Forty
W e slept after our consummation fuck, and when I woke up, I felt like crap, and my side was throbbing. Did I sleep on the damn tattoo? Nobody told me it’d burn like that, and I felt like that was vital information a person should know.
Stitch was already up, and on his phone.
“Elise, this is ridiculous, just message me and let me know you’re okay.”
He slammed the phone on the counter, and gripped the surface with both hands, his muscles tense and bunched up.
“What’s wrong?”
“She always replies to my messages, Camille. Why the fuck hasn’t she replied?”
I checked the time on the silly motorbike clock on his wall, as I got out of bed, and took a few steps toward him.
“It’s barely six in the morning, Stitch. She might be asleep.”
He ran his hand through his hair. “Something isn’t right, babe. I can feel it. Something’s wrong.”
I wrapped my arms around him from behind.
“She’ll be fine. She’s probably happily snuggled up in her own bed at home, and has no idea you’re even trying to reach her.”
He turned and hugged me for a moment.
“You’re right. I’m gonna borrow the van and go check though, just to make sure.”
Someone banged on the door then, and I stepped away from Stitch so he could go and open it. It was Reacher, and Ice, and they both looked grim and worried.
“We have a serious fucking situation, brother.”
They both looked exhausted, and dropped onto the sofa, with Ice scrolling through something on his tablet the whole time.
“Well? You gonna fucking speak? Is it about Elise?”
Reacher frowned, rubbing his hands over his knees.
“Why the hell would it have anything to do with your sister?” He looked around him then.
“Jesus, you mean she’s not here?”
Oh god.
“Tell us.”
Ice was still fussing with his tablet, but he lifted his head for a moment.
“There was a body found down the road. It’s a young woman.”
Stitch grabbed hold of me, his breath rushing out of him as I felt his strength leave him in a heartbeat.
“God no, please, not her.”
Reacher slapped the back of Ice’s head.
“Really? That was the worst possible way to tell him. Brother, it’s not Elise, but it is someone we know. One of the club girls, Chrissy.”
Club girls? I wanted to ask what the fuck that meant, but at the same time, wasn’t it pretty obvious? Girls the club members fuck. Had Stitch fucked her? Did I have to worry about that kind of thing now we were staying together?
“What the fuck happened to her? She hasn’t been around in a while, right?”
“No, I’m just checking her phone and she hasn’t been in touch with anyone here in months. Not since she used to be with Ryder and Has.”
Ryder and Has? Just them? That wasn’t so bad, right? I shook my head at myself, because a girl was dead, and I was feeling stupidly jealous of something that clearly didn’t even exist.
I nudged Stitch over to the sofa to sit down, because he still seemed like he was in shock.
“What happened to her?”
“One of my searches picked up the police report, man. She was raped, and strangled. I dunno more than that yet. There’s no autopsy report, and of course, no connection to us mentioned, especially since she hasn’t been here in a while.”
Reacher leaned his elbows on his knees, and dragged his hand over his beard.
“Jesus, I’m not saying this is about the club specifically, but she was a friend, and I wanna find out who did this. It’s not an attack on us, as far as we can tell, but we owe it to her to find and punish this fucker.”
Stitch was nodding, as he caught my hand and pulled me into his lap, holding on tight. I didn’t tell him that he was pressing on my tattoo, because I think we both needed the comfort right now.
“Do you think Ryder or Has have heard from her lately or seen her, outside of catching up by phone?”
Everyone looked at me, and then Reacher nodded and turned to Ice.
“You’ve been monitoring ins and outs, yeah?”
He nodded. “Last time I have Chrissy on site was uh, just shy of eight weeks ago. She saw Has for a few hours, and left. Shit. How didn’t we realise that was the last time any of us would see her?” He looked morose, still fussing with his tablet.
“Police report shows her home address, but it’s not the one we had on file for her. Guess she was making some changes to her life.”
Stitch
I wasn’t sure what was worse, knowing poor Chrissy had been raped and murdered, or that my damn baby sister hadn’t been heard of since last night. What if the same bastard had hold of her? What if right now, she was fighting for her life, while we were sitting here on our asses?
“We need to get Ryder and Has down here. It’s the best way to find out when they saw her last. Fuck this tech crap, because they could have bumped into her in a fucking pub or something.”
Ice glared at me. “Fuck my tech shit? Yeah, until the next time you wanna snoop on someone, right? ”
“You know that’s not what I mean, man. I’m just saying that we should be asking them, because people still do the face to face stuff. Jesus.”
Ice tapped away at his screen, and glared at me.
“Fine. I’ve messaged both of them to come here. I mean, unless you’d like me to go and face-to-face them right now?”
“Stop being a prick, man, I know you hate being awake early, but this trumps your bad mood.” Reacher wasn’t holding back either. This wasn’t trivial shit. It needed our full attention, she did. She deserved our full attention, didn’t she? Camille pressed closer to me, like she could feel my inner turmoil, and that’s when I realised the thing I should have dealt with instantly.
“Camille, babe, can you please go and get dressed in the bathroom? I don’t like you just wearing a fucking t-shirt with other guys around.”
She nodded and carefully slid out of my lap, disappearing behind me.
“I can’t believe I didn’t realise that sooner. My head is a fucking mess, guys.”
Reacher heaved a heavy sigh.
“Fuck this. I need a proper cup of coffee to deal with this shit. Ice, make drinks.”
“The fuck? Suddenly my tech skills are for shit, and I’m a fucking canteen lady? Go fuck yourself.”
I snorted, going to make the damn drinks myself. One coffee wouldn’t hurt the Pres, right?
By the time Camille returned from the bathroom, finally fully covered up, I handed her a coffee, and she took my chair, leaving me to sit beside Reacher.
“So, what else can your tech skills get us, Ice? Apparently not your head out of your ass.”
He fought the smirk my words caused, and flipped me off.
“Just dipping into her financials and shit. She was barely making ends meet, so that was no different from when she was here a lot, although she sometimes helped out at the spray shop for extra cash. The new address seems to be shared with another woman, so maybe that’s why the move. Shared bills and shit. Her body was discovered yesterday evening, by a poor bastard out walking his dog. Without autopsy records and shit, best they’re willing to estimate is that she’s been dead about 2-3 days.”
Fuck. She lay there out in the open somewhere, dead and unnoticed for that long.
“That’s… how the fuck does a body sit somewhere for that long and nobody fucking finds it?”
“She was out of the way, down a track in Shears Woods. I guess the dog wandered off the trail and barked his ass off or something.”
“Unless the guy who ‘found’ her was the murderer, and he wanted his work found?” I frowned at my wife, who came out with the most insightful shit sometimes.
“Jesus. She’s got a point. Who is this guy?”
Ice smirked again. “Oh… so now we need my ‘tech shit’?”
“Asshole… wait, that’s probably Ryder or Has.” I got up and pulled the door open, to find a groggy-looking Ryder standing there. I glanced out into the hall behind him, but there was no sign of Has-Been yet.
“Seen Has?”
He frowned. “That’s why you guys called me the fuck down here? Go knock on his damn door.”
I let him in, casting a look at Has’ closed door. I’d give him five more minutes, then go and do exactly that.
“Ry, sit down man. It’s not good news.” I made him a coffee while Reacher filled him in.
“Tell me you’re fucking kidding, please. She’s such a sweet girl. Fuck!” He had his head in his hands when I brought him his drink, and waited until he’d grasped it, before I ousted Camille from her seat, pulling her back into my lap.
“We’re gonna find out who did this, brother. He’ll pay for it.”
He rubbed his sleeve across his eyes, still looking a little teary when he looked at me.
“Damn right he’ll fucking pay. This asshole is on borrowed time. Ice, give me something to fucking do.”
Another huffy groan was his only response, as he kept fussing with his screen.
“No sign of Has, and his phone is off, so he didn’t get our text.”
I got up. “I’ll go knock on his door. He’ll want to be a part of this.”
I headed down the hall to Has’ door, and pounded on it with my fist.
“Wake up, asshole!”
There was noise behind the door, his voice, and was there another voice in there?
“Has? Get out here, dammit.”
The door suddenly opened a crack, and he peered through the gap at me.
“What the fuck, VP? Have you seen the time?”
“Your phone’s off, or you’d have seen the text to get your ass to my room. It’s important.”
He glanced behind him, keeping the door as close to closed as he could.
“Right. Yeah, I forgot to charge it. I’ll be right out, VP. Gimme five, yeah?”
I nodded, backing up as the door suddenly closed firmly in my face. I even heard him turn the lock. That was weird. Normally he’d just keep the door open, talking while he dressed, not caring if he flashed me, or whichever one of his brothers he was with.
As timing went, it was the worst possible time to be acting out of character, wasn’t it? Did he have someone in there with him? Were they there willingly? Was his porn career just the tip of the iceberg with him?
One thing was for damn sure, I’d be watching him like a hawk when we broke the news to him. One shred of unexpected behaviour, and I was gonna smash his door down to see who he was keeping in there. Jesus, what if he was some kind of psycho?
“You coming back?”
I turned to see Reacher peering out through my door, so I nodded and headed back, my mind still reeling with horrific possibilities about a brother I thought I knew, but maybe had never known at all.
Cammy
I wasn’t sure what had happened in the hallway, but Stitch was distracted when he returned. Deep in thought, but in a way that told me he was freaked out or intensely worried about something or someone.
I caught his arm as he came back to our chair.
“You okay?”
“He probably just got a faceful of Has’ ass. The guy has no boundaries at all.”
Stitch pasted a smile on his face.
“Yeah, some shit can’t be unseen, right?” I didn’t believe a word of it. Something else had happened. I might not have known him long, but I’d witnessed the way he dealt with some of the worst things a person should have to deal with. I knew his behaviours and mannerisms. I saw how he’d handled the ups and downs of the last few days, and this was new. He was scared, and it was worse since he’d left the room.
His phone pinged, and he leapt up to grab it.
“Oh thank fuck! It’s Elise.”
He tapped angrily at his screen for a moment, and sat back down.
“Said she overslept. She’s at home though. Jesus, I was really starting to freak out.” He still was, only he was hiding it behind his relief now.
“Yo.” Has poked his head in the room, and came in when Reacher beckoned.
“Did I miss a party or something?”
He glanced around at all of us.
“Hey, Cammy, mind you’re not leaning on that tat, babe. It’s still gonna be sore.”
Stitch tensed, and I caught his arm as he moved, almost like he was going to attack Has-Been. For speaking to me? For calling me babe? I had no idea.
“Thanks, Has. I’m being careful. Let me get you a drink.”
“I’ll fucking do it.” Stitch moved again, dumping me back in the seat, which he even drew back a few inches with me in it, like he wanted space between me and the others in the room.
Nobody seemed to register that, and Has grabbed one of the dining chairs, dragging it over to sit the other side of Ice.
“Did something happen?”
Ryder cursed. “Yeah, some fucker murdered Chrissy.”
Has-Been froze, his eyes going from Ryder to Reacher and Ice, like he was waiting for someone to elaborate or maybe deny it.
“What? Are you sure? She was going away to nursing school.”
Everyone started peppering him with questions, but he seemed to be in a daze .
“Jesus, will you lot shut it? I saw her, uh… maybe a week ago, and we had coffee in town. She was… fuck, she was so excited to be finally enrolled and working on her future. Who the fuck did this?”
We had no answers for him.
“Why did you see her?” Stitch sounded more aggressive than usual, and he hadn’t joined me in the chair again, instead, leaning on the back of it, ever since he’d practically shoved a coffee at Has.
Has looked just as surprised as I felt.
“What? I don’t know. I was in town running errands and we bumped into each other. I invited her for coffee because it’d been a while. Why the third degree?” He narrowed his eyes at Stitch. “You accusing me of something here, brother?”
The atmosphere in the room went from awkward to tense and dangerous, and I felt like a wrong word would kick off a fight of some kind.
Reacher cleared his throat. “Nobody is accusing anyone of anything. We’re all pissed about this, and we want to find whoever did this. It means we need to know as much as possible, right, Stitch?”
“No, if he thinks I did something, he should have the guts to come out and say it. You think I could do whatever the fuck happened to her to, Jesus, anyone? Is that what you think of me?” Has looked horrified, hurt, devastated… he couldn’t possibly look less like a bad guy. He almost looked like a sad little boy with his baby-faced appearance, despite the all-man body and the dreads.
“Has-”
“It was a valid question. She hasn’t been at the club in ages, and just when we find out she’s dead, it turns out he saw her a few days earlier. I’m just asking what we’re all thinking.”
Has got up from his chair and dumped his coffee on the table.
“You wanna come and say that to my fucking face, VP? You think I won’t defend myself? You think I won’t beat this asshole idea out of your head? I couldn’t fucking hurt a woman, you know that. You all fucking know that, right?”
Ryder cleared his throat.
“For the record, I am a hundred percent behind Has. Guys, she was raped, and he, of all people, wouldn’t do something like that in a million years because…”
He trailed off, suddenly going red in the face, and Has groaned.
“Gonna out all my secrets, brother? Fine. Maybe this’ll help you assholes see who you’re pointing the finger at. I’d never fucking rape anyone because I was raped years ago, okay? I was still a kid, still acting, and getting abused by old bastards who should have known better. Jesus .” He turned and leaned a hand on the back of his empty chair. “I couldn’t, okay, I just fucking couldn’t.”
The room was silent again, but this time the atmosphere had changed. I was willing to bet that Reacher and Stitch at least hadn’t known that about him. Ice hadn’t looked surprised, but he was a hard person to read, wasn’t he?