30. Nyah
NYAH
Dear Diary,
Handcuffs should only be for the bedroom.
Thumping and shouts echoed through the clubhouse. I sat up quickly and tried to focus on the door, right as someone’s fist connected with it.
“Everybody up. There’s a fire!”
I did a double take as the words tried to sink in, but when they did, I scrambled out of bed, pulling on my bathrobe.
I flung open the door and was greeted with the chaos of men rushing around, all seeming like they had a purpose, while I stood there blinking in the middle of it, no idea what was happening.
Amber came to stand beside me and bit her lip, watching the scene with me.
“Are we evacuating?” I asked.
Indecision danced over her features for a moment, then nodded. “Come on. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to stand here waiting to get burned alive.”
We both joined the throng of men running for the door.
I found a pair of flip-flops there and shoved them on my feet, while Amber plucked her car keys off a hook on the wall.
Kiki clung to Kyle, and he had a protective arm around her as he put her on the back of his bike, so it was just me and Amber who hurried for her car.
I stopped short of getting into it and twisted, frantically searching the scene. “Wait. Isabella!” All I knew was that if Luca wasn’t here, I needed to take his place and make sure his sister got out safely. I couldn’t see any flames, but there was a definite smell of smoke in the night air.
“I’m here!” the girl called back, waving to me from the middle of the huddle made up of Kara’s family.
I breathed a sigh of relief. They were all headed for the club van, Hayden and Grayson carrying their younger two daughters, while Kara herded Little Jax and Isabella.
Her gaze met mine, and she nodded. “Don’t worry, we’ve got her.”
I nodded back. I had one foot in Amber’s car when a piercing whistle cut through the night.
All eyes turned to Hawk, his hands up in a calming gesture. “Everyone stop. We might have jumped the gun. There’s no fire on the Slayers’ compound.”
His reassuring words didn’t stop the nervous energy of the group, and I couldn’t blame them. I’d seen the blackened remains of the trees inside these gates. I knew they’d had a fire here at some point in the last couple of years that nature hadn’t quite fully recovered from.
And clearly, neither had the people who’d experienced it. Kara clutched at her sister, her fingers trembling so badly I could see it from across the parking lot.
“What’s going on?” Hayden called to him. “We can smell the smoke. There’s a fire somewhere.”
For some reason, Hawk’s gaze strayed to me, before flitting back to his partner.
“There’s a car on fire up on the road, outside the area our cameras cover.
Some of the guys are up there with fire extinguishers and are holding it at bay until the fire trucks get here.
But it’s not going to spread. So everyone can go back to their rooms.”
Amber huffed grumpily and got back out of the car. “You couldn’t have worked that out before you traumatized us all, Hawk?” She muttered about once an asshole, always an asshole. “I still have nightmares about the last time.”
I thought that a bit unfair. He was the club’s VP, and with War not living on the premises, any overnight disasters landed on Hawk’s shoulders. He had a family, daughters behind these gates, so I could easily forgive him for getting us out of bed unnecessarily.
I turned to go back inside with the others, but Hawk cleared his throat.
“Nyah, wait.”
I stopped and went back over to him. “What’s up?”
He scrubbed a hand over his face, then shot a glance toward Isabella walking back down the path to his house. “It’s Luca’s car that’s on fire up there.”
My stomach sank. “What? No. He just went out to get burgers… Is he okay?”
Hawk didn’t say anything.
Luca had been gone for hours. I squeezed my eyes shut. “No.”
He grimaced at me. “Come on. I’ll drive you up there.”
With feet heavy as lead, I followed Hawk to his bike. I got on the back and clutched the handle behind me, not wanting to put my arms around a man who wasn’t Lynx.
Hawk steered us through the Slayers’ gates and along the road, trees surrounding us on both sides.
It was a few minutes before the orange glow of the fire could be seen through the darkness, and suddenly I wanted to demand he turn around and take me back.
Back to the safety of the compound. Back to an hour ago when I’d been happy and sleepy in bed, waiting for a burger, and my biggest concern was whether Luca would remember I didn’t like pickles.
“Oh my God,” I whispered. I got off Hawk’s bike and stumbled a few steps toward the blaze.
Men stood around it, the occasional hiss of a fire extinguisher sounding as they kept the flames from catching on the low-hanging branches.
But there was no saving the car, Luca’s personalized plates proving it was his.
And there was no saving the person behind the wheel, who’d clearly been engulfed in flame for some time.
I clapped a hand over my mouth to stifle the scream that erupted inside me. My knees buckled, and then the ground was rushing up at me far too quickly.
Strong arms caught me right before I hit the dirt, Lynx’s familiar smell around me.
“I got you,” he muttered, pulling me against his chest. “I’m here.”
I held on to him, but I couldn’t help twisting to stare over my shoulder at the flames and the sickening sight inside them.
“Don’t look.” Lynx tried to shield me, but he couldn’t.
I had to see.
“I don’t understand,” I whispered. “He was just with us. It’s not him, is it? It can’t be. He went to get burgers…”
Lynx tightened his grip on me. “I don’t know. He was gone too long. I went to find him a while ago, and there was nothing on the road here when I left. But by the time I got back…” He bit back emotion. “He must have been on his way here when… Fuck, I don’t know what happened.”
Hawk stood grimly next to us. “Looks like an explosion to me. They might have rigged his car? I don’t know, not my area of expertise. I’m sure the cops will have thoughts.”
“I didn’t hear any explosion,” I whispered.
Hawk shrugged. “We’re a fair way from the clubhouse. Lot of trees to block the noise, I guess. But that level of heat doesn’t happen instantly. Something had to help it along.” Hawk sighed heavily. “I never liked the guy, but nobody fucking deserves to go out like that.”
My chest tightened until I couldn’t breathe. Hawk was talking like he was sure it was Luca in that car. I stared up at Lynx. “It’s not him.”
Lynx sighed; his eyes wet with unshed tears. “Nyah,” he said softly. “It’s his car… His dad and probably plenty of others had it out for him…”
I shook my head. “No. No! First Dax. Now Luca. No!”
My heart felt the pain, but my head refused to believe it. It clung to whatever deluded hope it could, even when the facts were right there in front of me.
Lynx smoothed his hand over my hair. “It’s going to be okay.”
But it wasn’t, and we both knew it. All I could do was cling to him while the car burned in front of us and sirens wailed, getting closer by the minute.
The fire trucks and the police arrived in unison, skidding onto the scene, kicking up dirt and gravel beneath spinning tires. The firefighters went straight to work, and the cops stood by, watching and talking amongst themselves until the blaze was completely out.
Without the flames, there was no camouflaging the burned body behind the steering wheel.
But there was no recognizing it either. It was so blackened and burned I couldn’t have even told you if it was male or female. My entire body shook, and I couldn’t look away, no matter how hard I tried to force myself to.
Cops began questioning people, and two burly officers with broad shoulders came over to where Lynx and I stood in a huddle. They introduced themselves as Officers Rivera and Akers, but I barely registered any of it.
I couldn’t stop staring at the smoking remains of Luca’s car and the body inside it.
“I’m told you were the first to raise the alarm, Mr. Cross.”
For a moment I didn’t realize who he was talking to, until Lynx nodded and I remembered he actually had a legal name.
“Yes. I was just coming back from town—”
“Can anyone verify your alibi?”
He blinked. “My alibi? What the fuck do I need an alibi for?”
Akers shrugged. “We need to know where you were this evening.”
“I was driving around town, searching for Luca Guerra.”
The officer glanced up at him with one of his bushy eyebrows raised. “I guess you found him.” He jerked his head carelessly toward the smoldering remains of Luca’s car.
I gaped at him. “That’s not Luca inside that car.”
Rivera finally turned to me. “Why would you think it’s anyone else? Do you have proof Mr. Guerra is alive and breathing elsewhere? Or that he would have loaned his car to someone?”
“No…but…”
The officers waited for me to say something more, but I didn’t know what.
They turned back to Lynx, ignoring me completely. “Your alibi, Mr. Cross. Who can verify your whereabouts in the last hour?”
“In the last hour? I…I don’t know. I was riding around, looking for Luca. I was at Saint View Tattoo and the Greasy Spoon earlier. I spoke with people there. They can vouch for me.”
Akers jotted something down on his notepad. “Okay, but no alibi for the last hour?”
Lynx’s fingers loosened around me as he faced off with the police officers. “Am I seriously a suspect here? Do I need a lawyer?”
“Did you know almost half of all murders are committed by a spouse or intimate partner? I believe you and Mr. Guerra were in a relationship?”
Lynx blinked. “How did you even know that?”
Rivera just stared at him. “Is it true?”
“Yes, but—”
The officer didn’t care. He just wrote something else on his notepad. “And is it true you were recently released from prison?”
Some of the fight went out of Lynx. “Yes.”
“And during that time you were in prison, is it true there was a man murdered, one who had lynx marks carved into his back?”
Lynx exhaled slowly through his nose. “I remember that, yes.”
“And there was another body here recently, with the same marks? Right?”
Lynx shook his head at the reminder of Virginia’s murder. “I don’t—”
“The answer you’re searching for is yes, Mr. Cross.” Rivera glanced back over at the charred remains of the body inside the car. “How much money should we bet the victim inside that car also has the same claw marks carved into his back?”
“What?” Lynx shouted. “What the fuck are you saying? That Luca was murdered before he was put in that car and set on fire?”
I knew that look on his face. It was the same one he’d had that night in Scotland, right before he’d completely lost it.
He couldn’t do that here, in front of an army full of police officers.
I put my hand on his arm. “Lynx,” I said softly but firmly. I dug my fingernails into his skin, trying to ground him.
Rivera’s head whipped toward me. “What did you call him?”
I froze, realizing what I’d done. “Nothing.”
“She called him Lynx,” his partner confirmed.
Both men stared at Lynx, but it was the older one who spoke. “Is it just a coincidence your people call you Lynx then? And the marks on these victims all resemble a big cat’s claws?”
He shook his head and shoved his notepad into the back pocket of his pants. When his hands returned, they were with a metal pair of handcuffs. “Torrin Cross, you’re under arrest.”
“What?” I shouted. “He hasn’t done anything!”
Lynx allowed himself to be roughly turned around so the cops could slap the cuffs on his wrists.
He twisted back over his shoulder with wide eyes. “I didn’t do this!”
The older cop huffed, “That’s what they all say.”
I tried to grab the officer’s arm. “No wait, please. There’s been a mistake. You don’t understand.”
The younger officer pushed me back so hard I stumbled, barely able to catch myself.
He glared at me harshly. “Do not touch an officer again or you’ll be arrested for interfering with the course of justice.”
I gaped at him. “But he didn’t do this!”
“Then he’ll be found innocent by a jury of his peers,” Rivera practically spat back at me. “But I wouldn’t count on it. We’ve been waiting for enough to arrest him on. We’ve suspected him for months.”
“No!” I threw myself at Lynx again, fighting to get to him, but he turned to Hawk with an expression I couldn’t decipher.
But clearly Hawk could.
He came over and gripped my arms, holding me tight as the officers hauled Lynx away. Leaving only police tape where he’d once stood at my side.