Sean aka Diesel (Cocker Brothers Book 14), стр. 25
He sends the drivers license flying back to me at the same time like we’re circus jugglers, easily catching both. “If it is fake, it’s a good one. But that’s not surprising.” He grabs her hand, forces her thumbprint onto the home-button, unlocking her cell phone as she swears like a trucker who stubbed his toe.
“Some mouth you got there. Here ya go,” he smirks, throwing it to me. I go right for the emails, scanning and cocking my eyebrows. “Corinne likes to shop. And oh ho! They’re not shipping to the address we visited.”
Atlas reminds me, “Check for confirmations of purchased insurance policies.”
Hitting the search bar I type Life Insurance and shake my head. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, wow. Hang on. Let me open a few. These emails were all sent over the past two years.” Scanning the first couple I tell Atlas, “She poses as their children, puts herself as the beneficiary, pays for the policy and never tells a soul. You’re a really evil bitch, you know that? Lucky for us, you’re stupid, too. Should’ve deleted these.”
Atlas punches the wall where he’s caged her in. Corinne flinches but that’s it. Sociopaths don’t cower. They feel nothing, and now she no longer has to fake being a normal human. She spits in his face. “Let me,” I tell him as he wipes it off. I walk over. He moves out of the way. And I knock her in the head so hard her eyes roll back.
“Tie her up. I’ll call the son. He’ll make sure she stays put until the cops come.”
Jett gave us young Russo’s number. I start to dial and a sound turns all of our heads. It takes a second to register that the code-blue alarm has been triggered on the heart-rate machine. The old man is going into cardiac arrest.
Sean reacts first. At the high-pitched cry his reflexes beat even mine, and he sprints so fast it takes my breath away. By the time I burst into the bedroom Sean is already straddling the man, pumping on his heart, giving him mouth to mouth. I stare in shock—didn’t know he had this skill. We didn’t teach him this. Slowly I approach, hoping to God he can save Mr. Russo. The man’s son needs a chance to say goodbye. Time ticks and that straight red line is stubborn.
Sean growls as he pumps the old man’s chest.
“C’mon, you bastard!”
He lunges for the lifeless mouth.
Gifts the old man his oxygen.
Staying steady.
Never breaking.
Desperate to revive a disappointed heart.
I gasp as the line jumps, peaks, and falls. It does it again, and again. Pulse regained. Laughing with relief, hand covering my own chest, I take my first real breath.
Sapphires blink at the man. Sean climbs off the bed to stand with me and watch the subtle rise and fall of Mr. Russo’s chest. Crinkled eyes open slightly, then fall back closed. He’s been over-medicated. That’s how she does it, we’ll come to find out. She slowly drains them of the will to live. Makes it look natural.
But her killing days are over.
I rest my hand on Sean’s lower back. “You okay?”
After a long beat he blankly says, “No,” turns and leaves me here, staring after him.
CHAPTER 17
C ELIA
A s we ride up the long driveway to our home Jett walks out to greet us. We park in front of the steps but remain seated so we can store these as soon as we give him the verbal report.
“How’d it go?”
Atlas motions to me. “Tell him, Ceels.”
Odd for him to hand off the details, but it hits me that he wants to appear more generous than usual to earn brownie points back. Anything to dull the memory of snitching on his brother, and show he’s a team player.
Jett’s grey eyes lock onto me as he crosses his arms to hear me explain, “She’s a Black Widow alright. We followed your hunch on that, searched the apartment for souvenirs of her victims and found a stash of drivers licenses. All old people. It made the job easier.”
Atlas nods. “Had something to shove in her face. She tried to escape.”
Jett crosses his arms. “Of course.”
“We tied her up and called the son.”
I nod, “Then we waited until he arrived. Poor guy was a wreck. Rage, regret. It was pretty bad. He called the cops—they’ve gotta be there by now. He’s going to say that he was the one who found the licenses, that he took her keys last time he confronted her in his dad’s house. He swiped them, made a copy, returned them while she wasn’t looking. Even if she claims it was us, he’s going to deny it, call her a liar. With the evidence on her phone, all the Life Insurance claims she took out on her victims, the police will listen to him, not her.”
Jett’s eyebrows pierce his weathered skin. “Cops will find her bank accounts extra flush. They’ll take it from here. Good work. How’s the man?”
“Good…now.”
“Something happen?”
“He went into cardiac arrest while we were there.” Jogging my chin back to Sean I confess his good deed for him, “Sean performed CPR and brought him back for a reunion with his son.”
Grey eyes narrow. “I didn’t see you train him in that yet.”
“Haven’t gotten that far. That was all him.”
Blank as before, Sean says, “Worked as a lifeguard one summer in high school. Saved two kids that year.”
“Interesting. Put the bikes away and come eat. You guys did good.” Jett heads up our creaky steps as Sean starts his engine and takes off like he can’t wait to put the bike away. Atlas and I exchange a look.
Inside the house is a riotous war zone. We Ciphers love it when a problem in the real world gets solved by