Jason gritted his teeth when he saw her and kissed her forehead over the bruise. Though he was horrified, he was also relieved.
Things could’ve been worse . . .
“Honey, I’m so sorry,” he said.
She said nothing and cried into his shoulder. “I really thought I could go back to school and everything would be OK.” She coughed. “I thought it would be fine.”
“Do you know what happened to Max?”
She shook her head. “I don’t. One minute she was walking behind me, keeping watch, and the next minute I was being thrown down on the ground.”
Jason wondered if anyone would ever hear from the security officer again. There were a lot of places off the grid on Sand Mountain. No telling how many bodies had been buried by Tyson Cade.
Two uniformed officers approached Jason. “Are you her uncle?”
“Yes,” Jason said.
“I’m sorry, but she didn’t get a good look at her assailant. It’s going to be hard to catch whoever it was without more information, but we’ve opened a file and we’re on the case.”
“Thank you,” Jason said, knowing full well that the investigation would likely end the second they left the hospital. The Birmingham Police Department had bigger fish to fry than an assault on a college campus and the disappearance of a security officer. Without any leads, the case would vanish as quickly as Max had.
Jason held Niecy’s hand as they walked out of the hospital. Two members of his security detail walked on either side of him.
A truck pulled to a stop at the entrance. It was a black Ford Raptor with tinted windows. The body of the vehicle was jacked a few extra inches above the oversize tires. The passenger window rolled down, and Jason saw a bearded man spying him with cold eyes from behind the wheel.
Satch Tonidandel had insisted that he drive. His brother Mickey was right behind him, driving another pickup. Chuck Tonidandel had stayed behind to guard the entrance to Mill Creek Road while the rest of Jason’s security detail watched the houses and the water.
Jason opened the door, and one of the officers hopped in. Jason then opened the back and gestured for Niecy to get in. She did, and Jason climbed in after her, followed by the second officer.
Once they were all in, Satch turned and looked at Niecy, then Jason. He grunted and put the car in gear. He glanced at Jason in the rearview mirror, his gaze stern, his voice firm.
“A man like Cade doesn’t play by the rules and doesn’t give a shit about who he hurts so long as he gets what he wants.” He gave his head a jerk. “Only one way to deal with a man like that.”
“Kill him,” Niecy said, almost spitting the words.
“Yes, ma’am,” Satch said.
53
“I’m going to kill him,” Jana said when Jason broke the news of Cade’s attack on Niecy. It was Sunday afternoon, twelve hours before he was supposed to deliver $50,000 to the meth dealer. Jana was pacing. Ranting. “I’m going to squeeze his balls until he can’t breathe, and then I’m going to feed his testicles to him like he’s a baby in a high chair. Nobody, and I mean no damn body, puts their hands on one of my girls.”
Jason was impressed with her fight. She’d been in jail now close to two months, having lost weight and becoming gaunt. But, after she’d heard about Niecy, her eyes were fierce again.
The scene reminded him of a time when they were kids. Space Camp in Huntsville. Jana sixteen and Jason twelve. Jana had ribbed him endlessly about his bowl haircut, but when she saw one of the other campers giving him grief about it, she kicked the boy as hard as she could in the shin. When the kid complained, crying to one of the counselors, Jana had begun to sob and said the lying perv had touched her breast and that’s why she’d kicked him. The kid ended up being sent home early.
That was his sister. Crazy. A liar. Could make your life a living hell. And sometimes, just sometimes, fiercely protective of family.
“Tell me what you’re going to do to really protect my girls,” she demanded. “The security crew you hired ain’t getting it done.”
“I’ve gone in with the Tonidandel brothers. They’re watching the house, and Satch is now my head of security detail.”
She wrinkled up her face as if she didn’t believe him.
“All three of them live in their grandma’s house across the street. Decorated soldiers with pretty bad PTSD. Even crazier now than when they were younger.”
Jana leaned back in her chair. It was as if she were looking at him for the first time. Then her lips curled upward, and she extended her fist, which Jason tapped with his own. “You fucking go, baby brother.”