by A. M. Myers
He groans and nods before pulling back to meet my gaze. “No leaving the clubhouse without one of the guys, okay?”
“I won’t even leave the clubhouse at all,” I promise him and he nods as he leans down and presses his lips to mine.
“Let’s get a move on, Moosie-Poo,” someone calls and Sawyer rips himself away from me with a growl. I scrunch up my nose.
“I really hate your name.”
He rolls his eyes. “Join the club, angel.”
“Moose!” someone else yells and he sighs as he takes a step back.
“I gotta go. I love you.”
I smile. “I love you, too.”
Standing in the doorway to his room, I watch him disappear downstairs before turning to look at his bed. It was a rough night but as much as I would like more sleep, I feel like I should go downstairs and make an effort to get to know some of these guys that are such a big part of Sawyer’s life. Ducking into the room, I grab my phone before going downstairs. A few of the guys are playing pool at the far end of the room while another is sitting at one of the tables, looking over paperwork. He looks up and kicks the chair next to him out for me to sit in.
“Hi,” I say as I sit down and he offers me a warm smile as he extends his hand.
“I’m Fuzz.”
I shake his hand and nod. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“You look a little overwhelmed,” he replies with a laugh that puts me at ease and I smile as I nod.
“Just a little bit.”
He nods, closing the file in front of him. “Sounds like you’ve had a crazy few weeks.”
“Yeah,” I scoff. “That’s one way of putting it but I suppose this is just every day for you guys, huh?”
“Naw, not really. Most of the time, things are pretty chill… it’s just been a bad year.”
I nod, studying him. “Sawyer said something about that. I’m sorry.”
“Thank you.”
“Is that what all this is?” I ask, pointing to the folders and he nods. “Did you find anything?”
“Nope. It’s frustrating as hell but it’s kind of nice to get back to my roots.”
I scowl. “What do you mean?”
“I was a cop before I joined the club.” He laughs. “That’s why they call me Fuzz.”
“Oh.”
“Actually, I learned something from my cop days that I was thinking might help you if you want to give it a try.”
Pursing my lips, I consider his words. A part of me is terrified of what I might uncover in my forgotten memories after everything that’s happened since I woke up in the hospital but my desire to know the truth overpowers that.
“Okay. What do I need to do?”
“I had this case one time,” he says, leaning his elbows on the table. “Where a woman lost her memory like you and the department sent her to this doctor who walked her through unlocking her memories and I could try doing the same thing with you.”
I suck in a breath and nod my head. “Let’s do it.”
“Close your eyes,” he commands and I comply. “Now, I want you to lock onto a memory from your past and it doesn’t matter how small or foggy it is, just pick one.”
I nod, choosing to think about the feeling I got up in Streak’s room when he said Gavin didn’t benefit from my death.
“You got it locked in?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Now, I want you to immerse yourself in the memory. Don’t just let it play in your head. Imagine you’re really living it again.”
My brows draw together as I focus on the emotion I felt upstairs and a picture pops into my mind and I gasp, my eyes snapping open. Fuzz’s eyes widen.
“What did you see?”
I shake my head. “I didn’t have an exact memory, just a nagging feeling that I felt upstairs and when I focused on it, I saw myself in my apartment in Miami. It was raining and I was staring out of the window, crying.”
The guys across the room start laughing and Fuzz glances over his shoulder before standing up and gathering his folders.
“We should do this somewhere quiet.”
I nod and follow him as he leads me into a room with a long wooden table in the middle and chairs positioned all around it.
“This is the war room.”
I arch a brow. “War room?”
“It’s where we meet to talk about… well, anything important.”
Nodding, I sit in one of the seats and he slides into the one next to me. “Okay, ready to do this?”
“Yes.”
“Close your eyes again and focus on that image that popped into your mind.”
Sucking in a breath, I bring the image to the front of my mind and focus on it as I nod.
“Now immerse yourself in it. What can you see?”
“The rain… my reflection in the window… I have tears running down my face… there’s a fire in the fireplace behind me…”
“Good. Now, what can you smell?”
I shake my head. “The fire… cleaning products… perfume…”
“You’re doing great, Juliette. Can you hear anything?”
My hands tremble and my stomach flips as I lose myself deeper in the memory, the fog surrounding it dissipating with each second that ticks by. “The rain… the cracking of the fire…”
“Anything else?”
“There’s something…” I say with a nod, focusing on what the other sound is. “It sounds like voices and music but it’s muffled… maybe a TV playing in another room…”
“Good. Now, this is the most important part. What do you feel?”
I gasp as a wave of despair washes over me. “Oh, God.”
“What is it, Juliette?”
“I’m so sad and scared…” I whisper, tears stinging my eyes as my heart hammers in my chest. “I want something… I’m desperate for it… and angry… so, so angry…”
“Okay. I want you to just focus on these feelings. Let them fill you up and see if you unlock anything else.”
Breathing deeply, I do as he says, letting the emotions pour in and tears begin pouring down my face as another image flickers across my vision. This time, I explore it myself, immersing myself in what I can see, what I can smell, and what I feel.
“Oh my God,” I whisper, gasping for breath and Fuzz grabs my hand, jerking me out of my memories. I open my eyes and meet his.
“What did you see, Juliette?”
I press my hand to my chest, shaking my head as I try to rein the emotions back in. “Gavin… he was holding me captive in the apartment. I found out something I wasn’t supposed to and when he realized I knew, he lost it….”
“Can you remember what you found out?”
“No,” I whisper, shaking my head, and he nods as the door to the war room bursts open. Sawyer charges in and sighs when he sees me.
“There you are.” His gaze drops to my hand in Fuzz’s grasp and his eyes narrow as he takes a menacing step forward. “What the fuck is going on in here?”
“Sawyer,” I whisper, more tears filling my eyes as I drop Fuzz’s hand. “Why are you back? I thought you had to go run an errand?”
He shakes his head. “Chance and Storm said they could handle it on their own. They thought I should be with my girl. Now, I’m going to ask again… What the fuck is going on here?”
“He was helping me remember.”
“Is it working?”
I nod and his eyes widen as he steps into the room and closes the door behind him. He rounds the table and sits on my other side, running his hand through his hair as he grabs my hand. “What do you remember?”
I relay everything I just discovered to him and he studies me before turning to Fuzz. “Sorry I almost killed you, brother.”
“It looked bad out of context,” Fuzz answers with a shrug.
“Can we keep going?” Sawyer asks, his gaze flicking between Fuzz and me. Fuzz nods.
“As long as Juliette can handle it.”
I suck in a breat
h and nod as my stomach rolls. “Let’s do it.”
“All right, Juliette,” Fuzz says. “Same thing as last time. Close your eyes and focus on the memory, then feel it, relive it.”
I nod and do as instructed, closing my eyes and letting the memory flood back in. I’m standing in my bedroom, staring at something but the words on the page are still blurry. Gavin walks in and our eyes meet…
“What the fuck is this?” I hiss, holding the paper up and he pales, taking a step toward me as he shakes his head.
“Please, baby. I can explain.”
My eyes widen. “You can explain? There’s no fucking reason you should have this information unless you were planning to use it against me!”
“I know it looks bad,” he replies, desperation flashing across his face. “But you have to let me…”
“I don’t have to let you do a damn thing!” I crumple the paper up in my hand and reach down to grab a file off the bed before charging past him into the living room. He follows me as I march over to the fireplace and toss everything inside, watching as the flames consume it.
“Jules, baby… please,” he pleads behind me. “I’ve made some mistakes and I’ll tell you everything but you have to know that I love you more than anything.”
I shake my head and turn back to him. “I don’t know that. I don’t know anything anymore.”
Staring at him across the room, I know there’s no way I could trust him again, not after what I just found and there’s too much at stake to take the chance that he won’t use the information he has against me. I shake my head and walk past him into the bedroom before grabbing my suitcase out of the closet and tossing it on the bed.
“Where are you going?” he asks as he walks into the room and I barely glance in his direction as I start pulling clothes off of the racks.
“My dad’s house.”
He shakes his head. “We can fix this.”
“No, there is no fixing this.” The only thing left to do is go to my dad and figure out how to clean up this mess. God, how did I allow this to happen? How did I not see the signs?
“I can’t let you leave me. Don’t you understand how much I love you? How much I’ve risked for you?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore. This,” I gesture between the two of us before gesturing around the room. “All of this doesn’t matter anymore because it’s been a lie all from the start.”
I toss some clothes in my bag before brushing past him and walking into the bathroom to retrieve my toiletries.
“I’m going to make you see,” he murmurs and I glance over at him as he stands in the doorway to the bathroom. “You’re not leaving until I can make you understand.”
He takes a step back and as it registers what he’s planning to do, I jerk forward to stop him, but it’s too late. The bathroom door slams shut and when I try the handle it doesn’t move. My heart races as I pound on the door.
“Gavin!”
“I’m not the one you need to be worried about,” he says. “But don’t worry. I promise you I’m going to fix this.”
I open my eyes with a shudder and Sawyer squeezes my hand.
“What did you see, baby?”
“Gavin betrayed me. He has this file full of information on me and who knows what else… and when I tried to leave, he made me his prisoner.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Juliette
“And the last thing I remember is that he was holding me as his prisoner,” I say, my stomach rolling as the nine pairs of eyes stare at me with shocked expressions. We have been in the war room for the past twenty minutes going over everything we know about my case so far which isn’t much when you see it all pinned up on a cork board like Streak did. I swear, the more we dig into this, the more hopeless it feels and more than once I’ve found myself wondering if we’re seeing things that aren’t really there.
“For how long?” Chance asks and I shake my head. No matter how much Fuzz, Sawyer, and I worked this morning, we couldn’t break past the memory of Gavin locking me in the bathroom and no matter how much they both assured me that it was okay, I can’t help but feel like I failed.
“I don’t know.”
“How did you make it out?”
I shake my head again as my chest feels tight. “I don’t know.”
“But somehow, you ended up with your dad and y’all got into the accident?” Kodiak asks, his face drawn together in concentration and I nod.
“Correct.”
Blaze sighs. “Do you have any idea what was in the folder?”
“I remember saying that the only reason he would have the information is if he was going to use it against me but when I try to focus on the paper itself, it’s just blurry.”
Storm turns to Streak. “Did you find anything that can help us?”
“Oh, yeah,” he answers, rubbing his hands together. “Juliette gave me permission to speak to her father’s lawyer and he was very helpful. Up until two days before the accident, one Gavin Alexander Hale was listed as the beneficiary on Juliette’s will.”
“And how much money was he going to get in the event of your death?” Fuzz asks and I suck in a breath.
“Before my father’s death, between what was left of my trust fund and what I had made through my business, somewhere around three million.”
He nods. “And after your father’s death?”
“Three hundred and fifty million,” I whisper and a wave of shock ripples through the room.
“Holy fuck,” Chance breathes, eyes wide as he falls back in his chair and scrubs his hand over his short hair.
“Sounds like a motive to kill someone if you ask me,” Henn growls, shaking his head. Sawyer sucks in a breath, his shoulders tensing. I grab his hand and give it a squeeze.
“Except he doesn’t get that now.”
“Vengeance is always a sound motive to kill someone,” Streak points out and a few of them nod in agreement.
“Are we sure that he knows he was taken off the will?” Smith asks.
I shake my head. “Clearly things weren’t good between us right before the accident but I don’t see how he could know.”
“So,” Sawyer continues, leaning back in his chair as he pulls my chair closer. “As far as he’s concerned, as soon as he kills you, he’s in for the biggest payday of his life.”
“Hey, speaking of payday,” Streak says, flashing me a wide smile. “I would love a new bike.”
“Absolutely fucking not,” Sawyer snaps, reaching around me to shove him. Laughing, he holds his hands up.
“Chill, man. It was just a joke.”
Sawyer sends a cold look around the room. “And it will be the last fucking one I hear. She trusted us with this information and if y’all are assholes about it, I’m out.”
“It won’t happen again,” Blaze agrees, sending a glare at Streak and he nods.
“Okay, boss. Sorry, Juliette.”
“Now,” Blaze snaps, smacking his gavel on the table. “Back to the matter at hand. How do we deal with Gavin?”
Streak shakes his head. “There is no proof. The car accident and the shooting in the woods look like accidents or coincidences. As for the fire, I’ve reached out to Rodriguez and fire investigation has nothing yet.”
“And you can’t find anything on this guy?”
“There’s literally nothing to find because eighteen months ago, Gavin Hale didn’t even exist.”
I release a breath as my heart stalls and the information seeps into my mind.
“And let me tell you, whoever faked his paperwork is damn good because I had to mine that shit out of the deepest corner of the dark fucking web. For nine months, he lived a seemingly normal life and then he met Juliette. He’s spent every cent he had trying to pretend that their lifestyles were similar and now, he’s broke as a joke.”
“Another option for his motive,” Storm muses and Streak nods.
“But it doesn’t matter ‘cause we still don’t have proof.”
Sawyer shakes his head as he glares over at me. “Absolutely not.”
“Actually…”
“No,” Sawyer barks, turning his rage to Streak, who sighs and rolls his eyes.
“Look, I get it, okay? You love her and you can’t stand it if anything happens to her but if we don’t do something, I have a feeling this won’t end well for her. You guys barely made it out of that house unharmed and each time he attempts something, he gets a little bit closer to succeeding.”
I lay my hand on Sawyer’s and he meets my eyes. “He’s right. We have to end this.”
“I am not risking your life for this,” he growls, begging me with his gaze to side with him but as I think about the fire, I can’t do it. Streak is right. We’ve been incredibly lucky up until now and I can’t take the risk that next time, we won’t be.
“I’m sorry, baby, but I’m doing this.”
Blaze hits his gavel against the table and stands up. “I’ll call Rodriguez.”
We stare at each other as the rest of the guys get up and file out of the room and when we’re alone, he pulls me out of his chair and into his lap as he shakes his head.
“Angel…”
“I know you’re scared, Sawyer… I’m scared, too, but we can’t keep doing this. We’ve only been together for a few weeks and it’s been a roller coaster. I want to have a regular, happy life with you, not more of this.”
He sighs, his fingers kneading my hip. “There has to be another way.”
“You know there’s not.”
“I can’t lose you,” he whispers, his voice thick with emotion and I remember the story about Lydia that he told me in the hotel as I press my hand to his cheek and press my forehead to his.
“I love you way too much to leave you, Sawyer.”
He shudders and his arms wrap around my waist. “I still don’t like this.”
“I know,” I answer with a nod. “But once we make it through this, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
“You mean that?”
I nod. “I do. I want to marry you and have babies with you and build a life with you.”
