Chaos
I lay in bed, watching my woman sleep. She was beautiful no matter what she was doing.
I could stay this way for hours, or at least until my desire overtook me and I had to have her.
We’d had sex twice during the night. Both times were incredible.
I knew I’d worn her out. And I should be sleeping, but I felt restless for some reason. I wasn’t sure why.
Needing to do something other than wake her up, I slipped quietly out of bed. I pulled on the shorts I had shed earlier and grabbed my cell phone, then tiptoed out of the bedroom. I ended up in the kitchen, standing with the refrigerator door open, staring inside.
Suddenly, my phone rang. It was a call, not a text. It had to be important if someone called this time of night. I snatched it off the counter and glanced at the screen. It read Shadow. I answered before it had a chance to ring a third time.
“Hi. Everything alright?” I automatically asked, though I knew it wasn’t.
“I discovered some shit. I thought you would want to know immediately. Sorry to wake you. Is Bianca with you? I heard about the reunion at her apartment and the door.”
In a club, news spread fast. It was like living with a bunch of gossiping grannies.
“Yeah, I want to know. You didn’t wake me. I felt restless. She’s asleep, and the door will get fixed this morning. Tell me what you found.”
“I’d rather do it in person. I can come over now, or if you want to wait until it’s a civilized hour, I’ll do that.”
Shadow sounded tired. He should be in bed with Cambria.
“Man, you should be sleeping with your old lady, not working. No one expects you to work day and night.”
“She’s right here, wide awake with me. We both had this feeling last night that we had to keep going. You know we can’t ignore those urges. Anyway, it’s your choice.”
Shadow sounded keyed up as well. I doubted he’d fall asleep without telling me what he knew.
“If you’re okay with coming over here, then now. I’d come to you, but I don’t want Bianca to wake up to an empty house.”
“Chaos, I get it. I do. I wouldn’t have done it either at the point you’re at. We’ll be there in five minutes, ten max.”
“See you here,” I responded before he hung up.
I snagged three glasses of ice water. I put them on the kitchen island. We would sit on the stools there, or at the nearby small table. If we kept our voices down, Bianca wouldn’t hear us. I assumed that when he said we, he meant Cambria was coming with him.
I paced, trying to work off some of the restlessness inside of me.
I watched the clock, counting the seconds.
At four minutes and thirty-seven seconds, there was a soft knock on the door, then it opened.
In came Shadow and Cambria. To my surprise, they weren’t alone.
With them was Wrath. I stood at the end of the entry where it began to turn into the rest of the downstairs.
“Come to the kitchen. Bianca is asleep. I wasn’t expecting you, Pres.” I told them quietly, then I turned and walked into the kitchen. I went to the cabinets, got out a fourth glass, and filled it with ice and water.
“If you want something different, just let me know. I have soda, juice, beer, and I think some lemonade,” I said to fill the silence. All three were somber-looking. My gut tightened.
“The water is good. Have a seat. We’ve got to go over a few things,” Wrath stated. They sat at the small dining table in the kitchen’s breakfast nook. It had four chairs. I sat after handing out the glasses.
“Alright, hit me with it. I know it must be bad if you’re here at this time of night and you brought Wrath. Does it involve what you found about those women who were assaulted? Or about Elodie Ward?”
“It—” Shadow was cut off by Bianca walking into the room.
She was dressed in a robe belted at her waist and falling above her knees. I knew then she had known someone was in the house beside us. Otherwise, she would’ve been only in her nightgown or naked. I stood. I didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds. She scanned the table, then met my gaze.
“What’s going on here, Chaos? And why didn’t you wake me up?”
I heard the edge of distrust in her voice. No doubt, she thought I was hiding something from her. That I was plotting again to do stuff behind her back, like the cameras and trackers. I rushed over to her. I took her hands in mine, though she tried to resist. I clung to them.
“Bianca, babe, it’s not what you think. I knew you were tired.
I was awake and didn’t want to disturb you, so I came to the kitchen.
That’s when Shadow called. He told me he found something and wanted to go over it in person.
He gave me a choice to wait until later or now.
I chose now. I figured Cambria would come since he said she was awake, too.
I’m not sure why Wrath is here. I wanted to hear what they found first. I always intended to tell you what they said after you woke up. ” I told her in a rush.
Bianca studied my face for a while before she gave me a single nod. “Alright, well, I’m awake, so they can tell us together.”
There was demand in her tone. I refused to push back.
“Together,” I said back.
I walked her to the table. Since it was a four-chair set, I sat, then brought her down onto my lap.
Even if there were more chairs, I would want her to sit on me.
I needed her closeness. Her agreement to try again was barely started when shit started coming at us.
I was terrified it would finish us for good.
“Sorry for invading your house like this, Bianca, Chaos. We wouldn’t have done it if it weren’t necessary. You need to know what we found,” Cambria said, reaching over to grasp one of Bianca’s hands.
She gave it a quick squeeze, then let go. Cambria’s smile was tense. I couldn’t see Bianca’s face to know what type of expression she gave her in return. Cambria looked over at her old man, who took over.
“As I told Chaos on the phone, I couldn’t rest tonight.
I felt driven to keep researching. Cambria had the same drive.
Sometimes that happens, and we’ve learned to listen to it.
It’s never steered us wrong. After we found out what we did, before I called you, Chaos, I called Wrath.
He insisted on coming with us to hear what we found, if you wanted to know tonight.
And, Bianca, I want you to know that if we had had this meeting without you and Chaos hadn’t told you, I would have.
I’m not hiding anything like this from you again. ”
His voice was sincere. I knew there would be other things labeled “club business” that might be withheld, but not just from her.
All old ladies and extended family were protected from certain aspects of our club business.
Although that had lessened since Betty, Jalisa, and Cambria joined the family.
“I appreciate you saying that, Shadow. Go on, tell us what you discovered. I can tell it isn’t good news.
Chaos told me that you’ve been trying to find out who harmed those women.
And he asked you to see if you could find out anything about who Elodie’s attacker was.
I know that will be nearly impossible, but I’m grateful you agreed to try.
Oh, and I have something we intended to discuss with you in the morning.
A possible clue to where or how those women are being targeted,” Bianca informed him.
Interest showed on Shadow’s face. He was driven to solve puzzles and mysteries. He tried to temper it these days because of what happened to Cambria, but it was hard for him.
“After we’re done with our update, I’d like to see what you’ve got,” Shadow said.
“The suspense is killing me, brother. Spill. What did you discover?” I asked a little impatiently.
“It pertains to both Elodie’s case and those other women who’ve recently been attacked.
For one thing, we got the name of the sixth woman.
I won’t go into details about how. We were digging into each of their backgrounds, looking for points where their lives intersected.
Other than the fact that two of them are members of the same gym, they don’t.
And they’re scattered around the same geographical area, far enough apart that they don’t go to the same grocery store, restaurants, or dry cleaners, you name it.
“When we didn’t get anywhere on that idea, we switched to Elodie’s case.
We conducted the same sort of search. There wasn’t anyone to compare her to during her time, so we plotted her on the same map as the current six.
She fell into the same fifty-mile radius as they do. ” Shadow paused after telling us that.
“That got us to comparing the details from Elodie’s case, the police report that was written at Elodie’s initial interview and subsequent conversations she had with the police.
Now, we know that when many women are drugged and assaulted, they don’t recall many details.
That’s why their rapists use drugs like that.
They believe it’ll protect them from being caught.
And unfortunately, it does sometimes. However, we discovered that all seven of them have almost identical stories.
And they were either at a bar or a party when it happened. Those aren’t surprising, but—”
Bianca halted Cambria. “I’m sorry, but before you continue, let me get what we wanted to show you. I need to know if you were in the same area.”
“Sure,” Cambria said.
I let Bianca up. I offered to fetch the maps, but she shook her head and told me she’d be right back.
“We’re not trying to stir up old memories for her, but our guts tell us we’re onto something. The next part is going to upset her,” Wrath stated.
“Upset her how?” I asked.
But Bianca returned before he could answer. She set the map she’d created in the middle of the table. Shadow had brought a paper with him. For once, he had no laptop. It was a picture of a map, too. He studied it next to hers. Brows furrowed as we all leaned forward and studied them.