Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
EVERLY
Twenty-minutes earlier
I appreciated Bex getting Skylar and I out of the house. Seeing the fear on my daughter’s face had definitely made me want to find the fucker and castrate him. I did nothing to him, yet he believed he was entitled to… what? My time? My attention?
And from what everyone could determine, that entitlement had been going on for quite a while. My God, the dates on the magazines those pictures had come from was as old as my debut album. The fucker had been looking for me for all those. I pushed down the bile pooling at the back of my throat.
“Mom?” Skylar’s voice reminded me I had bigger problems. Keeping her safe was all that mattered. I needed to mitigate the trauma that the asshole had inflicted on my daughter.
I turned to the backseat to look at her. “Yes, honey?”
She looked over at Bex in the driver’s seat, then back at me. “Do you think dad will, you know, kill the guy who is doing this to you?”
“Uhm.” I looked at my friend next to me.
Bex blinked once and took in a breath before she looked at my daughter through the rearview mirror. “Killing someone is almost always our last resort. Whether pulling a trigger or something more physical, it's never easy taking a life. Even when you know it's the right thing to do.”
“I don’t want my dad to have any more nightmares.” She leaned forward and rested her chin on the back of my seat. “I want him to keep my mom safe and I want him to… I don’t know. I just don’t want him having nightmares.”
She wanted her dad to have peace, and she didn’t know how to articulate it. I swallowed hard and rubbed the top of her head. “Honey, the best we can do is trust him. He’s getting help and doing what he can to keep us safe.”
“Many of us have nightmares.” Bex checked her phone and frowned.
“I think the only one of my brothers who doesn’t get nightmares is Nick.
But my dad had forced him into therapy almost as soon as he left the army.
Your dad and Oliver lost their teams, the men they were supposed to lead.
Jake had seen something no decent person should ever have to witness.
But we all deal with it and make sure the world is safe for those we love. That’s what your dad is doing, too.”
It had to be noted that Bex spoke as if she had nightmares as well, but she never elaborated on it. But I needed to console my daughter. “We’re surrounded by a team of badasses, honey.”
Bex's phone pinged and she recited her code to me. “It’s from Jared, read the text, please.”
I picked up the phone, entered the code, and went into the messaging app.
“Delivery guy is Neville Cartwright. He has an apartment —” I looked around the area we were in.
“In this neighborhood by the look of things. Can we check out the place? I just want to know something. Anything. We won’t need to get out of the car. But I need something, please.”
A long and weighted exhale escaped Bex. As soon as she could, she stopped at a traffic light. “Let me see the address?” I handed her the phone and she tapped her screen for more information. “Let me just put it in the maps app to see if we can get an idea of where it is.”
Once we started driving again, I frowned over at her. “Thank you. I didn’t think you would agree.”
“We’re just going to see where it is.” She turned sharply, as if she finally had a purpose for driving around aimlessly. “No one gets out of the car. Skylar duck your head, I would feel better if you were out of sight.”
Without question, Sky slipped into the footwell of the backseat. Bex followed the instructions from the robotic female voice, driving cautiously and not attracting any attention. Finally, she pulled up to an apartment building.
“There it is.” She pointed at the building ducking slightly to look at it. “Not all that impressive. And it's not exactly in the safest part of town.”
She was right. I had expected something a little different. Then again how many underground delivery men were there. Perhaps he needed to travel for work. “This may not be his permanent residence. He could be subletting while he has the job to do for G.”
“You may be right. I mean what are the chances that he would actually be living this close to Marina De Ferrier. Still, if this is where he is now, it's a good indication that we shouldn’t be.” Bex frowned and looked a little closer at the building.
“What the fuck? Is that Trey walking out of the entrance?”
I looked in the direction she was frowning.
It wasn’t like I had a lot of interaction with the man.
Except for that day on the side of the road and the night at The Reverse Cowgirl.
Oh, and there was that day when he was leaving the diner as I arrived to drop Sky with Tess.
Wait. My mind placed all those incidents together.
Except for a few glimpses when he was at Noah’s office, I had only seen Trey on the days that something bad had happened to me.
My car, the snake, and the break in. And now he’s walking out of the building of the man who delivered God knows what to me.
Before I had a chance to share my theory with Bex, she was out of the car, not even bothering to close the door. “Trey, what are you doing here? Did you get the message from Jared as well?”
What happened next was so quick, it was like living in a slow-motion scene from an action movie.
Trey’s eyes went big. “You’re not supposed to be here.
” He looked over towards the car, an ugly smile lifted his mouth as he spotted me.
As confusion clouded my brain, the only thing I could hold onto was I had to protect my daughter.
With as little movement to my lips as I could manage, I spoke.
“Sky, stay down. Don’t lift your head for anything. Do you understand?”
“Mom?”
“Please, honey.”
“I promise, Mom.”
A gunshot rang out. I didn’t know what had happened. Trey had a gun, but I was not hurt. What the fuck was happening? Then Bex crumbled. A second shot had her falling immediately.
I didn’t have time to scream. If I didn’t get out of the car, the man would see Sky, and I couldn’t have that happen. Slowly, I stepped out. “Trey, what are you doing?”
“This is all your fault?” He came around the car and grabbed me.
I had no choice but to keep his attention away from the back of the car. “Why did you shoot her? It's me you wanted. All you had to do was come to me.”
“It's your fault.” He pulled me towards another car. One sitting in the parking lot of the apartment building.
I prayed Sky would get help. Even if I didn’t make it, Bex could still be alive.
And at least my kid had found her father.
Even though the neighborhood wasn’t the best, it was still in a small town where things were always relatively quiet.
No one was around. Still, those gunshots would’ve been reported.
But if I got Trey away from the scene, Sky could move and call 911.
She may be able to still save Bex. Saving my daughter and my friend was the only reason I for my compliance.
As he shoved me into the passenger seat, he pulled out a pair of handcuffs from the glove compartment. He put one end around my wrist and the other around the handle of the door, effectively making it impossible for me to move from the car.
Sirens blared in the background getting closer and closer. I stifled the exhale of relief, my daughter was safe.
Trey sprinted around the car and climbed in the driver’s side. As he drove from the building he didn’t speed or do anything else to draw attention to himself.
The more it became apparent my daughter was safe, the more fear for my own life took hold.
We’d been driving for a while as he ranted about how everything wrong with the situation was my fault and I made him do it.
I sat still for a long time until the anger started taking over. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because it was meant to be you and me.” He drove back towards central Marina De Ferrier. “I met you first that night. We met at the door to The Dane and we connected.”
I had to admit, I didn’t remember meeting the man.
I had only been to The Dane once. I met Noah that weekend.
It was the Five Hearts album wrap party.
I met Ricky that night, too. But Trey seemed to think he met me first. I took a guess knowing everything Noah had told me.
Because those conversations were important to me.
His friend had hired people he had worked with in the Marines.
Trey could’ve been one of those people. “You were a security guard?”
“I was the one who directed you to Smirk. You touched my arm when you thanked me. And then you were chatting to that Gilles fellow.”
“Ricky.”
“Whatever. I knew you were not interested in him and all his smooth moves.” He turned onto Main Street.
“But then you had to take Moore up to your room. You got into the elevator with him. Did you try to trap him? Because you knew who his parents were. You thought if you slept with him and got pregnant that he could further your career, didn’t you? ”
Having recently learned who Noah’s parents were, I could see the logic leap Trey had taken, yet the fact that he referred to my daughter as a ploy to trap a man just fueled my rage.
“Noah was not a coward. He came up to me and asked if I wanted to spend time with him. He didn’t hide behind a false name and disgusting letters and packages.
You disgusting coward. You can take me or get whatever you think it is you’re getting from me, but know this.
I am Noah Moore’s. You force yourself on me, I will think of Noah.
I will be fantasizing about him. You can take my body, but you will never have me. ”
The smack was a shock to my system. And louder than I expected. I mean, yeah, it hurt like a motherfucker, but that was still far too much noise.
I was so focused on the pain to my jaw, I didn’t realize the car was spinning.
Brakes screeched and Trey cursed. As soon as we came to a stop he was out of the car once more and ran around to the passenger side.
He pulled me out. But with my hand connected to the door handle he couldn’t pull me away.
It was while he was trying to break the door handle that two cars had screeched to a stop next us.
Trey stopped what he was doing and pushed the gun to my head. “Stay away, Moore. I won’t hesitate to shoot her. If I cannot have her, no one will.”