Chapter 28

If a boy gives you butterflies, your heart is in danger.

-Fact of Life

Kennedy

I dug a hole in the ground.

My hands were blistered. One finger was bleeding due to a splinter, but I wouldn’t stop until the hole was big enough.

I hiccupped on a sob as I scooped out another shovelful of dirt.

“Would you please, for the love of all that’s holy, let me help you?”

I shook my head at Rafe’s insistence and kept scooping.

The hole I was digging was large, but it wasn’t large enough.

Not to hold a deceased dog of Gertie’s size.

“God, this is the hardest thing in the world to watch.”

I glanced up to see that I’d gained another man in my audience.

This one was a man in full uniform.

A Texas Ranger, if I had to guess.

“That’s what I’ve been saying for the last hour,” Rafe grumbled to himself. “You get Evander home?”

“I did,” the Texas Ranger confirmed. “He was released on his own recognizance about half an hour ago. Though, I don’t think that he knows that his woman is out here doing this, or he wouldn’t have insisted on going to the hospital looking for her.”

I frowned. “Why does he think I’m at the hospital?”

The Texas Ranger looked at me. “Apparently, you were supposed to be there undergoing some tests.”

I had been…over two hours ago. Now I was here, doing this.

“Rafe?”

Rafe looked at me, his gaze unwavering.

“Yeah?”

“If I let you finish, will you go pick up Evander and bring him back here?”

Rafe nodded, looking relieved.

“Yeah.”

I let the shovel drop from my limp hands, and then sat on the edge of the hole and waited.

Rafe disappeared sometime later, and I could tell that men were still surrounding me.

At some point, two got into the hole and started digging around me.

They made short work of it.

Made it look so much easier than I had.

I didn’t care, though.

I didn’t speak.

I only waited.

It wasn’t long.

Maybe fifteen minutes at most.

I heard the motorcycle before I saw it, and then turned my head to watch as Evander came barreling around the curve of the driveway. He came to a stop directly in front of where I’d been digging, and then threw his leg over the bike before marching toward me.

I stood up, and with very little effort on his part, he hauled me up into his arms and buried his face in my neck.

“Are you okay?” I asked him shakily.

He didn’t reply, only squeezed tighter.

I wasn’t sure whether to take that as a yes or a no.

“I was digging a g-g-grave,” I said. “For Gertie.”

Evander’s big body shuddered.

He still didn’t reply.

“Do you want me to get them to bring him out here?”

He couldn’t stay in there much longer.

His large body had been covered with a sheet in the middle of the living room.

Unfortunately, with everything else that was going on, including Evander’s house being a crime scene, I couldn’t do any more until they’d officially released it back to us.

And that hadn’t been for another eight, long hours.

If we had waited much longer, it would have begun to smell.

And I didn’t want Evander to remember Gertie like that.

“I’ll get him.”

“No,” I refused to let Evander see him.

It was bad.

Really bad.

“I’ll do it,” Travis muttered.

Then he was gone.

And I held onto Evander as he tried to pull away.

“Please?”

Evander’s face lifted, and he stared into my eyes.

Something in them must’ve struck home, because he nodded and waited.

Travis appeared moments later, the black draped form cradled in his arms.

His muscles were straining and veins were pulsing in his neck.

Gertie was heavy.

Travis never once uttered a sound.

Not when he stepped down into the hole.

Not when he gently squatted down.

And not when he laid the unmoving form into the hole I’d half dug.

Evander pulled away from me and looked down into the hole.

His shoulders were slumped, and he was staring down into it like his heart was breaking.

I took hold of his hand and brought it up to my mouth, placing a single kiss to the knuckles before tucking the big hand into my chest and clutching it tightly.

“Please cover him up.”

Those were the last words Evander said the rest of the night.

***

Two days later

A lot had happened in two days.

The Texas Ranger, Griffin Storm, had shut down the Hostel Police Department.

Until a special election could be held to elect a new police chief, no one would set foot inside of the station again.

The information that a computer analyst had been able to scrounge up on not only Fowler, but also Walter and Balthazar, had been pretty damn impressive.

The man, Jack from a business called Free, had gathered the information in less than eighteen hours.

His partner and wife, Winter, had also been a major player in finding the information.

Using the information he’d been provided, Texas Ranger Griffin Storm had decided that Fowler not only wouldn’t be getting his job back, but he’d also be facing charges—and a lot of them.

Some of those charges related to his involvement in manufacturing charges that led to the false imprisonment a man following a conviction for crimes that he did not commit—that man being my man.

Another man named Wolf—Travis’ former brother-in-law—had also arrived. He’d put his skills to use and had focused in on Evander’s brother, Walter.

After a search of his home, as well as an examination of his cell phone records and eyewitness accounts, it was determined that Walter had been in cahoots with Balthazar—providing him with information and services that only a dirty police officer could provide.

And Balthazar’s one remaining employee, a man named Ramirez, had copped a plea, according to Travis’s understanding.

All of the information we received was secondhand, and only came to me by way of Rafe and Travis, who came by daily to check on Evander. An Evander who’d done nothing but remain silent over the last few days.

I’d stayed at Evander’s side through all of it—learning that his brother was dirty. Learning that he’d been exonerated of all the charges that he had been convicted of previously, thanks to information that was gained from the statement that Ramirez gave when he took his plea deal. And finally, when he learned that the State of Texas would be contacting him to discuss compensation for falsely imprisoning him.

Which had been a hard pill to swallow.

Ramirez could’ve just as easily given up this information four years ago, keeping Evander out of prison.

But he hadn’t, and now a man had four years of his life stolen from him, and there wasn’t a damn thing that would ever make that acceptable, not even a payout from the state.

“Is there anything else?” I asked Rafe.

Rafe looked at me, studying my eyes, and then shook his head.

“Went over to your place and cleaned up,” he hesitated. “Took care of the animals again. Brought them over to Travis’ place, though. Didn’t think bringing the dog here would be smart.”

Rafe’s call on that was a good one.

Evander was devastated.

He was lost without Gertie, and I couldn’t blame him.

“I have something else I have to take care of, and I likely won’t be back in town for about two weeks. That leaves the crew shorthanded with Evander out, too.” He weighed what he had to say next. “I think you should tell him he’s needed at work. Maybe returning to his normal routine will help.”

I doubted it, but I’d try.

I’d do anything for Evander.