CHAPTER NINETEEN

TYSON

I can hear Lynne, Matthew, and Maggie in the background as I slip back inside the side door of her house. My feet stop, my eyes widen as I take in the sight before me. The three of them are sitting close with their heads down. If they looked up, they would catch sight of me standing here mesmerized by the scene I’m witnessing. I can’t seem to move to care if they did. To walk out there and tell them what I found out.

Un-fucking-believable. My mind is still reeling from what Jude and Riddick just told me. I was trained to deal with this. It’s what I do, and my mind is locked down as if I were dealing with an emergency instead of the best news I’ve heard since Lynne and I got back together.

If a stranger were to walk up and take a look at them, they would appear to be a family intrigued by something. Finding it fascinating and truly paying attention to what each other is saying. Especially if one of them is his daughter. Damn. I wish I had something besides my phone to give Lynne this memory. She’s happy. At least for the time being.

Lynne is pulling photos out of a box, staring at them in the same way she used to when we were younger. In amazement. Whatever they are, they mean something to her by the way her eyes are lit up and her lips spread wider with each photo she pulls out.

“These ones here were taken at our rehearsal dinner. I wish you could have been there, Matthew. Maybe things would have turned out differently if you were.” I pinch my brows in confusion. For one, how the hell would that have made a difference, and two, she has photos of us? From our rehearsal? What the fuck? At least they better be from ours.

My mouth wants to override the memories of that night in my mind and ask to see them. She was flawless. A little nerved up. Still, there are times when I close my eyes and the vision of how she looked at me standing there as graceful as could be tears me up. She wasn’t vowing to commit her life to me; she was saying good-bye.

“I wish I could have been. I definitely would have noticed the pain in your eyes. I’m surprised Tyson didn’t.” I did. I simply couldn’t see past my own happiness to notice she was falling apart.

“He noticed. Except he thought it was nerves. At least that’s what I led him to believe. I haven’t looked at these in a few years. They always hurt me, reminded me what I had done. There were times when I missed him so much that I had to see him. These few photos are all I had to keep him fresh in my mind. This one here is my favorite of him,” she says, skirting around the last night we saw each other, the last time I kissed her, told her I loved her and believed my life was finally right. I know exactly what picture she’s referring to. She told me she was going to frame it. It’s a simple instant polaroid snapshot her grandmother took of me watching her walk down the aisle. Shit. I can’t hold back the tears that form. I let them fall. Wiping them away with the back of my hand.

The overwhelming rawness in her voice coils around my heart. It infuriates me and pulls the cord of resentment for the people who are responsible for it being there tight. It suffocates me, chokes me out, and has so many emotions swirling around me that I should have seen it. Her spark, her light was gone from her eyes. Goddamn it.

I refuse to stand here and take the blame. Not when the sources behind it all are closer to our grasp than before. I have always wanted to kill them for being a part of this. Nothing drives me to want to make them pay more than denying her the vision I see now. She’s with her dad and a woman who adores her as if she’s her daughter. Matthew’s arm is slung across the back of the lounger, while Maggie’s hand is on Lynne’s knee. This has to end before I lock her away somewhere and wipe them off the face of this earth.

“Oh, sweetie, this is beautiful.” I die a thousand deaths again when Maggie holds up the engagement ring I gave Lynne. My heart slams forward; it burns my entire upper body. Fuck.

“It’s my engagement ring.” Throbbing. Aching. Pain. So much of it in her voice, in my soul, that I can’t stand here anymore. I slowly start to back away once again when the agony coming out of her stops me in a heated chaos of sensations.

“If we do get married, I don’t want another one. I want this one. It means more to me than anything I own. They made me take it off, you know. The doctors, I mean. Before my surgery. I was so afraid I wouldn’t get it back that I made one of the nurses promise me she wouldn’t give it to my mother. I begged her to hold on to it until I felt it was safe to wear it. It never fit again after that. The chemo, my nerves. The grief. All of it combined caused me to lose weight. I tucked it away with everything else that reminded me of all that I’d lost.” Jesus Christ. I’m gutted.

“God, Lynne.” Matthew’s voice is choking up. Fuck, I can’t wait to get my hands on Richard. There is no wrapping your head around the kind of people who would hurt their child in the way she’s been hurt.

“It’s a new day. A new life for me. It’s okay.” It might be a new day, a new life, it sure the hell isn’t okay.

“I better get cleaned up. Thanks for this. For stopping over, for being here.” I watch her stand. Back slowly away with my hands tugging at my hair. My throat clogged. My emotions are draining the hell out of me.

Between this and what I found out, I could use an entire bottle of whiskey right about now.

“Hey. I was beginning to wonder what happened to you.” Lynne and Matthew stroll into the kitchen, where she places the box that’s taunting me on the counter as if she didn’t more or less relive a hard time in her life.

“Just tying up a few loose strings from work.” I pull out a bottle of water. Twist off the cap and down half of it. Pretending that her revelations didn’t burn my chest like a branding iron.

“Give me an hour to get ready?”

“Take your time.” I set the water down on the counter, cup Lynne’s face, and kiss that mouth.

“I’m going to call the station. I’ll wait for you down here,” I lie, release her, and wait for her to leave the room.

I open the box, snatch out what I need, and close it back up. I’m too raw to look at pictures that will take me back to a place I’m trying to forget.

“Not a word.” I point in Matthew’s direction when he casts a suspicious eye my way.

“I didn’t see a thing,” he chuckles, holding his hands up in surrender.

Striding toward the back deck as quickly as I can, I make my way out of the house, across the street, and knock on Maggie’s door.

“Tyson. Is something wrong?” Maggie smiles weakly.

“Not unless you tell me you can’t do anything with this.” I reach into my pocket, pull out the small black box that holds Lynne’s ring, and hand it to her.

Her weakened smile fades; in its place is one that spreads across her face, hits her eyes, and pools them with tears.

“No tears. I can’t stand to see women cry. Drives me to do batshit crazy stuff like this,” I tease.

“Whatever. Come in.” She moves to the side to allow me past. Shuts the door and snatches the box out of my hands.

“Won’t lie to you, Maggie, I overheard the three of you a bit ago. Also, Lynne showed me the bracelets. She loves them. I think when, not if, I give this back to her, that it would mean more to her if she knew you had a part in it.”

“I would love to help you, Tyson, but she said she wanted this one.”

“I know. I’m not asking you to replace it with anything else. Not quite sure what I’m asking. This is a fresh start for us. Maybe you can add something to it. Change the design. Hell, I don’t know. Something to make it memorable for her. This ring cost me a hundred dollars. The diamond is so small you can barely see it. I know she doesn’t give a shit about that. I do. I want her to have more. She deserves to wear this ring, Maggie. It would mean a lot to me if you could do something with it to represent how strong she is.”

“Dear God. I have never heard anything so beautifully spoken in my life. I’ll do whatever I can to see her happy. I have the perfect idea in mind.” She reinforces what I already recognize out of her. Maggie loves Lynne as much as I do.

“I appreciate it.”

“I know you do, Tyson. You’re a good man. How those people don’t see that is beyond me.”

“Yeah, well, those people don’t fucking matter. You, however, do.”

***

“He did what?” I stand abruptly. Peer over Thomas’ desk and lose my shit. I have had enough of this. No more tail tucked between my legs. I’ve jumped off the cliff of being sane right onto the one of insanity. Headfirst.

Jude has tried, I’ve tried, we all have, and somehow Richard is able to influence the state to get them to jump through hoops for him.

The cop in me can’t wait to get my hands on Richard. To tear him a new asshole. Prime that slimy piece of shit before he goes behind bars for good. There’s one problem. I have yet to tell Lynne what I know, and as soon as I get my chance, I’m going to show Richard what it feels like to be interrogated by me. The rat that’s been chewing away at my flesh for years has finally hit bone. It’s payback time, and my hands are clenched.

“Sit down, Tyson, please?” Lynne’s shaky voice does nothing to calm the anger rolling through me. I’m entirely consumed with it. Richard has backed her into a corner, and this is the last time he will ever try and get away with it. I suppose now would be the best time to tell them all what I know.

“Not until he explains to us how in the fuck he could allow this to happen. This is hypocritical bullshit, and you know it, Thomas.” He better give me the correct answer or I’m knocking him on his ass.

“I didn’t allow it to happen, Tyson. For fuck’s sake. Look, I get that you all are going out of your minds. I am, too. Do you honestly think I’ve been sitting on my ass doing nothing? I’ve tried, Tyson. I don’t have pull with the state and regardless what you think, neither does he. They are giving him the opportunity to meet those kids. Unfortunately, they don’t give a shit who he is or who you are. Their concern is for those kids, whether you want to believe it or not.” Not good enough, Thomas. I’m about to dangle the truth of who I am right in front of their face.

“Concern, my fucking ass. Let’s concern them with this. Right now, Richard is sitting in a jail cell. I doubt he’ll be meeting anyone. Except for his lawyer.”

“What?” Both Lynne and Thomas yell at the same time. I ignore Thomas’ plea of ‘why didn’t you tell me.’ Matthew says nothing. I filled him in the second I walked back in the house from seeing Maggie. I turn around, kneel in front of Lynne, and take hold of her hands. Christ. Her hands are cold and shaking, her entire body rigid, face pale.

“Richard has been arrested for drug trafficking.”

“Oh, my God. How? I don’t understand. He was always at his office. Always in court. How could he have time to deal drugs?” Her soft, pleading expression causes me physical pain. A part of me hates being the one to break this to her, while the part that loathes Richard more than anything is already crushing down on his black heart for finally fucking up in order to make revenge a bonus in her getting the kids.

“I’m sure he was, baby. He’s what we call a middleman. He works directly with the big guys, takes the dealers’ money and exchanges it for drugs. It’s complicated to explain. Do you remember when I asked you if you trusted me?” She nods. I can see her mind shutting down, the reluctance to want to think anymore. I’m sure this is a shock to her. Hell, it was to me. I knew he was a crooked motherfucker, but this, never would I have thought the famous Richard Chapman would be involved in drugs.

I’ll get my revenge on him as soon as I make sure Lynne gets hers. She’s the only person I care about right now.

“You need to put all of that trust in us. In everything we’ve been through together. All of what you went through alone. I can’t tell you everything. It’s an ongoing investigation and no matter how much I want to stray away from my job in order to ease your pain, to take away the betrayal, I can’t. He has to pay, Lynne. The one thing I can tell you is, you won’t ever have to see him again.”