Chapter 16
WOODY
"We could play I Spy," Noah suggested.
I gave him the side eye.
"If you're bored, that is," he said, "It'd be good for a laugh. I'll start. I Spy With My Little Eye, something that begins with S."
"I'm not playing I fucking Spy." I interrupted.
I turned away from him. Watched the house silently for a minute or two before saying, "Sand."
"What?" Noah asked.
Was he playing dumb, or did he have a short memory?
"The thing starting with S, was it sand?"
"I thought we weren't playing." He grinned.
Fucker.
"I'm not. I don't like being kept hanging. So was it?"
When it looked like he wasn't going to give me an answer, I glared at him, giving him one of my best glares, of course. "Don't make me shoot you."
"He takes his games seriously, doesn't he?" Noah said to Urban.
"If you don't shut up, I'll shoot you," Urban said, probably addressing his brother, not me. I mean, I wasn't the one being annoying here.
We were all silent for another minute or two.
Noah broke it by saying, "Sky."
"Huh?" I turned my face to frown at him.
"I spied the sky." He gestured with his hand, palm upward.
"That's bullshit," I told him. "You can't see the sky. If you said stars, I'd buy that." They were big out here. The sky was blanketed with them. If I was poetic or romantic, I'd say they were pretty.
"I'd also accept shoe." I turned away from him. "Fucking sky," I said under my breath.
"Relieved the boredom though, didn't it?" Noah said. As if somehow that made up for it.
"You're out of your mind," I said.
"Yeah, but at least I'm pretty." He was grinning again.
"Pretty psycho if you ask me." Yeah, okay, he wasn't alone there. We were a bunch of pretty psychos.
I caught a hint of movement outside the house. Someone was walking around to a door at the back. Two someones. They opened the door and stepped inside.
There wouldn't have been anything weird about that except it was dark on that side of the property. I only knew the door was there because I saw it before. It was fully dark. Otherwise, it would have been hidden by the shadows.
Whoever the hell they were, they weren't sneaking, but they were being sneaky. In my book, that made them suspicious as fuck.
"Stay here," I started to move slowly through the trees.
Damp leaves squelched under my boots, but no twigs snapped, giving me away. Of course not. They wouldn't fucking dare. Right?
Circling around carefully, I stayed in the darkness. Another shadow lost in the darker shadows.
A security guard wandered past in the opposite direction. They rubbed their hands together, apparently more concerned with being cold than looking for people like me lurking around.
In spite of that, I stopped, held my breath and waited for them to pass before moving on.
I stopped again few feet away, under another tree closer to the door. Beside it was window, the curtains open. All I could see from this angle was a wall, covered with some kind of floral wallpaper. I'd have to move in closer for a better look.
"What is it?" Noah said from right behind me.
I jumped violently, pulling out my gun and aiming it at his head.
"Fucking hell," I hissed. "I told you to stay back there." My heart raced like crazy, threatening to jump out of my chest and punch him in the face. He was lucky I hadn't shot him.
"Forrest told us to stay with you," Noah said. He placed his hand on the side of the gun and pushed it away. "You're not going to use that."
"You hope I'm not." I put it away again. "I'm guessing your brother didn't teach you not to sneak up on someone who was armed." He should have, that was basically sneaking around one-oh-one.
"I thought you knew we were there," Noah said with a shrug. "Aren't you supposed to be good at this shit?"
"I am good at this shit," I said. "My attention was on what was going behind that door, not on two people who were supposed to do what I told them."
I didn't care what Forrest's orders were. I was the one stuck out here with them. If I knew what was good for me, I should tell them both to get lost. I never should have agreed to let them tag along. Forrest's brothers or not, they were a liability waiting to happen.
"Okay, but—" Noah tapped me on the shoulder and gestured toward the house.
I turned back as the door opened. Three people stepped out. Two men, judging by their build, and a woman.
Sable.
What the hell was she doing out here?
She walked with them, all the way to the street, to a waiting car. What the fuck? No one was shoving her, or forcing her into the car. No one had a gun or a knife on her. Not that I could see.
She seemed to be getting in because she wanted to. That made no sense.
"I'm going after her." I hurried through the trees, over to my car as the black sedan pulled away from the curb.
I shoved the keys into the ignition and turned it.
Nothing.
"Not fucking now," I growled.
I turned it again. Still nothing. The engine was dead, and the sedan was disappearing into the darkness.
"Fuck." I slammed my open hand down on the steering wheel.
Left with no other options, I pushed out of the car and headed toward the house.
A security guard opened the door, and looked at me like I was going to cause some kind of trouble.
I was going to cause trouble, all right.
"I'm with him," I pointed at Leif, who stood to the side of the room talking to a woman who looked like an older version of Sable. Her mother, I assumed.
For a moment I thought Leif was going to say something stupid like, "I don't know this guy." Instead, he excused himself from Camilla and strode over to me. "What's going on?
"That's what I'd like to fucking know." I gave the security guard a sarcastic smile and stepped inside.
It was warm in here. The way an infected sore in the middle of a right ass cheek was warm.
I spotted Forrest on the other side of the crowds and shoved my way through to him.
"Woody, how nice to see you this evening," he said, his voice tight, expression tighter. He wanted to ask what the hell I was doing here, but too many eyes and ears were on us.
"Yeah, long time no see," I said sarcastically. "I thought we could talk about that professional misconduct charge you're facing?" He wasn't facing any charge, but it gave us an excuse to step away somewhere quieter, a side corridor that led down to a bathroom.
Murmurs and stares followed, but we ignored them.
"What's going on?" he said in a whisper.
"That's what I want to know. Sable's gone. Got into a car with some goons and left."
He glanced off in another direction and didn't say a word before he stalked off, his face like a thundercloud.
Leif gave me a confused look and a shrug before we both followed Forrest into an office.
Unless my sense of direction was completely off, this was the room I was trying to look inside. Only one person was in here now: Benjamin Kohl, Sable's father.
"Where's Sable?" Forrest demanded, his hands on the desk, body leaning toward the older man like he wanted to loom over him. Forrest was good at looming, but I doubted Benjamin would be intimidated.
Proving me right, Benjamin poured himself a glass of whiskey from a decanter.
"She's gone."
"Gone where?" Forrest asked. He looked as though he was going to find a set of darts and use Benjamin's face as a dartboard.
I was here for it if he did. The bullseye would be either of his eyes. Or his groin.
"That's none of your business," Benjamin said easily. "She had things she needed to work out."
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
If I thought the security guard looked at me like I was nothing, it was practically royalty to the way Benjamin was looking at me now. Lucky for me, I didn't need his permission or his approval to exist. He could fuck right off.
"You have to understand something about my daughter," Benjamin said slowly.
He lowered himself into his chair behind his desk like he was Emperor of the Universe.
"She seems sweet, but she takes after her mother.
She longs for power and money. She likes to attach herself to influential people who can give her the things she wants.
When she's finished with them, she walks away.
Be glad she left you alive." He addressed that to Forrest.
I immediately wanted to say she wasn't like that, but he was voicing the concerns I'd had when she started to get together with us. She grew up with money. She married my father. When he died, she got his money.
I'd warned Forrest and Leif that she might be after them for the same thing. That they might end up the same way my father did. Was I right about that all along? Was Sable Kohl really a black widow?
"She would never…" Leif shook his head, but he was also frowning. His mind was turning, thinking back to the things I'd said. Not wanting to believe it, but hearing it from someone who, in theory, knew her better than we did?
"She very much would," Benjamin said.
"She didn't kill Wolfgang," Leif said.
"I'm sure she didn't do it literally," Benjamin agreed. "But she wouldn't be the first to hire someone to do it for her." He made it sound so casual, like he was talking about hiring a new pool boy.
I wanted to refute the suggestion, given we knew exactly who held the knife. I'd seen them together. Sable was grateful to Harlow and Archer for what they'd done. Wasn't she?
Was there a chance she'd hired them? Or gone to them asking for help? If she was who Benjamin said she was, she had to be a fucking good actor.
I'd seen her with the senator. I knew how good an actor she was. Better than most. Better than me. I was probably wearing my anger on my face like a red flag.
"Where is she?" Forrest asked again.
"She's getting the help she needs," Benjamin replied smoothly. "Technically, I should speak to the police, but you know how it is. She's my daughter. I don't want to see her go to prison. What she has, it's like a sickness. She needs the kind of help we can't give her."
"That's not for you to decide," Leif said.
Benjamin laughed. "Of course it is. I'm her father. When I confronted her, she agreed. She wants to be helped. She didn't argue or put up a fight. She was willing to go. Eager. In fact, she thanked me for suggesting it."
That tracked with what I'd seen. She did seem to be willing. She'd walked right to that car and got inside, like it was her choice.
My heart sank.
I should have gone with my first instinct when it came to the woman. Not to trust her. To keep my distance physically and emotionally.
Right now I felt as if she'd ripped my heart out of my chest and stomped on it with her heels.
You're a fucking idiot, I told myself. You knew what was right in front of you and you ignored it. Fooled by a pretty face and a pretty pussy.
I turned and stalked out of the room, punching the doorframe on the way out. It sent a jolt of pain through me, but it was nothing compared to the pain in my heart.