Chapter 23 #2
“And you believed Keller?” I push. He’s so exhausted he might just slip and finally tell us the truth.
I might have been working for the same organization, but I never trusted his old man.
He was so crooked, so fixated on money and the power it was giving him.
Now, I can see it for what it was. I know Kasen always looked up to Keller, but just this past week, I have seen the cracks appearing, little sly comments he’s made, looks he gives just me and Bodhi when dealing with the board.
I don’t think he trusted the old coot either.
And since he was his flesh and blood, I know that means only one thing: he’s hiding shit from us.
Kasen runs a hand through his hair, his nervous tic.
Has been since he was a kid, going up against me in surf comps that he knew he couldn’t take me in, even if I was two years younger than him.
“I’ve read the cop reports. Time of death was later than we were all there.
Unless Keller went back without us, I’d say he wasn’t the one who killed her.
He had no reason to, he already got what he wanted. ”
“But this stalker could be the one with motive?” Bodhi snips, finally taking his attention away from the surveillance and our girl.
He might act like he doesn’t want Dove around, like just the sight of her pisses him off, but I know the real him.
He pined after her like the rest of us did.
He’s pleased she’s back, he just has a messed-up way of showing it.
“That’s unless you know something you’re not telling us, K?” I push.
Kasen shoves back to standing, striding across the room so the two of us are face to face. He glares down at me. “What are you implying, River?”
My lips twitch, the smile directed at my mate not a pleasant one.
Yeah, I might be the jokester of the crew, always up for a good time.
But this shit is too real to laugh off. Someone could get hurt.
She could get hurt, and I’m not going to let that shit fly.
“I’m not implying anything, Kasen. You know shit you haven’t told us, I can see it written all over your face.
Might be time to dish, now that we have a stalker going for our girl. ”
“Keller didn’t fucking kill her.” His voice booms through the room.
His livid eyes come to mine, dark as the night and filled with malice like he could slit my throat right now for having the audacity to challenge him.
But fuck him. I’m not scared of him like the rest of the plebs are.
I know him, I know what makes him tick, and I know just how far to push.
His breathing is so ragged I wonder if he might actually do it this time.
Snap and show me just what he’s made of.
Instead, he seems to find his composure.
Straightening his button-up shirt, he turns and marches out of the room.
“Make sure she is at my office by midday.”
“Way to press him when he’s already on edge,” Bodhi snips, plonking down on the seat beside me. He looks just as worn out.
“He’s lying to us. Doesn’t it bother you when we’re the ones doing his dirty work?”
He leans back and closes his eyes. “K’s got his own demons he’s dealing with. If it was important we would know about it.”
“Bullshit.”
He sits forward, his eyes narrowing to slits after my outburst. “Keep your fucking opinions to yourself. We need K in control. He’s closing a massive deal over the land for the new golf course this morning. I can’t afford for him to fuck this up, so for now, play it fucking cool, got it?”
But I’m like a dog with a bone, I can’t let it go, not now when she’s involved. “What did you see that night? You guys sat out in that car for ages, you must have seen something.”
He shakes his head, and I know he’s trying to remember.
It was ten years ago, and a lot of shit has happened since then.
“It happened how K says. Honestly, the night seemed uneventful other than Dove running off and us being requested to find her, but she did shit like that all the time, it was nothing new. I swear I didn’t see or hear anything odd until I heard the news report that our mayor was dead and her family missing.
” He turns back to me. “We all have regrets, Riv. Not staying there that night with her will haunt me till the day I die. But do I think Keller did it? He didn’t need to. He already had Juliet under his thumb.”
His sadness sends a wave of goosebumps over me. He knew in his gut something was off, that’s why he regrets leaving her so much. “You think you could have stopped what happened? You were just a kid.”
He shrugs. “Might have stopped them from running.”
A chill comes over me. We all wish that night could have gone down differently.
Fuck, the number of times I wished I was with her, wished I protected her from what she must have seen.
The life she’s lived since. We should have done more.
I still remember the state of the house the following day.
It was blocked off by cop tape, but that didn’t stop us.
We made our way in and made our own assumptions; there was blood everywhere.
More than there should have been from the one bullet wound that killed her.
There was one of Dove’s footprints in the blood right by the door.
I knew it was hers, and I remember thinking, poor girl must have seen her dear mum shot to death right in front of her.
So fucking sad. That’s the kind of shit that you never recover from.
Explains the now half-dead expression in her eyes.
“Dove would have to know more. She was in the house that night,” I mutter almost to myself.
Bodhi’s eyebrow pops up. “Yeah, good luck getting her to talk. She was impossible before we locked her up again. She’s one angry brat now.”
“That’s because you two think you can threaten her or snap your fingers and she’ll just do what you say.
That shit wouldn’t work on you, so why would it work on her?
” I stand, ready to make some changes around here.
I might work for K, but he’s not the boss of me when it comes to Dove, and this time he needs someone else to help him get out of his own way.
“What are you going to do?” he asks, more curious than I expected. He has to see the shit he and Kasen are trying is useless. She’s too unhinged to respond to their threats. It just makes her angrier.
I smile to myself. “Give her a little sugar, maybe she will open up.”
Bodhi shakes his head. “It’s your funeral, bro.”
I chuckle, not worried one bit. Deep down she loves me, I know it. She just hasn’t realized yet.
Ten minutes later, balancing a coffee and a plate, I tap at her door and wait. She only thinks she hates us because things have changed, once she realizes that under all this wealth, we’re the same boys she used to know, she will come round and fall for all of us again, I know it.
“Go away,” she murmurs, her voice groggy from sleep.
With no intention of going anywhere until she decides she’s one of us again, I push open the door.
There she is lying in the massive bed, all tucked up with the fluffy blankets around her like the princess we all know she really is.
The tats and piercings don’t fool me. The bed dwarfs her small body, and the pile of pillows under her mass of silver hair almost looks ridiculous it’s stacked so damn high.
I can’t help but smile to myself. Fuck, she’s beautiful, and with her eyes closed, she looks sweet, almost. “Brought you some breakfast.”
With a grumpy moan she rolls onto her side, her eyes fluttering open. She blinks a few times, I think surprised to see me and not one of the others. “I’m not hungry,” she grumbles before grabbing a pillow and tossing it over her face dramatically.
“Come on now, we both know you are.” I move into the room, placing the mug of coffee on her bedside table. “It’s a chocolate croissant, I know you can’t resist these.”
She rolls over and sits up, crossing her legs in front of her, considering me as she runs her fingers through her long hair like a comb.
I get swept up in everything Dove, the softness of her skin, the way she tilts her head.
How her tiny sleep shorts ride all the way up to show off her long legs, and the oversized T-shirt she’s wearing swallowing her small frame.
I can’t help but smile when I realize the shirt is one from The Beach Bar. Well, that’s a bit cute.
Still watching me like she doesn’t trust me, she collects up the coffee, having a large sip, her hungry eyes looking over the croissant greedily. “Is it the real deal?” she whispers.
My lips tug into an all-out grin. I still know the way to my baby’s heart. “You know it is, baby, all warmed up and gooey in the center and all. Would I bring you some second-rate variety?”
As I hold the plate out for her, she goes to snatch it up, but as she does, our fingers brush, and she pauses, her eyes locking with mine just for a second.
I offer her a smile. It’s not the charming one I save for patrons at the bar or girls I’m trying to pick up, it’s warm and real, and honestly, it feels like it’s been so long since I have wanted to just be myself with anyone it almost feels unreal.
But I need her to trust me, to feel comfortable around me.
She’s in a shitty situation, and I can’t stand to think of all the awful things she’s been through.
But her time here doesn’t have to be unpleasant.
In fact, we could make it quite fun if she’s up for it. I know I am.
She places the plate on her lap and takes a bite into the buttery goodness, groaning like she’s in heaven, then devours another bite just as quickly. “Thought with all the progress, the patisserie wouldn’t have survived,” she says round her mouthful.