Chapter 20
Rogue
The car moves smoothly along the road into Devil’s Bend and Ivy scoots in closer to my side. I can feel the tension radiating off her. The slight tremble in her hand on my thigh as we pass through town.
The light is fading, but neither of us need our eyes to see the details of last night’s crash as plain as day. It’s risky coming back, but we couldn’t stay away. Running isn’t an answer. It’s a biding of time.
Her grip on my thigh eases when we’re past the crash site. We’re only a few minutes from Heart Ranch and the celebration going on.
“I still can’t believe Rebel stole our wedding.” I shake my head. “The balls on that bastard…”
“It’s romantic,” Ivy says.
“It was overdue.” I’ve been hinting to him that he should marry the woman since she first turned his world upside down. He took far too long to propose. At least he got this part right.
The gates loom up ahead and we pass through them. Davis speaks to command and we proceed straight to the top of the driveway.
“It’s a pity we missed it,” Ivy says.
We watched it all on the screen. Including that spectacular blow up between Riot and Kelsey and Sonatina. I’d have put my money on Kelsey winning a cat fight if it had come to it. “We’re here now. Ready to celebrate. But not too hard. Can’t have bags under our eyes in all our wedding photos.”
Plus, there’s still been no movement from our culprit. It would be unwise to drop our guard when they’re most likely still here and lurking. It was a discussion Ivy and I had when we made the decision to come back this evening.
“I need to see my sister,” she reminds me. She’s been worried about Lily for the last few hours. I certainly didn’t help that with saying I was going to turn her in to the FBI.
I’m still not sure that it wouldn’t be the right thing to do.
Davis opens my door, and I climb out before helping Ivy out of the car. “Okay. Let’s congratulate Summer and my brother in person since people are noticing us. Then we’ll go see West.”
Music flows through the speaker system, and I recognize it from the playlist Ivy and I created for the evening. Our guests chat while drinking champagne and enjoying the repast being served by the catering crew.
I snag a napkin and two bites on my way past a server. Popping one in my mouth I hand the other to Ivy. She’s barely eaten anything with visiting Nicole and then Dizzy becoming Lily. “Here, baby. Eat.”
She takes a couple of bites, which is good because that means the whole thing is almost gone by the time we get to Rebel and Summer.
The shock on Rebel’s face is worth coming back for.
“What are you doing here?” He glances around, scanning everyone in the vicinity.
I do the same and get stuck on the flustered queen in charge of this shindig. He’s talking to Ivy’s lawyer, and the two men appear to be hitting it off in a somewhat stilted fashion. “How much have we missed while we were gone?”
Rebel throws his arms around me. “I thought you were coming back in the morning.”
“You got married.” I clap him on the back. “Without me. I sure as hell couldn’t not be here.”
“I’m so happy for you,” Ivy pulls Summer in, and the two women hug.
I spare a glance for Rochelle who sits alone and wary at one of the tables. “How’s it going anyway?”
“Tex has his eye on her. He’s here…” Rebel’s gaze probes the willows and the darkness beyond. “Somewhere. I have no idea where. But she’s covered.”
“Good. That’s good.” I cross my arms against my chest. “I’d hate if anything happened to her because of us.”
Rebel rubs his thumb across his lip, hiding his mouth as he says, “Tex is quitting for real after this.”
“Seriously?” Alec is dead and Nicole is neutralized, but even if we catch our quarry, the Hawthorne’s reach goes further than we suspected. We should probably all have an attaché of security full-time just in case.
“He crossed a line,” Rebel says. “A pretty big one.”
“That’s too bad.” We’ll find a new bodyguard to cover her, but we all liked Tex. “He was superb at his craft, and he seemed to get that Ro needed to be treated carefully.”
Rebel winces. I don’t need twin telepathy to read that look. “He didn’t. What? He…?”
Rebel arches a brow.
Really? “He kissed her? Or…?”
“Shocked the shit out of her,” Rebel says. “And Riot. Who came running in like a damn hero to save her.”
“And you didn’t fire Tex on the spot?”
“He’s the only one I trust with her.”
I press two fingers to the spot above my eye that feels tight. “You trust him after that?”
“Yes, because she does. If you’d been here, you would have seen the way she reacted.” Rebel crosses his arms over his chest and rocks on his heels. “Which is why I didn’t get into it with him.”
“That or you’re afraid the big man could put you in the ground with one flick of his finger.” I chuckle.
“Look at these two gossiping like old mother hens,” Summer teases, but she’s all smiles, shining eyes, and soft happiness as Rebel draws her in front of him.
“We’re relaying important information,” Rebel insists over her shoulder.
“We both know you’ve been on the phone to each other all day.” Ivy steps into my side, her hand coming up to settle on my chest. “I need to check on my sister.”
“I haven’t seen either of them since West brought her back,” Summer says. “I think they must be holed up in the cabin. Is she going by Lily now? Or did we miss something? I know it’s her birth name.”
“It’s complicated,” Ivy says.
“Why don’t we grab a couple plates of food and take them with us. You have barely eaten today and neither has Lily. West is probably famished too.”
“Great idea.” Ivy approaches a server and asks them to plate up some food to take to the cabin with us. She doesn’t make it halfway back before one of her queens approaches her and they fall into conversation.
“What are you going to do about her sister?” Rebel asks.
“Talk to West.” It seems like the only step to take.
After all he knows her best and he appears to have won Rebel over, which suggests I can trust him.
That’s if West hasn’t spirited her away.
We might not find them at the cabin at all.
“I can’t turn her over to the FBI. Ivy is pretty adamant about that.
She doesn’t believe her sister is dangerous to us.
She really doesn’t believe Dizzy killed the goat, but—”
“She could be in denial,” Rebel says. “Her fingerprints are all over the weapon we’re almost certain was used. She has a rap sheet that tells us what she’s capable of.”
“And the pictures of Alec.” It still makes me shudder.
“You might have to do what she can’t,” Rebel says.
But if I do, I could lose her. “Not going to happen.”
A door slamming catches my attention. And apparently everyone else’s as the chatter dies down for a brief interlude.
Riot stalks across the verandah, down the stairs and across the yard to where a makeshift stage is set up.
He barely pauses to snag a couple of glasses of champagne.
Both of which he has downed by the time he picks up his guitar. “Is he singing tonight?”
“Did Rebel not tell you about Sonatina Savant?” Summer rolls her gaze heavenward. “She’s Bianca’s wedding gift to you.”
“Sonatina Savant?” That’s unexpected. “Ivy loves that song she does. What is it called again? I can’t recall… it’s like Taylor Swift wrote a song for Britney Spears and Sabrina Carpenter dressed it.”
“No idea.” Rebel grunts. “Not my kind of music.”
“Sure, that’s why you picked T-Swift as your code name when you and Ivy were in cahoots.” I still have hard feelings about it. Semi hard feelings.
“Thought we were past that,” Rebel says.
“Oh, we are. Doesn’t mean I’m not going to rib you choosing T-Swift like a girl.”
Summer snorts.
“You must know what song it is,” I turn to her. “You like pop music.”
She shakes her head. “Sorry, I don’t know either.”
“Sonatina is like a big deal.” I can’t believe they don’t know what I’m talking about. “She’s playing at our wedding? Be so for real right now.”
“She is playing at your wedding,” Summer says.
“Ivy is going to love this.” Bianca is no doubt trying to make up for her behavior last night with a gift this grand. I knew she would be upset about how she acted. But it’s going to take her getting some therapy before we get back to normal.
“That’s good. Because Kelsey is hating it,” Summer says.
I glance around. “She’s not here.”
“And our brother is mean mugging the fuck out of his guitar right now,” Rebel tells me. Riot does have the most thunderous look on his face. He radiates with it.
“Trouble in paradise?”
“And her name is Sonatina,” Summer says as the popstar joins Riot on the stage.
She’s flirting with him from the moment she enters his space.
While she adjusts her microphone. When she touches his arm and prowls around him before massaging his shoulders.
She’s not in her signature style, but something more rock chic.
It reminds me of something Kelsey would wear. There’s something not right about that.
“I hope Kelsey is okay. She twisted her ankle earlier…” Summer explains, but it’s like she’s holding back. “I should probably check on her shortly.”
Ivy comes back with two plates as Summer wanders away. She cranes her neck, unable to tear her gaze from the stage. “Is that Sonatina Savant?”
“Bianca’s wedding gift.” I take the plates from her. “Do you want to stick around? Or…?”
Ivy stares at the stage wistfully.
Sonatina announces the song they’re about to perform. Riot plays the opening bars.
“I hope she plays something tomorrow because I need to see my sister.” Ivy strides in the direction of the trail.
“If I’m not back in ten…” I quip to Rebel before I follow.
West is on the phone when he opens the door to us. He isn’t happy to see us, so we must still be on his shit list. He ushers us inside as he speaks to whoever is on the other end of the line. “Are you sure about that?”
Whatever the other person says only sets West more on edge.
“Look again. Don’t stop looking until you find him. Not knowing where he is… not an option, Micah.” He hangs up as he shuts the door and locks it.
“Where is she?” Ivy asks already having looked for her. The room is surprisingly empty. Any knickknacks or décor has been removed. Anything with glass has vanished.
“What do you plan to do with that information?” West crosses his arms over his chest and squares me up.
“I need to know she’s okay,” Ivy pleads.
“I’m not going to turn her in,” I promise him. I don’t have a choice. “I’ll find another way to deal with the fact my sister-in-law is a killer.”
“You have no idea who she is… what she’s been through.” He scrubs a hand over his jaw. “She’s in the bathroom, Ivy. But brace yourself. Understand everything I do, I do for her.”
Ivy disappears into the bathroom. “Holy shit.”
She reappears, distraught. Tears in her eyes, hand over her mouth as she tries to contain the emotions welling up.
“What the hell, West?” She marches up to him and shoves him. “That… what you’ve done to her… it’s not okay.”
I step inside the bathroom to find Lily stripped down to her underwear, bound and hung from the ceiling. Her pink hair hangs down hiding her face. Her limbs are constricted by the rope. Soft synthetic rope if I hazarded a guess without touching it or accidentally her in an effort to confirm.
It’s the circumstances that make this horrifying.
“Don’t touch her,” West snarls when I reach up to start undoing the knots.
“This isn’t right,” Ivy cries. “How can this possibly be helping her?”
West pushes past her, barreling for me. “If you don’t step away, I will make you.”
The woman above me opens her eyes. “Rogue?”
I can tell straight away that isn’t the woman we brought back. Or the Dizzy we’ve gotten to know. She knows who I am now, but she’s sadder than Lily. How that’s possible… There’s devastation in her blue eyes.
“Don’t,” she says as she closes her eyes and lets her head drop more. “Please don’t.”
I withdraw my fingers from the knot and step back. How can I leave her here? How is this what she needs? Even if she wants… it’s so very wrong.
West stands in the doorway, chest heaving, knuckles white with how hard he’s gripping the wood. “Get out.”
Ivy darts between him and the doorway. Spinning around, she shoves at him again, this time trying to capture his attention which is locked on me and the woman slung up above me.
“I don’t understand. Explain to me why you’re doing this,” she demands.
“Push me again, Ivy. See what happens.”
“Don’t threaten her.” My hands bunch into fists. “Explain what the fuck we’re missing. You’re supposed to be looking after her. She trusts you.”
He stands up straight brushes some invisible speck from his shirt. “She can trust me.”
“I want to trust you too,” Ivy says. “Please, West. Help me do that. Tell me how this is helping her.”
West looks at her and then me. “It’s none of your business.”
“Tell her.” I take out my phone. “Or I’ll call that FBI agent. He’s looking for Lily. You can explain it to him.”
West’s mouth contorts in an ugly manner that reminds me that he… we… are all related to Alec. I can tell Ivy sees it, because she takes an involuntary step back.
West must realize he’s frightening her, because he lets it fall as his shoulders do. “You want to know, I’ll tell you. But save your judgement. It won’t change anything.”