“It wasn’t until that day,” he croaked. “That day changed everything. I saw her for what she really was and then I started to find out all the shit that she had been doing while I was away. All the men she was sleeping with.” He looked up, his brown eyes flashing as he said “In my bed.”
“Ty.” I leaned forward, placing my hand on his. “I’m sorry.” I never expected that to come out of his mouth.
He laughed. “The men didn’t bother me, it’s what else she did…” I watched as he swallowed, his Adams apple bobbing up and down. and his chest moving as he took big breath.
“What happened?”
“I can’t…” he said, his voice cracking.
Frowning at him, I gulped down the lump that was forming in my throat. Was this what it felt like when I told him I wasn’t ready to talk about Max? Because right now I hated the feeling that was rolling through me.
“I understand,” I whispered, although what I really wanted to say was ‘tell me’.
“I walked out on her,” he said, his eyes a mixture of anger and sadness. “I asked for a divorce but she wouldn’t sign the papers.”
“So…she’s only your wife legally?”
“Yeah.” He turned his hand so his palm was against mine and squeezed lightly. “She means nothing to me, sweetheart. I swear.”
Nodding, I tried to take it all in. I was a hypocrite. I’d walked off, not allowing him to explain while I still held so many secrets. Secrets and lies that he never pushed to know.
“What about that?” I said, pointing to the lipstick on his shirt.
“What?” Pulling away, he looked down at his collar and rolled his eyes. “She tried to attack me.” My brows flew high on my forehead. “With her lips.”
“And…”
“I pulled away, sweetheart. There’s only one person’s lips that I want to touch.” I squirmed in my seat. His eyes flashed with desire as I moved. Realizing that all I had on was a t-shirt, I tried to pull it down a little.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, bringing his attention back to my face.
“What for?” He frowned.
“I walked away and didn’t give you chance to explain. I know there’s still things that you don’t know about my past and I want to be able to tell you. But…”
I looked around the room, scared to look him in the eyes and find that he wanted me to tell him right then. I still wasn’t ready. I didn’t know whether I ever would be.
“It’s okay.” He pushed up out of his chair and walked toward me. Crouching down so that he was the same level as me, he cupped the side of my face. “When you’re ready, I’m here.”
“I’ll try.” I swallowed. “I’ll try to open up to you.”
“Okay, sweetheart.”
“But, you need to try too.” I raised my brows in challenge. If I was going to open up, then so was he. I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that there wasn’t more to that story. Much more. But I knew that to get him to open up about it, I needed to as well.
It was only fair.
“Okay,” he huffed.
Smiling, I leaned into his hand. I hated not being able to talk to him last night. Knowing that he had sat in that chair all night, probably not getting a wink of sleep, had butterflies swarming in my stomach. He was always watching over me and that in itself, made me feel safer than I ever had.
He moved forward, closing the distance between us.
“We good?” he asked against my lips.
“We’re good,” I said on a breath and closed the distance between us.
I could have pulled away from Ty completely, been mad at him for not telling me. But what about what I wasn’t telling him?
He didn’t know half of the things that went on with Max, he didn’t know what the daily struggle that was involved with living with him. He had no idea of the number of scars I carried on the inside, not just on the outside.
There was no way that I could criticize him for not telling me when I was doing exactly the same.
Knowing that there was more to the story than he had told me, made me wary. I hadn’t been given the full story and I was doubting that I would be told what had actually happened.
But as I sat here at the meeting table, looking at Ty, I didn’t doubt what he had told me. I trusted that when he said she hadn’t been his wife for years, that he meant it.
One thing that I did doubt was me, whether I would be able to tell him my secrets.
I had been dreading this meeting since I came back on the compound after the charity function. Miss Maggie had kept my mind off things while she had been here but as soon as she went home last night, my stomach rolled.
Knowing that we would have to talk about her, Serena, made me feel sick. I knew that we all had a past but I needed to digest the information that I’d been given. I hadn’t been able to do that just yet.
I couldn’t stop my eyes from flicking down to Ty’s left hand, imagining the wedding band that would have once sat there.
That, at least, was one thing I hadn’t done. Max was all up for getting married but having Corey away gave me an excuse to wait. At least that came in handy for something.
“Ready?” Ty said to all of us, although his eyes were on me.
They had all been distant with me since the charity function. I understood that they didn’t know what was happening, or how to take the news that Ty’s wife was back in town. To be honest though, I was glad they had kept their distance yesterday. I just wanted to spend time with Eli and Miss Maggie and forget about everything that had happened. Now, it was time to face the music.
“Yeah,” I said, nodding my head and picked up my pen that sat on top of the notepad.
“Where do you wanna start, boss?” Evan said from above his laptop screen, his eyes flicking to me and then back to Ty.
Rolling my eyes, I said, “Let’s start with Serena.” May as well start with the one subject they were all scared to talk about around me.
You could have heard a pin drop with the silence that greeted me.
“Seriously? It’s fine. We’re fine,” I said way too high pitched to even remotely come across as ‘being fine’.
Ty leaned over, his hand resting on my knee and whispered, “You sure, sweetheart?”
“Yeah.” I gritted my teeth from saying anything else.
What they didn’t realize was, they were making it worse. If they didn’t make a big deal out of it, and just got on with what we needed to discuss, then it would be fine. I kept saying that word ‘fine’, but I really was fine.
At least, that was what I would keeping telling myself.
“Right,” Luke said, clearing his throat. “So, Serena and Daley are working together?”
“Seems that way,” Ty said, pulling back away from me.
“So is the charity even a real charity? Or is it just a front?” Kitty asked, leaning forward in her seat.
“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” Evan answered. He was still tapping away at his laptop, his face in deep concentration.
“If it is just a front, that means that they’re working together. But if it’s not a front, then it could just be Daley.” Ty looked to all of us, gaging our reaction.
There was no point in them speculating, we needed hard evidence one way or another. Without it, we hadn’t got a clue who was behind it.
“I think we need to find out if the charity is real before we start speculating, we won’t know until then.” I leaned back in my chair, not looking up. I couldn’t cope with the sympathy in their eyes when they looked at me.
“Yeah, but if it’s Daley using Serena, then should we tell her?” Evan asked.
My nostrils flared as I listened to Evan. Why was it, that he automatically assumed Serena was the one who didn’t know? I saw the look in her eyes when she told me she was Ty’s wife.
I saw that same look in Max’s eyes every day for years. There was no way that I could have been mistaken, I’d seen it too much.
“W
ow.” I lifted my eyes to him, “Really?”
“Wh-What?” Evan frowned.
“Why are you so quick to think it’s him and not her? Maybe she’s the one using it as a cover and he has no idea what is going on right in front of him.” My voice became louder the more I spoke. I was starting to feel out of control and I never felt out of control anymore, at least not like this.
“Yeah, alright then.” Evan snorted, rolling his eyes.
He’d dismissed me completely. I’d never thought that Evan would do that, he’d always listened to me.
I pushed back slowly on my chair, the legs scraping against the floor.
“Kay-”
“No!” I ground out. “I can’t deal with this; I need to…” I took a deep breath and looked around the warehouse, I didn’t know what to do with myself.
I had no idea what I was thinking, what I was doing, or what I was feeling. It was obviously too soon to be talking about her.
“Why don’t you take a break? Go back to the house for a while?” Ty said, standing up. He placed is hand on my lower back, trying to steer me away from the table.
Sparks shot through me at his connection. I gritted my teeth and pulled away, not being able to cope with him touching me at the moment. Nodding my head, I stepped away from the table. I needed to get out of here.
“Want me to join you, chica?” Kitty asked as I rounded the table.
“Sure,” I puffed out and pulled the door open, not waiting for her.
This was one of those times that I just wished I could pick my phone up and call Corey. He’d be able to get through to me, help me sort through all of these whirling thoughts going around in my head.
“She’s right, you know,” Luke said once Kay and Kitty had left the warehouse.
I watched the door, willing my legs to not go after her. I needed to give her time and space, but all I wanted to do was hold her, touch her. That wasn’t what she needed right now and I was constantly reminding myself of that.
“You really think Serena is behind all of this?” Evan asked, his incessant typing stopping for just a moment.
“I don’t know,” I said, squinting my eyes at him and shaking my head. I walked back to my chair and slumped down in it. “I think it’s too much for her to do on her own. I don’t think she’d do that to girls, not after what she went through.”
If Kay knew what Serena had gone through as a teenager, then she probably wouldn’t have been so quick to think that she could be behind it. But she didn’t know, not many people did. I only knew because it was me who picked up the piece’s every time.
“So, where do we go from here?” Luke asked, leaning back in his chair and chewing on the end of his pen.
I could see the fire burning behind his eyes, he didn’t like Serena being back in town. He hadn’t liked her from the first time that he met her, but at the time, I didn’t know why. He told me after I left her that it was because she had come on to him. When he told her no, she threatened to tell me that it was him that had come on to her.
“We need to find out where she is, start to follow all of her movements.” I leaned my head back, blowing out a deep breath.
“Will Kay like that?”
I brought my head back up, my eyes moved to Luke and I raised my brows at him. “It’s the job.”
Shrugging, he pushed back in his chair and stood, “Just asking, boss.”
Hanging my head in my hands, I stayed at the table as Evan and Luke went about their work day. I had so many things to do but all I wanted was to go to the house and talk to Kay. Time. I had to keep remembering that.
Pulling my hat off my head, I stood and walked over to the office. I had to get out of here, I needed some space too. Shoving my arms into my jacket and putting my hat back on, I picked my keys up and walked through the warehouse.
“I’ll be on my cell today,” I said to Evan as I walked past him.
Keeping my eyes on the house as I went to my car, I looked for Kay. I thought she might be on the porch. That’s where she usually went when she needed time to think, but she wasn’t there, which meant she was still inside. Kitty still hadn’t come back to the warehouse so at least I knew she had someone to talk to.
Hesitating, my feet took a step in the direction of the house. Shaking my head, I stepped back and jumped into my truck. I started the engine and span out of there, heading straight for the precinct to see Charlie.
It only took about ten minutes to get there, the compound was out of the way from any other houses and completely out of town, just how I preferred it. It wasn’t too far from the town center, close enough to still be a part of the community, but far enough away not to be disturbed.
Parking outside, I pushed my keys into my pocket and pulled my coat around me tighter to ward off the chill in the air.
“Good morning, Mr Mackenzie,” Geena said when I came through the main doors.
“Mornin’, Geena.” I leaned against the front desk and smiled wide, making her blush.
Geena was a kind woman, curvy and full of life. She looked like the motherly type but there was a wicked gleam in her eyes; the fun kind. I always loved to hear her jokes, she really did make the whole place brighter. She wasn’t much younger than me. I’d never asked because you just don’t ask a woman that shit. But, if I was to guess, I’d say she was in her early twenties.
“Here to see your brother?”
“Yeah.” I crossed my arms and waited as she dialled upstairs to get Charlie. Waiting and watching the cars go past, I scanned the main area to check out how many people were waiting to be picked up. You could always tell how busy they were by how many people were sat waiting. Looked like today was a slow day. There was always the same guy, obviously homeless, that sat in the corner to get in from the cold.
A couple of minutes later, the side door beeped and he appeared. “Geena.” He nodded in greeting and winked at her.
He swung his face to me. “I’ve heard.” Stepping back, he waved me inside.
Charlie was the eldest of all of us, and as the eldest, he always knew everything that was going on. He had eyes and ears everywhere but still not as many as me. But together, we had the widest network around. Most of the time I hated that he always knew what was going on, but this time, I was glad that I didn’t have to explain the whole situation to him.
“I don’t know what to do,” I grunted as I walked into his office and sat down.
“Do you know why she’s back?” he pushed the door shut and sat behind his desk. I turned to face the wall of windows that looked out onto the main room, able to see all of the other officers and detectives sat at their desks. They were all milling about, looking at the main board that had pictures of all the missing girls on. This wasn’t just a case for us, it was a case for the P.D. as well.
“Haven’t got a fuckin’ clue,” I said. “If I knew why she was back, then I wouldn’t feel so out of control.
“And Kaylee?” He raised a brow. “What does she think of all of this?”
I’d denied to Charlie that me and Kay were together at first. From the moment that we took that step further, he was the first person that I told. He wasn’t just my big brother; he was also my best friend.
He’d told me that I was in for a world of pain when Corey found out, but I didn’t give a damn. She needed to be shown what a real man could do for her, how she should be treated and I would try my best to be that man. But after this weekend, I was doubting myself.
“Shit, man.” I leaned back in the chair, blowing out a breath. “I didn’t even tell her about Serena.”
“Thought as much.” I flicked my eyes to his, knowing that he didn’t like this one bit. “What you gonna do?”
“Watch her? Keep tabs on her?” That was all I could do. I needed to treat it like any other case. Treat her like any other suspect and not as my wife. Ex-wife. Was she even that? She still hadn’t signed the papers so technically we were still married. I needed to get that shit sorted, and soon.
“You think she’s involved in all of this?” He asked, waving his hand to the board in the main room.
“I don’t know, after what happened with her dad?” I shook my head. “I’d like to think not.”
Nodding, he leaned forward. “Forget who they are, forget about how Kay might feel about it. You need to work this case like you would any other.”
He raised his brow as I said, “I know.”
“Those girls are still out there,” he reminded me.
I needed to keep that in the front of my mind. Whatever was going on in my life, there were still girls out there who had been taken and we didn’t have a clue where they were or who had taken them.
“Now, we need to sort a meeting out. All of us, gather all the information that we’ve all got and go over it all together. We need to find them.”
“Thursday,” I murmured. “Compound at nine.”
“See you then.” He nodded.
I pushed up out of the chair and pulled the door open, walking through the precinct and handing the homeless man a couple of bucks before I left.
I had to sort this with Kay and then I could focus on the case.
Me and Kitty spoke for a couple of hours before she had to get back to the warehouse. She apologized over and over again for not telling me, breaking some kind of girl code, she kept saying.
I understood, for how upset and angry that I had been, I really did understand why she hadn’t told me. It wasn’t her place; it was none of their places.
If someone had told Ty about my past I wouldn’t have liked it, so I was sure that he wouldn’t have either.
It wasn’t that I was jealous. Well…Okay, maybe I was a little jealous. She had him in a way that I never would and that was harder to swallow than I liked to admit.
The fact that they thought it was only Daley that was behind it really annoyed me. Don’t get me wrong, it was totally possible that it was him. But to just push aside the possibility that it could be her as well? That wasn’t what we should be doing, we should be looking at all avenues and making a decision that was based on facts, not on personal feelings.
Exposed: Book 2 MAC Security Series Page 3