Chapter 53
C assie
My head thumped with too much information. With exhaustion, elation, and everything in between.
We left the crime scene on Rio’s bike after I directed Arran to retrieve Moniqua’s knife from where it had landed. I believed her, but DNA evidence of some kind would put the debate to bed forever.
Then we drove off into the night, through the arguing group of residents and cops, no one stopping us.
At the warehouse, under the neon-pink glow from the signs, a few crew members wrestled the councillors from our suspects list into the basement.
“Just let me apologise again to Everly, I mean Miss Makepeace. I swear I’ve been respectful to women,” one blathered.
Riordan carried me past. Someone else could handle them. We deserved time alone together.
In our apartment, he locked the door and took me to the bathroom. Set me on my feet while getting the water running then reached for my kitty shower cap.
I shook my head. There was blood in my hair. I needed it gone.
Riordan seemed to understand. He stripped me.
I slid his jacket off him, then his shirt. My stomach gutted out at the red line where the bullet grazed. It could’ve killed him. Just a few inches lower, and I wouldn’t be able to do this anymore.
He removed his remaining clothes and drew me under the spray with him.
“Sure ye want to get this wet?” I cupped a hand over his wound.
It was the first time either of us had spoken since leaving the crime scene. Later, I’d recognise that we were in shock. Right now, all I could do was follow my instincts.
Riordan choked a low laugh. “You were in a fire, then a death match with a murderer and my father, and you’re worried about me?”
He sank down, bringing me to his lap on the shower floor. Rain pattered down on us in a warm, lulling storm, and I huddled against the man I would’ve died for.
For a long minute, we did nothing but hold each other.
“Show me how to wash your hair. Which of these to use in which order.” He gestured to the array of products I had lined up, then in steady devotion, worked through my method.
Under me, he got hard. I was wet from more than the shower.
Neither of us did anything about it, fixing each other first so we could make good our night of horrors. When we were clean, I put ointment and a bandage on his injury. He dried my hair.
For bed, I stole a shirt he’d worn a few days ago which carried the scent of his aftershave. He took it right off me. Tugged me to straddle him. Let me own him as I rode us both to an emotional climax.
After, when my breathing regained something like a regular pattern, I snuggled Riordan, listening to his heartbeats. “I’m so in love with ye.”
His chest rose and fell. “My turn to say the words. I owe you all of them. I really thought I could be near you and resist the pull. I told you I wouldn’t fall in love. What gave me the right?”
I raised a shoulder. “Delusion?”
A low chuckle returned. “Entirely. Trouble was, I had already started falling from that first glimpse. You fascinated me. Not only the fact that your flawless face and incredible body are enough to bring me to my knees, and those big blue eyes see through me at every chance. But your mind does things to me I didn’t know possible. How fucking smart you are. Your crazy, impulsive, and yet perfect acts. The tracker on my bike? Fucking hell. I get hard every time I think about that ballsy little number. Everything about you is hardwired to turn me on, and yet I told you I was good with a time limit.” He took a short breath. “We’re official, right? I didn’t imagine you telling me you want it all with me?”
My lips curved. “Trust me, I am never letting ye go. You’re everything I’m not. Calm, in control, hot as fuck.”
He nuzzled me. “Agreed on the first one but definitely not the last, wild girl.”
“I still can’t get over the fact that you’re real. Ye were mine from my sighting from up on the plinth in Divide, and you’ll be mine forever. Just try getting away. I’ve still got those handcuffs.”
He groaned and tipped up my face to receive his kiss. Our night went on the same. Sleeping. Giving up words of love. Having sex in between. Finally resting together when the adrenaline crashed and delivered us into exhaustion.
Late in the afternoon, showered and dressed, I rang the hospital to check up on Dixie. The ward nurse was able to give a short update that my friend must’ve been conscious enough to approve, but said she was refusing visitors. My heart hurt, but I’d try again tomorrow. Next, I called a meeting of the Skeleton Girls Detective Agency. Plus hangers-on.
Riordan travelled with me up to Genevieve’s apartment on the top floor. “Should I be honoured to be included in your club?”
“One hundred percent.”
I snagged his hand. Held it.
As badly as I wanted to see my girls, this wasn’t going to be easy.
In the apartment, Rosie, Genevieve’s cat, darted over and wound through my legs. I stooped to stroke her furry brown head, but my focus was on Everly.
My heart sank at her stricken expression.
Crossing to join her, I clasped my hands in front of me, wishing I could go in for a hug but not knowing if I had the right. “I’m so sorry about what happened last night. About your dad.”
I’d murdered her father. No matter what kind of person he’d been, he was still her closest relative, and I’d stabbed him in the heart.
A tear slid down Everly’s cheek. “I can’t believe you’re apologising to me. He would have killed you. He tried to kill my brother. Connor told me what happened, and I hate that my father did that.”
“You’re not angry with me?”
“Of course I’m not. I’m sad, but that’s because of all the things he did, and what he should have been. I can live without him. My life will be better. I would have been devastated if he’d hurt you or my brother.”
My voice shook. “Can I give ye a hug?”
She wound her arms around me. “I thought you’d hate me.”
I gave a hiccupping laugh. “I thought you’d hate me, too.”
Another pair of arms enfolded us. Genevieve’s. She didn’t say anything, but I suspected she felt the same way as Everly about her loss. The sadness was more for what could have been, rather than the men themselves.
We broke apart, and Genevieve guided us to the kitchen where she had coffee and pastries laid out.
Everly sent a shy smile Riordan’s way. “Are you okay?”
His expression was kind. “I’m good. I need to tell you that I’ll clear up the mess in your old house. It’s yours now, but Cassie’s brother and I trashed the place.”
She tilted her head. “Ours. We’ll sell it and split the profits.”
He started to refuse, but she shut him down, batting back his words.
“Ours. We’re both his children, and he owed you. I’m your big sister so don’t argue.”
I took a healthy sip of strong coffee, watching on and seeing something sweet after a world of pain. Riordan surrounded by family. Not shutting himself away but opening up.
Genevieve guided us to the sofas. She sat curled up against Arran. “So Moniqua was the murderer all along. That feels so crazy to me.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Same. I gave her a job. All that time she was killing women in an attempt to prove herself and climb to the top of a gang. I’d almost respect that, if she’d targeted the right people. But fuck her. Not only that but also for wanting my boyfriend. Fricking ghoul.”
Riordan hugged me close. “I didn’t suspect a thing or even consider her as a suspect. Not even when I read her name on your list.”
Genevieve nodded. “Honestly, same. Yet the evidence was there all along. I even saw her with the knife she said she’d used. Arran showed me a picture he took last night. She was cleaning it in her flat a few months ago, this was right when I was meeting Arran, and it feels like such a clear warning sign when I think back.”
Murmurs agreed with her.
The metaphorical smoking gun.
She continued, “I was so sure Cherry’s murderer was someone she knew. That it was more targeted than that.”
Arran shook his head. “I thought it was a message to me.”
“Same.” Shade raised his eyebrows.
Riordan said, “All that time and it was a woman on a campaign of terror in order to get a fucking job.”
Genevieve exhaled. “It’s just so hard to believe a woman would do something like that.”
Her boyfriend checked his phone. “The DNA matching results will be in soon from her weapon, but I don’t think we’re looking for anyone else.”
I eyed him, still not entirely over the fact that he and Shade had second thoughts about Bronson but hadn’t said a word.
Genevieve sat forward. “After you left last night, Manny brought Lara to us. She was already crying when we took her into the office. I didn’t even have to glare and she was spilling a confession. The first note she delivered was done in ignorance. Moniqua handed it to her, and she passed it on to Alisha, then got scared after Alisha’s murder. She didn’t want anyone to blame her, and didn’t want to lose her job, so she kept her mouth shut. After that, she was blackmailed. Moniqua wanted her to join the Four Milers, and one of their members set her up in the fancy apartment she’s been living in. She was at risk of being thrown out by her mother so felt she had no choice but to obey them or be homeless.”
Her gaze settled on me, her indignation clear. “That’s when she slipped the note into your room.”
Slowly, I nodded, working it out. Lara would have had access to the cam girls’ floor. Most of the staff could move freely between the lower floors. It was one of the reasons, other than me knocking the camera out as a joke, that we hadn’t been able to pinpoint who’d been there.
“Then she brought a letter to me,” Riordan muttered. Our fingers intertwined, and he squeezed my hand. “I’m a fucking idiot for believing it.”
I hugged his arm. “No you’re not. Moniqua knew exactly what to write.” To Genevieve, I asked, “Did Lara confess to listening in on my telephone call in the management office?”
My friend nodded. “She’d been tasked by Moniqua to spy on Arran and Shade whenever she could. She volunteered for extra shifts in stocking up the bars so she could hang around out of hours. She listened in on you and fed it back. Do you know what sucks? She cried as she confessed it to us and said how bad she felt. I can’t believe the nerve. I thought we were friends yet she used her position here to set my brother up.” She peeked at Riordan. “That’s what happened, isn’t it?”
He inclined his head. “I got a letter signed by Cassie telling me we were over. I thought it was real.”
I thumped my head against him. “I gave her everything she needed to shred us.”
Multiple gazes stuck to us. Arran’s and Shade’s knowing, Genevieve’s and Everly’s curious.
“So you two are a thing?” Genevieve finally asked.
I huffed. “Why does everyone keep doubting it? I told you all he was mine forever ago. I’m going to marry him.”
The two women’s eyes rounded.
Riordan squinted down at me.
“What? Ye put me on the back of your bike. That was a proposal. I consider us engaged.”
Shade hummed. “Agreed. I hear that’s the law.”
Everly laughed softly.
I was hooked on the expression in my boyfriend’s eyes. It told me he liked my words. It spoke to the need I saw in him over and over again to be claimed. To be loved and adored.
My heart thumped out of time, and I managed to shrug. “By all means ask me formally one day, but this thing is happening.”
His tight hold on me was all the answer I needed. It took a solid minute before I could get back into the conversation going on around us.
“Will the cops do anything about the murderer reveal swap?” Genevieve was saying.
Arran gave a single shake of his head. “Dixie’s attack didn’t even make the press. Nobody knows another attempt was made, and as far as the public is concerned, the dangerous Four Miler gang was responsible, and as a result, they were annihilated. Parts of the city are still burning. All the attention has gone there and on hating the drug dealers who caused the problems.”
I peered at the window where the city sparkled beyond the glass. “Then the heat is off us?”
He confirmed it, and some tight kernel of pressure in my chest eased. I hadn’t been kidding when I said I loved the warehouse. I was skeleton crew now, and I’d do anything to defend my home and the people who worked here.
Everly asked the question about opening the clubs this evening.
Arran’s phone rang while he was replying, and he answered the call and set it on loudspeaker. “Kenney. What do you have for me?”
The chief constable griped about the hours he’d had to work then got to the point. “We still don’t have sign-off on entering the church building, though the fire is out. I’ll give you a body count when I can. But that knife you turned up, Bronson’s one, scored a hit for Rachel Dench with others yet to be identified. It’s the hit we needed to put this to bed like where I’m heading now.”
My brain joined the dots. The knife in question was the one from when I’d disarmed Moniqua. I’d told Arran to find it when we left the riverside. He must have given the blade a cover story as belonging to Bronson, rather than Moniqua, and handed it to Kenney because the cops had the DNA records of the deceased women to test against.
Rachel Dench was Alisha’s real name. Fuck. Moniqua hadn’t been entirely delusional.
Arran hung up the call. “Moniqua is the killer. She told the truth.”
She had. And with her gone, plus the Four Milers disintegrated, calm had been restored to Deadwater. There were other gangs in the city, smaller ones who would scramble to fill the gap Red and his people had left, but right now, none had the strength to challenge us, and I didn’t doubt Arran and Shade would move quickly to put them in their place.
With his arm around me, Riordan tensed up.
I peeked up at him. “Are ye okay?”
“I befriended a monster.”
I released a sigh. “I gave her a job.”
On the opposite couch, Genevieve shook her head. “I tried to be nice to her. We can’t blame ourselves for anything we did as good people trying to be kind.” She twisted to peek up at her fiancé. “If Alisha’s blood was on that, she can’t have cleaned it very well. Almost as if she wanted the trophy of it, you know? I meant to ask, whatever happened to the knife Riordan got caught with that could’ve had my DNA on it?”
Shade answered for him. “Kenney returned it to us, and we destroyed it. Unlike Moniqua, we run a tight ship.”
If Moniqua had done the same, we couldn’t have been sure. In her sloppiness, she’d done us a solid.
The next couple of hours, we went through all that had happened. Each death. Everything Moniqua had told us about why she’d killed the women. We said their names. We considered how different their lives would’ve been if they hadn’t fallen victim to a deranged murderer.
We raised a toast to each, and lastly talked about helping Dixie, though Moniqua never gave a reason for hurting her.
After, Arran gave Riordan the night off, though the clubs were busier than ever, and the two of us went back to bed. We ordered in food and hid away. There was so much still to be sorted and considered, but we had answers enough to plague us.
More, we just wanted to feel the relief of being whole. Together. Safe.
While Riordan left the apartment to go collect our dinner, I quickly jumped to put in place a small plan I’d had in my mind for days, ever since he’d bought me furniture. I’d never had a boyfriend before, so I hoped he’d forgive how slow I was to reciprocate.
With glee, I made my choices and clicked through multiple websites. Then I jumped to my family chat—my brothers had all returned home, and the thread was thick with gossip and news—and made my request.
A thumbs-up from the relative in question made me grin. Riordan joining the skeleton crew had been the best event ever. I wanted to mark it as permanent.
Another thought occurred as I finished up. Quickly, I called Shade, knowing he was upstairs from a comment on the group chat with my girls.
He replied. I shot up to his apartment and borrowed what I needed.
Back in our place, Riordan was in the kitchen. He lifted an eyebrow in question. “Where did you go?”
“I had to borrow something.”
Nearing, I kept it concealed behind my back.
He held my gaze, some kind of trouble in his eyes. When I reached the kitchen counter, he finally spoke. “Move in with me.”
My heart seized up. “Say that again with your clothes off.”
A small smile curved his lips, and Riordan stripped his shirt, revealing his hot-as-fuck muscular body. “Move in with me. I want to live with you.”
“Ye mean here, right?”
The smile broadened. He undid his jeans and slid them down his legs, kicking them off. “Yes, here. It might be your place, but I wanted to do the asking.”
I squeaked in happiness and dove at him, remembering my hidden device at the last second. What had Shade told me? Firm against the skin and fire.
Riordan caught me and dove in for a kiss. “Is that a yes?”
With my arms around him, I tugged up his boxers, set the tracker gun to his arse cheek, and pulled the trigger. It snapped, and he jerked, rearing back in surprise.
I held up the device, grinning as I backed away. “Aye, we live together now. And we can never lose each other again either. The tracker on your bike wasn’t enough for me. You’re not always on it. I can’t bear the thought of ye going missing…”
My words dried up at his expression.
Furious, beautiful, relieved , like my love for him gave him a sense of home as much as our apartment did.
“You have no idea what you do to me.” He hunted me across the room.
Down the hall. To our bedroom.
I did know. I felt it, too.
We had it to share, and we’d never lose sight of each other again.