Chapter 17
Addie felt a million times better once she’d had a shower. Unfortunately, she also felt twice as sleepy.
She could barely keep her eyes open as they made their way into the boardroom, where they’d had the original meeting with Brody, Ink, Butch, Cash, and Ralen. Oh, and the mysterious man over the speaker.
She wondered if he was here now.
When she walked into the room, she saw Brody sitting behind his laptop already, tapping away at something, so she guessed that his boyfriend probably would be watching.
“Hey, little mouse. I see you’re clean.”
And there he was.
“Also heard that your older sister made a bit of a fuss at the police station. Good on her. Can’t stand the police. All rotten assholes.”
Dotty froze next to her, then glanced around in surprise. “Who’s talking?”
Brody glanced up and fiddled with his glasses. “Yeah, sorry. That’s my boyfriend. He tends to listen in, just to keep me safe. It’s not weird or anything. All right. It’s a little weird, but you get used to it. Also, the cops are not all bad. There are some good cops.”
“Name three,” the voice said over the speaker. “And I’m not talking about fictional ones on TV. There’s no one like John Luther in real life.”
“Oh, I love that show,” Monroe said, bouncing on her feet.
For some reason, she seemed to have gotten a second wind of energy after her shower.
Surprisingly, Dotty actually looked tired, worn.
Addie felt worried about her. She wouldn’t tell her because Dotty didn’t like when people ‘fussed’ over her.
“It’s not as good as Dexter, though,” the voice said.
She couldn’t keep calling him ‘the voice.’ What about Dr. Claw? That would work, his face had never been shown in the original Inspector Gadget, had it?
“I finally just started watching him,” Dr. Claw said. “Great guy. Love his work.”
Addie could be wrong, but wasn’t Dexter a serial killer?
“What the hell?” Dotty whispered. “What is going on here?”
“Sorry I’m late, everyone. Was just getting some last-minute information,” Ink said, walking in. He stopped in front of Dotty and held out his hand. “Hi. I’m Ink Callahan. I own the security firm. Please, have a seat, all of you.”
Dotty took his hand and shook it firmly. “Dotty Stevens. And my sister, Monroe.” Monroe waved over at Ink with a smile. “I’d really like it if somebody could tell me what the hell is going on here.”
Addie winced, waiting for Ink to get offended. After all, he was helping them, and for a discount.
“Dotty, Ink’s helping us,” she whispered to her sister.
“Why? What does he want out of it? How much does this all cost? This place looks expensive. Not saying that I can’t afford it, but I’m not sure why we even need a security company.
My sister and I got arrested because we were trying to get back into a bar where there’d just been a bar brawl to find Addie, who somehow ended up in the hands of these three.
” Dotty gave Cash, Ralen, and Butch suspicious looks.
“Not three,” Cash said, leading Addie to the table and pulling out a chair for her. “Just me and Ralen. We have nothing to do with Butch.”
“Wow, that’s good to know, and a point in your favor,” Dotty said.
“How about everyone gets something to eat and drink and then sit down?” Ink suggested. “We’ve got a bit to talk about, and I need you guys to all get along.”
Addie went to stand and get herself something to eat, but Cash placed his hand on her shoulder. “Stay seated, Addie. I’ll get you something.”
Monroe sat next to her with her eyebrows raised. “Wow. He’s something else, isn’t he? Is there something going on there, babes?”
“What? No. Of course not,” she said, shocked. Her throat started to dry up at the thought, well, at the thought of him knowing how she felt.
She’d never be with Cash and there was also no way he’d ever want to be with her. That still didn’t mean that she wanted him to know how she felt. That would just be too humiliating.
“Easy, sorry, I was just teasing,” Monroe said with a concerned look.
“Is everything all right?” Cash asked as he placed a plate of food in front of her. It was overflowing, and she just took a moment to stare at it. There were small sandwiches, two pastries, a muffin, some fruit salad in a cup, and a cupcake.
“The plates are small,” Cash said. “I couldn’t fit anything else on it. And there’re no hot options, sorry.”
Sorry? This was more food than she’d eaten yesterday.
“Wow, that’s a lot of food,” Monroe said.
A plate landed in front of Monroe, also piled high.
“Oh, thanks,” Monroe said to Ralen, who had set down the plate. “But I’m not hungry.”
Ralen frowned. “You need to eat.”
“But I don’t want to eat,” Monroe told him. “I’m very full. I had a big breakfast.”
Um.
“You didn’t have any breakfast, though, did you?” Ralen said as he sat at the end of the table. “I thought you said you couldn’t eat what you were served in jail.”
“Oh, I don’t think I said that. I think I said it was unrecognizable. I didn’t say I didn’t eat it.”
“So you did eat it?” Ralen said.
“Well, I didn’t say that either, did I?” Monroe smiled up at Ralen, obviously trying to charm him in her Monroe way. Unfortunately, he seemed to have some immunity to her charm.
Ralen leaned over and placed one hand on the table in front of Monroe, and the other on the back of her chair. “Did you eat, or did you not eat?”
Wow. She didn’t realize he could be that intense.
“I’m thinking I don’t really have to tell you that,” Monroe said. “Because you’re not my daddy nor my mommy, nor my guardian.”
“I could be.”
With that, Ralen straightened and walked away. Monroe stared after him with wide eyes. What the heck had just happened?
Cash cleared his throat. “You need to eat, all of you.” Cash gave her a stern look. Why was he looking at her like that? She wasn’t the one refusing to eat. Monroe was.
Addie picked up the cup of fruit salad and placed it in front of Monroe. She knew what her sister would eat and what she wouldn’t, although the likelihood of her eating in front of all of these people was pretty slim. She usually only ate in front of Dotty and Addie.
Cash frowned, but didn’t say anything, and Addie picked up the sandwich. Her hand was trembling as she brought it to her mouth.
She definitely needed something in her system. Dotty sat on the other side of Monroe and glared at Cash. Probably because he’d taken the seat next to Addie. Monroe and Dotty were used to flanking her, keeping her safe from everyone. But right now, she wanted to concentrate on keeping them safe.
“So let’s talk about why you’re here, Dotty and Monroe,” Ink said.
“Let’s,” Dotty replied with a suspicious look. She expertly cut a croissant. “Can you tell us what is going on and why we were basically kidnapped from the police station?”
“Addie, with your permission, can I go through everything that’s happened?” Addie nodded at Ink, relief filling her. She didn’t know how she was going to tell them everything with all of these people in here, and she wasn’t sure what had happened to the tablet that Brody had given her earlier.
Ink told them everything, from the moment of the bar brawl, to her hiding in the back of Cash’s truck after she’d seen the man with the dead body.
She glanced at her sisters and could see Dotty tensing, wanting to ask questions, but to her amazement, her older sister actually stayed quiet for once.
Then he went through the trip to the hotel room and the message that had been left on the mirror.
This time, it was Monroe who reacted, growing pale and nibbling on her bottom lip.
She still hadn’t taken a bite of the fruit salad.
Addie was worried about her. Monroe seemed like she lived a charmed life, always flitting around, always happy. But she had some dark secrets, and she really needed somebody to take care of her.
Cash leaned into her as Dotty started to question Ink.
“I want to see you eat more.”
She turned, giving him a wide-eyed look, and he nodded down to the plate, where she’d only taken a few nibbles of a sandwich. Sometimes, her stomach was tied to her anxiety, and she guessed there’d been so much going on that she was struggling to eat.
“No getting up from the table until at least one sandwich and part of a muffin or pastry is gone.”
Wow. He could not say that sort of thing to her. This time, her eyes narrowed as she gave him a stern look.
Cash Savage wasn’t the boss of her.
And he needed to know that because if she gave that man one inch, he would surely take a mile.
“So you’re saying that Cash and Ralen, who don’t know any of us from a bar of soap, brought Addie here to get your help finding us after they found a threatening message in our trashed hotel room?” Dotty asked.
“Yes, that’s about it,” Ink said. He didn’t seem at all intimidated by Dotty, which was impressive.
Although she guessed when you owned your own security company, you’d have a fair amount of experience dealing with difficult clients.
“They didn’t do anything to you?” Dotty asked her.
What?
“Hey, I resent that,” Ralen said, leaning forward and frowning at Dotty. “Why would you ask that? Just because we’re guys?”
“Well, that, and you look kind of rough. You’ve got all these tattoos. You’re wearing leather jackets and biker boots, and you kind of have a ‘fuck me’ attitude.”
“Actually, it’s a fuck-you attitude.” Ralen grinned. “And you would do well not to judge a book by its cover.”
Yikes. Few people told Dotty off. She could see that her sister was taken aback.
“They’ve d-done nothing but help me,” she said quietly to Dotty.
Dotty just shook her head. “I’m still surprised you’re talking in front of all these people.”
“The bruise is from a m-man who tried to s-steal Cash’s truck on the way here. They’re good people.”
“Yes, but there has to be something they want, Addie. There’s always something they want. People just don’t do things out of the goodness of their hearts.”
Dotty knew well what it was like to live with someone who always wanted something from her.