“What do I have to do?” he asked.
“Well, for starters, I need to know what you saw.”
Skyler relayed the same story Brynn had told him, about Cullen and the women there that night. His voice trembled when he described the shooting. Between his family life and the crime he’d witnessed, he’d seen far too much. He’d carry it forever.
It would go one of two ways: Skyler would turn it into a positive and let it motivate him to be a better man, or he’d give into the bullshit examples he had been given and go on to perpetuate them in the future.
Maddox was going to do everything in his power to make sure Skyler didn’t turn into a thug like his father.
And the first step in that was to make a phone call to a friend of his, to see what they could do about making sure Skyler never returned to his home.
“Is there anything you can tell us about the man who fired the shot? Was there anything distinctive about his face? Maybe something about the way he dressed?
Skyler slowly reeled in his line. Every few spins he’d stop. His uncle had taught him patience. At least that was something.
“Yeah, he had a big scar on his cheek. Just a line, but it went from next to his eye down to here,” Skyler pointed to the middle of his bottom jaw.
A sense of dread lodged in his gut. “Anything else?”
“He wore a white suit. It was weird. With a black shirt, and one of those things in the pocket. It was gold.”
Son of a bitch.
The whole case just became a whole lot trickier, and they didn’t have much time. Maddox could keep Brynn safe, but it was only a matter of time before her family was pulled into the violence… if they hadn’t been already.
He avoided Brynn’s gaze and pulled out his phone and called Grey. “Hey, we have an ID on the guy who killed Cullen Shepherd.”
“Not just a description, but an ID? Good work, man. Who are we looking at?”
“Louis Vargas III,” Maddox answered.
“Fuck,” Grey ground out.
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure?”
“You know another guy running around Tampa in a white suit and sporting a scar?”
six
Maddox,Brynn, and Skyler fished for another two hours, and Maddox steered the conversation to mundane things while his mind played out all the scenarios.
Grey promised to get back to him once they contacted the police and he put together a team to figure out what to do next.
Maddox was just waiting for Brynn to catch him alone, because the look on her face told him she had a ton of questions and she sure as hell wasn’t going to fall for evasive answers.
Gathering up the tackle box and poles, Maddox followed Brynn and Skyler to the cabin.
“I’m hungry,” Skyler said as he fell onto the couch in an immediate slouch.
“Help yourself to whatever you want in the kitchen. It’s fully stocked.” He thought about asking Skyler’s last name, but with them getting along so well and Skyler so comfortable, he decided to reach out to Connie and see if any kids name Skyler had been reported missing and if so, if they had a headshot. If he could confirm the boy quietly, he could hold on to the tentative trust he had built with the boy.
He shot off a text to her, so Skyler wouldn’t overhear him.
Skyler streaked into the kitchen. Brynn watched him disappear; the minute his head was out of view, she advanced on Maddox.
“What the hell is happening?” She leaned into his space, her hands balled into fists and planted on her round hips.
