8. Addison
CHAPTER 8
ADDISON
If I run, I have nothing.
My head pounds as consciousness seeps in. I roll onto my side and force my eyes open. Panic hits me hard, and I sit up so fast my vision blurs.
“You’re awake.”
I lift my head and stare at Kenny. He’s sitting across the room with his back against the wall.
“What did you do to me?” I ask, my mouth dry.
He chuckles, but there’s no humor in it. “I didn’t do shit.”
I run a hand through my hair and groan. “Why can’t I… What happened?”
Before he can answer, the door to the concrete room slides open, and a man I don’t recognize walks in.
“He’s lying to you,” the man says.
Confusion laces my mind. I have no recollection of what happened last night and no clue who I can trust.
You went undercover at the Soulless Kings clubhouse. You can’t trust anyone.
“I’m Ghost,” the man says as he crouches next to the cot. “And you’re Addison McGill.”
“How do you know who I am?”
“Kenny put Rohypnol in your beer,” Ghost says matter-of-factly. “That’s the?—”
“Date rape drug,” I spit out as I curl in on myself. “Yeah, I know.”
“You weren’t raped,” Ghost comments. “I hope that makes you feel a little better.”
Outrage spikes in my blood. “Feel better? Feel fucking better?!” I jump to my feet, and
the blanket that was covering me falls to the floor. I’m still fully clothed, and that slightly dampens my temper. “I was still drugged and locked in, in, this?—”
“They call it the Nightmare Room.”
I swivel my neck to gawk at Kenny, who’s now standing. “The what?”
“Kenny, shut the fuck up,” Ghost barks.
“Why?” Kenny asks. “I’m in here too. Pretty sure I’ve got nothing to lose at this point.”
“What’s he talking about?” I demand.
“Kenny screwed up.” Ghost shrugs. “And we don’t take screw ups lightly.”
“Journey told me to put it in her drink!” Kenny shouts.
I press my forefingers against my temples. The headache I woke up with is worsening by the second.
“Why did you come here?” Ghost asks me.
“My friend and—” I press my lips together for a long moment. “Where the hell is Mona?”
“I assume she’s at home.”
“You assume?”
“Blain was ordered to see her home safely last night,” Ghost explains. “Not sure if she’s a church goin’ woman or likes to take a morning run so I can’t say whether or not she’s still at her apartment.”
“Why keep me and not her?”
Ghost tilts his head. “Do you really need to ask that?”
“She wouldn’t be very good at her job if she didn’t ask questions.”
I lift my eyes to the doorway and see Crow standing there with a smug expression.
“If you know who I am and what I do, why keep me? Why risk it?”
“We’re not risking anything,” Crow states as he strides toward me.
Shit.
“You’ve got someone on the inside,” I deduce.
“Score one for the detective,” Crow taunts.
“You won’t get away with this,” I seethe.
“We’ll see about that.” Crow shifts his attention to Kenny. “As for you…”
“Bro, I didn?—”
Crow advances on Kenny and shoves him against the wall. “I’m not your bro,” he snarls. “You were a prospect, nothing more.”
Kenny lifts his hands. “Fine, whatever. But the fact remains that she wouldn’t still be here if I had listened to you.”
“Which is why you get to live,” Ghost says from his position near me.
“Wait, what?” I demand. “You’d kill him over this?”
Crow glances over his shoulder. “For bringing a drug into my clubhouse that’s designed to hurt women? Yeah, I’d fucking kill him.”
“But you used it on me,” I remind him.
“Which is why he gets to walk away,” Crow says with exaggerated patience. “I’m not a monster.”
I snort. “Right. You’re just a man who orchestrated my drugging and kidnapping.”
“No, Addi. I’m a man who will do what is necessary to protect those he loves.”
“My name is Addison.”
“It is,” he agrees. “But Addi suits you better.”
I huff out a breath, exasperated. Going verbal rounds with a criminal isn’t exactly what I had in mind for my day, but then again, waking up unaware of what happened in the last twelve hours or so wasn’t either.
“I should insist on you calling me ‘detective’,” I grumble.
“Look around, Ace. You’re not exactly in a position to be calling the shots.”
“Ace?”
Crow shrugs. “That’s as close to ‘detective’ that you’ll get from me.” He returns his attention to Kenny. “As for you… Ghost is gonna walk you upstairs and watch as you clean out your shit from the prospect room. Then he’s gonna escort you outside, and you’re gonna get the fuck off my property. Remember, Kenny, if you run your mouth, I’ll permanently close it for you.”
Crow yanks him away from the wall and pushes him toward Ghost. The two of them walk out of the room, and the Soulless Kings’ president stalks to me.
“Contrary to what you might think,” he begins. “I don’t like what I’m having to do here. I’d much rather you be in my presence by choice than force.”
“That’ll never happen.”
“Maybe, but time will tell.” Crow extends his arm and brushes a strand of hair behind my ear. I know I should dodge his touch, but my body doesn’t obey my silent command. “For now, I’ll settle on you learning that we’re not bad men.”
“You’re drug dealers, murderers, and God only knows what else.”
“We’re also a family,” he counters. “Loyal, loving, charitable, honest, and passionate.”
“Right. And keeping me here against my will proves all that,” I snark.
“No. That act doesn’t prove shit. But you spending time around us, around me, will show you that we’re not guilty of the crime you want to pin on us.”
“I don’t want to pin anything on you. I want to arrest you for murder.”
“We didn’t murder anyone.”
“What about the Limitless Throttle MC guys?” I ask. “The evidence points to you and your brothers. I can’t ignore evidence.”
“The evidence was staged.”
I throw my head back and laugh. “That’s what everyone says.”
“I’m sure they do. But unlike most of them, I’m telling the truth.”
“Prove it.”
“That, Ace , is why you’re here.”
“And here I thought we were gonna have a sleepover and do each other’s nails.”
Crow’s eye twitches with annoyance. “Being a smart ass isn’t going to earn you a lot of goodwill.”
“Sorry. It’s not in my DNA to do anything else.”
He tilts his head and stares at me as if studying a specimen under a microscope. “That’s not the Addison I remember. You were always kind to me in school. What happened?”
“You became a criminal, and I became a cop.”
“Yes, well…” Crow wraps his fingers around my wrist and starts to tug me toward the door. “We’ll see how you feel in a few days.”
“A few days!” I exclaim, digging in my heels. “I want to go home.”
“For now, this is your home,” he snaps. “Get used to it.”
Rather than continue fighting him, I let him lead me out of the room and upstairs. The main room where the party was is as quiet as a ghost town, making me wonder what time it is. When we reach a second set of steps, Crow stops and looks at me.
“I could easily keep you in the Nightmare Room,” he says. “But I’m trusting my gut here and affording you as much freedom as I can. You’ll sleep in my room and have free reign of the clubhouse while you’re our guest , but if you try to escape, there will be consequences.”
Free reign? Right. And I’ve got oceanfront property in Arizona to sell.
“I’m not sleeping with you,” I snipe, choosing to focus on that part of his threat.
“That’s another thing we’re not,” he snaps. “We’re not rapists. And you’re right. You’re not sleeping with me, just in my room.” Crow lowers his gaze, taking in my body, making me feel exposed despite being fully covered. “But I wouldn’t be opposed to sharing my bed with you.”
“Pig.”
“That’s you, not me.”
I groan with frustration. “You’re infuriating.”
“And you’re sexy as fuck,” he counters. “Which is equally as infuriating.”
He turns to continue up the steps, but he doesn’t hold on to me as he walks. For a split second, I think about running, but then I remember why I came here in the first place.
Maybe Crow is doing me a favor by keeping me here. If I’m staying here and can do as I please, I’m bound to find a ton of evidence to put them all away for a very long time. If I run, I have nothing.
I lift my foot onto the first step and follow him upstairs.
A good detective does what’s necessary to bring down the bad guys. And this entire situation has become necessary.