Fear.
Grief.
Just proving that all the money and success and notoriety in the world can’t give us back our father.
But possibly, the man who did take him from us is behind that window. And, maybe this time, we’ll have the chance to get justice and to close the book once and for all on what happened.
The detective raises the partition so that we can see in but the men in the line-up can’t see out.
They stare right at us, though, and it gives me the creeps.
“They can’t see us,” Liam says quietly to the three of us.
“I know,” we all say in the same quick way we answered him last time we were here.
I scan the line-up. I’d know the killer in my sleep. And yet, despite looking for him relentlessly, I never saw him. And the cops never found him. It was like he disappeared into the woods after shooting Dad and was never seen again.
Until—
“That’s him.” I point at the fourth guy from the left. “Right fucking there.”
Liam’s next to me. His arm’s touching mine, and I feel him flinch. “Fuck, you’re right. That’s definitely him.”
The detective whips his gaze over to us. “You’re both sure?”
Max and Jared, in unison, bark out, “That’s the killer.”
“See that birthmark?” I say to the detective. “It’s an exact match to what I remember seeing. The shape, the color, everything.”
“He’s the one we had our eyes on. We’ll start by holding him for questioning,” the detective says. “He’s been on the run for years, and he’s wanted in connection with several shootings. He’s changed his ID, gone underground. He had some help hiding.”
“From who?” Liam asks.
“He’s a gang member.” The detective shrugs. “Their network is large and goes beyond New Orleans. He’d come into the city and then disappear again. His father’s the head of the gang, so he’s connected.”
I stare at the guy through the glass, at the man who took my father’s life without thinking twice. A careless, cruel act that killed one man and changed the lives of his four children.
I want to kill him myself. Because no matter how long he goes to jail for, it won’t change what he did.
I’m done with this. With all of it.
“I’ll meet you outside,” I tell my brothers.
I need to find Winter.
CHAPTERTWENTY
I find her waiting for me on that same uncomfortable metal chair she was sitting on when I left.
“Hey.” I sit down next to her and take her hand.
All I want to do right now is touch Winter. Just like that horrendous night when my father died, Winter is the only person who can calm me when I feel like I’m going to explode.
“What happened?” she asks me.
“I ID’d him,” I tell her. “We all did.”
Her blue eyes widen. “Seriously?”
