Courage (Partners in Crime Book 2)

Chapter 2

People swarmed the garage. Nicole and other paramedics went to the body. Olivia grabbed her crime scene kit and headed that way. Grace ran over to Max, "What was that!? I specifically gave the signal to hold your fire! You killed him!"

Max simply shrugged, "I didn't shoot him. Promise. I didn't give the clear to either. But whoever did it had to have had a good reason."

Olivia ran up from where she was at and set an arm on Grace's shoulder, "Grace, you could have been killed. Be thankful that you weren't."

"Yeah, but now we have to deal with a widow and fatherless kids. This man had a clean record!" She was running on fumes. "Someone tell me who shot him!"

"I shot him." A quiet voice said.

Grace spun on her heel, "Hunter!?"

He nodded and looked her in the eye. "Just let me explain..."

She glared at him, "Save your speech for someone else. I'm done here."

She turned and left without another word, rendering Olivia, Hunter, and Max speechless.

~~~~~

Grace landed on her couch with a thud. She ruined yet another family. Was she even cut out for the job? She stunk at it. She got a man killed.

"No, Hunter got him killed." She told herself. But you could have stopped it. "But Hunter did it."

The battle inside her head was adding to her pounding headache. She stood up and got some ibuprofen. When she sat back down, she grabbed a cozy blanket and stared at the wall. Tonight was not going to be a fun night. She wished Dominic was here. As the oldest sibling, she felt that it was okay to spew out emotions around him, because they were farthest apart in age. But when she was an emotional wreck, she didn't go to him much anymore. His fiance, Chloe was always around. Of course that didn't bother her, she loved Chloe. It made teams more fair during family games like charades. But she didn't get as much one on one time with Dominic as she had before. So she just exploded emotions on her couch.

By herself.

"Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. Hold it together Grace. Hold. It. Together." By the end of it, she started to cry. She had destroyed a family and gotten a man killed. All in one day. That was a new record. She pulled the blanket up to her chin and curled into a ball. This day just couldn't get any worse.

The doorbell rang.

Standing, she tried to wipe her tears and wash away any trace of crying. At least the fact that the day got worse made her chuckle a bit. After splashing cold water on her face and brushing her shoulder length, tangly brown hair, she went to open the door.

The day hit rock bottom.

"Hunter, what are you doing here?" She crossed her arms.

"I came to apologize."

She narrowed her eyes, "You shouldn't be apologizing to me. You should apologize to the family you destroyed."

He looked down at the ground. Wonderful. Now she'd hurt his feelings. Well, he kind of deserved it anyway. But still.

"I would like to explain." His mysterious grey eyes met hers.

"I don't want to hear it."

Hunter shifted his feet, "You know, I feel a lot of guilt. So being rude isn't really helping. I just wanted to explain why."

Grace let out an annoyed huff, "I said, I don't want to hear it." She turned and closed the door, making sure he heard the deadbolt click. She leaned her back against the door and slid to the floor. Thoughts of John's three kids flitted in her mind. Lucy was only eight, Daniel was six, and Tracy was four. The poor kids lost the father figure they really needed. And Marie might not be the most stable person right now. Would she be able to take care of her kids? By now, the silent tears came down again.