Page 174 of Brutal
I didn’t hesitate.
I never hesitate.
That’s what killed him.
The memory hits.
The dock.
The angle.
The impact.
No hesitation.
No doubt.
Just force.
The house isn’t falling. Not physically. But I feel it anyway. Everything I built. Everything I stand on.
This changes it all.
I look at her again because I can’t not. She’s still watching me.
Still standing there.
Where else would she go?
She finally opens the car door and slides into the passenger seat, fastening her seatbelt.
“Who was he?” I ask.
But I already know. I knew before we got here. I always know.
His name is Bill Reilly. He was Halstead’s business partner decades ago.
She doesn’t answer me anyway. Silence the whole way back to the castle. I park, and she lets herself out before I have a chance to open the door for her.
Then—
Movement at the front of the building, only yards away from where we are.
She gasps when she sees them.
I get out of the car and race to her side, stepping in front of her. “Stay behind me.”
My gun is in the glove compartment. I can’t get to it without leaving Delaney unguarded.
Three men stand near the door, only yards away from us. One has a gun pointed at us.
I don’t move. Not yet. I’m already calculating distance. Angles.
But there’s something else now.
Something that wasn’t there before.
Delaney.
