Chapter 31
C H A P T E R3 1
Last Puzzle Piece
Cade
The Present
T he best way to describe this meeting was awkward.
I was at a café that doubled up as a romance bookstore with an overwhelming amount of pink, girlish laughter, and flowery décor. I sat in a velvet tufted chair across from Mabel Garcia.
She looked exactly as my hazy memory recalled. Except now she sported black hair instead of the dyed blond from that night.
Josh was responsible for picking this location, saying it would help Mabel feel at ease. Spoiler alert: she didn’t look at ease. In fact, she looked as nervous as me.
I felt seconds away from breaking out into hives. Unable to find the words to commence this overdue conversation.
“Thanks for, uh”—I cleared my throat—“coming. I appreciate it.”
Mabel stared at me with questioning brown eyes and a pinched smile. “Yeah. Uh, thank you for the latte.”
I bought her one when we arrived. It was the right thing to do after she agreed to take an hour out of her busy Sunday afternoon to meet with me.
I took a sip of my own drink, wincing when the scalding black coffee burned my tongue. “I won’t keep you for long. I just wanted to talk to you about what happened over the summer in…my room.”
She tensed, a blush climbing over her face. I almost cursed under my breath. I was unequipped to deal with my own feelings from that night, let alone this poor girl’s, who must have been just as humiliated as me.
“I’m so, so sorry,” she rushed out. “I usually never go to parties, much less get drunk—actually, I’ve sworn off alcohol completely after that night—and nor do I hook up with random strangers. It’s not my vibe. But I was in your room—which, I’m sorry about that as well—because the guy I was flirting with said that he wanted to uh, well, you know, and to meet him upstairs, specifically there , and I really liked him and thought I’d take a chance on him and—”
“It’s okay,” I assured her as she grew flustered, her words coming out more incoherent after the other. “Don’t worry. I know it was one big misunderstanding and I’m not mad. I simply wanted to talk to you, even though this is months late, to get some proper closure.”
The last part wasn’t a complete lie. She just didn’t need to know that closure for me came in the form of killing the motherfuckers responsible for that night.
I wanted to pick her brain. See what she knew. Try to fill the plot holes in the story.
Mabel nodded, taking a sip of her latte. “I-I understand.”
“The girl who found us in my room was my girlfriend. I thought you were her. With the lights off and having drunk as much as I did—” Having been drugged, was more like it. “It was momentarily hard to tell the difference.”
Mabel winced. “Yeah, I figured she was your girlfriend based on her reaction and what she said to you. I’m truly sorry. I had no idea and like I said, I thought you were someone else and—”
“Stop apologizing.” I gave her a faint smile to ease her anxiousness. “It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault.”
“I hope everything with your girlfriend is fine,” Mabel said gently, seeming so miserable and genuinely hurt on Ella’s behalf. “Will you extend my apology to her, too?”
Fuck, I felt so bad for this girl. She had no reason to feel guilty and it was clear what happened over the summer took a toll on her as well.
“I will,” I replied. “And everything between us is fine.” Or, at least, it would be soon. “Can you walk me through your version of that night?”
Mabel sighed, her gaze bouncing around the café, collecting her thoughts. I drummed my fingers against my thigh, feeling fidgety like a caged animal. The entire mystery of that night—of those four masked men—seemed to depend on her answer.
“I’ve blocked a lot of that night from my mind.” She paused to take another sip of her latte. “But I do remember that I was there with a few girls from my high school, playing beer pong. This guy had been watching me for quite some time before he finally approached me. He seemed sweet enough and we started chatting about all sorts of things. Eventually, he poured us drinks, saying it was a party after all and that I should loosen up. Under his peer pressure, I kept drinking everything he handed me until I was practically shitfaced. One thing led to another and we kissed. I was really…into him. He said to go to the second floor, four doors down the right, and wait for him in the room. Keep the lights shut too. And I naively went ahead with his instructions.”
It sounded like whoever this guy was, he spent time scoping out his victim before finally deciding on Mabel. Having spent a few minutes in her presence, I could tell she was extremely kind, sweet, and trustworthy. The last attribute was probably what he banked on. And unfortunately, she fell right into his trap.
“Do you remember what he looked like?”
“I remember him having blond hair and I think he was a jock?”
Fuck, that wasn’t enough information. There were nearly two hundred people present that night. A lot of them were athletes from different schools in the city. However, blond and jock did help narrow down my search.
It wouldn’t completely feel like a needle in a haystack.
“I see.” I drained the remnant of my coffee, mulling over who this could be.
A flash of insecurity sliced over her face. “Do you think this was all a sick joke…just for the fun of it?”
I knew what went through her mind. Why me? What did I do to deserve this? The simple answer was that Mabel was a convenient scapegoat for this person. Nothing more, nothing less. Therefore, I offered her a nugget of the truth in hopes of giving her some peace. Make her realize that what happened had nothing to do with her and everything to do with Ella and me.
“I was roofied that night and led upstairs under the pretense that my girlfriend was waiting for me in the room. All so I could be caught in a compromising position and look like a cheater.”
Her eyes widened. “T-That’s horrible. Why would anyone do that to you?”
“Sometimes people like to hurt others for the sole reason that they can.”
And for retaliation in my line of work.
“I’m sorry, Cade.” Mabel reached forward to squeeze my arm in a platonic manner. “You didn’t deserve that.”
I decided right this moment that once I caught the masked fuckers, I was going to make the designated one write an apology letter to Mabel before I killed him off.
“Thank you,” I rasped. “I’m okay now. It took some time, but I’m in a better place than I was three months ago. You can understand why I wanted to meet up and get some answers, right?”
“Yes, of course.” She smiled sadly. “It makes sense.”
“Do you remember the guy’s name?” I egged on. “Maybe what he was wearing?”
“If he gave me a name, I don’t recall. I was very drunk.” She tilted her head in a calculating manner. “Although I do remember him saying he played hockey.”
My blood ran cold.
Blond. Jock. Played hockey.
It could be anyone. It was a big city. There were many hockey players in different schools. Many blond ones. And yet I fumbled for my phone, my pulse quickening as I opened up my gallery app.
“Hey, Mabel?” I found last year’s Rangers’ team photo and turned my phone towards her. “What are the chances you recognize any of these guys as the one you spoke to that night?”
She leaned forward, studying the image for a minute. “Cade, I’m sorry. I don’t think it’s anyone from here.”
Well, shit. It was worth a try. Regardless, I had three clues to continue my search.
I was about to pull my phone away when Mabel made a sound of distress and zoomed in on a particular player. “Oh my God. Wait! It’s him. I recognize him .”
Gazing down at the familiar face, I froze.
Gavino Ricci .