In the end, she realized the smart thing for her and Magnum to do would be to brace for the storm that could hit them head on when they returned to Pennsylvania.
Because Cait had no doubt that was coming.
She just hoped it was a light rain shower instead of a hurricane, destroying everything in its path.
Chapter Twelve
Magnum slowly scanned the room, doing his best not to be too obvious. He did it a couple more times, pretending to work the crick out of his neck. He also did it while leaning over and whispering into Cait’s ear so he could see behind them. The only thing he told her was what he would do to her when they got back to their room. That was, after whatever bullshit work thing she had to do after dinner, which got her squeezing his thigh under the table way too close to his dick.
The one he was attached to and wanted to keep. So, he was relieved when Cait said she smoothed things over, for the most part, with Regan, but wasn’t surprised when she said her mother had a problem with their age difference.
She wasn’t the only one.
He had one more day to take action with whatever male he thought was in that video. Up in the Adirondacks, there were plenty of locations to dispose of a fucking dead man. So, if possible, he wanted to take care of that important business before heading home.
Only problem was, he wanted it to be the right dead man. Being wrong, and letting whoever violated Cait continue to breathe would be a fucking shame. It also meant she wouldn’t be safe. Once they went back to Pennsylvania, he couldn’t stay by her side, protecting her, like he had during this retreat.
He checked out every dark-haired male sitting in the restaurant, seeing who had a brown shade similar to what appeared in the video.
He nixed all the men who had dark hair with gray mixed in. He crossed off all of the blonds and redheads. Then he studied the possibilities. He had them narrowed down to five good prospects.
A spouse who Cait said wasn’t at the celebration that night, so he was out. And two married co-workers who’d been there with their wives. He doubted it was either of them.
But his eyes kept slicing back to Nate and Drew Gallo, who sat at the table in front of them. His gut was screaming at him it had to be Nate.
The fucker had the opportunity and even the motive since he obviously wanted Cait, though she shot him down time and time again.
His fingers curled against his thighs under the table, imagining they were tightening around the bastard’s neck. He never snapped a man’s neck with his hands before. While he knew it was possible, he also knew it took skill. But he did know how to do it with a baseball bat or a club. Unfortunately, he didn’t have anything like that with him. Crushing a windpipe would work, too. It just took a little longer and a little more effort.
If he could swim, he’d drown the fucker and make it look like an accident. That was out. If he knew how to drive a boat, he could tie weights from the gym to the motherfucker’s limbs and toss him overboard in the deepest spot he could find.
One good thing was, he had Cait’s car and when he went out to get more wraps earlier, he’d taken it onto several dirt roads into the woods, scouting a couple potential spots. The bad thing was, he didn’t have the shit to dig a hole, so that might be out.
He gritted his teeth.
Back home in Pennsylvania there were plenty of abandoned quarries where bodies could easily be tossed and hopefully never found. He’d also found some interesting ways to get rid of Shadow Warriors when he or his brothers had come across them.
But, again, he had none of those tools up here in New York.
He also probably wouldn’t have a lot of time. If Nate Gallo wasn’t seen or heard from for even a short length of time, they might go searching for him.
For the most part, no one knew when one of those fucknut Warriors had gone missing until weeks later, since they were a nomad club without a home base.
But Gallo wasn’t a Warrior. Someone actually gave a shit about him. Which meant they might figure out he was missing sooner than later.
Fuck.
Cait happened to mention she knew how to drive a boat, but there was no fucking way he was letting her help him. No fucking way he’d let her get slapped with an accessory to murder charge, if it came down to it.
No matter fucking what, time was slipping away and he needed to do something soon.
He narrowed his gaze on Drew Gallo as he approached their table. “Can I have a word, Malcolm?”
What the fuck. “Yeah.” He leaned over to Cait and murmured into her ear, “Be back. Stay here ‘til I return.”
She nodded and let her hand slide down his arm as he rose and followed the oldest Gallo son out of the restaurant and outside to an empty patio in one of the gardens.
What the fuck was going on? Did Regan pull some shit?
“What’s goin’ on, Gallo?”
“Drew, please.”
“All right, Drew, what the fu— What’s goin’ on?”
“I got an interesting email today. It was a bit disturbing and—”
Fuck. The video. “Where’d it come from?”
“I don’t know. The email address used was one of those anonymous ones and there was a video attached.”
Either the younger Gallo sent it to him, or whoever had been in that motel room did. But it made no sense. Why would they send it to Drew?
“A video of what?” He braced, already knowing what.
“She wasn’t alone in that room.”
Of course that motherfucker watched it. He’d seen Cait naked and vulnerable. His blood pressure began to rise, but he needed to keep his shit together. “Who was with her?”
“I don’t know, but I have my suspicions. Do you want to see the video?”
Fuck. He had to play a dumb fuck and see where this all led. “Am I gonna get upset about it?”
“Yes.”
“What was happenin’ in that video?”
“Cait was compromised.”
Compromised. A fancy fucking word for an ugly action. “How was she compromised, Drew?”
Gallo lowered his voice to a whisper. “She was naked. And... the person with her was a man.”
Magnum wanted to roll his eyes but needed to act shocked and surprised instead. With a sharp noise, he covered his face with his hands. “Was she raped, Drew? Is that what you’re sayin’?” Even though his words were muffled behind his hands, he raised his voice to a higher pitch.
A muscle in his jaw popped when Gallo pressed a hand to Magnum’s arm. “Maybe you should sit down.”
“No.” Magnum said between his fingers, playing the devastated boyfriend. “No... Just... say it.”
“It appears she was. Either that or... or she was willing and—”
Magnum dropped his hands and his glare stopped Drew cold. “You think she was fuckin’ willin’? That she was screwin’ around on me?”
Fuck, he didn’t mean to curse. But fuck it, he was a man who was just told his woman had sex with someone else, consensual or not. It would be upsetting. Jesus fuck, it was upsetting even when Cait wasn’t his damn girlfriend.
“Malcolm,” Gallo started, sounding concerned.
“You think she was fuckin’ willin’?” he asked again on the edge of shouting, making Gallo look around nervously.
“Her eyes were closed, her face was blank... and she wasn’t moving. You’d know better than anyone how she...”
His eyebrows shot up and his jaw shifted. “How she what?”
“You know.”
“Yeah, Drew, I know. What’d you do with the video?”
“I... saved it. For evidence. To show the police.”
Fuck that. There was no way they were getting the pigs involved. No fucking way.
“Need you to keep this to yourself, Drew. Don’t want anyone else seein’ it. Don’t want Cait embarrassed by it. She doesn’t know and I may not even want her to know. Need you to send me that video and delete the email.”
Hell, he wanted t
o watch Drew delete the fucking email. Though, the man could’ve saved a copy to his phone. If not other places.
“It just proves that the police should get involved, Malcolm, like I said.”
“You send me that video and let me decide on that. She’s my wo— girlfriend. She finds out some moth— man did that to her, it may mess her up. Right now, she’s happy. That’s gonna make her unhappy. She’s unhappy, I’m unhappy. Get what I’m sayin’?”
Gallo’s answer was a “yes,” but it wasn’t convincing.
“Said you’ve got your suspicions? Wanna share ‘em?”
Gallo again glanced around and took a step closer to Magnum. He didn’t like it but he tolerated the fucker getting up close and personal since he might be getting a name.
Gallo lowered his voice again. “I fear it’s my brother. He’s been obsessed with Cait since she started at our agency. He took her home that night. He had access to her drink and access to her.”
Play dumb and let the asshole keep speakin’. “If he took her home like he said, why would he take her to the motel afterward?”
“Maybe he took her straight there. Look, I think he has issues and I’d hate to say that about my own brother, but I’ve been concerned about him for a while.”
This whole “concern” thing was feeling like a whole bunch of bullshit. “You take those concerns to your father?”
“Of course, but, again, Nate’s his favorite, as well as his namesake, which should’ve been me since I was the firstborn son. He’s always been blind to my brother’s behavior, too.”
“You wanted Nate to investigate it,” Magnum reminded him.
“Before I saw the video.”
“What makes you think it’s him? Can you see his face?”
Gallo hesitated. “No. But I grew up with him. We’re in the locker room at the club together all the time. I know what his body looks like.”
“And you think it’s him.”
“I hope it’s not, but I’m... leaning toward it.”
“You confront him? Or did you come to me first?”
“You.”
There was something so fucking off with this whole thing. So much so, Magnum’s skin was getting itchy. “Why?”
“Because if it was my girlfriend, I’d want to know first.”
Right. The fucker was throwing his brother under the bus. There was no fucking way Magnum would ever do that to one of his brothers, blood or not. He’d handle that shit himself. But then, Gallo probably didn’t have the balls big enough.
Magnum held out his hand.
Gallo stared at it, confused.
“Phone. Unlock it, pull up the email and hand it over.”
“I... uh...”
“Pull it up and hand it over,” he said more firmly, drawing himself to his full height of six-foot-three. He had a good five inches and about sixty solid pounds on the asshole.
Gallo pulled his cell from the holder on his belt and unlocked it using his fingerprint. “Give me your number and I’ll text it to you.”
Magnum snagged it from his fingers, pulled up the email app, scrolled down through the emails. “Which email?”
“I... I downloaded the video to my phone and deleted it.”
Magnum raised a brow. This fucker was a lying sack of shit. What was his angle? “You deleted the email you were gonna use as evidence for the police?”
“Yes... But I saved the video,” he said quickly.
“Ever thought they could’ve figured out where the email came from?”
“Sorry.”
“It in your deleted email?”
Gallo’s eyes widened for a second. “No. Sorry.”
Something definitely wasn’t right. Magnum scrolled through the man’s phone until he found the saved video, then sent it to himself, even though he already had a copy. He wasted no time deleting it from Gallo’s phone. “That it? Any other copies?”
“No.”
“You sure? I find out differently, Drew, I’m gonna have a problem. No, you’re gonna have a problem. I’ll decide who gets to see it, includin’ Cait.”
“I’m not sure if that’s smart. If it’s my brother, something has to be done about him. To stop him from doing this again in the future.”
Something was going to be done about it, guaran-fucking-teed. “What would you do about it if it was?”
“Call the police, like I said.”
“No name, no face, no identifying marks, right? Anonymous email you deleted. Weeks later, so no DNA to test. What the fu—hell do you think the... cops are gonna do with that video besides watch it and scratch their heads?” Scratch their fucking balls, more likely.
“I don’t know.”
“Right,” he grunted and handed Gallo his phone back. He spun on his heels and went to get Cait.
He needed to get away from that motherfucker before he killed him, too.
Cait wandered through the open slider and climbed sideways onto Magnum’s lap, hoping the chair would hold the both of them. It groaned and flexed but seemed to hold as he wrapped his thick arms around her.
She settled her legs over the armrest and put her ear to his chest over his heart. The beat was strong and steady.
He tucked his nose into her hair and inhaled.
He was like a rock. Her rock.
She just needed to convince him of that. She also needed to come up with a good way to convince her father of it, too.
“Maybe you could approach my father and...”
His whole body tensed under and around her. “And what?”
“Ask for permission.”
“For what?”
She pinned her lips together. He probably didn’t want the same things she did.
“For what, Cait? What am I askin’ Dawg for? Besides a fuckin’ beat down?”
She grimaced. If anything, she was sure Magnum could take her father, but there was no way she wanted that.
“For what?” he prodded again, his fingers digging harshly into her thigh. “To be my ol’ lady? Or just permission to fuck you?”
“I don’t know how it works,” she said weakly.
“Yeah, you do. Not lookin’ for an ol’ lady, Cait. And that’s a commitment you shouldn’t be lookin’ for with me anyway.”
“Why not? Because I’m too young?”
“Yeah, baby, ‘cause you are way too fuckin’ young.”
Age shouldn’t even matter. Compatibility should. “We’re good together.”
“It’s been a few days. Not enough time to know that.”
But it was a good start. “We could give it the time it needs.”
“Cait...”
“Tell me about Stacy.”
He jerked in the chair and she lifted her head from his chest to see his jawline hard, his eyes focused on the calm, dark lake beyond her.
“The sisterhood mentioned her. They said she was your ol’ lady and then suddenly one day she wasn’t.”
“Told you that?”
“Well, they mentioned it when they were speaking in general.” But she had paid attention whenever he was mentioned. No one knew what happened. Stacy was there and then she was history. No one ever heard them arguing or anything. And the few times his ol’ lady was invited to DAMC events, the women said she never bitched about Magnum. Not once. If they had been having problems, they’d hidden it well.
“Why am I in their mouth?”
“How can you not be? Single beast like you?” She grinned.
His lips finally twitched and his jaw softened. He dropped his gaze to her. “Yeah?”
“Oh, you like that? The women all drooling over you?”
“Right,” he grunted.
“They do. Single and sexy.” She ran her fingertips lightly over his very kissable, very suckable, very skilled lips. “And great in bed, too. But none of them know that.”
“Reason for that, Caitie.”
“Yes, because they aren’t single.”
“Not all of ‘em.”
“Well, no. Annie and Allie aren’t. But I don’t think either are looking for a man.” Both were also a lot older than Magnum. Her mouth got tight. If age wasn’t supposed to matter, she couldn’t think like that. “So, tell me about Stacy. Was she your only ol’ lady? What happened with her?”
Magnum focused on her lips. “Mouth.”
A shiver ran through her at that demand. He was trying to distract her. Even so, she tipped her head up and offered it to him.
He took it long and hard. And soon it wasn’t the only thing long and hard.
After a while, she twisted her head away and planted her hand on his chest. “I still want an answer.”
“Tryin’ to demand shit you got no right to demand,” he grumbled.
“Maybe. But you’re going to tell me anyway.”
His eyebrows rose. “Don’t got a problem when you’re naked and bossin’ me around. Right now, you ain’t naked.”
“I could be if it’ll get me the answers,” she said lightly, starting to extract herself from his lap.
He tugged her back down, causing the chair to creak scarily.
“Undo your shorts.”
“Now who’s being bossy?” she whispered, her thighs automatically squeezing at his rough command.
No one was outside on their balconies on either side of them, and the interiors of their rooms were also dark. Either they were asleep or doing some late-night activity somewhere on the resort. Plus, Cait’s balcony was dark since neither her nor Magnum had flipped on the outside light.
With fingers trembling in anticipation, she undid the button and slid down the zipper, the noise deafening in the quiet night. He knocked her hand away when his much bigger one slipped into her panties. His middle finger caressed her clit, circling and pressing it a few times, enough to make her twitch, before continuing on to slide between her quickly slickening folds.
He curved his long middle finger and slipped it inside her with ease. “Fuckin’ so wet, baby,” he mumbled into her hair.
“All because of you.”
Magnum: A Dark Knights MC/Dirty Angels MC Crossover Page 17
