Fran’s urgent request that I see a doctor flashed before me.
I couldn’t be having a heart attack.
Footsteps clamored on the floor, sounding like a damn Clydesdale pounding the pavement.
“Brian.” Duke strode toward me with tight shoulders and pursed lips. “Did you find something on the traffic cams?”
“I…” I swallowed. “I think I’m about to have a heart attack, man.”
Ted, smoothing his fingers over his mustache, came up behind Duke. He took one look at me and snapped his fingers. “Sanchez, call a paramedic. Where’s the pain?”
“Chest. It’s tight as fuck,” I said. “Just give me a minute. I’ll be fine.”
For some odd reason, the panic on Duke’s face seemed to lessen my pain.
“Fran is worried about my health,” I said. “I can’t be going down for the count. Not when she was kidnapped by Josh and Sabine.”
Ted and Duke exchanged wide-eyed looks.
“Josh took Grace as well,” I added through a deep breath. “It’s all on video.”
“Please, Brian,” Ted said. “Go into the room and sit down until a paramedic can check you out.”
I shook my head. “I’ll be outside. The fresh air might help.”
“I got him.” Duke grabbed my arm. “Come on, old man. Ted will handle things.”
“Old man? I’m thirty-seven, like you.”
Duke smirked. “You’re having a panic attack. That’s all.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “How do you know?”
“Because I’m having one too.”
I sighed the moment I was outside and breathed in the early morning air.
“Grace and Fran are gone,” I whispered as Duke and I sat on the steps leading to the police station. “I’m not sure how much more of this I can take. I get why you were a freak all these years over Grace.”
He brought up a picture of his daughter, Emma, the spitting image of her father—big chestnut eyes and brown hair, although it wasn’t straight like Duke’s but wavy like her mother’s. “Whenever the world is crashing around me, I look at her. She is what keeps me going every fucking day. My guilt over Grace pales in comparison to what I would do if anything happened to Emma or my wife. So I get your pain.”
“It’s a double whammy,” I said. “The love I have for Fran is far different than my love for your sister, but it isn’t any less.” I leaned my elbows on my knees. “When we were working forRosario, me dealing drugs and you selling illegal arms, I felt like a king. I felt like I could conquer the world. Now, here I sit, helpless, powerless. No plan. No recourse.”
He opened a text message from Fallyn, and as he looked at the text, I couldn’t help but read it as well.
Fallyn:DEA is set for tomorrow to raid the drug deal.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Are you an informant?”
He chuckled. “Nah, Arturo called me on my way to your place. He learned that his enforcer, Jorge, screwed him. He caught Jorge talking to the Irish mob.”
“Chris told me about Jorge, but I haven’t had a chance to tell Arturo.”
He sent Fallyn a thumbs-up emoji. “No need now.”
I laughed. “Chris mentioned a street war was brewing.”
“Not our problem. And stay away from Arturo.”
