Revenge by Debra Webb Page A

victim.’
    ‘Okay.’ Lori sent the text, then settled her attention back on Jess. ‘That was the chief.’
    Jess expected as much. She didn’t have to check her phone to know he’d called her as well. She’d seen the missed call when she snapped the picture of Baker’s tattoo. ‘Do I want to know?’
    ‘He needs you in his office. Now.’
    Which meant one of two things: either the mayor wanted her reassurance that she would have the Baker case solved ASAP or they had found Captain Allen’s body buried in her backyard.
    Since she hadn’t harmed a hair on the man’s head much less planted him anywhere, it had to be about the Baker case.
    She hoped.

Chapter Five
    The Grille, Five Points, Noon
    ‘ I can’t believe he’s dead.’ Juliette Coleman felt sick to her stomach. She pushed away the menu. This was her favorite lunch spot but there was no way she could eat and have this discussion. It hurt too much.
    This wasn’t supposed to happen. Agony flooded her being. What did she do now? How did she move past this? Stop the images from flashing over and over in her head?
    She shut down that line of thinking. She couldn’t go there. Not right now.
    ‘This can’t be.’ Elliott Carson turned his hands up and surveyed the rest of the group seated around the table. ‘No way. What about his wife and kid? Jesus Christ.’ He hung his head, obviously stunned and horrified by the news.
    He was the one she would have expected to be torn up about this. Elliott had always been the most kindhearted of all the guys. Yet he was the one who had the most reason not to be. With his former celebrity status as a Major League Baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates, everyone had expected him to turn into a self - centered ass, but he never had. Instead, after several amazing seasons and a shoulder injury that forced his retirement at the height of his game, he came right back here to Birmingham and started a training camp for young athletes. He spent a lot of time giving back to the community.
    Somehow over the years she’d forgotten what a good guy Elliott was . . . How had they come to this?
    Don’t go there, Juliette .
    ‘What the hell happened?’ Aaron Taylor demanded. He had no patience for beating around the bush; he never had.
    ‘You’re kidding, right?’ Kevin O’Reilly, the son of Birmingham’s media mogul Clinton O’Reilly, directed this at Aaron and then spent a long, dramatic moment in silence, staring across the table from one to the other.
    Even if they weren’t discussing the death of a lifelong friend, Kevin would pull out his whole trunk of theatrics. He’d been a drama queen back in high school and he was still one today. Part of him was probably glad Scott was dead. One less person for Kevin to be jealous of. Juliette banished the ugly thoughts. This was not the time.
    God, what was she going to do? Agony welled inside her all over again.
    ‘I warned you this would happen if Todd Penney ever came back,’ Kevin said knowingly. ‘Scott should have listened to me. All of you better start paying attention.’
    ‘Oh my God.’ Juliette couldn’t believe he’d just said that. Anger overrode the pain and regret. Kevin thought he was the only one who could solve a fucking problem. Worse, he was making this about him! He made her sick.
    As if he’d read her mind, he glared at her in warning.
    She glowered right back, hoping he saw just how much she hated his guts right now.
    ‘You can’t really believe he would do this?’ Aaron challenged. ‘What could he possibly hope to gain?’
    Answer that one, you sawed off little bastard , Juliette wanted to scream at him.
    Unlike Kevin or Elliott, Aaron was the logical one. It was the attorney in him. Like his father and his grandfather, he had been born to analyze and to challenge. But a courtroom was the only place where he pulled out those sizeable balls of his these days. The cocky football star from high school was as queer as a three-dollar bill