Page 164 of The Secrets She Keeps

Trey was just dragging this out. He wasn’t stupid.

And that big bastard Rodriguez was right there. Next to his father.

Next to the man who had screwed Rodriguez’s wife and made a kid Rodriguez hadn’t gotten stuck raising. Rodriguez was just itching to rip into Trey’s dad. The guy was the size of a mountain, and half Trey’s father’s age. His dad wouldn’t stand a chance. Not against a man like that.

He'd kill Trey’s dad with his bare hands and probably laugh about it when his was finished.

“Let my dad walk out of here,” Trey ordered. “You do that, and we’ll talk.”

“He’s not getting away,” Heather said bluntly. “Neither of you are. You are outnumbered, and you are outgunned. And we have backup on the way.”

“You counting on those patrol cops out there to come rescue you?” He’d seen that damned patrol unit circling earlier. Theywere just goons, though. Trey could probably take them out easily enough—but not with these three assholes pointing guns at him. At hisdad.

He really was starting to feel screwed here.

“No, Trey. No. The rest of Major Crimes will be here any minute. I told Eden and the rest of my girls to get them here. No matter what. Do you really think you can take all of Major Crimes on too? Just you and your daddy here? It’s just not going to happen.”

Well, she was right about that. Trey couldn’t fight them all.

Maybe it was time he admitted to himself that this was over.

His eyes met his dad’s.

Trey wanted to ask his dad what he should do next, but he didn’t.

He had really fucked this up—for his dad. All the money in the world wouldn’t change that.

Shit.

He never should have come in here. They should have just climbed into their truck after shooting Erickson and that other guy and just gotten out of there.

But he had been sure someone had been watching them from the window. Had seen them. Could identify him. Because he’d been stupid. Cocky. And he’d wanted a way to take out Heather to cover his own ass. He’d thought killing Heather now would keep her from finding him later.

He should have just driven away.

125

Timothy had to end this,before his son hurt someone else. Or before someone hurt Trey.

“Trey, you need to let her go.” Timothy took a step toward the young woman.

Her face—her fear—it was stabbing right into him. She looked so young. So young. “Young lady, how old are you?”

“Thirty-one. I turned thirty-one four months ago.” Her voice trembled only a little.

“Not quite a year older than my Samia,” Timothy said. “You remind me of her.”

“Yes, she’s very much like Samia,” Heather said. She was moving closer. To Trey.

Timothy knew better than to turn his back on her. Heather had always been too smart for her own good, at times. She had just been aware of the world in a way the other girls had not been.

And that had brought her more hurt than she had deserved.

She looked a great deal like Angela right there. But with a gun. It looked sowrongfor Angela’s sister to be holding a gun. “How did you end up here tonight, Heather?”

“Powell called, said a few things that had the Spidey sense going off. I decided to do a bit of a welfare check. So here I am.” It was Angela’s voice. That hurt so much. Heather sounded so much like her now.

“It hurts to hear you speak.” The words just came out. “I’m sorry. You just sound so much like her. I wasn’t expecting that. Look like her, sound like her, hold your head just that same way she did. And you are just a bit older than she was, when she?—”

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