39. SHANE
39
SHANE
T he large wooden door to the back room of the Black Crow swings open. I tug at the neck of my black t-shirt, my skin growing hot, waiting for Lil to arrive, but Dom walks through instead, carrying a pint, a grin spreading on his face when he spots Kane and I.
The guys don’t know about me and Lilly yet. I should probably tell them before she gets here, as I won’t be able to keep my hands off her when she arrives.
All day at work, I’ve thought about her. Having her in my bed and waking up with her this morning was like a dream come true. I was certain she’d hate me when she found out what I’d done, but to know she knew the truth this whole time, relieves some of the guilt I had.
Dom rests his pint on the ledge behind me. “Good night last night?” His shit-eating grin widens.
I stare at him with furrowed brows, wondering what he’s getting at. “It was all right.” I can’t tell him it was fucking incredible. He’d want to know what was so good about it.
“Just all right, huh? Looked pretty fucking wild to me.” He brings his pint to his lips, taking a sip, then wipes the froth from the hairs on his top lip.
“How do you know?”
He chuckles, scratching his beard. “The next time you go for a drive on my property, you might want to check for cameras.”
My eyes grow wide. I itch the back of my neck as my skin burns scorching hot, sweat trickling down my back like lava from a volcano. “You watched?” I hold my breath, wondering exactly what he saw.
He doesn’t answer, just sips his pint with that shit-eating grin. The grin alone answers my question.
“You dirty bastard.” I shake my head and huff out a laugh. “You fucking watched, didn’t you? Dirty fucker.”
“Watched what?” Kane says as he bats his head back and forth between the two of us.
Fuck. I run a hand over my face. I’m never gonna hear the end of this.
Dom nods towards me. “Sarge in charge here was having some fun last night on my land.”
Kane stifles a laugh with a mouthful of beer. The spray hitting my face. He swallows, almost choking.
Dom gives him a hard pat on the back and Kane takes in a lungful of air as he coughs the rest up.
“Sarge in charge?” Kane splutters with a laugh.
I roll my eyes. “All right, have your fun.” I glare at Dom. “At least I can control my woman.”
“Yeah, I could see that… sarge.” Dom laughs along with Kane, the pair like a bunch of hyenas.
“I’m glad I could entertain you for the night. Did you get off on the show? You dirty fucker.” My head shakes. “I can’t believe you watched.”
Still laughing, Dom says, “I had to watch to see who the fuck was on my land.”
“Didn’t the cop car give it away?” I fold my arms over my chest, glaring at the two of them.
“Oh, I knew it was you. I just didn’t know who you were with. It wasn’t until she was splayed out on the bonnet that I realised. Then I turned it off.”
“So who was it?” Kane asks, his lips curving into a smile as he stares at me, probably noticing the beads of sweat on my forehead.
“Shit.” Dom rubs a tattooed hand over the bristles on his jaw. “I thought Kane knew.”
“He knows how I feel.” I give Kane a nod, as if to acknowledge what he’s already thinking.
“You finally grew a pair and asked her out, then?” Kane says, taking another sip of his drink.
“Yeah. It’s official. We’re together, but you can’t say anything. She wants to tell her sister herself.” I check my watch, thinking she should already be here by now. She finished work hours ago. My chest tightens, wondering if she’s gone to her sisters and hoping it’s going all right, but the longer she takes, and the longer my text goes unanswered, the more tense I get.
“Did anyone else see?” My t-shirt sticks to my back, knowing how people in this town talk. Though Lilly would probably get off knowing she had an audience.
“No, man. I deleted it.”
I nod in approval. Though I can’t deny I’m not disappointed. That would have made one hell of a movie night. “Thanks, man.” Getting more agitated by the second the longer my text goes unanswered, I press the call button this time, hoping to hear her voice.
My jaw clenches when the phone rings, then goes to voicemail. “Lilly, call me as soon as you get this.” I slip the phone in my pocket and curse under my breath.
“What’s going on?” Kane says as if he’s sensing my agitation.
“She should be here by now.”
“Mate, she’ll still be doing her skincare routine. She spends fucking hours getting ready. You know that.”
Dom places his pint down on the ledge. “You’re worried after the break-in? The doctor?”
Kane straightens his spine, standing slightly taller.
I shake my head. “Fern gave him an alibi. Said he was with her until about midnight. The break-in was around eleven.”
“Fern’s fucking the doctor?” Kane spits.
“Not anymore.”
Dom cracks his neck as if gearing up for a fight. “Anyone else you recognise on the list?”
“What list?” Kane furrows his brows, eyes widening.
I didn’t want to have to tell Kane about Lilly’s adult content account, he has enough problems of his own, but he may as well know what we’re dealing with here. “She had a creator’s account with over one hundred subscribers.”
The lines deepen on his brow. “So?”
“It was on Seductive Streams.”
His eyes bulge. “Since when?”
“A few months.” I shrug, not knowing the exact date. “The end of the summer, maybe.”
“Fuck.” His jaw clenches. “And you’re okay with this?”
“Of course not. I put a stop to it the second I found out. But I’m sure one of those motherfuckers is the person who broke in. I just can’t figure out who. I wasted two fucking weeks tracking the doc while the real perpetrator is still out there.”
“Where’s the list?”
I pull the list up on my phone. “Other than the doctor, the only other subscriber within a hundred miles is this chick.” I pull up a photograph of her profile picture. A young blonde girl. Her profile name, naughtykitty.
Dom says, “I tracked her account to a house on the Pondside estate, but she’s not there now. I couldn’t trace the IP as she must be using a VPN.”
“Isn’t that suss?” Kane says as he zooms in on the image.
Dom shrugs. “It’s fairly common these days, especially if you’re into adult content. Looks like this girl had her own side gig, but she hasn’t posted in a while.”
Kane zooms in further, examining the photo as if he recognises her. “What’s her name? Have you done a background check?”
“I haven’t been able to trace her. Just the account address. But there’s nothing on the system for previous residents.
“It looks like Asher’s old girlfriend to me.”
I snatch the phone from him. “There’s no way that’s Jodessa Kovalenko. The girl I nicked is an addict. She was thin and looks much older.”
“Maybe this is an old photo. But that’s definitely her.”
“But why would she want to break in to Lilly’s place?” Dom says as he looks between the two of us, trying to piece everything together.
I’ve been so fucking blind, dismissing this woman, thinking she was just a friend of Lilly’s because she’s a girl. “If this is the same woman whose house I raided…” I rub at my temple as a pain shoots through my head. “Then she’s friends with Levi Jackson.” It’s all making sense now, The ring light set up, the laptop with the adult content site. “This girl hasn’t been watching Lilly. It’s someone else, and I’d bet my life it’s that motherfucker.”
Kane’s face pales, as if the nauseating worry in the pit of my stomach is catching. “Call Fern. See if she’s there.”
“Sure. Like I still have my ex-wife’s number.”
He pulls out his phone and starts frantically tapping on the screen. “Who lives in the Lake View Rise flats?”
I snatch the phone from his hand. “What’s this?”
“That’s her car. I put a tracker on it years ago.” He flicks his eyes at the ceiling, sensing my unease. “Don’t worry, I haven’t looked at it in ages. I just did it for my peace of mind.”
I memorise the address and hand Kane his phone back, silently thanking him for being a little controlling and adding a tracker to her car. Striding through the back doors of the bar, I run to my Shogun. Those flats are the last place I want Lilly to be.