by Cynthia Eden
“Anytime,” she whispered.
He kissed her again. Deep. Slow. So good that she was pressing against him before he pulled away. “A cop is staring at us,” he murmured.
They were in a police station. There were probably lots of cops staring at them.
“I think Jinx asked her to take you home. I’ll be there to meet you as soon as I do some more paperwork. Probably need to call War and update him, too, before he sees the stories on the news.”
If he hadn’t already.
Another tender kiss from Odin. Then he let her go.
The cop cleared her throat.
Right. Time to go. Maisey squared her shoulders and advanced toward the waiting cop.
“You found out what happened to her, Maisey.”
Odin’s voice stopped her.
“You’re gonna get justice for Whitney, too.”
Yes, yes, they were. Her steps seemed lighter as she joined the cop.
***
Maisey watched the patrol car drive away. Wind blasted against her, and she felt the light touch of raindrops on her skin. The promised storm was finally about to hit.
Even though the sky was dark—nearly pitch black—she figured it had to be close to noon. There had been so many questions. So much drama.
But it was all over.
She heard the slam of a door. Her head turned toward Clay’s house. Almost over. Her hands pressed against the front of her jeans. This wasn’t going to be easy, but she needed to do it. She’d been colossally wrong, and he deserved an apology. Her stride was determined as she headed for Clay’s house. She ignored the light drops of rain that fell against her skin.
His trunk was open. The big duffel bag was tossed back there again. He must have a basketball game that evening that he needed to coach. She peered down at the bag.
“Maisey.”
Her gaze lifted and her head turned. Clay was jogging toward her.
“Where’s the boyfriend?” A curt question.
“At the police station. He’s still answering questions.”
He crept closer to her. Darted his stare toward the trunk.
“You heard, I guess?” She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “About Heather and Steve?”
“Cops were here earlier.” He stopped less than a foot away from her. “Heather had left earrings here. She’d set me up. And the cops were here to collect them as evidence.” He cast a glance over his shoulder. “I think they are going to come back and do a whole crime scene sweep, just in case more evidence was left behind.”
She realized he had another duffel bag slung over his shoulder. “Got a game today, huh?”
“Yes.” Again, he was curt. “Now if you don’t mind…?”
“I’m sorry.” There. She’d said it. “I was wrong about you. I thought you were behind Whitney’s disappearance.”
“Yes, I know. You broke into my house, Maisey. Your boyfriend attacked me. You thought I was a killer.”
“Heather was setting you up. She found out about what happened in the past, and she and Steve were trying to put the blame on you.” Don’t half-ass the apology. Go all the way. “I found out about your past, too. Instead of seeing you as the victim, I put you in the role of the killer. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t really change much, does it?” He moved around her. Dumped the bag in the trunk. Something banged.
Automatically, Maisey glanced toward the trunk. Something had fallen out of the second duffel bag.
Something…
Wait, is that my laptop? She moved closer and dipped her head toward the open trunk.
“Besides,” Clay added, “you weren’t entirely wrong.”
The top of the trunk slammed down on her. Maisey fell forward and her upper body careened toward the bags.
He hit her again with the trunk, driving it into her shoulders and back, and Maisey screamed. She tried to kick back at him, but he grabbed her legs and shoved her fully into the trunk. Before she could jump out, he was plunging a syringe toward her. He drove it into the side of her neck.
“Got this from a med student. Nothing too strong, don’t worry. Just a little something to knock you out for a bit.”
She scraped her nails over his face. She’d been aiming for his eyes. She’d missed.
“Fucking hell!” He surged back. “You are such a pain in the ass, Maisey. I’m going to make you pay for that.”
He slammed the trunk.
And Maisey’s eyes sagged closed.
***
Odin’s phone was ringing. He had a detective waiting to talk to him, but he automatically glanced down at the screen. When he saw the caller, he realized that he’d almost forgotten…
“Excuse me, would you?” He turned away from the detective. Took the call. “Ali, hey, look, I don’t need the intel any longer. We got the perps.”
“Are you kidding me?” Ali demanded. “I was up all night long looking for your info. All night. I need beauty sleep, and I didn’t get any.”
He winced. “Yes, well, I’ll make it up to you. But right now, I have a cop waiting so—”
“He didn’t have his own boat, but he did have a membership. That’s why you didn’t find it the first time around. You didn’t look at boating club memberships. I looked because I am awesome like that. FYI, the membership is under his dad’s name, which made it trickier.”
“Clay isn’t the killer.”
“It’s a membership in one of those boating groups,” she continued, as if he hadn’t spoken. “You know, you pay a flat fee to get in the club, then a monthly bit for dues, and bam, you get access to all the boats in the fleet.”
“Okay. Good to know, but I’ve got to go—”
“I pulled up all the dates he took out boats. Thought you might be interested to know that the day Jenny Lynch disappeared, he took a boat out that night. Coincidence, sure, but thought that was something to note.”
The detective called Odin’s name. “I have to go,” he told Ali. “Thanks for your help.” He shoved the phone into his pocket.
The detective motioned toward him. “We need you to sign your statement.”
He didn’t move. “You figure out how Steve and Heather got past the security system at War’s place?” Because War had a top-of-the-line system installed both at the bar and at the PI office.
“Heather told us her boyfriend is some kind of tech whiz. He disengaged the setup, the same way he disengaged all the security cameras at the college.”
Odin advanced. Picked up the statement. Scanned it. Then he slashed his name across the paper. A sudden, hard intensity was riding him.
Maisey.
“What about the break-ins at Maisey’s house?” Odin asked, keeping his voice casual. “Did Heather cop to those, too?”
“No, actually.” The detective tilted her head as she considered the matter. Her dark eyes were thoughtful. “She denied that. Weird, because she seemed more than happy to talk about everything else. She’s angling for a deal, but we’re not exactly in the mood to bargain with a murderer.”
Why wouldn’t Heather admit to the break-ins?
The detective took the signed statement. “Thanks. We’ll be in touch if we need more.”
Jinx came up and clapped a hand on Odin’s shoulder. “And that, my friend, is a done deal. Case closed.”
“It doesn’t feel closed.” Something was off.
“Uh, sure it does. The bad guys are in jail. One is confessing to pretty much everything under the sun. That means—done.”
Not to everything. “Heather didn’t confess to the break-ins at Maisey’s place.”
“Well, give her time.” Jinx didn’t seem concerned. “I’m sure she’ll get around to it.”
Odin broke from him and hurried for the door.
Jinx scrambled to follow him. “Where is the fire, O?” Jinx wanted to know as soon as they stepped outside.
Odin yanked out his phone again. Rain pelted down on him. The fact that Clay Prescott had a
membership in a boating club didn’t change the situation—Heather and Steve had been the perps who attacked Whitney. And maybe it was just coincidence that Clay had taken a boat out on the same night Jenny Lynch disappeared.
He dialed Maisey. Her phone rang and rang. “She’s not answering.”
“Maisey?” Jinx side-eyed him even as he flipped up his collar. “Uh, probably because she’s asleep. She went home to crash, remember? Dude. You need to take a breath. I get that we had some big drama, but all is well. Your lady is fine, so calm down.”
He didn’t feel calm. Not at all. His instincts were screaming at him. “Clay didn’t call the cops.”
“What are you talking about?”
The rain was coming down harder.
“When we left last night, we told him to call the cops. He didn’t. Somebody reported gunshots. That’s how the cops knew to come to Trouble for Hire.” Maisey wasn’t answering. Fuck it. He made a different call. This time, it was to Ali.
She answered on the second ring. “I think I just stopped talking to you. There is no way you are missing me already.”
“I want to know where the hell Maisey is. Ping her phone or do whatever the hell you need to do.” They were still monitoring her phone. He hadn’t ordered that to halt.
“I can ping it, as long as it’s on. I can hit the different towers and give you a location, but…why?” In the background, he heard the sound of her fingers tapping a keyboard. “I thought you told me that you had the bad guys.”
“I need to know where she is,” he said from between clenched teeth. “She should be at her house, resting. Make sure that’s where she is.”
“Stalker,” Jinx muttered. “Just when I thought you were getting better—”
“Uh, she’s not at home.” A faint note of alarm entered Ali’s voice. “You sure that’s where she’s supposed to be?”
He nearly shattered the phone. “Where is she?”
More tapping on the keyboard. “So, this is gonna sound crazy, but remember when I told you that Clay had membership in the boating club? I just pinged her phone, and it’s coming up about one mile away from that place.”
Odin took off for his Jeep at a run.
“Odin!” Jinx shouted after him.
Chapter Twenty
The car had stopped. Maisey was aware of throbbing pain in her back and shoulders, and she felt sluggish as hell. She’d opened her eyes just moments before. Been aware that she was moving. They were moving. She didn’t know where Clay was taking her, but Maisey knew she was in trouble.
She’d shoved her hand into the big bags around her. Found the laptop. Now she gripped it as tightly as she could. Maisey figured she’d have one good shot at this. One chance to catch him off guard.
She heard the slam of a car door. Footsteps. He was coming around the car. She lowered her head. Closed her eyes. Turned so that she was partially hiding the laptop with her body, but she didn’t let it go.
There was a screech as the trunk popped open. “No one is around,” he told her roughly. “So don’t waste time screaming.”
She didn’t make a sound.
Thunder rumbled.
“Maisey?” His voice was louder. Closer. As if he’d leaned into the trunk. Then she felt his hand curl around her hip as he gave her a hard shake. “Hey, wake up!”
I’m awake, you bastard. Her eyes flew open just as she lunged up with her laptop. She slammed it into his head as hard as she could. He swore and stumbled back. Maisey leapt out of that trunk. Hurtled forward and ran as fast as she could.
It wasn’t fast. She didn’t get far. Her legs seemed to immediately collapse under her. Whatever drug he’d given her was still in Maisey’s system. She shoved upright. Staggered. Rain was pummeling down on her. “Help!” she cried. “Help!”
But he was right. No one was around. They were in an empty parking lot. She could hear the splash of water. She spun, frantic, and realized—
Marina. We’re in a marina’s parking lot.
There had to be someone out there!
Lightning flashed overhead. A huge bolt that lit the scene.
Wait, was that a store up ahead? Some kind of office? Maisey stumbled toward it.
“Maisey, you disappoint me.” Clay lunged into her path. Blocked the office or whatever the hell it had been. Rain pounded against him.
The rain. That was why no one else was out. The weather was too bad. Everyone was inside, and she was alone out there with him. Wind whipped against her.
“I didn’t expect you to attack me. That’s something that jerk boyfriend of yours would do.”
Was he serious? She backed up a step. Almost fell again. Her whole body felt so uncoordinated. The rain wasn’t making that coordination any better. “You kidnapped me!”
A shrug. “You got in the way.” He advanced.
She scurried back. Almost slipped on a puddle.
“I don’t really know how you even found out what I did. That murder board of yours was quite something.”
There was a dock about ten feet away. Maybe someone was over there. In one of the boats tied close by. Desperate, Maisey darted for the dock.
He followed her. Shadowing her movements as the torrents of rain pelted down even harder.
“I didn’t kill Whitney, though. You should know that. Never touched her.” He was on the dock with her.
And, no, dammit, she didn’t see anyone who could help her. The boats all appeared empty as they shoved up and down against the rough waves.
“But I did kill that lying slut Hannah. She cheated on me with my best friend. Can you believe that? So I took her out into the mountains—there are miles and miles of mountains near my old home in Tennessee—and I made sure she didn’t come back.” He laughed. “Didn’t even have to hide her body. I let the animals take care of her.”
She needed a weapon.
“I got the hell on with my life after that. Went to college. Got my Ph.D. Met Jenny Lynch. I liked Jenny, at first. We hooked up a few times, but can you believe she was seeing someone else on the side, too? I mean, what the fuck? Does anyone understand commitment these days?”
“You killed her.” She was backing up as he advanced, and she was starting to run out of room on the dock. The water pounded on either side of them, and the bobbing boats sent waves splashing into the air.
“I did. Killed her, then took out a boat and dumped her. Figure the fish ate her. We’ve got some damn big sharks out here in the Gulf. I cut her before I put her in the water. You know, chumming her up some.”
She was going to be sick.
“I’ll have to cut you, too, so that they will come for you. But don’t worry. You won’t feel a thing. I’ll make sure you’re dead before you go in the water.” He paused. “I heard on the news that Heather was saying Whitney was alive when she went in the water. Amateur mistake. You want to kill someone, then you kill them. You don’t leave shit to chance.”
She was at the end of the dock. There was nowhere to go but into the water. And, normally, she was a great swimmer, but Maisey was having a hard enough time standing upright. Her body swayed as the heavy blasts of rain fell down on her.
Clay held out his hand to her. “End of the line.” He wiggled his fingers. “It won’t be painful, I promise.”
She was supposed to believe him?
“I had actually even thought about letting you live. But you interrupted me at the wrong time. Saw something you shouldn’t have.”
My laptop.
“I knew I had to get rid of the last bit of evidence from my break-in at your place. Especially since the cops were planning to come over with their crime scene teams and see if Heather left anything else at my house. So I just shoved the remaining murder board crap in my bags. I put basketballs on top of the evidence. That’s what I did the other night, too, when Odin caught me leaving.”
She swiped at the rain on her face. “What are you talking about?” But she knew. I just need more time.
“
When your boyfriend was poking around in my trunk the other night, he just didn’t look hard enough. If he’d jerked out a few of those basketballs from my bag, he would have found some of that murder board shit you’d had at your place. I stuffed the evidence in the bottom of the bag. I hauled it away and burned that shit.” He laughed. “Oh, and by the way, nice try making me think you had a backup of the evidence on your computer at the college, but I looked, and you didn’t have jack.”
She saw movement behind his shoulders. Relief flooded through her. “Odin.”
“Yes, Odin.” His hand was still extended toward her. “He’s a fool. He thought he was protecting you, but he failed. Now you’re alone with me, and your big, bad, hulk of a boyfriend is nowhere to be found.”
She shook her head.
“How long do you think he’ll look for you?” Clay asked. Water streamed from his hair. Dripped from his clothes. “I say he’ll give you a month, then he’ll give up. He’ll move on. That’s what people do, you see. They move the hell on. If you’d only done that, instead of digging and digging because of Whitney, then we wouldn’t be in this—”
“I love you,” Maisey said.
“What?” Clay’s hand fisted. “You think—you think you can tell me that and I’ll spare you? You think you can manipulate me? You think—”
“I think she wasn’t talking to you, bastard,” Odin snarled from his position right behind Clay. The pounding rain and the rough waves had hidden the sound of his approach.
Clay spun toward him. “What? How—”
“Because I’m a fucking PI. That’s how.”
Maisey fell to her knees. Nausea blasted through her. She was so damn weak.
“No.” Clay shook his head. “No!” He launched at Odin. Flew at him in a fury of wild rage. His fists slammed into Odin. And Odin didn’t so much as flinch.
“Odin,” Maisey whispered.
He locked one hand around Clay’s throat. Drove the other into his face. Broke Clay’s nose with a sickening crunch. “Told you before, it’s harder when you’re not the one who is bigger and stronger.”
Clay kicked him. Odin didn’t let go. He punched Clay again. Again. Clay’s head snapped back from the blows.
