Chapter 26
PRESLEY
“Where’s my sister, Luke?” I planted my hands on my hips.
“She’s safe.”
“That’s not an answer.”
He steepled his fingers under his chin, leaning deeper into his chair with nothing else to say.
“You’re wasting my lunch hour,” I muttered. Luke had wasted my lunch hour every day this week.
Through the glass window behind him, snow was falling, dusting the bare tree limbs with another white layer.
The riverbanks were frozen, and the water flowed black through an icy channel.
There wasn’t a breath of wind in the air to disrupt the snowfall.
The fat flakes floated down in perfect lines to rest on the ground.
It was peaceful. It didn’t seem right that the world was so tranquil when there was so much turmoil stirring inside my chest. “Is she okay?”
“Yes.” Luke nodded. “She’s safe.”
Safe was not the same as okay. There was a big difference between the two words after what we’d seen.
I hadn’t seen Scarlett in ten days, not since the night Dash had carried her out of my house, his hand over her eyes as she’d screamed and stretched for Jeremiah’s lifeless body. Shaw had pinned me to his side, shielding my eyes as we’d followed closely behind.
The moment the gun went off, chaos erupted.
As we hurried outside, a stream of police officers, Luke at the front, raced in.
Somewhere between the questioning and the flashing lights and the gurney carrying a black body bag, Scarlett found her way into Luke’s truck.
She sat slumped in the passenger seat, her head pressed to the glass of the window, her eyes blank.
Shaw and I stood in the snow, clinging to one another though neither of us was cold. We were numb. He wrapped me in his arms, holding me close. I burrowed into his chest, wanting to disappear inside forever.
Then he was ripped away. Arrested. Dash too. Both of them were hauled away in police cruisers while Emmett and Leo stood as my sentries.
In the midst of my panic, my pleas for answers and Shaw’s release, I lost Scarlett.
I looked over to Luke’s truck and she was gone.
I screamed her name, over and over, until Luke appeared.
With his hands on my shoulders, he promised she was safe.
That she was giving her statement. Then he drove me to the police station—it wasn’t like I could go home—and settled me in this office, draping a wool blanket over my shoulders.
Then he’d sat me in the same chair I was in now, across from the same chair he was in now, and we’d talked about what had happened.
When I was finally free to go, I found Shaw waiting for me in the lobby. Bryce had posted bail to rescue him and Dash from their jail cells.
Shaw took me to his place. Sleep had been fitful at best, but he’d held me close, and when the tears had started the next morning, he’d tightened his embrace and promised it would be okay.
Ten days later, the fog was clearing.
I’d returned to work two days after that awful night. Everyone had protested when I’d walked into the office that morning with Shaw by my side, but I’d needed normal. I’d needed the garage’s noise, smell and peace.
The day after that, Shaw and Dash had been charged with obstruction of justice.
Both had been fined but thankfully, there’d been no jail time.
By some miracle, the arrest had been kept out of the tabloids so far.
Shaw’s manager, agent, assistant and publicist were on high alert.
It would happen, we’d deal with the fallout, and life would move on.
Though I suspected that when the details emerged, Shaw’s image as a hero would only be reinforced.
He’d broken the law to save the life of the woman he loved.
My house had been cleaned. The evidence of Jeremiah’s death was gone but his shadow remained. I’d stepped inside once after the cleaners had gone and immediately stepped out. I wouldn’t go into that house again. Shaw had spent two days hauling my belongings into his home while I’d been at work.
As he’d promised, we would be okay.
I just needed to find my sister.
“Will you have her call me?” I asked Luke. “Wherever she is?”
“No.” He sighed. “She’s in protective custody. That means no outside contact. You keep asking but my answer isn’t going to change. She’s safe. She’s where she needs to be. Leave it at that and know that I have her and your best interests at heart.”
“Fine.” I stood, knowing I’d get no more information. I picked up my purse and turned for the door.
“Pres?” Luke stopped me. “How are you holding up?”
“I’ll survive.”
“Anything I can do?”
“Besides tell me where my sister is? No. Just take care of her.”
“I will,” he promised. “And Shaw? Is he taking care of you?”
“Yeah.” I gave him a sad smile. “He is.”
“How’s he doing?”
“He feels guilty. At the moment, he’s burying that by fretting over me.”
Yesterday, I’d woken up alone. Shaw had been in the living room, sitting on the couch in total darkness, staring at a wall. It had taken some time to coax out the truth, but he’d eventually confessed.
He felt responsible for Jeremiah’s suicide.
Luke had listened to Shaw’s advice about how best to get Scarlett and me out safely from that house. They’d all agreed that their first step had to be gathering intel. They’d suspected Jeremiah was inside but hadn’t been sure. Someone had to approach.
Luke had insisted on taking the risk and ringing the doorbell himself. Meanwhile, one of his officers would attempt to survey the situation from my deck in the backyard.
Shaw and Dash had assured Luke they’d stand down, stay away and watch. Instead, Shaw had snuck through my bedroom window while Dash had snuck through Scarlett’s. The officer at the deck hadn’t been able to pick the lock on my sliding glass door.
While Luke had been debriefing his officers on the plan and pulling on a bulletproof vest, Shaw and Dash had crept inside, lurking in the dark, listening as Jeremiah had confessed to stealing from his club.
Maybe if they’d waited, maybe if they’d stayed outside, we would have been able to get Jeremiah out and into police custody.
Or maybe he would have killed us all.
We’d never know.
The guilt of Jeremiah’s death weighed on Shaw.
It wasn’t in his nature to disobey orders, and because of it, a man had taken his life.
“I get why he did it,” Luke said. “If I’d been in his shoes, I wouldn’t have stayed out of that house either.”
“He thought once he had me and Scarlett safe, it would be over.”
Luke shook his head. “I don’t think it would have ended any other way.”
“Me neither,” I whispered.
During the sleepless nights of the past ten days, I’d thought a lot about what had led to the blast of Jeremiah’s gun. He’d been so desperate, so manic. He’d known what fate awaited him, and rather than leave his death to the Warriors, he’d taken it upon himself.
We’d lost Jeremiah long before he’d burst into my home.
“Bye, Luke.”
He nodded once. “Take care, Presley.”
“I’ll be back on Monday.”
“I assumed you would.” He chuckled as I walked out the door.
Until I knew where Scarlett was, I’d hound Luke for answers. He wouldn’t be at the station this weekend so I couldn’t swing by to pepper him with questions, but I’d be texting often. There were advantages to having the chief of police’s personal cell phone number.
I made my way through the bullpen to the exit.
Luke had stopped escorting me out yesterday—I knew where I was going.
The short dash from the station to my Jeep chased away any warmth I’d found inside.
I brushed the heavy snowflakes from my jeans and hair, then cranked the heat as I drove to the garage.
When I arrived, Shaw was in the chair across from my desk, waiting.
“I brought you soup.” He stood and kissed my cheek as I shrugged off my coat and dumped it beside my desk.
“Thank you.” I warmed my hands on the bowl before taking off the lid and stirring it with my spoon.
“What did Luke say?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I muttered. “He won’t tell me where she’s at.”
“Let’s just hope he hasn’t called in the DEA.”
None of us knew what Scarlett had seen in her time at the Arrowhead Warrior clubhouse. Worst-case scenario: federal investigators got involved, hoping to use Scarlett as a tool against the Warriors to take down the gang. She’d be a pawn.
She’d become more of a target than she already was.
I was holding out faith that my sister was smart enough to keep her mouth shut. If Luke had no reason to use her as an informant, eventually he’d let her go.
Especially if we could get some assurances that the Warriors no longer thought she was a thief.
Dash had been forced to make another call to Tucker Talbot and explain that Scarlett had not stolen drugs from the Warriors. Tucker had listened but made no assurances he believed Dash.
Too much money had been stolen.
Which meant we were at a standstill. Either the DEA would show up in Clifton Forge or the Warriors would start hunting for my sister.
“I hate this.” I sighed. “I hate that she’s missing.”
“I know, baby, but it’s better this way.” Shaw gave me a sad smile. “Until things settle down, it’s safer for both of you if she’s gone.”
“Yeah,” I mumbled into my soup.
“I called my dad this morning.”
The spoon fell from my hand, splattering tomato basil on my desk. “You did?”
He nodded. “I actually talked to him once earlier. Just didn’t get a chance to tell you. But I called him today too. I needed to talk it through.”
“What did he say?”
“He thinks I made the right call. Dad said it probably would have ended that way, no matter what happened.”
“Luke said the same.” I stretched my hand across the desk.
His large grip enveloped mine. “You talking about me?”
“You’re my favorite topic.” I squeezed his fingers. “I know you feel guilty, but this is not your fault. Jeremiah made his choice.”
Shaw hummed, rubbed his thumb over my knuckles, then let me go. It would take time, but I had faith he’d eventually come to terms with his guilt.