by A. M. Myers
I freeze with the coffee cup halfway to my lips, flabbergasted that her crazy plan is sounding better and better the more she talks.
Could it really be possible?
Could he still have feelings for me?
Shaking my head, I blow out a breath.
No, that’s too much to hope for.
“What did you guys talk about last night?” I ask her and she unlocks her phone before handing it to me with a smirk.
“Read it for yourself.”
Setting my coffee down on the desk, I take her phone and take a deep breath as I start reading through their messages. The first few messages are standard getting to know you questions but when I get further down, my hands start to shake.
WyattL23:
Are you looking for something casual or more?
WyattL23:
Also, sorry if that’s too forward.
I’ve had a couple bad dates and don’t want to
make the same mistake again.
EdiePB09:
No, it’s fine. :)
I guess I’m open to either.
It’s got to feel right, you know?
What about you?
WyattL23:
Yeah, I do know.
I’m ready to settle down and start a family.
Are you opposed to the idea?
EdiePB09:
Not at all ;)
“You sent him winky faces, Edie?” I hiss as jealousy burns through my chest. She holds her hands up in surrender as she shakes her head.
“I didn’t know!”
Dropping my head, I release a breath and take another deep breath as I try to calm myself down. It’s not Eden’s fault, I know that but seeing it and knowing that he’s been talking to other girls kills me which is bullshit since I don’t have a claim to him anymore but my stupid, irrational heart doesn’t give a damn. Wyatt is mine and he always will be.
“Did you read the messages, Piper? He’s looking for the same thing you are. You have to give this a shot.”
I lift my head, meet her eyes, and sigh. “It’s crazy, Eden. He’s going to be…”
“Pissed?” she supplies and I nod. “Maybe at first but I really think I’m on to something here. I mean, why not sign the papers if he truly wanted to be done with you?”
“I don’t know. Why didn’t he ever come looking for me if he wanted to keep me?” I ask and she scoffs.
“Oh, that’s an easy one. His damn pride. Plus, the pain and betrayal was fresh.”
The word betrayal rings in my ears and I suck in a breath as my heart seizes in my chest. “Oh, God… he thinks I cheated on him! He’s never going to forgive me.”
“Maybe,” Eden says, her voice softer than before. “It’s time to tell him the truth.”
“I don’t know,” I whisper, shaking my head and she leans forward, grabbing her phone out of my hand.
“Well, I do.” She starts typing out a message and my eyes widen as I lunge for the phone but she dodges me.
“What the hell are you doing?”
She bolts out of her chair and runs into the studio, calling out over her shoulder, “Pushing you out of your comfort zone!”
“Eden!” I scream as I run after her, my stomach flipping as I imagine seeing him again. “Please don’t do this!”
She skids to a stop and turns to face me. “You really don’t want me to?”
“I really don’t,” I assure her, shaking my head as my heart thunders in my chest. There is so much crap between Wyatt and me at this point that I don’t even know what I would say to him. What could I say? I lied to him and betrayed him and Wyatt is not the type of man to forgive so easily.
“Okay… on one condition.”
I take a deep breath, trying to get my nerves under control. “What?”
“You let me find you a different cute guy and set up a date.”
“Eden…” I say, shaking my head and she holds her phone up, arching a brow in challenge as a smile tugs at her lips.
“It’s either that or I set up a date for you with Wyatt.”
Turning, I march back into the office and sink into my chair, trying to ignore the ultimatum she just threw down at my feet.
“Which one is it going to be?”
“How about neither?” I growl, moving the mouse to wake up my computer as she stands behind me. In the reflection on the screen, I watch her as she crosses her arms over her chest and fixes me with a look.
“You have to pick one. I’m not going to stand by and watch you waste your life away and not going after what you want because you’re too damn scared.”
I spin around to face her and level a glare in her direction, opening my mouth to fire back a retort but she holds her hand up to stop me.
“Save it. We both know that’s the real reason you don’t want to make a decision and what kind of friend would I be if I allowed you to wallow in your fear?”
“A good one,” I grumble, glancing away from her.
“Uh, no. A terrible one. So, pick your poison, Pippy. Am I messaging Wyatt? Or are we looking for a new guy for you?”
Turning back to her, I sigh. There is no way in hell she’s going to let me off the hook, this I’m sure of so it’s better to just get it over with. “Let’s look at guys, I guess.”
“Excellent,” she chirps with a grin as she grabs her chair and pulls it closer to mine so I can see her phone’s screen as she starts flicking through photos of men on the site. My stomach rolls as the possibility of going on a date with one of them crashes down on me.
Oh, God, I’m going to be sick…
Chapter Seven
Wyatt
What the hell am I missing here?
Slapping the file in my hand down on the table in front of me, I release a groan and lean back in my chair as I scrub my hand along my jaw, the two day old stubble scratching my palm. In an effort to relax, I close my eyes and blow out a breath. The frustration slowly seeps out of my body and I take another breath before opening my eyes again and leaning forward to skim Dina’s file. I don’t know why I keep hoping that each time I read it, something will click for me and it will crack the whole case wide open because, at this point, I am losing faith that it’s ever going to happen. The thing is, there’s just too many options for who could be behind the deaths of these three girls and virtually no evidence besides our business cards at each scene.
Maybe Kodiak is right.
Maybe I’m just being paranoid and seeing things that aren’t really there but I just can’t shake this feeling - the gnawing sensation deep in my gut that is screaming at me to pay attention to what is obviously right in front of my face. But if that were true, I would have seen something by now, right? I would have found something to back up my theory. I read through Rodriguez’s notes and grit my teeth when I get to the part about Dina clutching our business card as she died, almost like she was desperately trying to call us for help.
I just wish we could have been there for her.
With a sigh, I flip to the next page in her file and study the autopsy report again for the tenth time today. She had blunt force trauma to the head which is to be expected since they couldn’t find any brain activity when she was rushed to the hospital but she had defensive wounds all over her body as well. Whoever attacked her, she gave them hell and she didn’t go down without a fight. Of course there was no DNA found under her fingernails that could make this case real simple but she also had five broken ribs and a lot of internal bleeding. Reading over the information, I can see how we jumped to the conclusion we did with her husband’s history but when you add in the other girls, it doesn’t make sense anymore. Unless…
Holy shit.
What if Mitch is behind all of this? After he killed Dina, he could have continued killing girls we helped in an act of revenge for our role in helping her escape his abuse.
Jesus Christ…
It actually makes a whole lot of fucking sense and I can honestly say it’s the first viable lea
d I’ve come up with since I started digging into this. Besides, it takes a hell of a lot of rage to beat someone to death - something Mitch has in spades. The last time we ran into him, he punched Storm in the face and Chance had to pull a gun on him to get him to back down. I’m sure that hurt his pride quite a bit and to a man like Mitch, it’s enough to make him feel justified in his actions. Grabbing Laney’s file off of the table, I flip it open and turn to her autopsy report, hoping that maybe I’m onto something.
Fuck.
It’s a completely different MO.
In Laney’s case, it looks like her attacker surprised her and she didn’t have time to defend herself before the killer sank a knife into her chest. Why would Mitch change the way he was doing things? To throw us off his track? Or maybe I’m not onto anything at all. Shaking my head, I toss the file down and look up toward the stairs as my mind races with possibilities. If I’m going to truly pursue Mitch as a suspect, I need more information on him.
Nodding, I gather up the files and head upstairs, dropping them off in my room before I walk down to the end of the hall where Streak’s lair is. Streak is our resident tech expert so if anyone is going to dig up information on Mitch for me, it’s him.
“What?” he calls after I knock on the door and I open it. He flicks an annoyed glance over his shoulder before turning back to his computer screens. “I didn’t say come in, asshole.”
I shrug as I step into the room and close the door behind me. “Get over it, buttercup. I have a question for you.”
“Buttercup,” he mutters, shaking his head before he turns to face me and crosses his arms over his chest. “What’s your question?”
“You’ve been looking into the girls’ cases, too, right?”
He nods. “Yeah.”
“Have you looked into Mitch at all?”
“Mitch?” he asks, scowling. “Dina’s Mitch?”
I nod, grabbing a chair and dragging it next to his desk before I sink into it. “Yep. I was just going through the cases downstairs…”
“As per usual,” he interrupts, rolling his eyes.
“Yes, as usual. Anyway, I was thinking how when you add in the death of Laney and Sammy, Mitch killing Dina doesn’t make sense…”
“Right. And?”
“But what if it makes perfect sense?”
His head jerks back as he looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m saying,” I shoot back. “What if Mitch was so pissed that we took Dina from him and pissed at Chance for pulling a gun on him that he started coming after us?”
He studies me for a second before shaking his head and turning back to his computer. “Well, shit.”
“Exactly.”
“So,” he starts, turning to face me again. “You think Mitch has been behind all of this as a way to get revenge against the club?”
“I don’t think anything right now but it’s a possibility and that’s better than anything else I’ve come up with.”
Nodding, he stares at a spot on the wall and I can practically see his wheels turning. “Or it could be the husband slash boyfriend of any girl we’ve helped since we started doing this.”
“But why not start with Dina?”
“Okay,” he agrees, nodding as he turns back to his computer as he starts typing. “I’ll start looking into him. What all do you want?”
“Everything you can find.”
He glances at me with an arched brow. “Everything? Like… everything?”
“Maybe everything from six months before Dina died until now.”
“You got it.”
He starts typing furiously and I know that’s my cue to get the fuck out. I close his door behind me as I step back into the hallway and check my watch as I head back downstairs. I still have a little time before my date this afternoon and I’m feeling damn good after what feels like my first major break in this case. Sure, it might still be nothing but, at least, I’m doing something other than staring at those damn files and floundering. Which is especially irritating because this is what I did for almost a year before joining the club. My mind drifts back to my time as a Baton Rouge police officer and I shake my head. God, what a shitty time that was in my life. I had just gotten out of the Marines and I was looking for a fresh start but joining a department that had more dirty cops than legit ones made it hard to achieve that. Once I found out about the Devils and the work they had started doing, I got out of there as fast as I could.
Back downstairs, I slip behind the bar and grab a beer from the fridge before slipping onto a bar stool and popping the cap off as I turn my focus to my plans for the rest of the day. It’s weird but I’m actually looking forward to this date. Eden has been easy as hell to talk to and she seems sweet and carefree. Plus, we’ve already gotten all the important questions out of the way so hopefully I won’t be blindsided again. Although, I’m serious this time when I say if this date doesn’t go well, I’m deleting my profile and throwing in the towel.
The door to the clubhouse opens and sunlight streams into the room. I glance over my shoulder to see who just walked in and as soon as the door closes again and my eyes adjust, I almost fall off my bar stool. Every eye in the room turns to look at the woman standing in the doorway as a hush falls over the room.
What in the fuck is she doing here?
“Uh… is Moose here?” Tawny asks, shifting from one foot to the other before going back again as her gaze shifts between Chance, Storm, and me as we all stare back at her. The nerve of this bitch…
I shake my head in disbelief. A while back, Tawny and Moose were seeing each other but it was casual as hell and when Tawny pushed him for more, he ended things with her. Not that she took the rejection well. She kept coming around, trying to get him back and when that didn’t work, she went down to the police with a mysterious black eye and claimed that Moose hit her. It’s a load of shit. Especially in this club. I mean, you don’t join a club that helps women being abused if you’re secretly smacking them around on the side. In the end, she dropped the charges and Moose was able to get back to his life and his new woman but she still isn’t welcome here.
“Please?” she pleads, her hand shaking as her gaze lands on me. I take a step toward her and shake my head.
“Nope. He’s not here.”
She flicks imploring eyes to me. “I saw his bike outside. Please. I just need to talk to him.”
“Hell, no. You can turn right the fuck around and walk back out that door.”
Tears fill her eyes but she blinks them away. “Look, I know what I did was fucked up… and I know I’m not welcome here but I need to talk to…”
“Tawny?” Moose growls from behind me as he walks into the room and she sucks in a breath as her gaze snaps to his. He stops next to me and crosses his arms over his chest, anger radiating off him in waves. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Can we talk?”
“Fuck, no. I don’t have shit to say to you.”
He releases a breath, her gaze falling to the floor before meeting his eyes again. “Please, Moose? I really need to talk to you. It’s important…”
Moose stares at her for a second before his gaze flicks to me. I shrug my shoulders as I take a sip of my beer and he turns back to her.
“Fine. Talk.”
“Uh,” she whispers, looking at the rest of us watching on. “Could we go somewhere more private?”
“No. Apparently I need witnesses around you.”
She flinches and nods. “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Get on with it, then,” he snaps, raising a brow as he waits for whatever she feels she needs to say to him. She sucks in a breath as she takes another step into the room.
“I… uh, when you ended things between us, I was really pissed and I went out drinking for a couple of nights…”
His head jerks back. “I don’t give a shit what you did.”
“Just… liste
n,” she mutters, shaking her head as she draws a breath into her lungs. “I met this guy there and we got to talking. I told him all about us and how you had ended things with me. He was sympathetic and the more we drank, the more he started suggesting that I find a way to get back at you.”
“And you thought pretending that he had abused you was the way to go?” I ask, disgust rolling through me. “How the hell did you even get that black eye? Did you punch yourself?”
She shakes her head. “No, actually… that was his idea. He knew who you guys were and the work you do and said it would be hilarious if one of you got arrested for hitting a woman…”
Chance stands and kicks his chair back as he shakes his head in disgust. “Yeah? Did you two get a good laugh out of it?”
“No,” she whispers, shaking her head. “After I sobered up and I woke up with a giant black eye, it didn’t seem like such a good idea anymore.”
Moose glances at me before turning back to Tawny. “You never answered Fuzz’s question. How did you get the black eye?”
“He did it… After we were completely wasted, he talked me into going out behind the bar and he…” Tears sting her eyes again as she looks up at the ceiling. “He punched me in the face a couple times.”
“So, this guy hit you, ” Moose starts, tilting his head to the side, studying her as he tries to understand her flawed logic. “And you decided to take advantage of a bad situation by going to the police?”
“I wasn’t going to go through with it but then my roommate saw me and asked what happened… I didn’t know what else to say so I just told her the story we came up with and she made me go to the police.”
“Great,” Moose snarls, turning away from her. “Thanks for the fucking explanation.”
“Wait!”
He turns back around, arching a brow and she straightens her shoulder as she meets his eyes.
“I wanted to tell you how sorry I am, Moose. It was a lot of stupid decisions fueled by your rejection and my anger, not to mention alcohol but I wish I could take them all back.”
