A Mended Man (The Men of Halfway House Book 4) (45 page)

Jessie nodded and forced a smile.

Please leave.

Reyes's direct stare unsettled him. Oddly penetrating, as if he could inspect each of Jessie's thoughts. Behind the cool, polished demeanor, Jessie suspected this detective could easily dish out his own flavor of vengeance. "If you need a minute, that's fine."

Jessie nodded again.

Please leave.

"Thanks for going through these. I know it wasn't easy." Reyes walked over to the door and hesitated.

Jessie sat still, waiting to hear the click of the door when he exited.
Please leave.
He stared at the plain wall, willing the detective to exit the room. His lips parted on a breath when the door opened then clicked shut behind him. He took a few deep breaths, hoping to appear unaffected long enough for Aidan to leave the observation room.

Without a doubt, those hazel eyes watched him carefully, waiting for the tiniest of details to ensure he had survived the photo lineup unscathed.

He hadn't.

* * * *

Aidan stood, arms crossed, staring at Jessie through the glass. Reyes had briefed him on the team's findings before requesting Jessie arrive at the station. The tension thrumming through his body had him ready to snap.

"C'mon. What are you waiting for? Reyes sent out the text. We need to go," Sunny said.

"Not yet. Not until I know he's okay."

Sunny looked at Jessie, sitting still at the table. "He's fine."

No, he's not
. Something nagged at Aidan to stay a little longer. Jessie always put up a good front, but he couldn't be as steady as he tried to appear. The way he had meticulously stacked the photos, ensuring the corners lined up perfectly—his nervous tell. In Jessie's world, high stress situations required extra caution and things needed to be excessively perfect, as if the storm within wouldn't erupt if everything else managed to remain in order.

Jessie didn't know he had set the ball in motion as soon as he had identified the man in the photograph. Manny had already run an age progression for each suspect and took it a step further, tapping the team's agency contacts to access their facial recognition technology and databases. Having an
in
with the other agencies definitely had its perks. They now had a name, a face, and a last known address. But without Jessie's official identification, their hands were tied.

Stupid fucking protocol and procedures.

If Jessie knew, Aidan suspected there would be no way he could keep it together.

"You go ahead. It's two hours away. I'll catch up." Aidan spoke to Sunny, but his focus never shifted from the man sitting at the table, in the exact same position. Aidan remained still, observing every detail of Jessie's stoic pose, resisting the urge to break through that door without some sign his presence would be welcomed. The worry ate away at him, but Jessie always needed to push through things on his own to assert his independence.

So Aidan waited.

"No way. You want this more than Reyes." She looked back over to Jessie. "What are you waiting for?"

"Not sure. I'll know when I see it."

Every bone in Aidan's body commanded he storm in there and do something—anything—to ease the obvious tension in Jessie's rigid body.

Jessie sat, unmoving, except for his bobbing Adam's apple and the slight rise and fall of his chest with each breath. His shoulders didn't move and his posture didn't waver. His gaze steady, focused straight ahead at the bare wall. He unclasped his hands, reached up to flatten the perfectly combed hair at his temple, then casually returned to his stoic pose.

But Jessie couldn't hide the tremble in his hands.

Shit.
Aidan's heart violently pounded as he raced out of the observation room, leaving Sunny behind. He threw open the door to the interrogation room, spotting Jessie still sitting in the same pose. He closed the door behind him and took a step forward.

"Jess?"

Jessie lowered his head. "Aidan," he said on a whisper. "I need…you to go."

"No." He took another step closer to Jessie. "I'm not leaving you alone like this."

Jessie turned his head to the side, granting Aidan a slight view of his profile. "Please."

Please leave or please help?
He walked over to the chair across from Jessie and sat. He rested his clasped hands on the table and waited.

"Detective Reyes said there was a camera in the room."

"Which he switched off as soon as he walked out."

"The…glass."

"Sunny…if she's still there. Otherwise, I'm positive she's blocking anyone from going in there until she knows we've walked out of this room."

"I need you to go," Jessie said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Please."

"I'm not leaving you."

Jessie slowly tilted his head upward.

Aidan would have dropped to his knees at the pain staring back at him had he not been sitting. Fear clouded the crystal blue eyes he loved so much, haunted like the first time they'd met so long ago.

"I'm not stupid," Jessie said. "You've told me enough about the team to guess Reyes already knew which photo I was going to pick, and I'm assuming he took liberties to find where Michael is now using that same photo and contacts the team has established. And I'm going to guess he probably had a judge on speed dial he called as soon as he walked out that door to grant him a warrant to whatever location he found for Michael." Jessie paused and swallowed heavily, staring at Aidan's vest. "And that's why he and you are in your tactical gear. You needed me to confirm it was him from the photo lineup. And now you need to go."

"I'm not leaving you."

Jessie shook his head. "I…can't do this. I need to know he's caught. So you
need
to go."

Aidan's phone chirped with a new message. He pressed the button to ignore the text. Between his pounding heart and the adrenaline coursing through his veins, Aidan couldn't focus on anything other than the pain screaming from every pore of Jessie's body. "You need me to be there. To make sure he's caught?"

Jessie lowered his head and nodded. "I can't…please…I…need this nightmare to end."

Aidan fisted his hands under the table, digging his blunt nails into his palms, hoping the sting would distract him from the anger that began to boil at Jessie's desperation.

"He tried to break me." Jessie quieted and crossed his arms tightly. "I…see that now. I…I can feel it." He looked up at Aidan, a single tear trickled down his cheek with the movement. "I think…he did," he whispered. He turned away, avoiding eye contact. He lowered his head again, his shoulders slightly shuddering.

"Jess…look at me."

Jessie shook his head. "I don't want you to see me like this."

The anger at the monster who did this to
his
Jess, the ache in his chest from the pain slowly tearing down the positivity always radiating from Jessie's spirit, the frustration at not having closed this case out months ago…all swirled inside in a tornado of vengeance, rage, and helplessness.

"If you want me to leave because you want me to be there to make sure he's caught, then I'll go once I think you're okay enough to be on your own. But if you think, for a fucking moment, I'm going to walk out this door because you don't want me to see how this monster hurt you, then you seriously don't know me after all this time."

Jessie lifted his head, his focus now squarely on Aidan. His eyes, a pool of unshed tears held back by a dam of control even Aidan wasn't sure he had. "Is this what you want to see? You want to see me broken like this!"

Aidan leaned forward and pointed a finger at Jessie. "
You
are the one who told me to not let those monsters win, to not give those monsters or memories power. Was all that bullshit?"

Jessie gasped. "No."

"Then don't you fucking dare think for a second that son of a bitch broke you. He didn't. You escaped from him and you made yourself into the man you are today. A man…" Aidan snapped his jaw shut, his nostrils flaring with each deep, forced breath. "A man who taught me what it's like to be strong. What it's like to push through shit and get out of that dark hole. So don't you crawl into that abyss, because I will fucking hunt you down and bring you back kicking and screaming."

Jessie took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, slumping his shoulders as if a mere breath took the full force of his strength.

"Now give me an inspirational poster line so I don't completely lose my shit in this room and pitch a fit."

A soft, pained chuckle escaped Jessie. "My mind…is strong and has the power to define me."

"And what's your mind telling you now?"

Jessie straightened his shoulders and took a deep breath, then another. He looked up at Aidan, this time, with a spark of determination in his eyes. "He didn't break me."

"You're damn right he didn't." Aidan didn't bother to hide the smile. He glanced at his phone when it chirped again with a new message.

"I know you need to go. And I need you to be there. Please."

Aidan cleared the message. The team was on their way, and Sunny waited for him outside the door. "I don't want to leave you alone. Would you be fine with me calling Julian?"

Jessie nodded.

Jessie needed someone quiet who offered support right now…
quiet
support, so that immediately eliminated Cole from the short list. Aidan grabbed his phone and quickly dialed Julian's number. After a short conversation, they disconnected the call. Luckily, Julian and Matt were running errands while the guys staying at Halfway House took advantage of their weekend pass starting that Friday evening. "Matt and Julian are a few minutes away. They're coming right over."

"Thank you." Jessie rubbed his arms. "Aidan?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm…not as strong as you think I am."

"No, you're not. You're stronger. Don't let that son of a bitch get inside your head."

Jessie quietly laughed. "He can't. Not when you keep kicking him out."

Aidan smiled. "Damn right."

"Every second, Aidan." Jessie took a deep breath and stared at Aidan, his eyes still shone with fear, but it battled heavily with the sheer determination of the man who wore those dark suits that always made Aidan weak in the knees. "I swear, every second of every day."

A warmth washed over Aidan with the slow rebuilding of Jessie's strength staring back at him. Jess would pull through this as he always did.

"How do you do that? How do you manage to make me feel as if I can get through anything?"

Aidan leaned forward over the table, thankful the ray of hope and positivity slowly seemed to return to
his
Jess. "It's you, Jess. That's all you. You're the one who's taught me anything is possible."

Julian and Matt arrived fifteen minutes later and promised to stay with—a much calmer—Jessie until Aidan returned home. He met Sunny by the car and peeled out of the parking garage like a bat out of hell to race to catch up with his teammates.

"Will you slow the hell down!" Sunny said, gripping the seat belt and the center console. "You've almost caught up with them. They're only a mile up."

"Then it's a mile I still need to catch up." Aidan weaved through traffic, thankful for the highway offering ample visibility.

Sunny pointed up ahead to the right. "There they are!"

Aidan pressed on the gas pedal to catch up with his team members, speeding past them with his siren blaring. He glanced in his rearview mirror, smiling at the two cars accelerating to catch up with him.

"I swear. Men and cars. I don't get it," Sunny grumbled, slipping on her leather gloves.

"It's more a thing of wanting to catch the bad guy."

"Helps if we're alive to do it."

They turned the corner and silenced the sirens, silently pulling up a few houses away. They quickly exited their cars and stealthily made their way to Michael's address, sweeping the exterior, not seeing any activity from within the home.

"Travis, Sunny, head around back to block the rear exit," Manny said.

Manny gave them a second to position themselves then pounded on the door. "Michael Johnson, Miami PD, we have a warrant. Open the door."

The tension thrummed through Aidan's body as Manny pulled up the hem of his glove and looked at his watch…waiting. "Fuck, Reyes. Really? You want a fucking welcome basket too?"

"Ten seconds, Calloway. I'm not letting that slippery son of a bitch off on a technicality." Manny glanced up and over to Wall who looked as if he was itching to hit something. "Now! Break it the hell down."

Wall back-kicked the door and they stormed into the house from both entry points, guns raised and aimed forward, sweeping the house one room at a time until they all met in the center room.

Nothing. Literally, nothing. A few, random, dust-covered, discarded pieces of worn furniture remained in the otherwise empty house.

Aidan cursed under his breath.
This. Is. Not. Happening.
He holstered his weapon and planted his hands on his hips. He looked to the heavens, begging for patience. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes to center himself. He thought of Jessie, his smile, the way he'd tease him, hoping to calm the jackhammering heartbeat in his chest. But he couldn't erase the haunted look in those blue eyes and how, almost two hours ago, they'd held back a pool of unshed tears.

He lowered his head.

Something caught his attention in the corner.

"I swear, if this son of a bitch—"

"Wait." Aidan's word cut off the beginning of Manny's rant. He spotted faint scuffs marks on the floorboard in front of the oversized dresser, as if the furniture had been moved. "Wall, help me move this thing."

Wall instantly stood on the opposite end of the vintage piece and held the large wooden furniture. They looked over to the others to ensure they had guns drawn before lifting away the dresser. Behind it, a hidden door opened to reveal a narrow hallway. They cautiously walked the few steps in pairs, lighting the way with their tactical flashlights until they reached a door to a room. They flipped the single light switch inside and the team quieted at the sight. In the corner of the small, unoccupied room lay a single, dingy, twin-sized mattress on the floor next to a small end table. A brown moisture stain darkened part of the walls around the lone window in the room which had been plastered shut.