Chicago (A Jay Halstead Story)

Chapter 11

"Please don't tell Kelly about this. It's nobodies fault."

"Don't tell me about what?" Kelly walked in the door that Erin had left open. "Jesus, Cora." He ran his hand through his hair, taking in the sight of me.

"Listen man, maybe you should give us a minute."

"Don't tell me what, Cora? What is nobodies fault?"

"Kelly." I warned. I just got him back in my life, I didn't know how he would handle this.

"He saw my text." Kelly straightened up as he spoke, like he was putting the timeline together. "Is that what caused this?"

"No. I'll admit, your text didn't help, but that's not what caused it."

"So it was Marco?"

I nodded. "I think he could tell I was getting ready to leave him. He had one of his guys dropping in on me Friday and realized I wasn't home all day. He knew I was lying about where I was and who I was with. That's what started it. It's my fault for trying to sneak around. I should've known he would have someone keeping an eye on me."

"Are you fucking kidding me? This is no one's fault but HIS." Hank raised his voice, causing me to jump. "He murdered his unborn child. Almost killed his fiancé. You didn't do anything wrong and I better never hear that come out of your mouth again. I'm gonna get this son of a bitch."

"Hank, stop." He stood from the bed and started walking towards the door. "HANK."

"I got him." Kelly ran out after him, leaving me and Jay alone in silence.

"You know we can't take this case."

I looked over at him with questioning eyes.

"You work for us. You're Hank and Erin's family. Hell you're OUR family. Too close to home. They won't let us take it. We have to turn it over to homicide. Especially with... Voight's track record in handling things."

"I should've never gotten anyone else involved."

Jay placed his hand on mine, a touch that surprised me, but I didn't move.

"If you hadn't reconnected with them, you might be dead right now."

"If I hadn't reconnected with them, this might've never happened."

"Cora, come on. You know this guy. And I know the type. We got word from Narco that he was dealing with some new product. That's probably why he kept making you leave the house. His uncle is under a lot of heat from this.. manufacturer. They saw Marco the other day meeting with someone. He had a black eye and a busted lip. The person he was meeting with was yelling at him. They think the head honcho from this other group is taking their frustration with his uncle out on him. He's in deep shit. This would've happened and it could've been a lot worse."

"I met your brother."

Jay cracked a smile. "Not as handsome as me is he?"

I chuckled, seething at the pain. "What's downstairs?"

He sighed. "The morgue. Why?"

I looked up at the ceiling and cleared my throat. "He told me I needed to go see my baby. I want to see him now."

"Cora. I don't think that's a good idea right now. You both took... a pretty good beating."

"Jay I've been unconscious for two days. I need to make funeral preparations. So I have to go see him."

"Well you don't need to go alone. And don't you want to rest a little more?"

"I no longer have a baby that's going to be keeping me up at night because he's pushing on my bladder. Or because my belly is too big I can't get comfortable. And I certainly am not gonna have a baby in the next 6 weeks who will cry and never sleep when he's supposed to. So I think I'll have plenty of time for rest." My tone was harsh. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. "Go down there with me if you're so worried about me? Because you're right. I don't need to go alone."

He nodded stiffly and stood up. "I'll be right back."