Dyami, his younger sister died ten years ago on her way to meet him for lunch. Simply put, she’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He never heard the phrase ‘innocent by-stander’ without conjuring a picture of her lying in a pool of her own blood, a victim of a bank robbery gone bad. While her brother, the man who would protect her from harm, sat at a café two blocks away, impatient for her arrival. The fact he thought of her now made him worry if Cezi was in the same kind of danger. He’d never reach her in time if she had a problem. Her father said family would protect her, but John knew from personal experience that good intentions never saved anybody. His phone rang shaking him out of his reminiscing. D’Sean’s photo appeared on the screen. Stillwater slid the bar to answer, but before he could speak, D’Sean’s words came through the earpiece. “The gypsy bitch was right.” It was a good thing Lassiter wasn’t standing in front of him because the need to punch his partner rode him hard.
