiors didn’t kick him off the case for this shit.”

“It doesn’t make sense.”

Finally, Rhett looked up, his mouth set in a grim line. “There are only two possible explanations. Either he was trying to help and stall the investigation, or someone didn’t want him closing the case and so he deliberately dragged it out as long as he could.” He skipped to the last report and held it out. “This is what they were using to arrest him, and this information could’ve been in the first report, over a year ago. It doesn’t make sense for Heath to sandbag this.”

I glanced down at the sheet, and it sounded like an intelligent human being had strung together the sentences, which was at odds with the reports for the year prior.

“Could Heath . . . would he . . .” I didn’t even want to voice the possibility that my brother could have been deliberately blocking the investigation for whoever it was going to implicate.

“I don’t know. But we need to dig deeper into your brother and any possible motives.” Rhett looked pointedly at me. “Can you do that?”

Disloyalty burned through my veins like acid, but if Heath had done something . . .

“If he’s the connection from the department to me, and then me to Carlos, then this all starts to make a little more sense. I have to look.”

55

Rhett

Ari pulled Heath’s phone records and I spent hours going through them. The number of burner phones contacting him on a regular basis did nothing but raise the level of my suspicion.

What the hell did you get yourself into, Heath?

While Ari dug for more information, my phone rang.

“We’ve got a package out at the front gate. Flower delivery van dropped it off, didn’t wait for one of us to get there for signatures.”

A feeling of foreboding slithered over me. “What the fuck is it? Do we need the bomb squad?”

Ari’s fingers froze on the keyboard as soon as I said bomb squad.

“One of the guys on the team worked as EOD for a couple months. He’s assessing it before we open it.”

“I’m coming out. Don’t open it until I get there.”

Still unmoving, Ari stared at me. “A bomb?”

I shook my head. “Not likely, but we’re not taking any chances. If someone is trying to get to you, they’re going to have to go through all of us first.”

She bolted out of her chair. “You are not getting blown up for me, Rhett Hennessy. No way.”

I crossed the room and yanked her into my arms. “This fucker has already proven he’s resourceful and fucking dangerous. You’re not taking any chances.”

“What about you? I refuse to let him take you too.”

I grasped her shoulders. “We’re going to be careful. Wait inside. I’ll go see what the hell is going on out there, and I’ll tell you when it’s safe.” When she opened her mouth to argue, I put a finger over her lips. “Safe, Ari. Just let me keep you fucking safe.”

“Okay. Fine.”

I pressed a hard kiss to her lips. “Thank you.”

As soon as I walked out the front door, I was glad I made her promise. The guys had created a perimeter around the box in the driveway outside the front fence, and one approached it carefully.

When I shut the door, Carver turned toward me to ask, “Who else knew she was staying here?”

“The article in the paper made it clear she was in town, but at this house? Just family—mine and hers—and a couple of her employees.”

“Well, someone clearly knew her well enough to send a delivery.”

The man approaching the box stared at a piece of equipment he held in front of him. “I’m not getting any readings off it that would suggest ordnance.”

“So, let’s cut the fucker open,” Carver said.

The former EOD tech pulled on a mask, clearly worried about possible chemical threats. “Everyone get back.”

The two other guys out front backed away, and Carver and I took two steps toward the house as well. Were we handling this with proper police protocol? No way in hell. We didn’t have time for that shit.

The EOD tech cursed loudly at the same moment Ari’s scream split the air, so loud I could hear it in the driveway.

As I broke into a dead run back toward the house, I heard them yell from behind me.

“It’s a head.”

56

Ariel

No. No. No!

The image on my computer screen that someone just sent me was so gruesome, I couldn’t comprehend it at first. It had to be photoshopped. It wasn’t real. But I couldn’t stop screaming because something told me it wasn’t a hoax..

The photo featured Erik’s head sitting on a table next to a cardboard box. His eyes were open, but lifeless.

Arms wrapped around me from behind, and I turned. The tears spilling down my face blinded me, so I fought.

“It’s me, Red. It’s me,” Rhett whispered.

“Erik. He’s—” I couldn’t say anything else. I leaned over and threw up on the floor.