Page 21 of Chasing Forever

She’d called his bluff, and Warren knew it. But I didn’t think for a second he’d just give up. He’d take time to regroup and strategize, all while coming up with a punishment. That was how his twisted brain worked.

He turned his attention back to me, his mask in place once again. “You’re clearly upset, and that’s the last thing I want. I’ll go for now, baby. Just know that, when you’re ready to come back, I’ll be waiting.”

With that, he turned on the heel of his loafer and started back in the direction he’d come from. At the sight of his retreating form, my body gave out, and I would have fallen to my knees if it weren’t for Blythe holding me up. As it was, my heart was beating so fast it was a frantic flutter in my chest that I could feel through my skin.

“We need to go,” Blythe informed me as she started tugging me down the sidewalk toward her car.

“Go where?”

Her eyes met mine, and her arm around my waist banded tighter, like she was trying to pour all her strength into me, knowing I needed it. “We’re going to the police. We’re going to make sure that asshole can’t get anywhere near you or Levi ever again.”

Tristan

Harrison’s deskchair let out a high-pitched whine of protest when my partner flopped onto it aggressively, the expression on his face thunderous to go with the tense lines of his body.

He blew out a frustrated huff as I shoved the white paper coffee cup I’d picked up for him from Muffin Top onto his desk.

“Thanks,” he grunted, lifting it to his lips and taking a sip.

“I take it you didn’t have any luck?” While I’d been working our drug case from this end, trying to find some sort of connection between the overdoses, Harrison had gone to the prison to try and get Oswald Garrison to tell us where he got it. More than once I’d questioned how Merritt and Levi could be related to a man like him. Oswald—or Ozzy, as he was commonly referred to—was a blight of society. A waste of oxygen. He couldn’t have been more different from the rest of his family if he tried. On top of being a worthless junkie, the guy was also a raging asshole. I’d gotten word that he’d been in two fights already because the prick didn’t know when to shut his mouth.

I would admit, my curiosity had been piqued, and I’d come close to asking Merritt about her older brother more than once, but I always managed to stop myself. She hadn’t brought him up on her own, and I certainly didn’t want to pry and risk making her uncomfortable. I managed to come to terms with the fact that she’d tell me in her own time... or not at all. It was her choice.

Harrison cut his eyes at me. “You kidding? I couldn’t even get in to see him. Asshole got himself shanked by mouthin’ off to another inmate who’s a hell of a lot further up on the totem pole than our boy—not that he seems to care. He was laid up in the infirmary, bitchin’ and moanin’ about needing pain meds, which they won’t give him since he’s an addict. Refused to say a word unless I got them to dose him with something.”

“And I’m guessin’ you didn’t.”

Harrison let out a snort and rolled his eyes, rocking his chair back and kicking his feet up on his desk as he took another hit of coffee. “You kidding? I wouldn’t have helped him get a fix even if he hadn’t been a pain in the ass this whole time. But considering he has been, I got a fair bit of enjoyment refusing and watching him suffer.”

I let out a chuckle and rocked back in my seat, twirling the pen I’d been holding between my fingers. “I just don’t get it,” I started a few seconds later. “Garrison is nothin’ like the other OD’s. They don’t run in the same circles, share the same lifestyles. Hell, I don’t think he even crossed paths with any of them.”

All the other people who’d overdosed on the same cocktail as Merritt’s brother were in a different league. They were the types to golf every weekend and have memberships at an exclusive country club. Most of them were from well-off families and had connections in local politics.

“He’s not someone they’d even want to share air with. So how’d he get his hands on a batch of heroine that exclusive?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. We’ve been digging nearly a week and a half and can’t find a single connection anywhere. I hate to say this, but unless that shit stain gives up his supplier, I’m afraid we’ve hit another dead end.”

I had a sinking feeling he was right. On that thought, my desk phone rang, the display showing that the call was coming from the front desk.

I plucked it up and brought it to my ear. “Fanning.”

“Detective,” Officer Michaels, the patrolman currently working the front, greeted, “You’ve got a visitor.”

I pushed out a huff. “Swear to Christ, if it’s Sue Ellen Mayfield again?—”

“It’s your sister. And she’s got someone else with her. Says she needs to see you right away.”

A chill passed down my spine. Blythe didn’t just show up unannounced, and from the tone of Michaels’s voice, something serious was going down. “Send her back,” I said in a rush, then slammed the phone onto its cradle and shot to my feet.

I was vaguely aware of Harrison following after me as I started winding my way through the maze of desks that made up the bullpen.

“What’s going on?” he asked, his legs moving fast to keep up with my pace.

“My sister’s here. She—” Before I could finish my sentence I spotted Blythe coming off the short set of stairs with a worried look on her face. But as quickly as I recognized that, my attention was stolen by the woman she was holding onto.

Merritt was pressed into her side, her shoulders hunched like she was trying to curl in on herself and disappear.

I stopped a few feet in front of them, taking a quick second to get myself together and rein in the wide range of emotions suddenly churning inside of me like a squall. “What the hell happened?” I directed the question to Blythe after a quick glance showed Merritt’s pale green eyes had a haze to them like she had closed herself off.

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