Caleb didn’t look back at him. His eyes were firmly trained on the sheriff. “Here you go. Do you know what that is?” The sheriff didn’t appear to take exception to the other man’s outraged tone. “I could give it a good guess, Doc, but I think you’re going to tell me.”
“That’s my autopsy report,” the doctor said, slapping his hand down on the file folder. “My second autopsy of the day. Second.” The sheriff stifled a laugh. “And I appreciate your promptness.
Want to fill me in on this one?”
“You want a cause of death? Single GSW to the brainpan.
Although this guy seriously should have died from Hep C long ago.
He’s covered in tats. Laura was right. Those Russian guys love their tattoos.”
“He get most in prison,” Alexei said, getting up and moving to the bars.
The doctor turned and stared at him. “Are they meaningful?” Alexei didn’t like to think about what they meant. “Yes, they detail his crimes and how many he murders. It is how you know what a man is willing to do. He would have added to them for the killings he do here. He talks about it on the way here.”
“This is a nice town, you know.” The doctor’s face was turning a bit red, and he reminded Alexei of an angry bull waiting for his chance to charge. “You assholes walk in here looking to do god knows what, and you wreck everything. This is a nice place where people give a shit about each other. I should not have to do autopsies.
I should not have to write out the way people died of unnatural causes here.”
“I am very sorry. I could not save other girl. She was dead because I was…” Alexei let his eyes drift down.
Caleb stopped in front of the cell. “She died while you were out with me and the Farley twins?” When Alexei didn’t answer he put a hand on the bars. “What would you have done if you had been there?
Would she still be dead? Would you have helped kill her?” Alexei’s stomach churned at the thought. He’d been through the scenario in his head a million times. It had kept him up all night. He’d played it through, and he still wasn’t sure what he would have done.
“Caleb, stop.” Callie crossed her arms and faced the doctor.
Caleb didn’t look at her, obviously preferring to expend his intimidation on Alexei. Alexei forced himself to face the man he’d briefly thought of as a friend. The doctor wasn’t close to being done with him. “Why? Why should I stop? Why should I think he would have saved that girl? He almost certainly helped get rid of her body.
Am I wrong?”
The burger he’d wolfed down now threatened to come back up.
He could still feel the slight weight of her body in his arms. They had wrapped her in a tarp and taken her to an isolated part of the river. “I help him.”
“Yeah, I thought so. I had to perform an autopsy on a twenty-one-year-old girl today. The sheriff and I had to talk to her mother. We had to inform a mother that the child she carried in her womb is gone.
The child she loved and nurtured. The child who should have buried her is gone from this earth.”
The doctor’s voice shook. His eyes had welled up in righteous anger, and Alexei’s teared up in shame.
“I am sorry.” It was all Alexei could think to say.
“Yeah, I can see that. It won’t bring her back.” The doctor turned.
He pointed at the sheriff. “You get that asshole out of my town, Nate.”
The sheriff spoke quietly, as though trying to placate the other man. “The feds are coming for him. The roads are keeping them out of here tonight, but they should make it by tomorrow night. Until then, he’s going to be here.”
The doctor huffed and stormed out as quickly as he’d rushed in.
Callie’s big brown eyes stared at him sympathetically. “Please forgive Caleb. He lost his wife a few years ago, and his family no longer speaks to him. Once he was a very highly paid surgeon. Well, I won’t tell you that story, but he’s got a lot of anger. Don’t take it personally.”
“He is right.” Self-recrimination tasted bitter on his tongue. He deserved whatever these feds gave him. He deserved whatever hell waited on him.
A soft hand covered his own. He heard Zane curse, but Callie simply tightened her fingers over his hand. “Tell me something, Alexei, do you honestly believe that you would have stood there and allowed this Ivan person to kill that girl?”
He didn’t recognize himself anymore. And he had no idea what the word honest meant in reference to his own life. He’d lived a lie for so long. “I don’t know.”
Her breath came out in a tiny sigh. “I do. I know you’ve been through some bad things, but deep in your heart, you’re good and worthy, and you can fix the things you’ve done wrong. You would have stopped him. You would have saved her.” Tears fell from his eyes. The room seemed oddly still. Only Callie’s voice meant anything in that moment. “You do not know me.
How can you possibly know what I do?”
“Because you saved me.” She leaned down and placed a single chaste kiss on the back of his hand. “Because you saved Jen. And because you saved my baby.”
The men in the room gasped. Their deep, shocked voices were one. “Callie?”
She smiled at Alexei before turning, opening her arms wide. She nodded, her voice choked with emotion. “I just took a test this morning. Three actually. I was going to tell you this evening. We’re finally pregnant.”
The men crowded her, their arms forming walls around her. They squeezed her tight, kissing and nuzzling her.
Alexei watched the scene. He no longer cared that theirs was obviously an odd relationship. They loved, and it filled the room.
They loved, and it filled him with longing. He had absolutely no one who would put their arms around him and shut the world out. He’d given it up for the pursuit of revenge, and suddenly it seemed like a terrible thing to have missed out on.
He let his head rest against the cold metal bars. He would probably see a lot of metal bars in his future. An image of that pretty waitress slid across his mind. Holly. He would never have a chance to date a nice woman like Holly. He would be lucky if he survived at all.
“Hey.” A gruff voice pulled him from his misery.
He looked up, and Zane’s hand was out. It took him a moment to realize what the other man was asking for.
“You are sure?” Alexei had to ask. It felt wrong to simply accept that hand. The man should be sure.
“Yeah.”
Tentatively, Alexei put his hand in Zane’s. He wouldn’t have been surprised if it had been a trick. He wouldn’t have been shocked if Zane had used his hold to pull Alexei through the bars and bash his skull against them. A part of him kind of wished he would do it, but that large hand strongly pumped his own.
“Thank you. I don’t know why you did it, and I don’t care. You saved our wife and our baby. I don’t think I can ever repay you for that.”
Emotion choked Alexei. One good thing. He’d managed one good thing. He would have to settle for that. He wasn’t sure if it would save his soul, but it began to make it feel lighter. “I am glad I do this.”
“I’m calling Logan.” The sheriff hadn’t taken his hands off his wife. “I want to go home, Zane. I want to show our wife how well we’re going to take care of her.” He kissed the top of her head and walked to his desk.
Fifteen minutes later, they left, their arms around one another. The lanky deputy took over.
“You okay in there?” Logan’s face was open and slightly curious.
He was young, so young, to have a badge on his chest.
Was he okay? Perhaps not, but he was more okay than he’d been in years. His future looked bleak, but he had a chance to be something more than he’d become. He could not erase past mistakes, but maybe, just maybe, he could find a way to earn forgiveness.