Declan purses his lips and narrows his eyes at Sasha. I’m fairly certain they are seconds away from having a screaming fight.
“This is dangerous shit, and nothing you need to be getting in the middle of,” he finally says, sounding a little condescending.
“What kind of dangerous shit?” Sasha demands, shifting in the booth to face Declan, giving him the full-force of her anger.
“None that is your concern.”
“Actually”—she shoves her finger into his chest—“if you all are putting your lives on the line, then it is my concern. Tell me right this second what is going on, or I promise you I won’t stop digging.”
Declan literally growls, sounding feral and angry. Sasha doesn’t even back down a little.
“Dec, we have to tell them,” Joey tells him quietly, appearing much calmer than Declan.
Declan doesn’t tear his eyes off Sasha, and it isn’t until she shifts closer to him, her eyes more pleading than annoyed, that his shoulders sag and he gives Joey a small nod.
Our gazes all turn to Joey, who takes a deep breath before diving in.
“The case Ava stumbled upon a few years ago isn’t quite as over as we hoped,” he announces.
“What?” Cynthia gasps, while Sasha’s mouth drops open.
I just heard about this all tonight, and while I’m shocked, too, I also feel sick. Now I understand why Joey was so adamant about me staying away from Hart.
“We thought they rounded everyone up. We knew not every loose end was found, but we figured it was enough that it was believed to be dead and buried. Then, the very fucking day Zander got back from his honeymoon, he got a call that said otherwise,” Declan takes over, giving Sasha a pointed stare.
“So …” She swallows hard, her earlier anger completely gone from her tone. “That day he was an asshole to us, he had just found out …” She looks down at her lap, upset.
It takes barely a second before Declan is pulling her against him, wrapping her up in his arms. “Yes. That doesn’t excuse him, but he had a lot of shit on his mind that day, and has every day since.”
“That asshole who was talking to Teagan is part of it?” Cynthia guesses, breaking the melancholy silence that settles briefly around us.
“Yes. Zander got a tip from a source he knows, saying things were still running. Then, eight months ago, Gemma came to us with the tip that Clayton was running his own operation. Women are still going missing, and we believe he has taken up the mantle left behind,” Joey tells us, his stern gaze sticking to me, driving home his point that I should never be near Hart.
I feel sick just thinking about this.
“Gemma is undercover? Is that why you hired her? Because she’s hot and could get close to him?” Cynthia pushes.
“When Gemma came to us, Zander knew she wasn’t going to let this rest. She either had us backing her up, or no backup at all,” Declan answers.
“How did she know about this?” Sasha wonders.
“That isn’t our story to tell. This is personal for her. Personal enough that she dropped everything in her life and is dedicating herself to taking Clayton down and putting an end to this once and for all. And personal enough that she doesn’t need any of you snooping around in her business, digging up shit that has nothing to do with you,” Declan tells Sasha, cupping her face gently so she can’t escape this information, even if she wanted to.
“That’s why she’s barely ever at the office,” Sasha announces like she has just worked out some huge piece of the puzzle.
“Yes. And to keep her cover intact, you can’t go back in there and approach her. Ambushing her at work to demand to know what her deal is will not go down well, either.”
“I’m not an idiot,” Sasha snaps at Declan, shifting her head so he has to let her go.
When Declan looks like he has something more to say, I quickly step in, feeling beyond tired now.
“We didn’t ruin anything by going in tonight, did we?” I ask, hoping my idea of going there, purely because I was snooping, hasn’t doomed something so important.
“No, but I don’t like that you’re on his radar. You already were,” Joey instantly concedes. “Now you’re more noticeably on there, and I don’t like it.”
I give him a shrug since there is nothing I can do about it now, and because I’m hopeful that Hart won’t treat me any differently now than he did before. I saw him for a grand total of two minutes tonight. I don’t see how having one drink at his club will make much of a change to his feelings for me.
“Wait, you’ve been working on this for a whole year?” Cynthia blurts out.
Joey turns his head to answer her. “Yep.”
“And you haven’t gotten anything to pin him down yet?” she pushes.
“We only set our sights on Clayton eight months ago. Gemma hasn’t been able to crack his inner circle, and we’re having trouble getting much on him. We have bugs in his house, but he barely speaks when he’s there. Nor does he take any phone calls. Besides that, his phone has enough encryption on it that we can’t remotely hack into it. We haven’t been able to get near his club office, and there doesn’t appear to be any disgruntled employees willing to talk. His record is squeaky clean,” Joey fills us in.
We sit in silence for a moment, taking this all in.
I can’t believe Hart Clayton, a man I have seen on and off outside my house for months, is involved in something like this. He looks so … normal.
Evil shouldn’t be able to disguise itself so well.
“How sure are you that the tip Gemma brought on Clayton is good?” Sasha questions, leaning back against Declan and looking as exhausted as I feel.
“A few of the missing girls have a connection to his club. Enough that we can’t ignore the link, but not enough to make a tangible connection for the police,” Declan informs, sounding frustrated.
“Couldn’t someone be doing this without Hart’s knowledge?” I ask, hoping I don’t sound as naive as I feel.
Joey shakes his head. “The man has millions of dollars in offshore bank accounts. He may live in a modest home, but when you have the type of money he does, even legit money from his club, yet chooses to hide it, it spells hidden motives. He’s trying to appear innocent, but he’s not.”
“Shit, I thought this was all over with. Ava … Fuck, Ava is gonna freak!” Sasha cries.
“She won’t, because the first she’ll hear about it, if at all, is when it’s all over,” Declan says sternly.
“She’ll be pissed Zander hid this from her,” Sasha continues as if Declan never spoke.
“But,” Joey interjects, reaching out and taking Sasha’s hand from across the table, “she won’t be worried, and it won’t drag up old nightmares for her.”
“Where is Zander?” Cynthia questions, glancing around the diner.
“He’s inside the club, keeping an eye on Gemma,” Joey answers. “He clocked you guys coming in first.”
“Why hide this from us, then?” Sasha looks to Declan for the answer.
“Because we didn’t want you put in the position to lie to Ava.”
Her eyes soften as this soaks in. Then she leans forward and gives Declan a peck on the lips. “I still should have been told. I don’t want you out in dangerous situations, especially not ones when I’m being kept in the dark.”
“You guys are clear.” Harvey’s sudden appearance beside the table shocks us all.
The guys all nod, relief obvious. I’m just happy to see another familiar face.
“Hey,” I say to him, smiling before I notice all eyes on me.
“Hello, Teagan,” Harvey responds, which then gets everyone’s eyes on him.
“Okay, now I’m getting a better picture,” Sasha announces strangely.
“What do you mean?” I ask, but Joey cuts in before she can answer.
“I’m taking you all home. Dec and Harvey have a job to do tonight.”
“Why can’t Dec take us home?” Sasha counters.
> “Because I’m known to Clayton, so I didn’t have to blow my cover going in there after you guys tonight, but now that he knows I’m around, I can’t be seen again tonight.”
“Is Gemma okay?” Cynthia asks as we all begin to make our way out of the booth.
“Yes, and you are not to bring this up again. Not to her, not to anyone. Her cover must remain safe, and for that to happen, you need to forget you saw her. Forget you know her.”
A somber mood hits us, weighing us all down as we free ourselves from the booth, shaking our limbs and gaining an annoyed look from the waitress since we didn’t order anything. Declan leaves a tip on the table, anyway.
Seeing Harvey reminds me that we decided to take an early morning walk with Karma tomorrow, but after how exhausted I feel tonight, I know I’m going to be a zombie in the morning.
“Can we make our walk tomorrow a bit later?” I ask him, gaining everyone’s surprised attention again.
Why is it so surprising I’m talking to Harvey? They obviously have all spoken to him before. His grunting at Sasha during our first meeting not included.
“Sure, text me when you want to do it,” he agrees, either not noticing or not caring about the attention we are getting.
I nod before giving Joey a look when he glares daggers at Harvey.
“Hang on a sec; just need a minute with my girls,” Sasha mutters, pushing Declan out of the way then grabbing my arm, as well as Cynthia’s, before she rushes us a few tables away.
She leans her head down into mine, where we end up all huddled together. I take a second to beam over the fact that I’m considered one of her girls.
“Are you and Harvey a thing?” she hisses urgently at me.
“A thing?” I dumbly repeat back. “What? No, of course not.”
“He’s hot, he’s single as far as I can tell, and he has already said more words to you than all of us combined,” she points out.
Okay, has Harvey not come out to his coworkers?
“He is hot,” I agree, getting a squeal of excitement from Sasha. “And I can confirm he is single, and he has spoken a lot more words than he’s said tonight to me. He’s also not interested in me, and I’m not interested in him. He helps me walk Karma because she can be a bit much and he likes her. End of story.”
“Not end of story! How …? What …? Huh?” Sasha mumbles. “We spent hours talking tonight and you never brought him up!”
“Why would I?”
“Because it’s Harvey, and we’ve been trying to crack him for almost a year!” Sasha screeches, her voice no doubt carrying over to the guys who are all eyeing us.
I hold my hands up in front of me, trying to appease her. “Sorry, I didn’t realize.”
“And why the hell wouldn’t you be interested in him?” She is back to hissing at me now.
I want to just blurt out that Harvey is gay and not have to go into this anymore, but that wouldn’t be fair to him.
“I like a certain type, and that type is more Joey than Harvey,” I say quietly, hoping Joey isn’t listening.
Both girls glance over my shoulder, hopefully at the men very far away from us, and then they both glance back at me with smirks on their faces.
“Got a thing for Asian men, do you?” Sasha’s grin looks about ready to burst off her face.
“Yes. You got a problem with that?”
“Not at all, just observing that Joey’s tastes seem to have narrowed considerably recently, too. I think he has a thing for brunettes who also have a bit of a pyro streak in them.”
I roll my eyes, hating the small amount of hope that blossoms inside me that this could be true. I have already gone over this. I’m not changing my mind.
“I hardly have a pyro—”
“We’re going,” Joey interrupts, his voice far too close for my liking, and he still sounds angry.
The girls don’t argue, and after a quick goodbye kiss between Declan and Sasha, we all pile into Joey’s SUV and make our way back home, dropping the girls off at their houses as we go.
As soon as we are the only two left, Joey begins fuming at me.
“I told you not to be alone with Clayton again. I told you to call me immediately, to scream.”
“I wasn’t alone with him; I was surrounded by people in a club,” I explain just as heatedly.
“A club he owns, full of people who work for him!” Joey snaps, taking a corner far too quickly for my liking.
“To be fair, I didn’t know he owned that club, I didn’t know he would be there, and until tonight, I didn’t know the exact reason you were investigating him.”
Joey started shaking his head before I even finished speaking. “I still don’t like it. I don’t like how, as soon as he saw you, he beelined right for you. I don’t like the way he looked at you. I definitely don’t like the flash of jealousy I saw in him when he thought we were together.”
“Look,” I sigh, my night catching up to me as exhaustion sets in. “I don’t know what his intentions were or are, but just so you know, I have zero interest in ever being alone with him. I didn’t feel threatened tonight, but if I had, I would have done something. I didn’t think it had escalated to that.”
Joey is silent for a moment, hopefully taking my words in before stating, “I still don’t like it.”
I slap my leg, heaving a loud sigh in frustration. “What do you want me to say? I’m sorry? I mean, shit, I haven’t gone out in years. I thought maybe I deserved a night out to have some fun. I didn’t realize we were going to walk into a strip club for starters, and I definitely didn’t know it was owned by some sicko, or that he would notice me, or want to talk to me. I’ll just stay hidden inside my house and become a recluse spinster from now on, okay? Happy?” I snap, wincing at the hysterical, shrill edge to my tone.
Silence envelops us after my outburst, and my heaving chest begins to deplete as I calm down.
“You really haven’t been out in years?”
“No!” I yell, my anger flaring back up. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m pretty boring.”
“You’re not boring to me,” he says softly, eyeing me quickly before he looks back toward the road.
I snort, wanting to tell him my sex life would likely put him to sleep, but I don’t want that humiliation brought up. “Can we change the subject?”
“Fine. How do you know Harvey?” he asks.
I want to roll my eyes at this likely train of questioning we just jumped on.
Tomorrow, I’m demanding Harvey tell me why his coworkers have no idea about his sexual orientation. And when he likely has some excuse, like it isn’t any of their business, I need to think up something better to counter that with.
Dammit, there probably isn’t an argument for that.
“I saw him at your office the day I went to meet you for lunch, but technically, we met when Karma knocked him over at the park.”
“He was just randomly at the park when you were?” Joey sounds suspicious, making me speculate if it’s just part of his job to always be suspicious or if he thinks he has a genuine reason to be suspicious.
“He was meeting someone or, more likely, breaking up with someone. Karma was happy to see him, and he felt the same seeing her. He offered to walk her with me, and I accepted.”
“How long has this been going on?” he demands, making it sound like Harvey and I have been having some illicit affair.
I sigh, over this conversation, too. “I don’t know … a few weeks.”
“And you never thought to mention it to me?”
“Why would I?”
Joey opens and closes his mouth several times, clearly unable to come up with a response.
“Look,” I begin again, trying to keep my annoyance in check. “Tonight has been full-on. I’m tired, I’m sure you are, too, and tempers and emotions are running a little high right now. I’m sorry I didn’t mention I’m friends with Harvey earlier. But I like him. He’s funny and sweet, and I’m not going to stop seeing him.�
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“I wouldn’t ask you to stop seeing him. I just … I …” Joey growls in frustration, our speed slowing as he turns onto our street. “Harvey is the most uncommunicative person I know. I’ve known him almost a year, and the guy has barely said more than a handful of words to me.”
“Really?” I question, wondering over Sasha’s comment earlier. I know this has been mentioned to me before, but surely in the context of working, he must speak to the guys. How else does he pass on case information?
“Yes! The man talks in one-word answers. If he didn’t do his job so damn well, Zander would have fired him by now.”
“That’s not very fair. Not everyone is chatty.”
“So, what do you guys do, then? Walk in silence?” he scoffs, turning into my driveway.
“No, we talk. I mean, I mostly talk, but sometimes he joins in. He’s a nice guy.”
“Are you saying you like him?” Joey’s voice shifts to lethal. I don’t completely understand why.
“Of course I like him. Why would I want to go on walks with someone I don’t like?”
Joey appears annoyed again, making me think he’s jealous.
He parks his car, but he doesn’t make any move to get out, except undoing his seatbelt.
“Should I expect you to bring him around the house, then?” he asks stiffly.
Oh yes, Joey is totally jealous.
How interesting.
“Why would I do that?”
“You can’t just walk Karma forever. Sooner or later, things progress!” he snaps, swinging his head around so I can see the incredulous expression he’s sending my way.
“Progress to what?”
He hits his fists against the steering wheel. “Are you doing this on purpose?”
“Doing what on purpose?”
I am so totally doing this on purpose.
He actually snarls before throwing his arms in the air then storming out of the car.
I barely hold in my laugh as I follow him inside, listening as he stomps through the house then slams the bathroom door.
I’m probably being overly mean to him, but I can’t bring myself to assure him my feelings for Harvey are so utterly platonic that he might as well be a woman.
I Burned Down His House (Love at First Crime Book 3) Page 11