Page 262 of Redeemed

“I’m sorry, Luc.”

“What are you going to do with him?”

Just as I’m about to respond, my doorbell rings.

“Gerard and Brandon just got here. I’ll explain everything when you’re back, all right?”

“Fine. We’ll be home as soon as we can. You make sure Mark doesn’t get anywhere near her again, you hear me? Otherwise I’ll fucking kill you myself.”

“I hear you.”

He hangs up without another word. Usually, Lucas isn’t so short with any of us, but I get it. Three people we care about deeply almost died, and it’s all my fault.

As I stand, I pull Haven up with me. “I need to talk to the cops. Can you go upstairs for a couple minutes?”

She blinks rapidly, surprised. “Gerard and Brandon arecops?”

I shrug. “The Rooks needed some people on the force for when things got messy, and they volunteered.”

“Oh,” she says softly. “That… makes sense, I suppose.”

The doorbell rings again.

“Upstairs, angel.”

She hesitates. “It’s safe?”

“Yes. Now go.”

She scurries up the stairs, and I cross the living room. I hate being separated from her, but she can’t be down here. Gerard and Brandon won’t harm Haven, but they might say something that I’m not ready to explain to her yet.

When I open my front door, Gerard and Brandon are standing at the top of the steps. Their hands are on their holstered guns, and they don’t relax when they see me.

“What’s going on?” Gerard asks.

“It’s my dad.” I open the door so they can step inside, and then I lead them toward the kitchen. “He had… some kind of breakdown.”

Brandon frowns. “Breakdown?”

“A mental episode, maybe? I’m not a doctor, I don’t know what to fucking call it. He just went batshit, okay?”

“Okay, okay. What do you need from us?”

“Get him out of here.”

Gerard lets out a low whistle as we step into the kitchen. “Damn.”

“I sedated him,” I explain, gesturing to my father’s body on the floor. “It was the only way to calm him down without hurting him more.”

“And what exactly are we supposed to do with him? Drop him off at his house?”

“I need you to keep him overnight.”

Gerardgapes at me. “Overnight? Are you fucking kidding me? We can’t detain the leader of the Rooks! We’ll be dead by the end of the week if we do.”

“Do you trust me?”

“Well, yes, but—”

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