Dice (Blackwings MC: Croftridge #3)

Chapter 11 – Dice

11

DICE

A fter dropping Daphne off at her office, I went to the clubhouse to see Byte.

“Have you found anything?”

“Not really,” he grumbled. “I do think her husband is truly missing and not hiding.”

“What led you to that conclusion?”

“I can’t find anything on him. It’s incredibly difficult in this day and age to disappear unless you’ve really disappeared. His bank account and credit cards have had no activity. Same with his cell phone. The police reports say his car has been parked in the same place since he was reported missing. If I had to guess, I’d say the dude is dead.”

“If that’s true, then who the hell is harassing Daphne?”

“I don’t know. I tried to find a paper trail from Daniel Garrison but came up empty. I really don’t know where else to look.”

“The person who burned down the dock was in a boat. Do any of our players have a boat?”

“Yes, but they don’t match the description of the one you saw,” he said and held up one finger. “Before you ask, I did a search on boats matching the description of the one you saw leaving Daphne’s dock. Here are the results from that search,” he said and handed me a thick stack of papers. “There are roughly fifteen hundred red and black bass boats registered in this area.”

“I’m assuming you haven’t looked through the list.”

“You assume correctly. I figured it would be better to let Daphne look over it. She’s the only one who would recognize any of the names as being pertinent.”

“Anything else?”

“Unfortunately, no. As far as I can tell, the husband’s mother isn’t involved. She’s got money, but most of it is tied up in investments. What she does have is accounted for.”

“Meaning she isn’t paying anyone to hurt Daphne. Any chance she’s doing it herself?”

“I don’t think so. She was at a charity event the night of the dock fire.”

“What about Daphne’s mother?”

“I didn’t see any suspicious activity on her credit cards or bank account, and she’s on week three of a month-long cruise.”

“What about the best friend?”

“His financials didn’t show anything out of the ordinary. He and his girlfriend have a baby in the NICU. When he’s not at work, he’s at home or at the hospital.”

I exhaled heavily. “Well, I guess that’s that.”

“Hang on. There is one thing I wanted to mention to you. I think there’s a pattern to this person’s behavior.”

“A pattern? What do you mean?”

“We need to clarify the order of events for the earlier incidents, but it seems like something significant happens, fails to produce significant results, and then something insignificant happens.”

My forehead wrinkled in confusion. “I’m not following you.”

“After the first flat tire failed to result in an accident, her mailbox was knocked down a few days later. After she found the venomous snake in her house, which bit her dog instead of her, her glass door was shattered by a rock. Another flat tire, and her trash can was stolen. I think whoever is behind this is lashing out in anger when their attempts to hurt or kill her don’t go according to plan.”

“Nothing happened after the attack at Irene’s house,” I pointed out.

“Yes, but she was here at the clubhouse for several days, and she’s been with you ever since.”

“By that logic, we should expect a trivial act of anger since burning her house down didn’t work out.”

“Exactly,” Byte said.

“Do you think we should have someone staying at the lake house to make it look like she’s still there?”

“I don’t think it would be a bad idea but see what Phoenix thinks.”

“Of course,” I said.

With that, I made my way down the hall to Phoenix’s office and filled him in on what Byte and I discussed.

“We can put some brothers at her house, but if you want it to look like she’s still staying there, her car needs to be seen coming and going.”

“I don’t think she’ll have a problem with that.”

Phoenix leaned back in his chair and rested his clasped hands on his desk. “Have you talked to Badger?”

My heart sank at his words. I didn’t need to ask why, but the reply was automatic. “No, why?”

“Tawny’s in the hospital. They got the call around three o’clock this morning.”

“Damn it,” I said quietly and looked at the floor. “Is she …? Was it …?” I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.

“It was an overdose. From what Badger said, they had some trouble bringing her back around, but she was stable early this morning. They’ve already got her a spot in rehab, if she’ll agree to go.”

“I don’t know how to help.”

“That’s the bitch of it, Dice. You can’t help her. No one can. She has to want it. Until she does, there’s nothing any of us can do except offer support without enabling. I’ve told you this many times before, and I’ll keep telling you every time I think you need to hear it. None of this is your fault. You made the best decision for her and gave her the best chance at having a good life. And she did have a good life. A great one. It’s okay to feel sad or disappointed, but it’s not okay to feel guilty.”

“I know.”

Then he asked me something he’d never asked me before. “Do you blame Badger and Macy?”

“What? No, of course not.”

He gave me a pointed look. “That would be absurd, wouldn’t it?”

“Point made, Prez.”

“You sure? Because I truly hate seeing you beat yourself up about something you can’t control. You did everything right. I was there. I watched you make the right decision, even though it pained you to do so.”

“I know that,” I said and tried to swallow past the emotions clogging my throat. “I really do. But it’s hard to accept that things turned out the way they did when we all tried so hard to make sure they didn’t.”

“That’s understandable.”

“Thanks for letting me know. I’ll touch base with Badger and probably head over to the hospital to see her.”

“Before you go, does Daphne know about her?”

“No, she doesn’t. I was?—”

Phoenix held up his hand to stop me. “You don’t need to explain. I just wanted to know so I didn’t accidentally bring up a subject you weren’t ready to discuss with her.”

“I appreciate that. I’ll check in later.”

I left Phoenix’s office and went to my room at the clubhouse to call Badger. He answered almost immediately.

“Dice. I’m sorry I haven’t called.”

“That’s okay. Phoenix filled me in. How is she?”

“Not good,” he said hoarsely and audibly exhaled. “We almost lost her this time.”

“Son of a bitch,” I whispered.

“They said if they’d gotten to her a few minutes later, she likely wouldn’t be here.”

“I’m getting ready to leave the clubhouse and head up there. Do you or Macy need me to bring anything?”

“No, we’re good. Annabelle came by with breakfast,” he said and cleared his throat. “You’re welcome to come up here, but she’s refusing to see anyone.”

“What? Can she do that?”

“Yes, she can.”

“If it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll come up there anyway. In case she changes her mind.”

“We’ll be here. We’re on the third floor in the waiting room.”

“I’ll be there soon.”

On my way to the hospital, I went through the drive-thru of a local coffee shop and ordered an extra-large coffee for Badger and me and a white chocolate mocha for Macy. I was pretty sure he could drink coffee again, and I knew Macy would appreciate her drink, even though he said they didn’t need anything. Honestly, it was more for me. I needed to do something, even if it was bringing unwanted coffee to the hospital.

When I arrived, Badger and Macy were sitting in the waiting room looking like absolute hell. Badger looked like he’d aged five years overnight, and Macy’s face was red and puffy from crying. “I brought coffee,” I said quietly and held up the drink carrier.

“Bless you,” Macy said and got up to hug me as Badger took the drinks from my hand. She hugged me tightly, and I felt her body tremble. “If you get snot on my cut, we’re going to have problems,” I said, hoping to stop the tears I knew were coming.

Macy slapped her hand against my chest and let out a soft laugh. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “I needed that.”

“The laugh or the coffee?”

“Both,” she sighed and took her seat.

“What happened this time?” I asked.

“They found her in an alley downtown, slumped against a dumpster,” Macy said as tears ran down her cheeks. “The needle was still in her arm.”

“Fuck,” I hissed.

“There is something different this time,” Badger said.

“What is it?”

“She’s pregnant,” Macy whispered.

Her words felt like a sledgehammer to my gut. Pregnant? She couldn’t be. It had to be a mistake. I wanted it to be a mistake, but I knew it wasn’t. That development must have been why Badger hadn’t called. They were trying to figure out how to tell me. And that was probably the reason she was refusing to see anyone.

“How far along is she?”

“We don’t know,” Macy said. “She started screaming and yelling for everyone to get out as soon as the doctor said she was pregnant.”

“Will the, I mean, can the, uh, baby survive this?”

“We don’t know that either,” Macy said. “I asked Gabby, but she didn’t have an answer. She said there were too many variables to be able to say definitively, but she did say there’s a chance.”

That also meant there was a chance the baby wouldn’t survive, but I wasn’t going to point out what we all knew.

As we sat there in that waiting room, hoping she’d change her mind and want to see us, I tried to think of how I could help her, or what I could do to make the situation better. The current laws in our state didn’t leave her with a lot of options. I briefly wondered if she intentionally overdosed in an attempt to end the pregnancy, but I decided not to continue that line of thinking. She’d never tell me if that was the case, and it wouldn’t change the current situation.

Eventually, I did come up with something. It was probably wrong and would be frowned upon by many, but I didn’t care. I’d grown up with addicts and knew how they operated. There was only one thing my parents wanted almost as much as they wanted their drugs and alcohol. They wanted money for their vices. I had plenty of money, and I was going to use it to help her.

Once the idea had formed, I didn’t waste time thinking it over. Instead, I excused myself, saying I needed to use the restroom, then went to find the nurse assigned to Tawny’s room.

She gave me a sad smile. “I’m sorry. Ms. Marshall doesn’t want any visitors at this time.”

“Yes, I’m aware. I was hoping you could give her a message from me,” I said and smiled hopefully.

“I suppose I could do that.”

“My name is Dice. Please tell her I’m here, and I want to give her money. A lot of money, but she has to see me so we can talk about it.” I handed her the fifty-dollar bill I’d pulled from my wallet. “Give that to her and tell her there’s a lot more where that came from.”

“Okay,” she said slowly.

“I’ll wait right here.”

I was not at all surprised when the nurse stuck her head out of the room and waved me over moments later. “She’s agreed to a brief visit with you.”

“Thanks,” I said and hurried into the room, stopping short when my eyes landed on Tawny. She looked worse than I’d ever seen her, and it broke my heart.

“Tell me about the money,” she said without preamble. Even though I expected that response, it still hurt that she didn’t even pretend to be happy to see me. It was just as well. The more detached she was from the situation, the better my chances were.

“I know you’re pregnant, and I want to buy your baby,” I said quickly.

The next blow hit even harder. “How much?”

I hadn’t thought about how much to offer, and I had no idea what was appropriate, so I blurted out the first number that came to mind. “Twenty-five thousand. You have to go to rehab and stay there for the entire pregnancy or no deal.”

“You’re serious?”

“You know I am.”

“Deal.”

And just like that, she sold her baby. Meanwhile, I felt all the emotions—elation, relief, disgust, anger, sadness, disappointment.

“I’ll have my lawyer draw up the contract. Twenty-five thousand dollars for one drug-free baby.”

“I heard you the first time. You can go now.”

“Tawny,” I said slowly.

“If you want the baby, fine. But the deal’s off if I have to listen to you beg and plead with me. Tell your lawyer to put that in the contract. No contact between you and me for the duration of the pregnancy.”

“I’ll agree to that as long as I’m permitted to speak to your doctor about the health of the baby. On that note, since I’ll be paying for your prenatal care, you’ll see the doctor I choose.”

“Fine,” she huffed.

“One last thing. You’ll keep the details of our arrangement to yourself. I’ll decide what we’re telling to who and when. For now, you can say you don’t know what you’re going to do.”

“Anything else?”

It took everything I had to hold my tongue. “No,” I said with obvious disgust, and turned away from her. “That’s all.”

I walked out of her room and made it to the end of the hall before I almost collapsed against the wall. The girl in that bed was a stranger living in the shell of a girl I used to know, and still loved. I hadn’t been able to save her, but damn it, I was going to do everything I could to save her baby.

It took me several minutes to get myself together before I returned to the waiting room with Badger and Macy. I expected them to ask why I’d been gone so long, but they didn’t seem to notice.

“You don’t have to stay here with us all day,” Macy said kindly. “We’ll call you if anything changes.”

“I want to be here.”

“Who’s covering Daphne?” Badger asked.

“She’s at the office all day. I offered to pick her up for lunch, but she said she’d eat at her desk and get caught up on paperwork. She’s good until five.”

Tawny’s nurse walked over to where we were sitting. “I just wanted to let you know that Ms. Marshall has agreed to go to the rehab facility you mentioned earlier.”

“That’s wonderful,” Macy said. “Can we see her?”

“She’s still refusing visitors at this time.”

“That’s okay. We’ll take rehab over visits.”