Chapter 57 Kashton
FIFTY-SEVEN
KASHTON
After our conversation, her stomach started growling. I managed to get her to crawl out of bed and made her breakfast. Thankfully Tyson keeps the kitchen stocked because someone is always staying here. She chose waffles and a side of toast.
“How long are we hiding out here?” she asks from inside the shower.
I go to respond when the doorbell rings. I look up in the mirror, and she opens the glass door, arching a brow. “Expecting someone?” she asks.
“Nope,” I say, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around my hips.
“Stay here.” Closing the bathroom door behind me, I check her cell on the end of the bed.
I see it’s not even eight in the morning yet, so I’m confused about who could be here.
I know Tyson keeps this place locked up tight when it’s closed.
Stepping into the living room, I grab my gun from the front zipper pocket of my bag. It’s always loaded and ready to fire.
I make my way to the door to the apartment and open it to find Tyson standing in the hallway. “Ringing your own doorbell?”
His eyes drop to my gun at my side and then run over the towel and my bare chest. “I wasn’t just going to walk right in. I didn’t know what you’d be doing.”
I step to the side, and he enters the apartment. “I just wanted to give you a heads-up that Haidyn and Saint are on their way here.”
Fuck. “You told them—”
“No,” he cuts me off. “Bill has called a meeting. I was instructed to tell you to join us.”
Bill knows I’m hiding out with Eve; he’s aware she needed rest, so for him to call a meeting, it must be important.
I place my gun on the kitchen counter. “How long do I have?”
“Maybe twenty minutes. But they don’t know you’re here. So if you go downstairs before they arrive, then they’ll just think that you beat them to Blackout.”
I nod. “Thanks for the heads-up.”
“Of course.” He goes to walk out.
“What is this meeting about?” I need to prepare Eve as much as I can. She’s had enough surprises over the past couple of days.
“You know what I know.” With that, he exits the apartment.
I return to the bathroom to find her out of the shower and brushing her teeth. Her pretty eyes meet mine in the mirror before she rinses her mouth out. “Who was it?”
“Haidyn and Saint are on their way here. We’re having a meeting downstairs.”
She turns off the water and bows her head. I understand why she doesn’t want to see them. Eve now has to face them after finding out what Evan did to her. Now more than ever I’m glad that I didn’t tell her that my brothers and I know that our fathers raped her.
“Hey.” I walk up behind her, grab her arm, and turn her to face me. “It’s going to be okay. I promise.” Leaning forward, I kiss her forehead. “Afterward, we’re leaving.” Getting the fuck out of this town.
“Where are we going?” she asks.
“Wherever you want.” My girl deserves a vacation.
Eve and I finished getting ready and made our way down to the club. Tyson excused himself to his office to make a phone call. Then Ryat arrived, followed by Sin.
Haidyn and Saint got here not long after that, and there’s been tension since. A lot of it. We haven’t spoken. I think everyone is confused by what’s going on, and of course they’re mad at me for ignoring them for the past several days.
“Why the fuck are we here so early?” Sin glances at his watch as if he’d rather be in bed.
“Long night?” Saint chuckles.
“Just wait. Your sleepless nights are coming,” Sin says, smiling with satisfaction.
Tyson enters the room and claps his hands. Ryat was sleeping with his head in his hands, but jerks awake at the commotion. “I’m going to make this quick, but we’re waiting on two more,” Ty states.
Everyone looks around silently, counting to ourselves.
I’m surprised Tyson’s minions weren’t invited.
I know we’re waiting for Bill. He was the one who supposedly called this meeting.
Surely, he’s not bringing Adam with him.
Maybe Tyson’s detective is also joining us.
That has me on edge, because I know he’s after Eve.
Bill wouldn’t set her up. Would he? Not after what she just went through at Dollhouse.
I see movement out of the corner of my eye, and to my surprise, Bill enters the club with Adam by his side.
“The fuck?” Ryat asks, rubbing his eyes before looking from Adam to Easton.
Sin just shrugs. He’s so over it.
Tyson looks at me and then at Haidyn and Saint. None of us are surprised to see our brother. “You’re supposed to be—”
“Dead,” Adam finishes Tyson’s sentence.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” Bill growls, walking over to Eve. She stands from my lap and hugs him before I pull her back down and wrap my arms protectively around her waist.
“Why the fuck are we here?” I demand, wanting to get this over with. I promised Eve we would leave after this, and I’m ready to get the fuck out of here.
“There were three bodies found at Barrington recently,” Adam states.
Saint nods. “Yeah. It’s been all over the news. All three were missing for over a month.”
“What’s not on the news is that there’s a fourth woman,” Adam adds.
“Her parents don’t want her mentioned?” I wonder.
“The police don’t want her information released. She’s still alive,” Bill answers.
“Well, that’s good, but it sounds fishy to me.” Haidyn rubs his chin. “If it’s the same MO, they’ve been raping, torturing, and then killing these victims for years. Why leave one alive now?”
“Maybe a copycat,” Sin offers, leaning back in his chair. “They’ve seen the news but only know very little of what actually happened to the previous victims.”
Adam crosses his arms over his chest and looks at Eve. “It’s more complicated than that.”
“How?” I demand getting a sickening feeling in my stomach.
“I’ve gotten word from my boss that she was awake when the women were found. When questioned, she gave a description of the person who was ‘holding’ her.”
“Well, who was it?” Haidyn demands, getting irritated.
“She described Everett to a T.”
“What?” She jumps off my lap. “No.” Eve turns to face me. “I did not kidnap, torture, or kill any of those women.”
That gut-wrenching feeling intensifies. I look at Adam. “You came with a plan. What is it?” He wouldn’t risk being seen in broad daylight if there wasn’t a good reason for it. No. He and Bill have gone through every scenario, and they need us to see it through.
He looks at Eve and then at me, nodding. I run a hand down my face, and Haidyn curses under his breath.
“What?” she snaps. “Use your fucking words, because I don’t understand your silent gestures.”
“We kill her,” Sin answers.
Eve gives a rough laugh, throwing her head back. When her eyes meet mine, she stops. “Kash. No. You can’t be fucking serious? Tell them no. Absolutely not.”
“Eve.” I get to my feet.
“No.” She takes a step back. “You can’t kill her—”
“No one in this room is going to agree with you,” Sin announces, standing. He’s tired and ready to end this shit. “I would do unspeakable things to guarantee my wife and children’s safety. And every Lord in this room would do the same.”
“Kash,” she whispers, looking at me. “Please don’t allow this.”
“I’m sorry, Eve,” I tell her. “He’s right.” Any threat to my future wife must be eliminated.
“I can’t believe this.” She runs her hands through her hair aggressively.
Adam steps forward. “This isn’t one dead body found, Eve.
They’ve already got your prints on the one that you found, and with a detailed description by another, they’ve got you for two, and they will blame you for the others.
” He shrugs. “They’ll say you were working with an accomplice.
Most likely Isabella, since she’s ‘missing,’ and you’ll go down for who knows how many counts. ”
“They could try and push the death penalty,” Bill suggests.
“I didn’t do this.” She looks at me, her pretty green eyes pleading with me, and it breaks my heart because they look the exact same as the video I watched last night. When she begged Evan to just kill her. “You know that, right? That I didn’t do this?”
“It doesn’t matter what we think you did or didn’t do.” Eve narrows her eyes on Haidyn at his lack of belief in her. “It’s what they can prove, and they have the evidence stacked against you.”
“They can’t prove it, because I didn’t do it,” she grinds out.
“What’s the status on the woman?” Ryat asks.
“Apparently, she was severely beaten and raped, like all the others, but instead of being killed and dumped, they left her to die. The cops were able to get a little information from her before she went into surgery, but she hasn’t woken up yet.
Brain swelling. She’s been back into surgery twice since.
They’ve got her in a drug-induced coma right now to try and relieve the swelling. ”
“She may not survive,” Saint states the obvious.
“There’s always a chance,” Adam adds. “And if she does wake up, they’ll show her pictures of Eve. And I have a feeling that even if she doesn’t recognize Everett, they’ll pressure her to say it’s her. They’ve been wanting to close these cases, and this gives them the advantage to do so.”
“And we can’t allow that,” Bill says.
“You agree with them too?” Eve snaps at Bill.
“I would have done anything to save your mother,” he says softly.
“You’re killing someone’s daughter.” Everett turns to me. “Kashton, what if I had been killed? Hmm? I was that girl. Beaten and raped, and I survived. She can have a life after this. She deserves a chance.”
My girl can beg me all she wants, but it’s not going to do her any good. “Not at the expense of yours.” It’s not even up for discussion.
“I can talk to her—”
“Absolutely not,” I snap. Has she lost her fucking mind? She’s obviously not thinking clearly from the drugs that Bill had to give her at Dollhouse for her assignment. I need to call Gavin for another IV. Maybe that will help.