Page 30 of K-9 Confidential

“After your mother… I couldn’t stand the thought of losing you the way I lost her.” He flattened his palms on the table, staring down at them as though he didn’t recognize his own hands. “I needed you to be stronger than she was.”

A knot twisted in Charlie’s gut. “Stronger how?”

“Your mother wasn’t killed by police officers searching for a fugitive. I know what I told you girls, but she wasn’t keeping them from searching the house. There was no struggle that led to her getting shot. Sheleft, Charlie,” he said. “She abandoned us.”

What? She countered her retreat as a simmering heat spread under her skin, and her father seemed to melt right in his chair. “You’re lying. You said we had to stay vigilant. That Acker’s Army would protect our family and friends from a government that didn’t care about who it hurt to get what it wanted. I believed you. For a long time, I believed you.”

His voice barely reached over the thud of her pulse behind her ears. “I lied. To you and Sage and Erin.”

A hot combination of fear and uncertainty urged her to leave, to put everything about the past few minutes behind her, but the thought of fear running her life a second longer held her in place. Bringing her hand to her mouth, she tried to stop the surge of acid as her entire life came apart. “Her headstone is in the backyard of your property. We had a funeral.”

“You’re right. I had it made when I realized she wasn’t coming back. I just couldn’t tell you girls the truth. I didn’t want you to have to face the fact she left you behind.” Her father tried to push away from the table, but the cuffs protested. “Before you were old enough to remember, I lost my job, then our house, our savings and everything else we owned. We had nowhere else to go. Vaughn seemed like a place to start over. Do things differently. But your mother was miserable from the moment we stepped foot in that house. She begged me to leave, but we couldn’t go back. Every day I dug my heels in, the heavier her expression got. Until I didn’t recognize her anymore. By the time I realized what I’d done, it was too late. She was gone. She’d packed her things and left in the middle of the night. Suddenly, I had three girls asking me where their mother was, and I didn’t have any answers. I couldn’t give you three answers.”

Charlie didn’t know what to believe. Everything she’d known about her father—why she’d been forced to adhere to his rules and commands, why she’d had to learn to protect herself—was a lie. “You could’ve told us the truth. We could’ve handled it. Instead, you raised us to believe our own government was responsible for killing our mother. You turned us into extremists willing to participate in your delusions. You lied to us about keeping the rest of our family safe. And for what, Dad? Why would you put us through all of that? Why would you carry out those attacks if you didn’t really believe in what you were fighting for?”

“I did believe, damn it.” The words were ground out through clenched teeth. He’d lost control, and for the first time in…ever, Charlie got a glimpse of a man who might be as human as she was. “My job, our house, our savings—all of it was taken by this government, Charlie. They laid off thousands during the economic crash. They took everything from us, and I couldn’t let it go. I was bitter and angry and afraid we’d never recover.” Her father sat back in his chair, trying to get his breathing level. “The night your mother left, we fought. She told me that at some point I had to stop being a victim. I had to step up and be a man and take care of my family. So that’s what I did.”

Charlie stood a bit straighter. Not really sure what to say to that, how to respond to the first hint of fear from a man who didn’t seem to be scared of anything.

“That singular focus was the only sense of purpose I had.” Her father’s voice grew stronger. “We were forced to move to Vaughn out of desperation, but I did what was best for my family. I taught myself how to grow vegetables, preserve the harvest, how to shoot, hunt, survive the wilderness, if need be. I stockpiled supplies, weapons and ammunition to defend what little we had. The local church helped keep our bellies full, and I made sure to serve anywhere in the community I could for extra help. People appreciated it. Started seeking me out for advice on how to support their own families. That advice spread, and within a few years of us arriving, Vaughn had become a stronghold against the outside world. One I wasn’t willing to risk losing. So yes, I recruited fighters willing to protect what was ours, and I built my girls to be stronger than their mother—stronger than me—and look at you now.”

His rant had ended, leaving Charlie empty and cold and more confused than when she’d walked into this room.

“Yeah. Look at me now. Look at Sage and Erin.” She didn’t know whether to believe him or not. Or if he was manipulating her to get what he wanted from her again. “Those little girls you promised to protect? We didn’t want to be soldiers or answer to a general. We just wanted our father. To know that he loved us, and you failed. They’redead, Dad. Because of you. And I’m next unless you tell me about the deal you made withSangre por Sangre.”

“Don’t you dare try to put Sage’s death on me, Charlie Grace Acker. Had you followed through with your mission, she would still be alive, but you got involved with that federal agent out there and ran. Like a coward.” Henry Acker pulled his shoulders back, sinking into his chair. Calm. Collected. “As for what happened to Erin, you don’t have to worry about that. I’ve already taken care of it.”

* * *

Granger was atthe door before Charlie could manage to pull it open.

Every cell in his body honed in on the despair in her eyes and wanted to assure her that anything out of Henry Acker’s mouth couldn’t be trusted. “Tell me what’s going through your head.”

She let the door close behind her, folding her arms across her chest. The motion set off a flinch in her expression. Whatever Dr. Piel had given her to counteract the pain was wearing thin. “I don’t know what to think. My entire life my father told me one version of events, and now… I don’t know what to believe. Except that I’m hungry.”

“I can help with that.” Granger pulled her into his arms, ready to be anything she needed in that moment. Support, a chef, someone to work through Acker’s motives with. “I think Jocelyn just added some lasagna to the fridge. That is if Zeus hasn’t already gotten to it. He’s like Garfield the cat, except he doesn’t know when he’s full.”

“Do you have any insight intoSangre por Sangre’s plan to attack the state capitol, or how they’ll try to regain their standing?” Ivy Bardot had a job to do, and she wasn’t wasting anytime in doing it, despite the obvious exhaustion in Charlie’s face. “Anything actionable we can use?”

Granger tightened his hold on Charlie. She could only take so much before she crashed from what’d happened over the past couple days. She was running on empty with demands coming from every angle, and a second interrogation sure as hell wasn’t going to make things any better.

“No, but I’m fairly positive he didn’t have anything to do with Erin’s death. The man who took me from Vaughn. He said something about my sister not fighting back as much as I had. My father is many things, but with what he’s told me about his reasons for building Acker’s Army, it’s hard to imagine he would do anything to hurt the family he was so scared of losing.” Charlie hugged herself, swaying on her feet. “Something is keeping him from telling us about the deal he made with the cartel. I’m not sure what it is, but you heard him. My father isn’t the kind of man to take anything lying down. He’s not afraid to stand up for what he believes or fight against a bigger and stronger opponent if it means keeping what he has. My guess?Sangre por Sangreis holding something over his head to ensure his cooperation and support.”

“We know of three attacks that could potentially be linked to Henry Acker. He’s thorough and strategic and, according to his history, has every reason to wantSangre por Sangreto succeed.” Ivy stared into the interrogation room from behind the one-way glass. “What could a man like him possibly fear losing?”

Charlie’s shoulders raised on a strong inhale. “I think he’s afraid of losing me. When I mentioned that Sage and Erin were dead, and that I’m next, he reacted.”

“I didn’t see anything.” Granger studied the man on the other side of the glass, looking for something—anything—that would give him an idea of what was coming.

“When you grow up in a culture of being prepared at all times and where mistakes are more deadly than the words you say, you learn to predict and read people’s emotions in the smallest ways. You wouldn’t have seen it, but the muscles on the left side of his jaw flexed. He was biting down,” she said.

“Let’s say you’re right.” Ivy faced them. “Sangre por Sangrecan destroy your father with something in their possession, and they’re using it to force his compliance. Maybe it’s proof he and his army are involved in attacks like the Alamo pipeline. What kind of support would your father be able to provide to the cartel?”

“Weapons. Manpower. Supplies.” Exhaustion played out in Charlie’s eyes, to the point Granger wasn’t sure how much longer she would be able to stand. She was pushing herself, driving harder than she needed, because this was how she believed she could make up for her mistakes. The truth was she couldn’t. Not really. The five lives that’d been taken the night of the pipeline attack were gone. And they were never coming back. Even if they managed to prove Henry Acker was at fault—that Charlie was just a pawn in his game—that guilt wouldn’t go away. She wouldn’t let it. “But explosives are his specialty. He’s been stealing them from construction sites across the state for years. Primarily C4. Sometimes dynamite. Nothing that could alert the ATF or tie back to him.”

“That was why Homeland Security was never able to pinpoint where the C4 used in the Alamo pipeline attack came from.” Granger should’ve known, but without alerts raised from those construction sites, he and the rest of his team had been operating blind. “That’s how Acker kept under the radar.”

Charlie set her hand against his forearm. “I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you, but…”

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