Dice (Blackwings MC: Croftridge #3)

Chapter 24 – Daphne

24

DAPHNE

I sat in a kitchen chair, desperately trying to soothe the crying little girl, even though I knew there was nothing I could do to calm her. She was in the arms of a stranger, her mother had been killed, and her father had been shot. All I could do was hold her and wait for help to arrive.

It wasn’t long before I heard motorcycles approaching and sagged in relief.

“Daphne!” Dice shouted.

“In here,” I said, but I wasn’t sure if he heard me. I didn’t want to yell and upset the baby any more than she already was.

Dice rounded the corner and had his arms around me before I could utter a word. At the sound of a startled wail, he jumped back and looked down at the child in my arms.

“This is Tori and Sean’s daughter,” I said quietly. “She wandered into the room when everything happened. I tried to shield her, but I’m not sure what she saw.”

“Let me have her for a second,” Ink said and extended his hands.

I didn’t understand why until Dice wrapped himself around me the moment I handed her over.

“I’m okay,” I said. “I don’t think it’s fully hit me yet, but I’m okay, and it’s finally over.”

“It was her the whole time?” he asked.

“Yes, but I’m not entirely sure why. She kept saying something about money and needing me to die so she could get her money. She wasn’t making a lot of sense. And then she shot S-e-a-n.” When Dice and Ink looked at me with confusion, I pointed at the little girl. “She knows his name.”

“Why is Se—S-e-a-n here?”

“I don’t know. He showed up when Flint did. Well, I haven’t seen him, but Flint said it was him.”

“Here,” Ink said and handed the crying baby back to me. “I’ll see if I can get some details.”

“I wish there was something I could do for her.”

“I know what to do,” Ranger said, appearing out of nowhere. “Hand her over.”

I was willing to try anything and gladly passed her over to him. He situated her against his chest as he sat in one of the chairs. Then he started gently rocking back and forth while he quietly sang to her. Her cries quieted, and within a few minutes, she was fast asleep against Ranger’s chest.

Ink returned a little while later with a question that I wasn’t expecting. “Do you know how to contact Sean’s mother? He wants her to come get his daughter.”

“I’m sure I still have her number saved in my phone,” I said and looked around the room before I remembered where my phone was. “It’s in my purse, which I think is on the floor somewhere near the front door.”

“I’ll get it,” he said.

“Just unlock it and give the number to whoever needs it,” I said and rattled off the passcode to my phone. I would if I had to, but I really did not want to call Sean’s mother.

When he came back to the kitchen, he handed my phone to me. “She’s on her way,” he said. “Now, sit and I’ll tell you what I found out from Flint.” Then he proceeded to give me more information than I could process.

“He’s been chained in her basement all this time?” I asked in disbelief.

“That’s what he said. And judging by the smell of him, I think he’s telling the truth.”

“That smell by the front door was him?” Dice blurted.

“Shhh!” Ink and I hissed at the same time.

“Taco’s sleeping!” Ink added.

I slapped my hand over my mouth to stifle a laugh. Then I reached out and gently squeezed his arm to silently thank him. I needed a laugh, and his timing was perfect.

“Taco?” Ranger mouthed.

“We don’t know her first name, and we think her last name’s Bell,” Ink explained as if it made perfect sense.

“It’s probably Sanders,” I pointed out. “Her last name.”

“So, she’s either Colonel Sanders or Taco Bell,” Ink said.

That time, I couldn’t contain it. I bolted to the other room as a laugh escaped me. Unfortunately, the room I chose was full of police officers. When they all turned to look at me, my face heated with embarrassment. I pointed to myself and apologized. “I’m sorry. I’m a nervous laugher, and this is a stressful situation. Please excuse me.”

I hurried back to the kitchen to find Dice shaking his head and grinning, while Ink was shaking with silent laughter.

“We’re all going to hell,” I quietly scolded, eliciting more soft chuckles.

Thankfully, we were interrupted when Phoenix, Flint, and the sheriff entered the kitchen. I raised my finger to my lips and pointed at the baby.

“He needs to get your statement,” Phoenix said quietly.

“Oh, um,” I said and looked around for somewhere we could talk.

“How about the dining room?” Flint suggested and pointed toward the room.

“You two go ahead,” Ink said. “I’ll stay here with Ranger and Taco.”

“You have to stop,” I whispered before moving to the dining room with the rest of the group.

“Daphne, I’m sure you remember Chuck,” Phoenix said.

“I do,” I said and turned my attention to Chuck. “I hope the next time I see you will be under different circumstances.”

“Me, too,” he said with a sympathetic smile. “I’m sure we’ll bump into each other on the water once the weather’s warmer.”

As soon as he mentioned the lake, I realized I needed to call my dad. “Shit! What did I do with my phone? I need to call my dad.”

“I called him,” Dice said. “He’s on his way.”

“Thanks,” I said and returned my attention to Chuck. “I’m sorry. What is it you need from me?”

“I need to hear what happened from you. Start from the beginning and tell me everything.”

“Everything everything? Or everything from today?” I asked.

“Everything from today,” he said. “I think I’m up to speed on the other stuff. If not, we can circle back around to it.”

Inhaling deeply, I started from when Jan knocked on my office door and told him everything I could recall from the events of the day.

I had just finished when I heard a voice that instantly irritated me. “If you’ll kindly step aside, I’m here to collect my granddaughter,” Sean’s mother said.

“Ma’am, this is a crime scene. I can’t allow you to enter.”

“That’s Sean’s mother. She’s here to get the baby per Sean’s request,” I told Chuck.

“I’ll escort her into the kitchen,” he said.

She stormed into the room and stopped short when she saw me standing next to Ranger, who was still rocking her granddaughter. She scrunched her nose in disgust. “I should’ve known you’d somehow be involved in this, and you brought the riffraff with you. You could have at least made them keep their hands off my precious granddaughter.”

“Listen here, you wicked bitch,” my dad boomed from behind her. Evidently, he arrived at the same time she did. “I’ve held my tongue for years for my daughter’s sake, but no more. Your precious granddaughter is your son’s love child he had with another woman while he was married to my daughter. And yet she still shielded that baby with her own body to prevent her from witnessing the death of her mother and the attempted murder of her father. And the men you’re referring to as riffraff are the ones who protected my daughter, allowing her to protect your granddaughter and save your son’s life. So, if you’ll kindly do us a favor and shut your big fucking mouth before you say something that really pisses me off.”

She stared at him with a mix of shock and anger on her face.

“Well, I never,” she said haughtily.

“Well, you should have. Because the only trash here is you and your son,” Uncle Buck added.

She cleared her throat and adjusted the jacket she was wearing. “I’ll just collect her and go.” With that, she took the baby from Ranger and turned to walk away.

“I bet you’re glad to be shod of her,” Ranger chuckled.

“Technically, I’m not,” I muttered.

Ranger snapped his fingers and grinned. “Hey, Lady,” he called. Glenda turned around and glared at him. “I just wanted to remind you that Daphne is still married to your son.”

“Yes, I’m aware,” she snapped. “What’s your point?”

“She’s that child’s stepmother, which I believe gives her more right to custody of the child than a grandparent in this particular scenario. You might want to consider removing the stick from your hoity-toity ass and showing a little gratitude because she does not have to let that baby leave with you.”

“You can’t be serious,” she huffed.

Ranger gestured to the room full of officers. “We can call one of them over here to sort this out if you’d like to press the issue.”

“Fine. Daphne, I apologize for my behavior and any offense I may have caused. I appreciate you looking after Talulah until I could get her. If it’s okay with you, I’d like to take her to the hospital to have her checked out before we go see her father.”

“Apology accepted. You can take her and go,” I rushed out.

She didn’t waste any time in scurrying out the door.

“Talulah?” Ink blurted as soon as they were out of earshot. “They should’ve stuck with Taco.”

I covered my mouth as I laughed. “There’s a dead woman in the other room. We should not be cracking jokes like this.”

“She was crazy as hell and tried to kill you,” my dad said. “You can laugh all you want.”

“Oh, that little scene reminded me,” Flint said. “Sean wanted me to thank you for protecting his daughter and said he would be happy to return the favor if you ever needed anything. I told him all you wanted from him was a divorce. He said he would sign whatever you wanted him to.”

“Would it be rude if I took the papers to the hospital for him to sign?” I asked the group of men surrounding me.

“Hell, no, it wouldn’t be rude. He’s the reason you’re in this mess to begin with. He’s lucky you didn’t make him stay here until he signed those papers,” Ranger said.

“What he said,” Uncle Buck added.

“I have to agree with them,” Dad said.

“I’m not sure if I even have papers for him to sign since my first attorney withdrew the filing,” I said.

“I’ll call Tina to see what’s going on and let her know we’ve located Sean,” Dice said.

“Thank you,” I said and leaned into him. My adrenaline had faded, and exhaustion was creeping in.

I had just closed my eyes when Ink said, “Daphne, someone’s calling you.” I opened my eyes to see him holding out my phone with my office phone number displayed on the screen.

“Jan!” I gasped and quickly grabbed my phone.

“Hey, Daphne. I was just calling to make sure everything’s okay. You’ve been gone a lot longer than expected.”

“Jan, I’m so sorry. Uh, no, everything’s not okay. Well, it is now, but it wasn’t. I’m not sure if I can leave yet, but I’ll have somebody bring your car to you.”

“What happened? Why can’t you leave? Do I need to call the police?”

“No, the police are already here, which is why I don’t know if I can leave. It’s a long story, but I’m okay.”

“Don’t worry about my car. I can arrange a ride home through one of those apps.”

“No, don’t do that. I borrowed your car, and I’ll get it back to you,” I said.

“Tell her Falcon is on his way with her car,” Phoenix said.

“I heard him,” Jan said. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, I’m sure. I’ll call you later and explain everything.”

“If you don’t, I’ll call you,” she said.

“Sounds good. Thanks, Jan.” I ended the call and handed her car keys to Phoenix after I fished them out of my purse. “Thank you. I completely forgot I borrowed her car to get here.”

“Well, you did have a few things going on,” Phoenix joked.

“Do you know when we can leave?” I asked.

“Soon, if not now. Let me check with Chuck.”

He returned a few moments later with Chuck in tow. “I just need to ask you a few more questions and verify your contact information. Then we can get you out of here.”

I exhaled in relief. “Thank you.”

“Is Sean Sanders your husband or ex-husband?”

“He’s technically my husband. We’ve been separated for over a year and are in the process of getting divorced.”

He nodded as he scribbled notes on a small notepad. “Well, I guess that was the only question I had for you. Officially, I can’t release any information about the investigation yet, but unofficially, I’m going to tell you that we’ve already discovered enough evidence to link Tori Bell to every report you’ve filed over the last few months.”

“Even the mushrooms?” I asked.

“The mushrooms, the fire, the attack in Cedar Valley, the hit-and-run accident that injured two of the Blackwings, which isn’t connected to you on paper, but I have a feeling it is connected to you in other ways that I’m not going to pursue. Tori Bell is responsible for all of it.”

“It must have been a lot of money for her to go to so much trouble to get rid of me.”

Chuck flipped a few pages in his notepad. “According to Sean, it was ten million dollars.”

“Ten million dollars,” I repeated, unsure of how I felt about that number. It was nothing to sneeze at, but a part of me felt like it should have been larger.

“I didn’t say this to Sean because it wasn’t my place to, but I’m going to tell you since you’re a part of Phoenix’s family. You should talk to a lawyer and consider suing her estate for any damages you incurred, including mental and emotional duress. There’s plenty of evidence to support your claims.”

“Thank you. I’ll give it some thought.”

“Please do. You deserve to get something out of this mess,” he said kindly and tapped his pen on his notepad. “I think that takes care of everything for now. You’re free to go.”

“What about Flint?” Phoenix asked.

“Yeah, he’s good to go, too. We’ll get his weapon back to him as soon as we can. Y’all try to stay out of trouble.”

“Thanks, Chuck,” Phoenix said and shook his hand.

Dice picked up my purse and wrapped his other arm around my shoulders. “Let’s go home.”

“Yes, please.”

We left the house through the back door and walked around to the front of the house as a group. When my eyes landed on Dice’s truck, I stopped short and gaped at the sight of the mangled bumper and smashed front end. “What happened to your truck?”

“He used it to open the gate,” Ink said.

“You did what?”

Dice shrugged. “We didn’t have time to fuck around. It was the fastest and easiest way to get to you. It looks worse than it is.”

“If I do sue her estate, and I think I will, we’ll be sure to include the damages to your truck,” I said.

“It’s not a big deal. Insurance will cover most of it.”

“I want to get in on this lawsuit. He didn’t tell me he was going to ram the gate, and I almost had a heart attack when he plowed through the gate,” Ink said.

“You screamed like a bitch,” Dice said.

“That was a battle cry. Once I realized what you were doing, I was in it to win it.”

“Can I catch a ride with you to my truck?” Flint asked.

“You’re the fucking hero, man. You can have whatever you want,” Ink said and clapped Flint on the shoulder.

“Go ahead and ride back with them,” Phoenix said. “I’ll have someone drive your truck home.”

“I’m fine, Dad,” Flint said.

“You might be, but I’m not. For fuck’s sake, son. I’m proud as hell, but you scared the shit out of me. The whole way here, I knew you weren’t going to wait for us.”

“I couldn’t wait for you.”

“I know. And you did the right thing. But it doesn’t make it any easier on me. Do me this favor and let them drive you home.”

“Clubhouse or farm, Prez?” Dice asked.

“The farm is fine. I’m guessing Daphne wants to go home before she’s bombarded with people.”

“Say what now?” I asked.

“The girls are going to come check on you as soon as they hear what happened. They’ll want to see Flint, too.”

“Well, I guess we should get going then,” I said.

“We’ll be right behind you,” my dad said.

Dice opened the door for me, and I climbed inside. I was briefly confused when he nudged me over and slid into the seat beside me. “Ink’s driving,” he explained.

I snuggled into his side and closed my eyes. “Tell him to drive slow.”

“Amen to that,” Flint said, leaning back in his seat.