Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Rosenthal laughed.
“You never seem to lose the bad attitude,” Rosenthal rumbled.
I sighed. “I got it from my mama.”
“What can I help you with?” Rosenthal asked as we made it into his office.
He closed the door, and I took a seat and waited for Rosenthal to follow suit before I handed him a paper.
Shovel’s name was the only thing on the paper, but he knew right off the bat what I was after.
“I haven’t seen or heard anything from him. He fell off the grid the moment he got out,” Rosenthal said before I could even tell him what I wanted.
“I know that,” I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms over my chest. “What I don’t know is why he got out. There was no forewarning. No call to tell me he was out. No mention of parole at all, as a matter of fact. Why did something as important as this slip through the cracks? I check on this motherfucker once a week…then in between this week and last, he not only gets out…but then fucking disappears. Is that a coincidence? Because I’m thinking it’s not.”
Rosenthal’s face hardened to stone. “I don’t know what you want me to say to you, Mackenzie. I know you have a man on it. When I became aware of the situation, I started to follow the stepping stones, but I got nothing. Not a single thread.”
I tilted my head back to stare up at the ceiling.
“Need I remind you that he tried to kill my kids… my wife? Which was why he was in prison in the first place,” I said, not bothering to look at him.
“I know exactly what happened. I was right there with to you. Remember?” He reminded me none too gently.
I closed my eyes and let my mind wander back to that night. The night that my life changed forever.
***
“You’re going to watch. Watch while I rape her. Watch while I rape your son. Your daughter. Your other son. That other trash isn’t worth it… I know you don’t care about her…but the other four…yeah, I know that’ll get a reaction out of you,” Shovel smiled manically.
Bile rose in my stomach as I watched him rub a hand up and down the thigh of my wife.
She was drugged.
Shovel had drugged us all.
I’d trusted the wrong person, and now they were all going to pay.
My mistake was going to probably kill everything I loved in one fell swoop.
And I didn’t see a thing I could do to help me get out of it.
Then he snuck his hand into her panties, and my hands fisted behind my back.
Outwardly, though, I appeared calm.
God help him if he moved to my kids, though.
I couldn’t do this for much longer.
They were never supposed to get to my family.
I never agreed on this.
I knew this one moment in time would forever alter my course in life.
Whatever I had to do, I’d kill this motherfucker.
It may be now…or it may be twenty years from now…but the fucker would die. And at my hand.
“Coming in hot,” Rosenthal, my partner, said into my mic.
He was going to get here fast, I knew that.
But when Shovel started to run his hand along the side of my children’s faces, I nearly lost it.
Shovel was never supposed to get this close.
All he was supposed to do was get to the front door. They were supposed to apprehend him…except Shovel had my other kids…the ones that were supposed to be in Galveston, eight fucking hours away.
So my partner had held off, and now the piece of shit had us all, with me helpless to do a goddamn thing about it.
This whole charade had been fucked.
I’d been undercover for years now.
It was never supposed to go on this long.
I wasn’t supposed to get married.
I wasn’t supposed to have kids.
And I sure as fuck wasn’t supposed to have another wife.
Yet, I did every single bit of it for my fuckin’ country…and look where I ended up.
Having four of the people I loved most in this world under the hands of a madman who couldn’t see past his own fuckin’ rage.
Thank God Rosenthal and the rest of my backup finally made it through the door, causing Shovel to freeze.
Because if he’d been even seconds later, I would’ve killed Shovel with my bare hands. Carved his heart out with only my fingernails.
“Freeze, put your hands up!” Rosenthal screamed.
Shovel smiled, and slowly lifted his hands up away from Sam’s belly.
My throat convulsed as I thought about how much worse this could’ve been.
What he could’ve done to my other kids had he not been hell bent on revenge.
“I’ll see you in hell,” Shovel said as Rosenthal and another officer put him into handcuffs.
“No you won’t, because there is no escaping to hell for you yet. You’re going to live a nice long life, in a maximum security prison with no chance of parole, and I’m going to make sure you fucking enjoy the fuck out of it,” I smiled.
Shovel glared as he saw that I was serious, and I stood, not sparing him another glance.
My family needed me.
But I knew one thing for sure.
I needed them…but there were still others in the club just like Shovel.
My job wasn’t done…but my time as a good, attentive father, was.
And I’d pay for that decision every day for the rest of my life.
***
“I’ve got every available resource, computer geek, and field agent on the lookout for Shovel. Trust me, he’ll be found, and when he is, I’ll give him to you,” Rosenthal explained.
I nodded and stood.
“Crotchet needs to keep off my case. You need to contain him – and keep him contained – and he needs to understand just what he’s dealing with here. Maybe it’s time you share those files with him,” I said softly.
Rosenthal’s eyes held mine and then he nodded once.
“Maybe you’re right. I’ll do that after you leave.”
I nodded and offered him my hand, which he took.
His grip was just as strong now as it was thirty years ago.