Hushed Guardian: Brandon's Story (Enigma Book 19) by Shandi Boyes

Author:Shandi Boyes [Boyes, Shandi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-18T16:00:00+00:00

17

Melody

“You can call him, you know?”

I stop peering down at the two-word text Brandon sent me a week ago to stray my eyes to Julian. He’s supposed to be making beef stir-fry for dinner. All he’s doing is making a mess. This is one of those times I hate his I-cook-you-clean rules.

After dumping my cell phone onto the coffee table, I join him in my compact kitchen. “And say what? I’m sorry your association with me when we were kids has you being accused of murder twice? Or that I’m not the cheating scumbag you think I am?”

His orange-tinged blond brow pops up high on his face. “You could say both, although I wouldn’t recommend those exact words.”

I bump him with my hip, steal an almond from the packet he’s sprinkling into the almost-cooked mix, then spin around to sign, “Smart-ass.”

The almond gets stuck halfway down my throat when Julian says, “I saw that.” He whacks my butt with a grubby wooden spoon. “Now I’ll add even more nuts to the mix.” After lowering my bottom lip into a pout, I pivot back around to face him. “Nu-huh.” He silently tsks me. “This is what happens when you lie. Your stir-fry gets extra nutty.”

Ignoring the flutter of my heart as it recalls the last time I ate a nut-riddled dish, I say, “I wasn’t lying. You are a smart-ass.”

Since he can’t deny the truth, he remains quiet.

After a few minutes of watching him in my kitchen like it’s as natural as breathing to him, I ask, “Do you think he knows?”

Julian’s eyes lift from the stir-fry with way too many nuts. “That they changed the ruling on your parents’ accident?” When I jerk up my chin, he adds, “I’d say so. His name was mentioned a few times in the new reports.” He places down his wooden spoon, lowers the gas flame from high to low, then props his hip onto the counter next to mine. “Have you decided what you want to do yet? You’re well within your rights to sue.”

“Sue who, exactly? The man who falsified the documents is dead.” He was the police chief of my hometown. He died during a routine traffic stop a few months after my parents’ accident.

“You could sue the state.”

I sigh. “Then I would have to prove they were purposely negligent. It isn’t as clear-cut as it seems.” My teeth grit when my tone comes out harsher than I intended. Usually, we have these conversations about the incident that saw me moving across the country. Julian believes I should sue Joey’s estate. It isn’t about money, Julian has plenty of that. It’s about giving a voice to a victim even if the accused is dead. Sometimes I agree with him, but it’s only on very rare occasions.

Even now, years later, I still can’t wrap my head around what happened with Joey. He was the equivalent of a big brother to me. I loved him—I still do in a sadistic, twisted way—so it’s a struggle to understand what caused a massive change in his personality.

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