CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Kayla
This morning we are all having breakfast at Ares’s bar since both Ares and I are on the opening shift.
They think I haven’t noticed that we haven’t been working as much, and while I really have no bills here, I still have to pay for my loft until the end of the month.
I called Mabel and told her I would be moving.
Originally, I was going to keep it to make sure I always had an exit plan, but that’s Aaron messing with my head and I won’t let him win.
I am happy and don’t give a fuck anymore.
Besides, from what I know of the guys, they would move out before making me relocate, not that I would let them.
My phone buzzes on the bar, and as I glance at the screen, I see it’s an unknown number. My heart thumps in my chest for a second, and then I realize I don’t have to worry anymore.
It can’t be Aaron.
“Hello?”
“Is this Kayla Quinn?”
“It is.”
“I’m Detective Marsh. I spoke briefly with your colleague last week regarding your ex-boyfriend. I was hoping to ask you a few questions as well. Would you be available to come into the station?”
“Oh, of course. I can stop by sometime today if that suits.”
“That’s fine.”
He rattles off the address of a station in the city. It’s not the local precinct in town, so I write it on a notepad Ares keeps beside the register. When I hang up, all eyes are on me.
“Detective Marsh,” I say before anyone speaks. “He wants me to come into the station.”
“Everything will be fine,” Ares reassures me. “I will take you there after we eat.”
“What about the bar?”
“Fuck the bar. Someone can come in, or I will close until we get back.”
“Yeah, fuck the bar,” Vero adds. “After I get my nuggets, though.”
Clay scoffs. “You’re such a child. Who eats nuggets for breakfast?”
“Hey,” I say. “Leave him alone and eat your slightly burned toast.”
“Yeah, leave me alone,” Vero throws back.
Ares goes into the kitchen and comes out with Vero’s nuggets and our breakfast wraps.
We all sit and eat, but nerves settle in my gut.
I can’t help but wonder what questions they will ask me.
Clay is beside me and has one hand on my knee, grounding me, which helps a little.
Once we are done eating, Ares and I head out to his bike.
The ride is nice, and I keep my arms wrapped tight around him as we fly through the city. Thankfully he has his bike because parking is a nightmare. We finally find a spot almost a block away and walk there together.
“They have nothing,” he says, which is not reassuring at all. “Trust me when I say we have everything handled. There is no footage, and Clay sent them the tapes showing him leaving the island and everything afterward, proving he never returns.”
When we get to the station, I stop us just before we reach the stairs. “Can you wait here? I need to do this on my own.”
“Sure, but I will be right here.”
Ares pulls me in for a kiss. It’s his first public display of affection, but it doesn’t feel right mentioning it now.
The station smells like burned coffee, and the carpet is worn down in the center of the room. A young officer at the front desk takes my name and asks me to wait, so I sit in a chair near the window until a man old enough to be my father walks out.
“Thank you for coming, Miss Quinn. We won’t keep you long.”
He takes me into a small interview room and sets a recording device down on the table. Detective Marsh introduces himself and his colleague, who has joined us.
“We’re doing a routine follow-up on a missing person’s report,” he says. “It was filed by a parole officer. Aaron was released from prison approximately six weeks ago.”
He watches my face, but I don’t react, or at least I don’t think I do.
“Would you be able to fill us in on your relationship with him?”
“He’s my ex-boyfriend. We were together for a long time, and it was not a good relationship, but I guess you already know that from our files.”
Marsh eyes me suspiciously, but his colleague nods.
“When did you last have contact with him?” the detective asks.
“The day he got arrested. After that I packed up my things and left,” I tell them.
“Did he attempt to contact you after his release? Any calls, messages, anything like that?”
“No, nothing. I had no idea he was even released from prison.”
“Were you aware of his connection to Fear Island?”
I shake my head. “Again, no. He was employed there under an alias. If I had known, I would never have been there.”
“And you never once crossed paths with him?” the detective prompts.
“I did not. I was only there in the residential area with my friends. As far as I’m aware, he didn’t live on the island, and the housing is for long-term staff, but I could be wrong.”
“His parole officer mentioned he spoke about you a lot, and he had the mindset that you were still his girlfriend.”
“Pardon my bluntness, but that man hurt me in more ways than one, both physically and mentally. There is no way I want to see him ever again. Honestly, I just want to be left alone.” I let the tears well in my eyes.
“I thought that when he was released from prison, he wouldn’t be allowed near me.
So I am a little upset he was able to get so close to me without me even knowing. ”
“That’s understandable,” the other officer answers.
“Miss Quinn, is there anything you’d like to tell me about the situation at all?” the detective adds.
I look at him and tell him the truth. “Aaron was the most controlling person I have ever known. He spent years making me believe that what he did to me was normal, and I have spent years fixing that damage. I genuinely do not know where he is, and if I did, you would be the first people I told. I will not let that man affect my life any more than I have.”
He nods and I see the shift; he believes me. “Thank you for your time.”
The detective walks me out to the reception area, and when I walk outside, I spot Ares leaning against the building.
“How’d it go?” he asks.
I shrug. “Okay, I think.”
We walk together back to his bike, and when he passes me my helmet, I pull it on and fasten the strap. As I get on behind him, I feel a sense of relief. A chapter of my life is closed.
When we are almost at the bridge, I feel Ares’s phone buzz from his pocket. By the third time, he pulls over, and we see he has multiple missed calls from Clay and a text.
Circus tent
I don’t know what that means, but Ares obviously does as he takes off, riding right through to the front of the circus tent. We both slide off and rush forward, where Ares pulls back the entrance flap and holds it open for me.
The fire wheel is spinning and Karo is standing beside it, one arm raised as he looks at whoever is tied to it. The girl is laughing, but I can’t see her face from this angle.
Clay is standing ten feet back with his arms crossed. “Get. Her. Down!”
“She asked,” Karo says with a smirk.
“She is my fucking sister.”
“So what? She just wants a turn. There is no one here to see it.”
“Jess!” Clay snaps, and I walk faster to get to Clay’s side before he explodes.
“Can’t hear you,” Jess sings out, though she’s clearly lying because she’s grinning directly at him.
I look at Ares because Clay obviously called him to mediate, which is unlike him, and I wonder why he didn’t call Brawley first.
Ares shrugs as if to say, This is not my problem. “She looks like she is having fun.”
“Stay out of this,” Clay snaps, which makes me laugh since he is the reason we are here.
“It’s harmless, and she asked. This isn’t happening against her will.”
“I don’t care if she asked, begged, or filed a request form. She is not being strapped to a flaming wheel by a man who throws knives for a living.”
“He is really good at it, though,” I interject.
Clay turns to look at me as if I have lost my mind. “She is my baby sister.”
I scoff. “She’s a grown woman, Clay.”
“She is twenty-two,” he throws back.
I cross my arms over my chest. “And that is, by definition, a grown-up.”
The wheel is spinning slower and Jess has stopped laughing. Now she is watching both Clay and me.
“She doesn’t know what she is getting herself into,” he snaps.
“Seriously, it is not rocket science. He throws the knives and misses,” I reply.
“You’re not helping,” he says, glancing over at his sister again.
“I’m not trying to help you. I’m trying to point out that she is a fully grown woman. One who made a choice for herself, and you are trying to take that choice away from her.”
Clay’s jaw tightens. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“I am on the side of women being able to do what they want with their own bodies. It doesn’t matter if they’re someone’s sister or not.”
“Do you have siblings?” Clay asks me with a raised brow.
“No. But I could have if my parents had made different choices. The point is the same.”
“No, it’s not,” he huffs. I even think he stomps his foot at me, which makes me smirk at him.
“Someone’s sister, someone’s daughter, blah, blah, blah. You do very dirty things to me on a regular basis, and I’m someone’s daughter.”
Clay freezes. I just brought our sex life into the equation and turned things really awkward for him.
Karo has Jess unstrapped now, clearly not wanting any of Clay’s drama today, and Jess walks over and punches Clay in the arm. “You’re an asshole!” she shouts.
“Tell me something I don’t already know,” he mutters with a scowl.
“You’re not responsible for every decision she makes. Your sister is allowed to be reckless sometimes,” I remind him.
Clay narrows his eyes at me. “She is my responsibility.”
That makes me laugh. “No, she is her own responsibility. You’re her brother, and you can protect her from being hurt, sure, but she was in no immediate danger.”
Clay looks at me with an expression that screams “shut the fuck up, you’re really not helping me right now,” and when I step forward to challenge him, Ares laughs.
“Well, I think you should listen to her,” Jess adds from beside us, but Clay doesn’t retreat from our face-off.
“I think you should mind your own business,” he says to his sister without looking away from me.
“Kayla is sticking up for me. It’s my business.”
That makes Clay huff. “She is making a point, which she will regret when I . . .” He stops himself from finishing the sentence, then drags a hand over his face and turns to his sister.
“Fine, you want to strap yourself to a flaming wheel of death and get a dagger in your face, by all means, go ahead. But I will not be paying for the plastic surgery.”
Jess claps both her hands together. “I knew you would come around!”
“I haven’t. I’m choosing my battles,” he says and then smirks at me. “Because I know one woman’s body I want to be allowed to touch.”
I smirk back at him, and Ares coughs to hide his laughter.
“I don’t need to know the specifics of whatever you two get up to because, ew, I am not hearing any of this. My brother is a virgin and has done nothing sexual, and now I am going to see Gerald and his bunnies.” She pats Clay on the chest and walks away.
After we watch her leave, I turn back to Clay. “I—”
“Not a word,” he says.
“What could I possibly say right now? That you conceded, or that you value sex more than winning a fight? Oh, the possibilities,” I sass.
“If I didn’t have a staff meeting with Nixie”—he looks at his watch—“ten minutes more and your ass would have been mine. But when I get home, it’s game on.”
“Promises, promises,” I tease.
He shakes his head and grabs my jaw, leans in, and presses a kiss on my lips, then releases me and walks away.
I think my knees buckle a little as Ares moves beside me, and he jokingly wipes the imaginary drool from my lip. I slap his hand away, but he just laughs.