Chapter 45

45

Hell, Rob wasn’t an idiot. He’d seen those other guys inside the diner. Lake, Rodriguez, the rest of them. He knew what the girl was really doing. She didn’t give a shit about what he had to say. He told her that, too.

“You just hope to change things tonight. But don’t you get it? Things don’t really change. They never do. Not the right way, anyway. Someone comes along and ruins all the good. Breaks your world into a thousand pieces.”

He tightened his hold on the weapon he had carried for years. And looked at the girl with Charlie Fields’s eyes.

“I should have had Major Crimes. Homicide. I’ve worked toward that for years. But your damned brother had to open his mouth with the chief. Recommended Rodriguez instead of me. That young punk doesn’t deserve it. Should be at home wiping snotty noses and ticketing meters, not heading two fucking teams like he does.”

He wasn’t being fair to Rodriguez, and he knew that. That man worked hard and was dependable. A fine damned cop. But so was Rob. He had always been. He had worked hard.

But Charlie Fields… “Charlie ruins every fucking thing. He always has. Well, it’s a sister for a sister now.”

“You were involved in me being taken, weren’t you?”

“Involved, hell, girl, I was the one who told them to do it. I was. And now those dumbasses are in prison. Just a matter of time until I am sitting there next to them, too. You think they were going to keep their mouths shut about me? I ain’t their brother, you know. Just hers. I was hers. And I didn’t take care of her the way a brother should.”

“And hurting us to get back at Charlie is going to change that?” Gene asked.