Chapter 19
nineteen
. . .
LANE
When Addie was gone, Mama reached over and smacked me surprisingly hard.
“Lane Roderick Lawless, what in the fresh hell is wrong with you?”
On her other side, one of the twins—likely West—oohed, and I leaned forward to scowl at the pair of them. Mama rarely swore. That combined with the use of my full name was bad news for me.
“Nothing is wrong with me,” I replied. “I just didn’t want her here.”
“And why is that?” Mama asked, folding her arms over her chest and glaring at me.
I gave her an imploring look. “You know.”
Crew leaned forward from the end of the row, a shit-eating grin on his face. “Share with the class, big bro.”
“Mama,” I murmured. “Don’t—”
She held up a hand, stopping me. “I get it, Lane,” she said, dropping her voice and sliding a bit closer so only I could hear her. “But it seems to me that she doesn’t.” She waved in the general direction of where Addie had disappeared.
“I told her!” I hissed.
“What exactly did you say?”
Fucking hell. This was both the last place wherein and the last person with which I wanted to be having a conversation about my love life. Even if Mama was clued in on the fact that there was…something brewing between me and Sutton.
Maybe.
Hopefully.
“I talked to her before she left last night. Told her in no uncertain terms that we were nothing and that she needed to leave me and my family alone.”
“Seems pretty cut and dry to me,” Finn supplied, and Mama nodded.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I wouldn’t have invited her to sit down had I known.”
I covered my mom’s hand with my own. “It’s not your fault. I don’t understand why she keeps pressing the issue.”
“She’s obsessed with you,” West supplied. “Can’t imagine why. You ain’t nothin’ to look at, and your personality sucks too.”
“Fuck you.”
“Lane,” Mama admonished.
“Sorry,” I murmured. “The point is, Addie knows damn well where we stand.”
“And what about Sutton?” she pressed.
I sighed. Leave it to Mama to press right on that bruise. “I’m…working on it.”
My brothers snorted but let the conversation drop. I was genuinely surprised Aspen and Reagan hadn’t offered their two cents.
I returned my attention to the field, where the Dusk Valley pep band was putting on a halftime show for the gathered crowd.
But I couldn’t really focus with this sense of unease prickling the back of my neck. My eyes scanned my surroundings, searching for the source, landing on the empty space at my side.
“Has anyone seen Sutton?” I asked, standing for a better vantage point.
“Not since she got up to go get hot chocolate,” Mama answered.
“That was a while ago. She should be back by now.”
Each of my brothers stood, spinning in slow circles, looking for Sutton as well.
But she was nowhere to be found, and anxiety-soaked adrenaline spiked my blood.
Kickoff for the second half was imminent, but Trey and his football team were currently the least of my worries.
I raced to the end of the row, climbing the metal steps to the concourse two at a time.
The closest concession stand that sold hot chocolate was straight ahead, but only a few people were at the counter, and none of them were Sutton.
My anxiety rose, like a beast clawing at the bars of its enclosure, desperate to escape. But I had to keep my cool. I’d been in situations like this before, with people I loved missing. We’d found them safe and sound, and we’d find Sutton too.
She couldn’t have gone far, right?
But…Addie.
What if Addie had done something to her?
As a man of the law, as someone who had once broken the law in the worst way possible and had since spent every day being the best deputy then sheriff I could be in order to repent for my past mistakes, I didn’t abide by people who abused their badge.
And if Addie had harmed Sutton in any way, I would ensure that her career ended.
I couldn’t imagine Addie doing that, but considering her recent behavior, I couldn’t entirely rule it out.
Unsurprisingly, my brothers appeared behind me in short order.
“Spread out,” I directed. “Finn, West, that way.” I indicated to the right. “Crew, with me.”
We broke apart, steps sure and unhurried as we headed in opposite directions.
“You think Addie did this,” Crew said, reading my mind perfectly.
“I think it’s a possibility. The timing is too suspicious to be coincidence.”
“How are you so sure Sutton isn’t just hiding out in the bathroom or something until she’s sure Addie is gone?”
I snorted. “If you think Sutton is going to cower like that, you don’t know her very well.”
I’d never known Sutton to be one to back down from a fight, especially not after that fucker Ryan Boyd had stolen her ability to fight back and used his upper hand to violate her in the worst possible way.
But what if she’d purposely made herself scarce to avoid causing a scene?
That would definitely be something she’d do.
Crew sighed. “Nah, you’re right. She would’ve come right back. And Lane, I have to admit, there’s something…off about Addie.”
I shot him a questioning look. “You think so?”
He nodded. “Aspen said so as well. I’m paraphrasing here, but Aspen thinks there’s something unhinged about her.”
“She’s a fed,” I reminded him. “They go through extensive psych evaluations before they’re given a badge.”
“But she joined the Bureau a long time ago,” he reminded me. “Things change.”
Could I have been so wrong about Addie? Had I spent these years since that first case we worked together seeking guidance from a woman who was masking some mental issues that compromised her abilities?
“I’m just saying, Sutton would’ve come back. She wouldn’t want any of us to worry about her, not after the shit we’ve already endured the last few years.”
He had a point. Not after Crew’s disappearance over a year ago, or after Reagan’s, and her sister, Lainey’s, just a few months prior.
“Check the bathroom,” I said, pointing at the women’s. “I’ll walk through the men’s.”
I doubted she was in either, but I refused to leave any stone unturned.
Crew raised a brow. “You want me in there?”
“You’re less scary looking than me,” I admitted, tapping the ink that crawled up my neck.
He chuckled. “Fair enough.”
I’d barely taken a step toward the men’s room when a scream came from the women’s Crew had just entered, followed by a low grunt. I altered course to follow him.
“What the fuck, Crew?”
Everything in me relaxed at the sound of Sutton’s voice. When I rounded the corner into the restroom, I found Crew standing a few feet away from her.
“Baby,” I rasped, unable to stop the term of endearment I’d never used for anyone but her from slipping free.
My eyes raked her body, making sure she was in one piece. Then I took in the entire scene. Crew’s hand cupped the left side of his face, and Sutton had her fist raised. It didn’t take me long to put two and two together.
“She hit you?” I asked Crew, barely able to contain my glee now that I knew Sutton was alright.
“Fuck you,” he spat, though there was no malice in the words. “She’s got a mean right hook for someone so little.”
“I’m not little.”
“Compared to me, you are,” Crew explained.
Pushing past my brother, I grabbed Sutton’s wrist and twisted her side to side, inspecting for damage. Though her knuckles were a little red, there appeared to be no swelling or split skin.
“Surprised you didn’t hurt yourself,” I said to her. “My brother’s got a hard head.”
“I caught him in the jaw,” she said. “It’ll probably be bruised tomorrow, but so will his face.”
She smirked at him, and he grumbled something in return, too low for me to hear. I shot him a warning glare.
“I can’t wait to tell Aspen,” I grinned.
“She’s going to be so proud of me,” Sutton said, grinning.
“Fuck,” Crew muttered. “She’s never going to let this go.”
“Nope,” Sutton said happily. “For the record, Crew? Maybe don’t come into women’s bathrooms unannounced.”
“We were looking for you.”
Sutton’s brow creased as she turned a confused look on me. “Why?”
“I got worried when you didn’t come back right away from getting hot chocolate,” I admitted, eyes dropping to the floor at my feet like it was suddenly the most interesting thing I’d ever seen.
“I’m okay,” she whispered, low enough that Crew couldn’t hear.
Before I could respond, my phone buzzed in my pocket.
CREW
We found her.
FINN
Thank god. Where?
CREW
Women’s bathroom near our section.
ME
Why don’t you explain how we found her, baby bro?
WEST
do tell.
Crew growled at me. “Fuck you,” he said out loud.
Ignoring him, I asked Sutton, “You sure you’re okay?”
She nodded. “I got hot chocolate and took a walk around the concourse. I thought…” She shook her head, cutting off whatever she was going to say.
“You thought what?” I prompted.
“I thought someone was following me. I kept feeling that prickle on the back of my neck, you know? Like I had eyes on me. Then I came in here to pee, and when I came out of the stall, there was this big ass man coming at me. I just swung.”
“Atta girl,” I said, and she preened. “Where’d you learn to throw a punch like that?”
“I took some self-defense classes after the assault.”
“What?” Crew blurted.
I cursed, staring at Sutton wide-eyed. “You don’t—”
She cut me off, facing Crew head on. “The night of my twentieth birthday, I was raped.”
“You don’t have to tell him.”
Sutton looked up at me. “I want to. Keeping it bottled up all these years hasn’t been good for me. I’m only now starting to realize that, but I think, by sharing it with people, it lessens the weight. Like I’m not carrying it alone.”
“You’ve never carried it alone,” I reminded her.
“I know,” she said, smiling sadly. “But now you don’t have to either.”
“I’m so fucking sorry that happened to you, Sutton.” Sutton dipped her chin in thanks. “There’s a special place in hell for men who do that to women,” Crew added vehemently.
And that’s exactly where he is: hell.
Outside, a cheer rose from the crowd, and I realized the second half must have started.
Slinging my arm around Sutton’s shoulders, I started leading us out of the bathroom. “What do you say we watch the rest of this game?”
“The real show is going to be Crew explaining to his wife why he’s got a bruise on his face.”
“There’s no way I can convince you guys to lie, is there?”
“Absolutely fucking not,” I laughed.
“Fuck,” he said, then sped by us, disappearing into the stands, obviously trying to reach his wife before we could.
“Lane?”
“Yeah, sunny?”
“Addie isn’t still down there, is she?”
“No, she left at the start of halftime.”
“Good. But what if…”
“What if, what?”
“What if she’d been following me? And that’s why I felt like I was being watched?”
I shook my head. “Addie wouldn’t do that.”
“You don’t know what she would do, Lane,” Sutton said, ducking out from under my arm, putting distance between us. “And you burying your head in the sand about what she could be capable of is arguably more dangerous than she is.”
My mouth gaped as I searched for a response, but Sutton walked away, heading down into the stands, leaving me alone in the middle of the concourse.