CUL-DE-SAC (On The Edge Book 1)

by YILDIRIM, M. E.

  But she didn’t feel ready to face him yet, either. Not before she could unravel the puzzle of those images and had something to back up her crazy theory.

  She took a moment to walk down the beach and sit at her favorite café, enjoying the morning crowd and pretending to do the same with her croissant.

  That’s where the Lieutenant found her.

  “You are lucky that you are not a criminal, because bringing you in would be a piece of cake,” he said as he took a seat next to her.

  “I didn’t realize I was so predictable.” She smiled at him.

  “I’ve known you for a while; let’s say I had an advantage.” He winked at her and handed her a manila folder.

  “So you did find something.” Her fingers itched but she was not sure she was ready for the truth, no matter how stubbornly she was chasing it down.

  “I think it’s time you told me the whole truth, Catalina.” Gabriel sent her a long look.

  “The truth is… I don’t know much more and I was fairly honest with you.”

  “Fairly?” He raised an eyebrow.

  She didn’t know what to say to him, so she opened the file and looked at another image clipped to a whole stack of papers. The man’s face was nearly wholly covered in tattoos which created a pretty scary effect, she admitted. She glanced at the police reports but didn’t go into details.

  “Who is that?” She wanted to know.

  “Funny, I was about to ask you the same question. Also, how do you know him?”

  “But I don’t.” She would have remembered his face, she admitted inwardly.

  “This is the result of my search based on the picture you gave me, Catalina,” Gabe told her and she looked down again, trying to see any kind of similarity but simply couldn’t.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Do you know how facial recognition works in the first place?” He asked and she shook her head in a no.

  “In order for this software to work, it has to know how to differentiate between a basic face and the rest of the background. It’s based on the ability to recognize a face and then measure various features of it. Every face has numerous, distinguishable landmarks and our system takes them into the account,” he explained.

  “Distinguishable landmarks?”

  “It measures distance between the eyes, width of the nose, depth of the eye sockets, the shape of the cheekbones, the length of the jaw line. All those points create a special code we call a faceprint. It represents the face in the database. Curves of the eye socket, bones creating nose and chin are unique and don’t change over time. This is how there is no doubt this is the same man… just years after. His name is Clay Forley aka The Wall, and he is a part of the illegal underground fighting… just like Alexander Thorpe, Catalina.”

  “I think it’s best you talk to Alexander yourself because I am as confused as you are right now, Gabe. All I know is that he is convinced this man is dead, apparently more people think so. Believe me; I want to solve this puzzle as much as you do.” She looked him straight in the eye because at least that was one hundred percent true.

  “I think I just might… you know I am not fond of the guy, but I must admit that beside his run-in with the law when he was a teenager, he had managed to stay out of trouble after that. And trust me, I dug deep,” he said, and she wanted to be angry at him but couldn’t.

  “Alex is not nearly as bad as people think him to be. You know he is opening a fighting school?” Cat knew the note of pride in her voice was unmistakable.

  “If you ask me, I think he has a higher chance of getting to those kids than someone from the elite with their fundraisers and whatnot,” Gabriel admitted.

  “Are you saying that charity doesn’t really work?” It was too close to Xan’s opinion but she didn’t think he would have appreciated if she pointed that out.

  Perhaps he was slowly changing his opinion about Alex, but he was nowhere close of becoming his fan.

  “I’m just saying he speaks the same language. I can see how that might work.” He shrugged.

  “Gabe, thank you so much for sharing this with me; if you will excuse me…” She started to gather her things and was surprised when he laid his hand on hers, stopping her.

  “I could lose my job for it, Cat, but… you seem convinced he has nothing to do with what happens in this club he belongs to. There is an ongoing investigation about Tony Boden; tell Alexander to get his things out of Cul-de-sac as soon as possible.”

  “Are you saying…?”

  “I’ve already said too much and… I still want to talk to him.” Gabriel looked at her with a somber expression on his face.

  “I will make sure he gets your message. Thank you… for everything.” She leaned down and brushed her lips against his cheek. “And you… you should be careful with Chloé; she is also not exactly who she seems.”

  “I know, didn’t think you would see it though.” He admitted, making her gasp.

  “You could have said something!”

  “Would you believe me? Some lessons we need to learn on our own, no matter how much they are going to cost us. Take care, Cat.” He watched her go thinking that perhaps it was time for all of them to broaden their perspectives.

  ***

  Catalina tried Xan’s cell, but all calls were going straight to his voicemail. She glanced at her watch, trying to estimate where he would be at this time of a day but there were simply too many possibilities.

  She sighed, deciding she was simply going have to check them one by one.

  She reached the gym first, but found Kelton alone and as much as she liked the man, he was not the one she was looking for right now.

  “Catalina.” He looked surprised and pleased both to see her and she thought it a strange combination.

  “Hi Kel, any idea where I might find Xan?”

  “He rushed out around ten minutes before you got here. I assumed he went to see you since he was unable to focus on anything but talking to you,” he informed her.

  He wanted to believe that was the direction Xan took off to, but he doubted it more and more with every passing moment. Kel saw Noah and knew the two of them talked, but whatever the subject was, Xan seemed pissed beyond limits when he left the gym in a hurry. But there was no point of sharing this little gem with Catalina, he decided.

  “I heard you encountered some… hiccups,” he said instead and noticed he made her uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, not my business.”

  “No, it’s okay, just… it’s complicated.” She made a face when she realized how vague it sounded.

  “Complications are part of this deal, I suppose, but I’ve heard it can be worth it in the end,” Kelton stated. “There is one thing you should know though, and I don’t think he is going to share it with you.”

  It wasn’t his place to tell her this, but contrary to Xan’s beliefs, he didn’t agree that protecting meant keeping someone in the state of unawareness.

  “Your grandmother is trying to block our boy’s project.”

  “What? How?” She paled and looked at him, shocked, although how anything that Florence did as of late still had the power to surprise her, Catalina couldn’t tell. “I will take care of it. Thank you. I have to run though.”

  “You do that, but let him catch you,” he murmured when he was sure she was out of a hearing distance.

  Cat tried Xan’s cell few times more but with the same result as before. At least her grandmother answered the call after the first ring and Catalina didn’t waste time on pleasantries.

  “I am having lunch with my friend today who is working for a newspaper. I bet she would love to hear how a pillar of community and the latest charity award recipient is trying to stop a project that could benefit the youth of Santa Monica and who knows; maybe the whole L.A. area too,” she told her in a conversational tone, and the fraction of shocked silence told her that Florence was considering the seriousness of her threat and potential after-effects as well.

  “Blackmail is be
neath you, Catalina,” Her grandmother informed her coldly.

  “Why? It doesn’t seem beneath you. Call off your dogs,” Cat told her and ended the call, wondering if she had just severed their relationship as a side effect.

  She tried Xan’s mobile once again and was happy she was alone in the car and nobody could hear her uttering one of those words she was uncomfortable using. It was entirely his fault really, she decided, but the thought, instead of appalling her, caused her lips to twitch.

  Cat decided that since she couldn’t reach her warrior and she was already in the neighborhood of the club, she might check there as well. Gabriel’s words kept replaying in her head and she had to admit they sounded urgent.

  Perhaps she could collect Xan’s stuff herself and be over with it. With the thought on the forefront of her mind, she stopped the car in the vicinity of Cul-de-sac and went on a mission.

  CHAPTER 53

  Xan was fuming when he left the gym. So much for keeping his temper leashed and contained from spewing over, he mocked himself. Noah’s words reverberated in his head, causing him to see red.

  All those years spent believing he was a killer like his old man, only to learn he was just a sucker who fell victim to a vile misdemeanor.

  And to think he considered Tony Boden his savior, while he was the perpetrator of Xan’s misery. Apparently not only his, but that didn’t make the offence any less significant.

  What kind of a man would come up with a nefarious plan to stage a fight between an unsuspecting man and his own lackey? Why would anyone agree to be beaten within an inch of life just to trap someone else in the same hell he was undergoing himself?

  He was sixteen years old at the time, Xan thought, a kid really who was convinced he had it all figured out. But he knew shit because it never occurred to him even for a second that he was being set up.

  Xan had many questions and the need to hear answers was burning in his gut like a lethal wildfire. If he had ever been close to committing a murder, now was that moment, he thought and clenched his hands around the steering wheel of his car. He wanted nothing more than to wrap them around Tony Boden’s neck and squeeze the life out of him. But he forced himself to breathe through the wild roar of blood in his temples.

  Twelve years of his life wasted on regrets, on despising himself.

  His personal prison.

  It didn’t matter if he was free to walk the streets and lead a life that many envied him, a life that looked exciting on the surface. Whenever he tried to loosen the shackles, Tony was tightening his leash instead by reminding him about that one damn night and how he put his neck on the line as well by covering Xan’s crime.

  A crime that had never taken place.

  He wanted him dead, plain and simple, Xan admitted. But no matter how horrid a death he kept imagining for the club’s owner, Tony could die only once. It was not nearly enough to pay for the twelve fucking years Xan had been serving his sentence.

  For the first time in life he decided to go against all his instincts and turn to the police.

  Perhaps it was Catalina’s influence or maybe his own common sense coming back to life, but it didn’t really matter, he supposed, as long as Tony was going to get what he deserved.

  He wasn’t fond of Santa Monica’s Lieutenant and really, who could blame him after the guy seemed hell-bent on pinning something on him?

  However, the stakes were much higher here and personal feelings of players couldn’t affect the game they all had to play.

  No matter how much he wanted to go straight to Catalina and explain to her that he was not the killer she thought him to be, he told himself to drive to the police station first.

  He ignored the instinctive reaction when all in him bucked against it and gritted his teeth when he was forced to waste twenty minutes waiting for the Lieutenant to get back to his office.

  “Well, that was fast,” Gabriel commented after they measured each other.

  “What would that be?” Xan raised an eyebrow.

  “I told Cat I want to talk to you. Did you get your stuff out of the club like I suggested?” Gabe wanted to know.

  “Whoa… I haven’t seen or spoken to Catalina today at all. What does she has to do with anything?” He didn’t like the other man got to see her while he didn’t dream about anything else the whole damn night and day.

  “She came here with a picture of a man, asking me to run it in a facial recognition program. She was very vague about how she came into possession of the image but it seemed important to her enough so I did it anyway. Imagine my shock when it turned out to have something to do with you,” Gabriel smirked and Xan told himself he couldn’t punch the Lieutenant no matter how much he wanted to.

  “How come?” He asked calmly instead.

  “Are we continuing to play this game, really? It might shock you, but I have actual work to do.”

  “Indulge me.”

  “Clay Forley aka The Wall. Rings a bell?” Gabriel looked at him.

  “Motherfucker!” Xan jumped to his feet, feeling lightheaded.

  “So you do know him. What an unexpected turn of events,” the Lieutenant commented ironically, and Xan thought that under different circumstances he might have even liked the guy.

  “I was led to believe I killed him and I was convinced of it for twelve long years,” Xan said.

  “Okay, now you got my full attention.”

  “And it is going to be worth your while trust me, but let me call Cat first,” Xan reached to his pocket and swore under his breath when he saw it switched off. “Shit, no juice.”

  “Here, use mine while I make a phone call of my own,” Gabe handed him his cell and left the office.

  When he returned it was to find Xan frowning at his mobile and he thought it couldn’t mean anything good.

  “What now?”

  “She is not picking up and Kel said she came over the gym searching for me.”

  “She wouldn’t happen to have gone to the Cul-de-sac looking for you there, would she now?” Gabe glanced at him.

  “We are talking about Catalina; sure she would.” Xan pushed his hands over his hair and breathed out heavily.

  That was exactly what his tenacious and stubborn Kitten would have done, he thought. That’s what she did today after all, trying to clear his name while he was twiddling his thumbs and wallowing in his misery.

  Fucking shaming and pathetic, Xan admitted, although tenderness filled his heart when he thought of her. He wanted to cherish and worship her the way she deserved to be. To be the one person in her life who would give her everything.

  Right after spanking her ass for placing herself in harm’s way, he decided.

  “I might need a gun… just saying.” Xan looked at the Lieutenant when he was done snapping orders.

  “Please. All I can offer you is riding shotgun,” Gabriel said and Xan thought he might have laughed at that if he had not been so worried about Catalina right now.

  ***

  Cat decided that luck was on her side when she found the door leading to Xan’s room open. But when she walked inside, she thought she should have questioned why it was open before she stepped in, because apparently someone preceded her.

  The man whom she interrupted snooping around seemed as surprised by her presence as she was by seeing him. But then, she recognized the bald, tattooed head from the manila folder burning a hole in her purse and she barely stopped herself from pointing at him and saying; you.

  Up close and personal, he looked even scarier than on the picture, and she thought even she couldn’t find anything appealing in his face; no amount of light would have softened his features.

  She swallowed hard and forced her lips to form into something that perhaps could pass for a smile.

  “I’m sorry, I was looking for someone else.” She swiveled on her heel, more than ready to leave the place, but she collided with a man’s chest that stopped her.

  “Ah… Miss Bennett. We didn’t expect such lovely c
ompany.” Tony Boden smiled at her, but for some reason the grimace gave her chills.

  There was something in his eyes, something cold, and she thought he could have given frostbite even to Florence.

  “Hello, I was hoping to meet Xan; I think I might have mixed up the time or place.” She smiled apologetically at him, expecting him to step out of the way but he didn’t budge.

  “Aren’t we all looking for him lately? I’ve heard he’s been rather busy. Not very nice of him to make us all wait, wouldn’t you say?” He moved slightly but it was enough that she was forced to step deeper into the room and her alarm spiked.

  The solid obstacle behind her informed her that the silent so far fighter moved closer as well. Now she understood why they called him The Wall.

  “I really need to go,” she protested weakly when a coppery flavor filled her mouth.

  She recognized the taste of fear, even though the last time she experienced it so strongly was when she was ten years old. But fear was the kind of sensation that left behind an indelible impression.

  It was one of the biggest liars and thieves, robbing people of all that they were, peeling their humanity off, layer after layer, leaving a handful of illusions in its wake. Because fear was never as big as it threatened to be… it was usually much bigger.

  “I think not.” Tony smiled at her, pointing at her purse. “Let’s call Mr. Thorpe and invite him to our closed-circle party after hours. I have a question or several I could ask him and I bet he knows the answers as well. Like to this one; does he have something to do with people sniffing around my business for no good reason? I am sure he will be more… inclined to join us after receiving a distressed call from his girl.”

  “I am not distressed,” she lied and gasped when the man behind her ripped her purse out of her hold and handed it over to his boss.

  “Let’s see what we have here. Tsk, tsk, tsk Miss Bennett… playing a detective?” He laughed when he spotted the file, but there was no amusement in his eyes.

  The cold in there turned frigid instead.

  “That’s ironic, considering your boyfriend is a criminal, don’t you think? Clay.” Tony looked behind her but they were never going to learn what he was about to say or do because Xan’s voice and words stopped him.