Chapter 43
Dixie
It took hours for Arran and the crew to track down Jonas, a message finally reaching me that a crew member had discovered him in a pub. Arran said he’d bring him up to me, but I couldn’t wait.
Taking Convict and Mila with me, I descended in the lift, all the way down to the ground floor. It felt like the longest time since I’d been free to roam the central corridor that led between the clubs. I used to stalk this nightly, head held high, tits probably out.
I’d hidden from friends for too long, keeping my secrets. Well, that pussy cat was out of the bag.
The lift opened to the thump of music and the scent of a busy night in the air. Cocktails, beer, floral perfume. Then there were the people. It was like a record scratch. Faces stared. Dancers, sex workers, everyone gawked.
Familiar dread tripped me up.
Clem, a total babe who ran the bar staff and accepted no shit from anyone, took a shocked breath and bowled through the bodies. She hugged me to her huge chest. “Girl. I always knew you had that secret sauce, but dayum.”
At my choked laugh, she added, “If any of those reporters try to come in here, they’ll get a load of me. Fuck them for their sexist bull. So you worked on your back? Like any of them would be pretty enough to.”
I tried to smile. “You don’t blame me for hiding who I am?”
Clem snorted. “Honey, ain’t a girl or guy here who isn’t hiding something.” Her expression turned stricken. “Including Lex, God rest him. The news just hit about his body being found. I’d heard rumours but I hoped it wasn’t true.”
I took her hand and cupped it in mine, sadness creeping in. I’d not even started to process that loss yet. “I can’t believe it.”
“Neither can I.”
A couple of dancers drew nearer.
Liliana, who Lex had wanted me to team up with, stared with big eyes, her bodice pushing her pretty boobs up almost to her chin. “The crowd in Divine is wild, honey. They be callin’ out your name.”
My mouth fell open. “Say more.”
“Every regular, every group. You’ve never been so popular.” She cast an appraising look over me. “Rumour says you quit, but why not step on the stage? You’d make a killing.”
The girl with her clapped excitedly. “You’d bring the house down. Bookings all night.”
I saw it then, the alternative life to the one I’d made with Tyler.
A life I thought I couldn’t go back to and where sex was a no go.
He and I had done it all. Under the cover of him helping me, he’d given me my confidence back.
If I wanted to, I could walk straight out onto that stage, bathed in the bright lights, and strut my stuff.
Except I wouldn’t.
I’d changed, in so many ways.
I pressed Liliana’s hand. “It’s not for me, sis. But why not have a Dixie-lookalike competition? Make a buck off my tight ass. I love that for you.”
She swung her gaze to the other woman and they started babbling, working out a plan and calling others over.
The crowd of people parted to let through black-clad men, crew returning with a stranger in their midst. The man we’d seen on the camera. Arran brought up the rear and did a double-take at me, then directed Jonas into his office, a hand out for me to follow.
Inside, he closed the door behind us. “Jonas, this is Dixie.”
“Tyler’s girl,” I added so we were on the same page.
Jonas scrutinised me up and down then scratched his stubble, grey over ruddy cheeks. “Ye don’t say. Work here, do ye?”
I shrugged. If he wanted to judge me, I wouldn’t stop him. “What of it?”
“Heh. Makes sense. Like attracts like.”
“What does that mean?”
Jonas ambled to a chair then sat heavily and sighed. “Him being a prostitute and all.”
I stopped breathing.
A… I stared at him.
Arran made a sound of frustration. “What a way to phrase it.”
I spun to him, baffled. “What is he talking about?”
“A child prostitute, then,” Jonas continued. He settled his hands over a rounded stomach, a small, amused smile spreading. “Did he never tell ye? That’s rich.”
Anger brewed in my belly.
“There’s no such thing as a child prostitute. Only abused kids. What are you saying?”
Jonas shrugged. “Found him for sale before I took him in. Dress it up however ye like, but I know what was right there in front of my eyes.”
Arran’s pained expression confirmed it. He knew. This wasn’t made up.
A memory hit me, of a gap in Tyler’s story, between when he’d lost his family and Jonas had taken him in. Then more. About how he never judged me for the work I’d done. Of how important consent was to him. His rules.
I turned away, covering my mouth with my fingers.
The whole room felt like it shook, but it was only me.
I’d pushed and pushed him to break that final rule. I’d put my needs above something so important to him, all without knowing something so close to his heart.
“Where is he now?” Arran asked.
Jonas replied, “The fucker who killed my brother is getting out of jail today. That’s what I came to tell him.”
I twisted back. “Did…did you see Tyler last night?”
“Nah, sweetheart. But he’s a smart lad. He’ll work it out.”
Arran’s tone stayed calm. “Then that’s where you think he’ll be, at the jail?”
Jonas rolled his arm to check his watch.
“Kicking out time has already passed. He’ll be stalking Johnston through the streets, if he’s worth his salt.
One hundred percent certain that’s where he’ll be.
Ye don’t know what he went through with seeing his kin mowed down. He wouldn’t be able to stand it.”
“Which jail?” I asked.
“Barlinnie.”
My mind spun. Arran questioned Jonas on whether he’d seen anything of a body when he’d left last night, or if he’d heard from Tyler since. I barely heard the answers.
Then the man was shuffled out and the crew leadership brought in, Kane, the Atherton brothers, and Mila along with them.
My sister came to my side. “Are you okay?”
“Not even a little bit, but only for Tyler. I’m so scared,” I confessed.
“Dixie, could ye try his tracker again?” Shade asked.
I did, and that damn green dot hovered over the area above the city.
“North makes sense for that jail,” Shade said.
Arran shook his head. “But not him walking away without a word to Dixie or any kind of backup. That isn’t like him.”
Kane wore the same expression of disbelief. “I haven’t worked for him for long, but he’s a detailed strategist. We started every mission with clear objectives and finished with a debrief. Never any doubt over our roles.”
Heretic spoke from a lean on the wall. “He doesn’t strike me as the impulsive type. That so?”
He was asking me.
I gripped Mila’s arm. “He isn’t.”
Arran exhaled. “Which doesn’t map at all to Jonas’s certainty that he’s gone hunting this ex-con. Still, we can’t ignore the fact.”
He left the obvious unspoken. It was the only lead we had, and with night falling, time was only ticking on.
Mila’s phone rang. Emotion crossed her face, and she moved to the door to take the call. “Hello?”
Convict must’ve seen the screen, because he mouthed to me, “Primrose.”
Our grandmother. I watched Mila’s expression as she listened.
“It’s been so long. I’ve called you so many times.”
She stopped and reached for Convict. But her focus locked on me. “Yes, I’ve met her. She’s lovely. I wish you hadn’t hidden her from me.”
Mila listened again then lowered her phone, the screen dark, the call disconnected. “She wants to meet you. I would’ve said no, but for the last thing she said. That she wants to talk to you about something you want.”
I opened my mouth. “The only thing I want right now is Tyler back safe.”
A ripple of awareness went across the crew. We all heard it at the same time. But there was no way…
Mila took a shocked breath. “That’s not possible. Is it? Why would he be there?” She gave a startled laugh. “It’s not like our grandmother could take him. She’s Dixie’s size and frail.”
Convict added, “Wallace wouldn’t stand a chance against Tyler.”
Shade centred on me. “The map again.”
I brought up the tracker.
“Point out where your grandmother’s house is.”
I zoomed out until the edge of Deadwater was in sight, then followed the road to the millionaire’s row where they lived.
It was within the zone where Tyler’s tracker had last pinged.
What the actual hell?
I found my words. “I’ll go to her. However crazy that seems, I need to be sure.” For him, I’d do anything, even if it was to drive out there then turn around and come back.
Nothing scared me as much as losing him.
Shade stepped back and took in me, then Arran and the others. “There’s something that doesnae make sense. Even when they fail, the trackers respond when they’re in phone range. If Tyler made it to Barlinnie, that’s in Glasgow. A big city with no problems with signal.”
Arran’s gaze darkened. “It’s barely a couple of hours’ drive. Why go immediately?”
“No reason at all, except if he was fucked up over the news,” Shade added.
“Doesn’t track with leaving Dixie,” Kane observed.
Except it might. I’d pushed him to the edge, then his uncle had brought terrible news that must’ve shaken him to the core. I might be chasing a man who never wanted to see me again. Who’d reject me like my mother did, like my grandmother.
Shade shook his head. “In nearly all cases, the simplest answer is the right one.”
Arran’s gaze burned into me. Only we knew the depths Tyler could be trying to crawl out of.
“I can’t call it,” I breathed.
He gave a kind half-smile. “I can’t either. So we’ll follow both leads.”
Neatly, he divided the crew. He would go to the jail with Shade, Riordan, and Kane. Heretic, Ash, and Convict would accompany me to Primrose’s mansion.
“I’ll come with you,” Mila said.
I nodded, because whether our grandmother had him, or someone worse did, I couldn’t rest until I found out.