Page 116 of Healing Conviction
What’re you up to, little pixie?
“Glad to see your hair’s back in action, Nora. It looks good,” Snake offered. Nora smiled back at him on the screen.
“Thanks, Superman. It was a long time coming. My therapist says I need to try to welcome my truest self to the world. So, here I am, bishes.”
“Your truest self?” Jaybird whispered from his quadrant of the screen. It was right before dinner, but apparently Katie-Belle and Jules didn’t run on the same schedule and had just settled down for a nap. “You’re a force to reckon with, so if you’ve been holding back, I don’t know how much ‘Nora’ the world can handle.”
She lifted a shoulder without missing a beat. “The people who matter will be able to handle me.”
“The rest can try to keep up,” Draco finished for her. She finally looked up at him with a genuine smile as her hand gravitated over his jeans zipper. His eyes threatened to bug out, but he schooled his features and directed his attention to the screen.
“Nora? Is that you?” Snake’s girlfriend Naomi peered over his shoulder with a smile. “Girl, I love the hair. You look happy. It’s good to see the real you.”
Nora’s grin widened as she thanked her before Naomi went left to wrangle her four-year-old. There was at least one other person who saw Pix. Draco didn’t know Snake’s girlfriend at all, but if she could make his girl smile like that, she was good people in his book.
“Let’s move along,” Hawk began. “Marco Aguilar, the prosecutor we’ve been working with.” He tipped his head toward Draco as he filled him in. “Said that Gail Haynesworth has agreed to testify against everyone she worked with directly in the trafficking scheme. We were able to find Nora’s backpack in the woods, so her laptop will corroborate any testimony she gives. She and her family have entered the witness protection program, but we’ve been given the all clear to help hide them. Gail hasn’t shared everything she knows, but apparently the head of the ring is high up in the government, so the Marshals are permitting outside sources to help ensure their safety.”
“Her whole family?” Officer Brown chimed in for the first time. His deep Southern accent was jarring, even worse than Phoenix’s, when he was three sheets to the wind. Their mannerisms were so alike, it hurt to listen to. Hopefully, the guy didn’t think he was a worthy substitute. Draco didn’t care what his former teammate had done. No one could replace him because no one else could possibly know the type of shit his team had gone through together.
Snake nodded. “Yeah, the whole family is in hiding. Naomi says Gail’s husband was really sick for the past few years. Her children were already being homeschooled so they could spend more time together as a family. What with the reach these traffickers seem to have, it makes sense that Gail would agree to testify only if the rest of her family was included in the protection. Naomi and I are looking for an appropriate safe house, hopefully near one of the leading cancer centers in the country.”
Her husband has cancer.
Draco glanced at Nora. He’d burn the world down for her. What had Gail done for her family?
“Cancer, huh? Damn, that sucks. My ma had to have a stint at MD Anderson down in Texas a few years back. But, uh… she didn’t make it.”
“Shit, that sucks, man. I’m sorry,” Snake replied, while the rest of them offered their condolences. “If you ever need to talk, let any of us know. We’ve all been through shit in one way or another.”
Officer Brown’s face was full of gratitude and something else Draco couldn’t define. “Thanks. That… that really means a lot.”
Snake smiled kindly before continuing. “Gail’s testimony will be pivotal in the case. Especially since the FBI found those bodies buried around the CTI facility.”
Nora tensed against him. “But… we didn’t bury the men who were after us.”
Snake winced. “Yeah, uh… I’m not talking about them. You know those ‘sinkholes’ you found Draco?” The question made the hair on the back of his neck stand up as he nodded. “Turns out, if you’d had a shovel to dig deeper, you would’ve found more than just a depression in the ground.”
Nora gasped. Disgust made Draco’s stomach roll over.
“The fuck?” Jaybird asked. “Do you think the two women we haven’t found yet could be buried there?”
“Yeah, do we know much about their whereabouts?” Officer Brown asked.
“Gail said that Calianne’s ‘brain was sick’ or something,” Nora responded. “She didn’t seem to think Calianne was alive. No one we talked to said anything about H. Smith.”
“Hm… so any of those graves could be theirs?” Officer Brown asked.
A look passed between Snake and Hawk before Snake cleared his throat. “We’re not sure. The remains they’ve found haven’t been excavated fully or identified, and they’re going to have to use cadaver dogs to see if there are any more. I’m going to keep trying to find as much out about Calianne Castellanos as possible.”
“And H. Smith,” Nora finished for him.
“Right. Her too,” Snake agreed. “Hopefully our answers aren’t in those woods.”
“Terrifying,” Nora muttered under her breath. He palmed the side of her head and kissed it, ignoring the blatant stares from his team members.
No one would confront him about it, and only Devil would probably ever initiate a conversation about his relationship with Nora. If Phoenix had been there, he would’ve made fun of him, called him out for their PDA.
But he wasn’t. The pit in his stomach burned again at the thought that his teammate was gone. After what he’d done, though, Draco was going to have to accept that.