Make It Right (12 page)

“I'm not high,” she turned to face him, anger etched on her features. “Yes, I took something but not to get high. I just wanted to be able to not think about all this fucking shit.”

“Who gave it to you?” Danny made an effort not to curl his hands into fists. “And what did you take?”

“No one gave it to me. It was Fiona's, a bottle of tranquilizers, guess her relationship with Royal wasn't as happy as advertised.” She resumed her pacing. “There's just too much in my head. Too much. I can't get a second where everything isn't moving at a million miles an hour.”

“Where's the bottle?” It was hard not to shout the words, not to show the sudden hot anger rolling through him.

“Fuck you, Danny.” Her anger wasn't that much of a surprise. “I've had the damn bottle for over
a month, never touched it until today.”

“Where is it? I will tear this house apart to find it.” Danny got to his feet and she flinched. “I'm not saying that I don't trust you...”

“Oh, don't go there. You're completely saying that. If you're going to demand I give you the bottle, it's because you don't trust me with it. So at least be direct about it.”

“Fine, I don't like the idea of you having ready access to pills. Not after what happened following the accident.” Danny remembered it like it was yesterday. The Jeep had been in the shop, a storm had started, and she'd gotten a ride home from a friend. The ride ended with the car they were in going off the road and flipping over several times. Most of the damage to Amelia had been to her back and neck; the doctor she'd seen after the accident had prescribed heavy duty painkillers.

The months that followed had been rough. She'd become addicted and the doctor just kept writing her scripts with a smile. Danny had personally broken the doctor's hand in multiple places and he'd closed his practice shortly after.

“That was different,” she sighed. “You know what, forget it. You want the bottle? It's upstairs in the medicine cabinet. I wasn't trying to hide it. It's sitting right there. You've probably looked at it twenty fucking times and just didn't notice.”

“Baby...”

“Don't.” She held up her hand. “Go get the pills, flush them down the toilet or stick them up your ass. Do whatever you want with them, because if I was going to relapse, if I was going to have a problem it would have happened already. It would have happened when I had to say goodbye to my family or when I couldn't sleep after because all I could see was their dead fucking bodies.”

Danny didn't know what to say to that, but he did know the way that the fight had just died out of her eyes was a problem. His wife was really good at icing people out, hiding what she was feeling, and that was what she was doing at that moment. He wasn't going to let her. She took a step back as he approached her, her eyes on him. “I can't change anything that's happened, Amelia, believe me I would if I could. With everything going on, I can't be worried about you.”

“So don't,” She replied, arms crossed over her chest.

“Like that's going to happen.” Danny resisted the urge to sigh. He was too tired for this shit. All he really wanted to do was throw Amelia over his shoulders, head upstairs and get her naked in bed. He didn't even want sex. He just wanted to sleep, to feel her next to him. “If you say there's no problem, I believe you.”

“There's no problem,” She replied. “I'm going to get a drink, and so we're clear, it'll be a soft drink, no hard stuff for me.” Danny did sigh as she walked out of the room. Yeah, sleep wasn't something that was happening soon, and he highly doubted he'd manage to get Amelia naked any time in the near future.

Nothing ever worked the way that he thought it would. Really he shouldn't have been surprised by it, but he was. It pissed him off. Everything pissed him off. There was so much built up inside of him with no sign of relief in sight. After he'd taken a moment to calm himself, Danny headed to the kitchen.

Amelia glanced up when he walked in but quickly turned her attention back to the counter in front of her. “That looks good.” Danny smiled to break the ice, but she didn't see because she didn't look up. She put the top piece of bread on, sliced the sandwich in half and placed it on a plate.

“I made it for you. Figured that you didn't eat. I'm going to go take a shower. And no, I don't want company.” She set the plate down in front of him. “There are chips in the cabinet.”

Danny let her go. He had plenty of things he could have said to try and make her stay. The thing was, he knew his wife. Knew that she needed time to herself, time to cool and calm down. Basically she just needed space from him. Maybe he needed some distance, too, at least until he could rein in the
storm surging inside of him.

<#<#<#

Danny never felt completely relaxed before a meeting with The Millers, and this was no exception. None of this was sitting right with him. Nightshade was literally split right down the middle; he was riding to the meet with Buster and Rock while Royal, Edge and Train were leading Detroit's Finest on a route that Train had mapped out.

No one had been sure that the plan would work. Maybe on some level he'd hoped that it wouldn't. The meeting was giving him a dark feeling, a feeling like nothing was going to end right. Danny tried to shake it off. He was probably just out of sorts because of last night. He'd given Amelia her space. When he'd finally gone up to bed, there was no way he was sleeping on the couch, he'd found her already asleep and curled into a tight ball.

He'd stayed on his side, and she'd stayed on hers. Needless to say, Danny didn't get much sleep because he couldn't stop wondering if the space between them was going to extend outside of the bedroom. When he'd finally managed to sleep, he woke to a house filled with the smell of coffee and breakfast. It would have been perfect except there was no smiling Amelia waiting for him, there wasn't any Amelia. There wasn't time to wait for her. He needed to be at the bar, so he'd sent her a text that he loved her and would be home as soon as he could. At least they'd avoided the conversation about her no longer being kept in the loop about Nightshade.

“Eyes on the prize, Gentlemen,” Buster declared as they arrived at the meeting spot, a popular restaurant already filled with people. “They're going to be pissed that Royal isn't here, but we're going to make it work.”

They had to make it work. If their relationship with The Millers fell through now, they had nothing in the pipeline to replace it. While Davenport Development, which employed them all, was doing well, it wasn't doing well enough to support all of them. The only way that they lived was through the money made by smuggling whatever The Millers desired over the border.

“Let's do this.” Danny squared his shoulders and actively tried to look as nonthreatening as possible as they walked inside.

A waitress approached them, her smile hesitant. “Can I help you?”

“Sure you can, Sweetheart.” Buster turned on the charm, and Danny had to bite back a laugh. “We're supposed to meet some friends for lunch. I think that they might already be here.”

“Oh, you're here for Joe and Mark. Come on, they're already seated.”

Danny wasn't sure if it was a good sign or a bad one that The Millers were known at the restaurant. It seemed to be something that they were going to have to let play out. They were led to a table at the back of the restaurant.

“Where is Royal?” Mark demanded before the waitress could walk away.

“There's been a complication.” Buster sat down without waiting for an invitation. “Say, Sweetheart, can you bring me a beer?”

“Sure thing. Anyone else want something?” The waitress was either oblivious to the sudden tension that had cropped up at the table or she'd missed her calling as an actress.

“No, thank you, Callie. We'll need a few more minutes.” Joseph spoke with a smile on his face but it didn't reach his eyes or voice.  “Now, what sort of complication are you talking about?”

Buster laid it out. All of it. Joseph and Mark listened with rapt attention. Joseph seemed thoughtful, while Mark was clearly getting more and more agitated. Danny sat up straighter, ready for whatever might happen next.

“I'd have thought that Royal would keep as tight a grip on his home life as he does Nightshade,”
Joseph observed when Buster was done speaking. “Or perhaps he does and that's the reason why these complications are spilling over to our arrangement. We've had some serious discussions on this matter. Now, I like Nightshade. We've worked together for years, established a relationship. While it's been suggested that we go another route for our needs, I hesitate to start over from scratch at such a critical time, which is why you're going to get one more shot.”

“And if you blow it,” Mark interrupted, “your current troubles will seem like a stubbed toe. You'll wish for a quick end like the bitch and her kid.”

“That bitch was my sister-in-law and that kid was my niece. Show some fucking respect.” Danny ignored the look that Buster shot him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that both of his brothers did sit up straighter. If something were to go down they'd have his back. Even if they didn't, he wasn't going to sit back and stay quiet.

“Don't get your panties in a twist.” Mark laughed. “And mind your tone.”

“Enough.” Joseph's tone made Mark jump slightly. “Forgive my brother, he was needlessly crass, but that doesn't make what he said any less true. Right now, I suggest you all focus fully on getting this shipment moved without incident, because if anything goes wrong, you will all die. Your families will die. Your friends will die. We will kill your pets.”

“We've got it,” Buster replied. He waved the waitress away when she came back with the beer. “You want to give us the details or are we just going to chat all afternoon?”

Chapter Ten

The last thing that Amelia expected to find when she got to the hospital to visit Jackie was the woman not being there. She'd spoken to Jackie's mother only a half hour earlier and they'd been there. The nurses were no help, all they could say because of privacy regulations was that Jackie had been discharged.

She was nearly out of the hospital when she heard someone call her name. She turned, surprised to see Claire walking towards her. “Hey, what are you still doing here?”

“I said that I'd stay with Jackie, and I did until that bitch cop showed up and told me to get lost. I didn't get lost, I hung around. Figured that I could wait her out, but she didn't leave—or at least she didn't leave alone.”

“She left with Harris?” Amelia felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. The last thing that Jackie needed was to be drilled by Harris. Jackie was a great person, but she wasn't the strongest personal emotionally, which was part of the reason that Earl had always kept her so completely in the dark about what Nightshade did.

“Harris and two guys in suits. They might have been detectives, but I didn't recognize them.” Claire looked around, lowered her voice. “I think that she convinced Jackie to talk to her about Nightshade. And I don't think that it took much convincing.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that if Jackie was awake, she was ranting about Nightshade, about how her husband was dead because of them. How her children would never know their father because of them. I chalked it up to grief but what if... what if she's agreed to help the cops?” Claire frowned; lines appeared in her face and she suddenly looked her age.

If Jackie had agreed to help the cops, even being out of her mind with grief wouldn't be a good enough excuse. Informing on Nightshade was a death sentence. “Did she say anything specific to make you think that she would?”

“No. But she did leave with Harris.”

“Now is not the time to jump to conclusions. Jackie is an Old Lady, she knows what that means.” Amelia hoped she sounded confident as she spoke the words, because as far as Old Ladies went, Jackie was possibly the most sheltered she'd ever met or heard of. The bright side of it was Jackie wouldn't be able to give Catherine Harris much, but the dark side of that was Jackie wasn't stupid, she could have figured out plenty. “You should go home, Claire.”

“I will. Royal is going to be so pissed. I don't want to be anywhere near the bar right now.”

“Call me if you hear anything from Jackie.” Amelia dug in her purse, it seemed too light without the comforting weight of her gun, but carrying at a time like this seemed like asking for trouble. She found a pen and paper, scribbled down her number and gave it to Claire.

Once the woman was gone, she followed suit. She drove to the apartment that Jackie and Earl had shared, but no one answered the door. A trip to Jackie's mother's house had the same result, but there a curious neighbor came outside and volunteered that she'd seen the woman leaving with a man she didn't recognize and a suitcase. It was the icing on top of the shitty day they'd had before. Danny had been so angry about the pills. He'd hidden it well, but she'd seen it. She'd felt it. And she hated every second of it because she'd caused it. The thing with the pills, well, to her it hadn't been that big of a problem. It could have ended up that way. She'd started to see it herself. She'd slowed down and was beginning to wean herself off so that she wouldn't suffer through withdrawal.

And it would have worked, but then Missy had seen the bottle in her purse. Nosy as always, she'd read the label, said her back was killing her and asked for one. Amelia gave her three. Missy took them all at once that night, washed them down with wine and later that night, told Royal that Amelia
had given them to her after he'd had enough of her making a complete and utter fool out of herself. Amelia had been sure that Royal was going to hit her that night. Danny had gotten between them and the two men had exchanged blows. No one had stopped them. At the end they were both bloody and bruised, but the moment had passed. She'd gone through withdrawal after that, suffered through the pain, sickness and humiliation. After she'd come through, she'd hated Missy, when before that night she'd only disliked her.

Amelia still couldn't shake the way Missy hadn't reacted to Harris dropping the bombshell about Royal and Fiona. Maybe she'd just been shocked. Maybe it was paranoia or maybe she'd already known. She was leaning hard towards her having known already, but it didn't make sense. Why would Missy know but not say anything? She wasn't known for being subtle or keeping her cool. After the cops had left, Missy had thrown a fit, even going so far as to declare Amelia persona non grata at the bar, as if she actually had a say in the matter.

She'd meant to tell Danny about it the night before. It was going to piss him off that she hadn't, but she'd just couldn't bring herself to see him get even angrier. She'd put space between them. He'd let her. It was one of the things that they did, one of the ways that they'd made things work between them. She'd meant to get back from the store before he left so she could make him breakfast, but he'd gotten up early. He'd already been gone by the time that she got back.

Amelia didn't know where he'd gone. She didn't know what had happened at the police station, except that no charges had been pressed and Harris was a cunt. The whole purpose of going to see Jackie had been to get her mind off everything else but a friend who needed her. Now she had another weight of worry on her shoulders. When was it going to stop?

A flash of light caught her attention. Amelia checked the rear view mirror with a sigh. The marked car behind her flashed the siren, a male voice spoke over the loud speaker. “Pull to the side of the road.” Apparently, it wasn't going to stop any time soon. With a sigh, Amelia complied and realized the smartest thing she'd done today was not bring a gun along with her. The stupidest thing that she'd done was forget to follow the speed limit.

She recognized the officer that approached. They'd gone to high school together. She rolled down the window. “I know, I was going too fast, Eric.”

“That's not why I pulled you over, Amelia. I'm supposed to take you down to the station. Detective Harris left strict instructions for all of us, which is why I pulled you over to tell you to leave this car here. I called Monroe, he'll be here in a minute to pick you up.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Danny saved my ass once when I got jumped by a couple of guys who really weren't fans of the police. He didn't have to. He could have walked away. I can't stay here and wait with you.”

“Thank you.” Amelia leaned back against the seat. “Thank you so much.”

“Don't mention it. Seriously, don't mention it.” Eric tapped his hand on the roof. “See you around.”

Amelia leaned back against the seat with a sigh as he got back to his car. There wasn't a long wait for James to show up. She recognized his pickup truck, which was a good thing since she certainly wouldn't have recognized him. His hair was longer than she'd ever seen it, and he'd started to grow a beard.

He pulled away with a squeal of tires. “Harris has Jackie and her family at a safe house. She's leaning on her hard,” James informed her. “If she knows anything....”

“I really don't think that she does. Earl was really adamant about keeping her out of things. She came to party and nothing more. I don't even think she knew how to shoot. I can't remember. Look, James, I know that you've always been a friend of the club and that you loved Fiona, but I think that you're jeopardizing any chance of getting your badge back by helping us. I don't want you to lose what
you love.”

“I used to think that being a detective was everything I wanted. Now I know that it's not, and I'm not just saying that because they fired me two days ago.” He spoke in a dry tone. “When you called me about Fiona, I did go to my bosses before Nightshade. They told me to leave it alone. There were better things to do than investigate what was probably just another citizen skipping out on their debts. I didn't let it go. I pushed and pushed, and when they still shut me down, I went to Nightshade even though I knew that you were going to be really pissed at me.”

“I appreciate that you tried, I really do. And believe it or not I'm glad that you called Nightshade. I wasn't at the time. I seriously was considering shooting you.” It felt like a life time ago that had all happened. So much had gone on since then.

“Of that I had no doubt.” James laughed. “We need to take this to Royal, there's no way around it.”

“I'll do it. Hey, how did you know that Harris has Jackie?” Amelia shifted in the seat, really took a good look at him. Under the new beard and longer hair she could see that he wasn't sleeping much, the bags under his eyes were almost as impressive as the ones underneath hers.

“As it turns out, I've got a few friends who don't give a shit about the rules right now. Things in the department are tense. They've been tense for a while. I don't see them getting better. Maybe some people are getting tired of it. I was surprised when Eric called me, though.”

“Eric let me go because Danny saved his ass once. Nightshade has done a lot of good around here. Maybe that's another reason your friends are reaching out to you with information now.” Amelia said. “You know, I can remember that his name was Eric but for the life of me I can't remember his last name.”

“Jones.” James told her. “And you're probably right. There are likely others who will be willing to help out.”

“Can you find out where they're keeping Jackie?” Amelia questioned.

“Why?”

“Because the last thing that Harris is going to expect is for me to show up there. It might rattle her.” Amelia could only hope it would; Harris didn't really seem like the type to get rattled easy, but she had to try.

“Or piss her off, and it doesn't really matter anyway because there's no way in hell Nightshade is going to sanction sending you to Harris like that. We need to find somewhere for you to lay low. I'll talk to the club, see what they want to do.”

Laying low was the last thing that Amelia wanted to do, but James was right, it was the only thing that she could do. “Take me to Mrs. Washburn's house,” Amelia told him. “It's by the bar, so I'll be close. It's been empty so long that no one will think to look for me there. She used to have this little reading room. It was this cozy little nook with no windows and a door. If I'm there after dark, I can use a light and no one will see.”

“That's a good idea. You got a key or something?”

“I know where there is a key, and if it's not there, I can pick the lock,” Amelia told him. They rode the rest of the way in silence. Amelia knew that running to Mrs. Washburn's house, as she always had, was a temporary solution at best, but for now it worked. She needed to get her bearings and figure out what to do with deal Harris. More than anything, she just wanted Danny because with him she could always make sense of things.

James left her at the house with his tablet and the impressive library he had on it to keep her company. For the first few hours Amelia did read, enjoying a Stephen King novel that she'd read at least a dozen times before, but still, she enjoyed it. Her attention began to wander as her phone didn't ring. Why hadn't Danny called yet? Truthfully she'd expected that he'd just show up.

It was starting to grow dark. She'd left the door to the room open for light but now unless she pressed the tablet so that it glowed, she couldn't see a thing. The couch that she remembered as being quite comfortable wasn't any longer. Amelia shifted restlessly, trying to find a spot that suited her, but there was none.

She'd never been afraid of the dark, but right then she was. The sound of every passing car made her jump and had her heart racing. The longer she sat there, the worse that it got. Amelia gave up trying to lie down on the couch. She sat up, wrapped her arms around herself and tapped her foot on the floor. It was something she'd done since she was a girl. There was comfort in it, but that comfort vanished when she heard the back door to the house open.

Fear flooded through her; she was hot and cold at once. Her hands trembled as she rose to her feet, careful not to make a sound because whoever had come in hadn't made a sound. It was only the occasional shuffle of feet against the floor. Amelia looked around for a weapon; whacking someone with the tablet James had left her wasn't going to be very impressive. The lamp that she grabbed probably wouldn't be very impressive, but it was heavy, made of some sort of metal. She held her breath as she heard the person moving closer.

Amelia didn't think, she just acted as the figure came through the door. She heard the lamp connect with a solid thump. “What the fuck? You crazy bitch!”

“Fuck you, Train. What the hell are you doing here creeping around in the dark?” Her heart was still racing, and she had the lamp in her hands and no intention of putting it down.

“I was the only one who could get away. Been riding around for two hours to confuse the cop following me and in thanks I get smashed in the fucking head. Nice. Really nice.”

“They're following you?”

“They're following all of Nightshade.” He told her. “Got some shit for you, including a clean phone so that you can talk to Danny.”

“Thank you.” Amelia's eyes were adjusted enough to the dark that she could make out the shape of him. “If you step inside a little, we can shut the door and use the light. You did bring something for light, right?”