He refused to bow his head or turn away from her. He didn’t feel remorse. He felt guilt for not having done it sooner.
“Didn’t they try to find you?”
“Yes. But I always knew when they were coming for me because my birds let me know.”
“Did they go after the others? Your street family? They must have been vulnerable.”
“I had Mack and Kane hiding them. They knew what I was doing.”
He’d wiped out the Barone family’s reign of terror. It had taken time, but he’d done it, and he’d known his family was safe. Mack’s street family had established a reputation, and no one was going to mess with them, no matter how tough a rival gang might be.
It always surprised him how the city had its music. He could hear the water lapping at the piers even though they were a few blocks away. There was little traffic on the street close to them. He heard the flutter of wings. Through it all, Gideon waited for her judgment.
“You did what you felt you had to do to keep everyone safe,” she murmured softly.
He sighed and ran both hands through his hair. “I don’t want there to be any misconceptions here, Red. I killed a lot of people. I don’t feel any remorse over killing them. I feel guilty because I didn’t kill them when I should have. My nightmares aren’t because I killed them. I never dream about them. I dream about the things my father tried to make me do. I dream about my sister and how Ididn’t save her. I dream about Jaimie’s mother and Mack’s mother. How they should still be alive. Those are the people I feel guilt over.”
Rory nodded her head. “I’m well aware what you’re saying to me.”
“I just don’t want there to be a misunderstanding.”
“There isn’t. I understand you so much better, Gideon. You really had no childhood at all, did you?”
He wished he could say he understood her so much better. He did know more about her childhood. She didn’t have one either. Whitney had robbed her of any chance of one, yet she was loving and compassionate. He knew he had been born with protective traits off the charts, and Whitney’s enhancements had just added to those elements. No doubt Whitney had enhanced all of Rory’s best qualities as well. He didn’t see many of her negative traits.
Rory laughed. The sound played along his nerve endings, making them sing.
“We’re connected, Gideon. I can catch parts of what you’re thinking. I do have a bad temper. And I’m not at all trusting.”
He inclined his head, trying not to smile, because he didn’t consider Rory’s temper atrocious. She had good reason for her trust issues. He hadn’t helped in that area.
“Stop blaming yourself, Gideon. You take on everyone’s problems. You don’t need to fix everyone and everything.”
He loved the way her eyes went dark green when she became passionate about anything—especially when it had to do with him.
“You’re impossible. I don’t think I can do anything wrong in your eyes. You’ll be in for a shock one of these days.”
Rory sank into her chair and tried glaring at him. She wasn’t very good at it.
“Wrap the blanket around you, sweetheart. You’re beginning to shiver. I’d like to move on to Harvey and the conversation you had with him.”
She made a face as she pulled the blanket around her. “Harvey thinks he’s being set up to take the fall for killing Detective Ramsey, and frankly, I agree with him. Sadly, I’m worried my friends and I might be somehow targeted for that as well. The more I’ve been thinking about the questions the police have asked us, the more it feels as if they seem to believe we knew the dead men and Harvey a lot better than we did.”
“It’s clear that someone believes one of you has something important and that you’ve hidden it.”
“We all get that. The police have questioned us. They also seem to think that Detective Ramsey said something to us before he died. They’ve asked us over and over in a dozen different ways, but the only thing he said was to run, which we did. I felt guilty for leaving him facing a shooter when he was clearly wounded. I’m sure Westlake blames us for leaving him, and that’s why he’s so angry with us—especially me. I was the last one out the door.”
Gideon didn’t take his piercing gaze from her face. She was uncomfortable discussing the subject with him. She didn’t want to talk to him about Harvey and was purposely deflecting, shifting the subject to what the police might be considering. She wanted to keep her own counsel when it came to matters she decided were private, because she believed he would share them with his team.
“Did Harvey threaten you in any way?”
“No.”
Single word. Decisive. She was trying to shut down any further questioning.
“You passed on the message?”
She nodded. “And I deleted the message from my phone without telling him it was ever there. And told him no more messages through me.”
