Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
CITI
By the time he carries me into the house, I feel a bit more conscious, and if I’m honest, a bit more embarrassed.
I can’t believe I lost it like that, over clothing.
I knew I would have triggers—it was to be expected—but I couldn’t have accounted for this, could I?
Or maybe I should have, and I’m just not doing as well as I thought I was.
I swallow when he lowers me to the sofa and crouches down in front of me.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Nope, none of that. You have nothing to be sorry about.”
“I was just so surprised. I…”
He slides his hands into my hair and tips my head back to look at me.
“You had a perfectly normal reaction. Please don’t beat yourself up about it.
You didn’t lash out. You didn’t hurt anyone.
Your first and only instinct was to curl yourself around Star, and that’s what you did until I got there. Until you knew it was safe.”
“Someone tried to pick Star up from school. I thought it was a mistake, or one of the guys…” My voice trails off as I try to put it all together, but nothing fits. I open my mouth to ask what the hell is happening, but there’s a knock at the door.
“Hold on a second, angel.” He gets up and heads to the door, opening it and letting Havoc, Neveah, and Star in. Tears prick my eyes when they land on Star. God, what she must think of me.
“Hey, baby,” I whisper. She wiggles to get down, so Havoc lowers her to her feet. She hurries over to me and throws her little arms around my neck. I wrap my shaky ones around her and breathe her in. Nobody speaks or pushes for answers. They let us have our moment, and it’s exactly what I need.
I pull back and smooth my hand over her hair. “Why don’t you go and play with your toys?”
She nods and heads off to do just that. I wait until she’s out of earshot before looking up at my sister and Havoc, feeling tears slip down my face. “I’m sorry.”
“What the heck for? As soon as I saw that raincoat, I lost it too, and I didn’t go through even a tenth of what you did.” Nevaeh says, coming to sit beside me. I rest my head on her shoulder, feeling drained.
“It was the shock. If I’d known it was coming, I could have braced myself. But when I saw her wearing it, especially after some asshole tried to collect her using Jasper’s name, it was just too much.”
“I’m lost. Can someone fill me in?” Nevaeh asks
Havoc runs his hands through his hair. “Let’s wait for G and Amity to get here first.”
Nevaeh sighs but nods. “I’ll make you some tea.” I smile at her, catching her off guard. “What?”
“It makes me think of this show I used to watch, back before…anyway. It was set in the UK, and any time something happened, it didn’t matter if it was happy or sad, they made tea.”
“Well, a whole country can’t be wrong, can it?” She taps my leg before she stands and heads toward the kitchen.
When Ambros takes her place, I burrow into him, drawing comfort from his warmth.
“I’m just going to check on Star,” Havoc murmurs before he walks away, leaving us alone.
Ambros lifts me onto his lap and pulls me close, burying his head in my hair for a moment. “I was so fucking worried when I got that call from Amity. I can’t even imagine how you felt. I got to you as soon as I could.”
“I knew you’d come.”
“Baby, I will always come for you.”
I take a shuddering breath and release it, along with the knowledge that everything’s okay. I’m safe, but more importantly, Star’s safe.
A knock at the door has me pulling back, but Ambros just turns me so I’m sitting across his lap instead of straddling him.
“I’ll get it,” Havoc calls out. He checks the spyhole before letting in Amity and G. They both greet him and make their way over to us.
Amity, not caring about me being in Ambros’s lap, leans down and gives me an awkward hug. I’m pretty sure she’s allergic to hugs, so the fact that she’s attempting one with me is sweet. “You okay?”
“Honestly? I have no idea.”
“That was some messed-up shit, Citi,” G states, looking pissed on my behalf.
I look over at Havoc, who must know what I’m asking. “She’s in the den watching the Grinch. Don’t ask. Apparently that child does not think Christmas movies are just for Christmas.”
“We never really celebrated Christmas, Havoc,” I remind him.
He winces but is spared from saying anything else when Neveah walks in with a mug of tea and hands it to me. The warmth of it seeps into my skin, and given how I can’t seem to shake off the lingering chill from today’s shock, I’m grateful for it.
“Thanks, Nevaeh.”
“Okay, fill us in,” Havoc orders, crossing his arms once everyone else has taken a seat.
“I spoke to the principal. Considering the circumstances, they agreed to share with G the security footage of the guy who tried to collect Star. They’re going to email it over as soon as they have it ready.
” Amity begins looking at me. “The raincoat and boots came as part of a large donation the school received. Star was given that specific outfit at the donor’s request.”
“She wasn’t the only one, either. Several children had been specifically singled out. Without digging, I don’t have more to give you on that yet, but I will,” G grunts out, clearly frustrated.
“Thoughts?” Havoc asks him.
“Either he has a grudge against all those families, which seems unlikely. The gifts were all types of outdoor wear—”
“And not something that would trigger most people,” I finish for him.
G looks at me with sympathy. “Which means the other option would be it was a targeted attack and the other students were just meant to muddy the waters.”
“It would be enough for local PD to dismiss Star, or Citi even, as the main target.” Havoc shakes his head.
“We thinking this is the same guy who broke into the house?” Ambros asks, making me jump.
“I hope so. I’m not sure how many psychopaths I can handle,” I chirp in, trying and failing to sound flippant.
“This motherfucker is really pissing me off,” Havoc snarls.
I bite my lip, still pissed that I was dragged into something I don’t want to be part of. “What does he want with me?”
“We don’t know if it’s you or Star he wants,” Nevaeh says, looking sick to her stomach.
“It’s me. He’s feeding off my fear. If he wanted Star, he had her. He could have taken her, and we all know how easy it was to keep me hidden for fifteen years. I didn’t think of it at the time, but the raincoat is proof.”
“How?” Amity frowns.
“Because the coat means nothing to Star, otherwise she wouldn’t have put it on.
She wasn’t there that day. It isn’t imprinted in her brain like it is ours.
That damn coat marks the beginning of everything that happened.
The only people who would have been affected by it were Citi, me, and our dad,” Nevaeh grits her teeth.
“So why me? He knows I’m not Nevaeh, the big bad president’s woman.
To know about the coat, he’s done his digging.
He knows who I am. He knows my story, and he’s still willing to terrorize me.
You need to level with me here, Havoc, because it’s me and Star taking these hits.
You might be willing to take the risk, but are you going to be okay telling that little girl that after everything she’s endured, everything she’s lost, that her mommy is gone to? ”
Havoc stalks to me, crouches down, and though I can see he’s livid, he takes the tea from my shaking hand and holds it gently. “I’m not willing to risk you. I hate that you fucking think that. Telling you something is club business gives you plausible deniability.”
“Which is of no use to me dead.” I take a deep breath and squeeze his hand back because, despite everything, I really do care about him.
“This man has proven there is no honor among thieves. I don’t know what you all get up to, and though you seem legit for the most part, I’m not dumb, despite my lack of education.
I know not everything you do is legal. That means we can’t use the police like regular folks.
Keeping me in the dark isn’t the answer though.
It blinds me to this asshole, but not him to me.
He sees me, Havoc. You’re giving him the advantage. ”
Havoc sighs as he taps my hand and moves back to the arm of the chair Nevaeh is sitting in. He looks to Amity before his gaze lifts to G, who nods, then to Ambros.
“Alright. Some of this Amity and Nevaeh might know a little about because it started before you came back. You know the story of Legs getting stalked and the incident with the grenade?”
“The whole town knows about the grenade. Delphi’s became a local legend.” Amity grins as I nod.
“Right, well, what’s not common knowledge outside of church is that while this was happening, Kruger’s company, ELM, was approached by a man called Jack Davis. He was looking for his wife.”
“And Kruger couldn’t find her?” I frown, not understanding.
“Kruger found the woman. Annie. She just wasn’t this guy’s wife. It was a test. The same guy, who was going by Sam at the time, tried to get an in with Hannibal’s club too, using a different pretense.”
“I don’t understand. If he wasn’t looking for his wife, what did he want?”
“That’s just it. He does want his wife, only it’s not Annie,” Havoc admits.
I take in G’s gritted jaw and Amity’s expression as she looks between him and Havoc. Nevaeh’s face is blank, so I suspect she already knows.
When Amity gasps, I know she’s just figured it out too. “Lil,” she whispers.
Havoc doesn’t answer, but he continues to explain. “Kruger took a meeting with Jack because, at that time, we had no idea what he was really after. They were supposed to meet at a cafe, but at the last minute, we needed to change the venue. I was the one who suggested Kruger’s old place.”
Nevaeh gets to her feet and storms off. Amity looks at me, asking with no words if I need her to stay. I nod toward where my sister disappeared to, knowing she’s pissed on my behalf.
Once they’re gone, Havoc rubs his eyes, looking exhausted. “I swear to fuck, I had no idea this was going to play out like it has. I had very little info on the guy and needed to make a snap decision. And I made the wrong one. For that, I’m truly sorry.”
I sigh. “I’m not mad at you for how it played out.
You couldn’t have known what kind of man you were dealing with.
I’m mad you didn’t give me a heads up. I could have moved Star and me somewhere else.
Now we’re on this guy’s radar, and I have no godly idea how to get off it.
If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears. ”
“He wants Lil.” G leans forward, his forearms resting on his thighs.
“I don’t think I’ve met Lil.”
“She took off just after everything went down with Legs,” Havoc replies. “I think she figured out there were two stalkers before I did.”
“And she knew one of them was after her. She’s this guy’s wife?”
Neither of them says anything, so I look behind me to Ambros.
“I missed a shit-ton myself, spending most of my time at the hospital with Ella or at the gym, but—”
“This is where it gets tricky. The guy, Jack, Sam, or whatever, is a PI. He’s doing the dirty work for his client, which we learned only recently.
He calls her Lilac, but we managed to find out her real name is Lilian Taylor.
She is, or was, the wife of a prominent surgeon.
Which is how we figured out who the real client is—Dr. James Taylor.
Lilian went missing and was presumed dead during a boating accident almost a decade ago.
Only, apparently, she isn’t dead. She was here, with the Raven Souls MC.
” G pulls out his cell phone and shows me a photo of a bearded guy with black-framed glasses and a fresh-faced Lil.
“She looks so young.”
“She was barely eighteen here. She was married and went missing before she celebrated her nineteenth.”
“So it was the Jack guy that broke into my place and took Star?” I ask, staring at the photo.
“Yeah, and my guess is he’s the one who tried to take Star from school. He’s not even trying to hide, mostly because he doesn’t seem to exist. At least on paper.” G sighs.
I look at her face and recognize the sadness behind her eyes. That haunted expression isn’t something you get from burning dinner or spilling your wine on the carpet. “She’s sleeping with the enemy.”
Havoc grunts. “I’m sure she knows that now, but—”
I cut him off with a shake of my head. “One thing about not having cable is that I never got to watch new movies, but I saw so many older ones. And Sleeping with the Enemy was one of my favorites. I think it’s from the early nineties.
It’s about a man who beats his wife so she fakes her own death to get away.
And do you want to know how she did it?”
Nevaeh walks in after catching the tail end of the conversation, her arms wrapped around herself, her eyes locked on mine. “She threw herself off a boat and pretended she drowned.”