A blood-curdling scream woke me up.
I shot straight up out of bed, rubbing at my tired eyes. I winced against the bright ass sunlight as I took in the room. Nothing looked out of place. But when I noticed Everly didn’t sleep beside me, I grabbed my gun and bolted downstairs.
Was that her scream? What happened? Was she in danger?
“Everly?” I called out, pressing my back against the wall as I made my way toward the living room. Just in case a killer crept through our house. I wanted to be on my guard this time, unlike the night at the aquarium. I wouldn’t let the fucker get away again.
A cold draft greeted me. The front door remained wide open. As I made my way up there and propped the screen door open, I lowered my gun and stashed it in the waistband of my pants. I stepped out onto the porch, shivering against the snow flurries that pelted my face.
Everly crouched down in front of the porch where she built those cat beds. Her sobs echoed in the shrieking wind as I knelt down beside her in horror. Blood covered her hands and pink nightgown. The can of food she’d brought out laid beside her, unopened.
Droplets of red covered the snow in front of the plastic tubs and old blankets. The strays she always fed were dead. What could’ve slaughtered the poor cats like that? It wasn’t until I spotted the bloody rock halfway buried under the blue blanket when I realized what happened.
I wrapped my arms around my girl as she cried against my chest. What kind of sick fucking monster would do this? Everly had been taking care of those cats before we even got together. I knew how much they meant to her and why she did her best to help keep them warm in the winter. She had the biggest heart ever, especially for animals.
Poor cats. They just wanted someplace safe to sleep and eat. Their fur was matted with blood and their little faces were caved in from being beaten to death with the rock. Only a psychopath could be capable of something like that.
“Honey, I’m so sorry.”
“I’m gonna kill whoever did this,” Everly whimpered.
We covered the dead cats up underneath their blankets. The ground was frozen solid under all the snow, so we couldn’t bury them right away. The humane society might want to bury them out on their own property too. I wasn’t sure. Animal abuse cases weren’t something I’d ever handled while on the force, not even as a rookie.
I’d get a hold of my colleagues after we checked the video surveillance footage. Hopefully, it caught whoever did this. If it was that brat, James, he’d be receiving another unexpected visit from me.
I led Everly back inside as she shivered and sniffled. She curled up on the couch, and I brought her a blanket when I went to grab my laptop. I booted everything up and played last night’s footage. Watching the same scene of our neighbor’s houses got boring as hell, but when the time rolled over to a little after four in the morning, that’s when a silhouette came into view.
Everly leaned close to me, observing the screen as the female figure approached the porch. She killed one of the orange cats wandering around by the front door. I winced when it happened. The scene brought Everly to tears. I wanted to shut it off right away. She didn’t need to watch her precious cats be killed. But I knew she’d be pissed with me if I did. She wanted to know what happened to them.
The woman kept her face hidden. Upon closer inspection, I realized she wore a dark mask too and kept her face away from the cameras. She didn’t want them to catch her face. Only her long black hair flowed in the wind. Her black trench coat concealed everything too.
“Could that be the witch the kid mentioned?” Everly asked.
“She sure looks a little like it,” I said. “But who the hell is it? Do any of Emmett’s drug clients look like her?”
Everly shook her head. “Not that I’ve dealt with.”
“Why would she go through the trouble of doing that? I don’t understand. How would she even know about the cats?” I asked.
“The photos.” Everly wiped away her tears on her sleeve. “That’s why she paid the freaking kid!”
“Son of a bitch.”
Everly made an excellent point. I bet she paid the kid so she’d know almost every little detail about the house. She wanted to frighten us and leave a deadly warning. I couldn’t understand what part James played in everything at first, but now I had an idea. The kid probably had no clue what he’d gotten himself involved with.
“You think it could be someone my brother ticked off?” Everly looked down at the bloodstains on her nightgown, where I assumed she’d picked the cats up to check on them.
“I’ve considered that since the night you were in the hospital,” I admitted.
“Maybe I should start dealing for the rebels again. I could lure this woman out into their territory,” Everly suggested. “I know it’s not ideal for me to go back, but I need to. Emmett and Kaz can’t handle all my clients either. They need me too.”
I scratched at the stubble on my chin. “I don’t know. I don’t think that’s a good idea, honey. You still need to rest-“
“What else am I supposed to do? If we don’t find her soon, she’ll kill me. You’re gonna wake up one morning and find my bleeding body on the porch instead.”
“Don’t say that, Everly.”
“It’s the truth. I don’t know why this person hates me so much, but I won’t let her take anything else I love. I don’t care what I have to do. I’ll bash her head in with the same rock she killed my precious fur-babies with.”
Everly had lost so much these past few days. First our baby, and now her precious cats. I understood why she sought justice so badly. I just didn’t want her to throw herself into something she might not be ready for yet. She still needed to heal. I worried about her.
I thought she’d finally leave their gang after her dispute with her brother, but maybe not. She kicked him out of her hospital room for a good reason. He was a worthless piece of shit. He only cared about himself and his precious drugs.
“I thought the argument at the hospital meant you’d leave Emmett’s drug business,” I told her.
Everly sighed. “I can’t abandon him. He needs me. You understand, don’t you? Isn’t that how you feel about Archie?”
Her response struck a nerve. I couldn’t deny that I would pull out all the stops for my brother, no matter what kind of shit he got himself involved in. Like how I deleted his contact information off a dead meth head’s cell phone. We enabled our brothers too much because we cared. Our so-called help only made them worse though.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” I admitted. “Just promise me you’ll be careful and call me when you need anything. Don’t even hesitate. You can call me over a stomach ache or because you want a Whopper from Burger King. I’ll come by right away.”
“Don’t worry, I will.” She leaned over and kissed me.
Gut instinct told me letting Everly return to her brother’s drug business was a bad idea. If only I’d tried harder to convince her not to go back to them.
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