Chapter 29
CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE
Willow
We make our way back to the station while Haze fills me in. I’m angry. So fucking angry.
What was the point in telling me he’d never hurt me, and then go behind my back and do it anyway?
“Say somethin’,” he says. I can feel his eyes on me as I drive. No way was I going on the back of his motorcycle.
“There’s nothing to say.”
“Yes, there is. Be mad at me, I deserve it, but the silent treatment? Come on, Wills.”
“Just don’t, Haze. I thought we were past petty shit and secrets, but it seems like we’re only just getting started.” I grip the steering wheel a little too tight. I’m trying to make it make sense, but every time I think about what I saw in those letters, my blood boils.
“I was gonna tell you tonight,” he says. “I had the file inside my cut. I didn’t want to keep anythin’ from you, but frankly, I don’t trust anyone in the NOPD, except you. There are people out there who don’t always want what’s best for you.”
“That decision wasn’t yours to make.” I shake my head. “My father, of all people.”
“His concern was genuine, no matter how you feel about him.”
“So, he’s your new best friend all of a sudden?”
“No, you know what I think of him. If he fucked off out of town right now, it’d be not soon enough.”
“I just don’t get why you didn’t tell me,” I say, wanting to ignore him, but equally wanting to smack his head into the dash repeatedly. “You’re concerned about my safety, but don’t tell me when I’m supposedly in imminent danger? Kinda defeats the purpose of it, doesn’t it?”
He palms the back of his head. “It was a week, so if you’re gonna hold that against me for a fuckin’ week, then be my guest. I will never apologize for keepin’ you safe, even if my actions and motives were questionable.”
“Spoken like a true Rebel,” I snark. “At the end of the day, you’ll just do whatever you like and take whatever course of action you feel like because you’re part of the MC. The law doesn’t seem to matter to any of you. Neither does being honest to your wife.”
“I’m not gonna beg for forgiveness this time,” he says, his voice hard. “I never stopped being sorry before, but now I take it back. I’m not sorry.”
“Oh, that’s mature.”
“I’d do it again if it meant I could catch whoever is doin’ this and put them out of their misery.”
I glance at him briefly. “Really? And how is that working out for you?”
He puffs his cheeks out, then palms the back of his head with both hands, lacing his fingers. “You’re a piece of work, you know that?”
“What did I do?” I all but screech. “Don’t you even dare turn this around on me!”
“So you’re tellin’ me if the situation were reversed, you’d tell me everythin’ about the case you’re workin’ on? That’s some bullshit right there.”
“That isn’t the same thing, Haze, and you know it.”
“It’s whatever you want it to be, sweet cakes.
But you can’t have it both ways. I stand by protectin’ you and keepin’ you safe.
Was it smart to keep it from you? Probably not.
But I had to get a head start on this before things got out of hand and too many people got involved.
” His way of explanation sucks. Yet he carries on like he isn’t somehow digging a bigger hole for himself.
“Rock is keepin’ an eye on things, and let me tell you, you still have some shady ass people in that station. ”
I glare at him. “Sounds like you and Rock might want a permanent job there. Or better yet, why don’t I arrest your ass and see how you’d like him as a cellmate, maybe?”
“Do it.”
“I will.”
“You can’t prove anythin’,” he mutters after a beat. “And us fightin’ like this isn’t helpin’ matters.”
“You’re right. I came to tell you about the fight I had with my dad and how much I need you.
” I don’t even want to be sharing this information with him, but he’s turning me into a blubbering mess.
This is what he wanted. Me to communicate.
So he can have my communication all up in his face and he can fucking suffocate in it.
“But instead I’m faced with lies from two of the people I trusted most in the world.
I’d expect Dad to be all over my case in a heartbeat, but you? I never thought I’d see the day.”
“I’m all over your case because I love you, and I’m not ever gonna be sorry for that.
It was a week. I’ve never kept anythin’ from you before and it cut me up inside not sayin’ somethin’.
You think it’s fuckin’ easy readin’ those goddamn letters knowin’ there’s a creep out there who wants to do those things to you? ”
“I’m not scared of a bunch of letters, Haze.”
“I think I prefer Aust.”
“Well, you don’t get to decide what I call you. Asshole is another term I’m sure you’re familiar with.”
“There’s no need for name callin’,” he says, exasperation in his tone. “Now, if you can put your pigheadedness aside for a second, what about Hally?”
I ignore the more important part of his statement: Hally. “Pigheadedness? You should talk.”
“I wouldn’t call myself that. I’m more focused than pigheaded.”
“Right. You’re focused. Just keep telling yourself that.” The freaking nerve of this man!
Meanwhile, I focus on the road, not wanting to converse, but knowing I have to.
“Hally,” he goes on. “What are we gonna do?”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do. We had a conversation earlier, and she was perfectly nice, though now that has me suspicious.
I would hazard a guess she’s looking up my brother’s details because she feels guilty.
Maybe she’s checking up on him, which still isn’t right, nor should she be doing that,” I say.
“I’ll broach it with her and see if I can get a feel for what she’s up to.
As for the lab? Maybe she was working late, I need to review the footage before I can draw any conclusions. ”
“Bringin’ her in for questioning will only arouse suspicions,” Haze says. “Broachin’ the subject could be good, but do it in a way where she thinks you’re just havin’ a conversation. Maybe we keep an eye on her and go from there.”
I don’t know why he keeps saying, we.
“I love how you think you can tell me how to do my job, like I needed your help.” I roll my eyes. “Like I haven’t earned the right to make my own decisions based on gut instinct alone.”
“Again, there’s no need for snark. I’m tryin’ to help.”
Deep down, I know he is. That’s the problem.
The issue I have with that is the people closest to me have always tried to keep me in a box my entire life, not Haze, but that’s how it felt for a moment.
Maybe I’m overreacting. I still don’t think what he did was right, but a small part of me gets where he was coming from.
I’ve kept things from Max, for example, when I thought it would do him good.
This isn’t the same thing, but seeing his face drop and his shoulders sag when we left his office has me all mixed up.
I’m disappointed because he got together with my dad and had a conversation about me. So screw him.
“You already did enough,” I say. When we pull up to the station, I park in my usual spot.
“I don’t want to fight with you,” Haze says as I reach to unclip my seatbelt.
“Well, you should’ve thought about that before going behind my back. Now I have to relay all of this to the team.”
He swallows. “What if your dad is right that not everyone is happy about your promotion?”
“I doubt this is an inside job, if they didn’t want me in the position, why did they give it to me?” I huff. “And for the record, I don’t want to hear you say his name again. I don’t want to think about how mad I am with him all over again.”
“Some hierarchies are okay with it, some aren’t. That’s how it goes. And I agree for the most part. But if your dad suspects foul play, then that isn’t to be ignored.”
I don’t want to ask him this, but I do anyway. “What’s your gut telling you?”
He meets my eye. “You really want to know?”
“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t, would I?”
His lips twitch and I want to smack him in the mouth. By no means is any of this funny.
“It’s tellin’ me you’ve pissed someone off. Someone you arrested back when you were a detective. Someone you put away is the most likely scenario, or some disgruntled family member.”
“Great, that narrows it down to about twenty-five thousand people.”
I grip the wheel once again. “Aust, those letters were…”
“I know, disturbin’. It freaked me the fuck out.” He takes a beat. “A person we were lookin’ into was this Aaron Bolt guy.”
“Why is that name familiar?”
“He was one of the fake Cut City Boys.”
“Fake? Why was he fake?”
He waves it off. “That’s a story for another time, but he was inside that compound with you when you were undercover.”
“I remember,” I say. “He was a twisted son of a bitch.”
“He’s dead.”
“No doubt. Did you feed him to the alligators?”
Haze gives me a really look. “Funny. Assumed he was killed in the shootout but as it turns out, he died in a house fire a year ago.”
“What does this have to do with any of this?”
“His dad was a serial killer.”
My eyes widen. “Who?”
“Nickname was Dead Bolt, from Baton Rouge, he terrorized people for the better part of the early two thousands, and died in prison a while back.”
“Dead Bolt? Wait, I remember reading about him.”
“Yeah, he stalked his victims and left creepy letters similar to the ones you were gettin’,” he says. “We didn’t wanna leave anythin’ to chance, so Star looked into it. She’s also findin’ out if there are any other livin’ relatives. If he had some fascination with you—”
“As far as I know, he didn’t, we barely spoke,” I say.
My time undercover wasn’t pleasant, but I had a job to do.
Rescuing innocent people, like Audrina, as well as bringing down criminals is what I do, and that part of my life was pretty crazy.
I can’t say I miss those days. “But it’s good to check all avenues. ”
“You still mad?”
“Yes.”
“Well, good, but preserve that energy for what we have to do next, which is find this crazy bastard before anythin’ happens to you.”
“It’s weird, I have felt like someone has been watching me lately,” I say, then frown. “Don’t tell me… the fucking prospects?”
“They were lookin’ out for you when I couldn’t be around,” he blurts. “Cash’s orders.”
“That’s right, because everyone gets a say in how I should be protected.”
“Stop poutin’ and be grateful so many people care about you.”
“I could smack you right now,” I tell him. “Seriously.”
“Like I said, sugar, save all of that energy. Without alertin’ Hally that we’re onto her, we need to figure out if she has anythin’ to do with it, or if she’s an innocent bystander.”
“I get that, and that was my next port of call, thanks for the reminder.” I reach for the handle, then I feel Haze’s hand on my arm.
“Probably best to keep this under wraps with only cops you trust — Luke and Carl, for example.”
I nod. “I know. It’s probably some deranged psycho who doesn’t like what I’m doing, or that I got the job. I get threats like this all the time.”
“You do?”
“Well, not that elaborate, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. We have bigger fish to fry right now with this Rooftop Killer on the loose.”
“How did the witness pan out?”
“That’s classified.”
“It’s not really, I could just go get Sawyer to look it up.”
I sigh. “She didn’t pan out. She wanted the reward. Her testimony was nothing more than what we already know, so it’s back to the drawing board.” I shrug out of his hold and exit the car. “Also, don’t go hacking into any more surveillance or I will have you and your whole team arrested.”
“Great, will you visit me in jail?”
I shoot him a glare. “I think you already know the answer to that.”