STONE (Daring the Kane Brothers)
Page 15
“Good.” I sit down at the stool, still shaking my head. Olivia Kane is one woman who never ceases to amaze me. “She’s over at Crash’s.”
“Steele said Crash didn’t take it too well. You probably should’ve warned him.” She points a wrinkling finger at me.
“It’s too late now.” I shrug, a bit of guilt tugging in my gut for not telling her the whole truth.
“So what’s the plan?”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s not just you anymore, Stone.” She wipes the countertop down.
“Yeah, I know.”
“Is Jaggs okay with you being gone on tour, and what about walking into active bomb threats?” She keeps her eyes on the counter. We’ve had this conversation in the past.
Ma doesn’t like my second job. She wasn’t too pleased when I enlisted, but when she found out the bomb deactivating part wasn’t going away when I got home, we’ve had many arguments about it. And like all her children, she had high hopes of me going to college. I wanted to get away from everything. The Army made me disciplined. It opened my eyes to a world that’s bigger than Culver City, California. It left me other things like memories that keep me up at night, but I gotta say, I fear nothing. Honestly, I didn’t feel anything either when I first got home. Until Jaggs showed up in my life a year ago. When she appeared, she reminded me of determination and love. She proved to me that shit was worth fighting for, her being one of those things.
“We haven’t talked about all of that yet,” I reply. Hell, I can’t get Jaggs to answer me about anything. I’m not tossing in the towel on her.
Not now. Not ever.
She stops whipping. “So it’s not serious then?”
“No, it is. Well, I want it to be.” It’s the truth, and what else do you tell your mom? Hey, it’s not the same as omitting something, like why Jaggs came to Cali. Well, that’s Jaggs’s story to tell, not mine. I will never take that from her.
Ma’s hand goes to her hip, and right away, I see she’s getting ready to settle into another conversation. “But she doesn’t?”
“I don’t know. There’s a lot of stuff going on.”
“Like what?”
“I can’t, Ma.”
“Oh.” Her lips thin, and she puts the cloth on the counter again, scrubbing vigorously on the same spot.
“Where’s Dad?” I attempt to change the subject.
She waves the rag. “He’s golfing.” Her bright green eyes flash wide. “Did you hear Lulu’s going to be here next weekend for my birthday?”
“No. That’s good. Is Zeke coming?”
“Yes. Those two, they don’t go anywhere without each other, but she says he’s keeping busy with college and working part-time at a gym, one like Token’s. He’s training people how to fight like he does that MMM, MA—”
“MMA.”
“Yes. MMA.” She nods. “What does that stand for anyway?”
“Mixed Martial Arts.”
She stops and mouths what I said. She grimaces. “Well, he’s doing that.”
“I hear he’s really good. He kicked Token’s as- butt in the ring.”
Her eyes pop open wide again. “Really?”
I laugh. Ma can be so dramatic. You can’t but love her to death. “Yeah, he was in Texas when Lulu was there with her friends, remember?”
“Yes, that’s where she met Zeke, he and his brothers own a bar there with one of those fighting cage things in it.”
“Yeah, well, I guess, Token was passing through town when she was there, and he signed up for a fight and fought Lulu’s boyfriend, and Zeke won.”
“It’s good for a man to be knocked down occasionally. Makes him learn how to get back up.”
“Yeah.” I chuckle. Token was probably not too happy about our little sister’s boyfriend kicking his ass. “Hey, did you know Jaggs went to college?”
“No.” Ma’s hand goes back to her hip. Her eyebrows dent with the news. “Hmm, come to think about it, she doesn’t really talk about herself too much. What did she go for?”
“Business management.”
“Huh.” Ma’s lips pucker.
“Right, I can’t see her working in an office.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I bet she’d be good at it. She’s very determined.”
“Yes.” I grin. She’s more determined than Ma knows.
“I like her hair too, the way she’s wearing it now. Is that you?”
“Me?”
She waves a hand at me. “Never mind.” She laughs, shaking her head as it turns to the door.
“Hey.” Nix comes in smiling, something I heard he’s done a lot of since he and Payton started dating. I don’t really know the girl as I haven’t been around for the past few months. Steele says she’s good for him, so I gotta go with that.
“Hey, what’s up?” I spin in the stool, glad for some interference from Ma’s increasing questions. She’s asking things I’m currently waiting on answers to, and it’s frustrating.
“Not much, just dropping this off for Dad.” He sets a laptop on the counter and turns to Ma. “Tell him it’s time for a new one and not to worry. I can transfer everything over from this one when he’s ready.”
“You know your dad. He struggles with change. Where’s Becca?”
“She and Payton went to the theater to visit Harley.”
“We’ll have to get together, you, Payton, Jaggs, and me. I’d like to get to know her,” I say, and both Ma’s and Nix’s head moves slowly to me, eyes a bit more open than usual and mouths partially ajar. “What?” I lift my hands.
“Nothin’.” Nix’s bottom lip slants. “No, yeah. Sounds good. We’ll do that soon.” His mirror emerald green eyes flash to Ma’s with a smile.
Ma picks up Dad’s laptop. “I’ll go put this in Dad’s office. Wouldn’t want to spill anything on it.”
“Yeah, then he’ll have no choice but to buy a new one.” Nix laughs. “Oh, hey.” His attention directs to me. “Did you get that info I sent you?”
“What info?”
“You asked me to look into that bombing in Columbus, Ohio, at the Harriett Hotel, remember?”
I nod although, up until now, I forgot all about it.
“I found a connection between two of the victims.”
“You did?” I sit up in the chair.
“Yeah, the Downey girl and the twenty-three-year-old, ah, Martin, no, Mitchell Watts. It appears that Jenny Downey’s sister, Amber—”
“Amanda,” I correct, the hairs on the back of my neck standing straight up.
“Yeah, Amanda.” He snaps his fingers. “Anyway, I emailed you a full report last week. Take a look at it when you get a chance and let me know if you have any questions.”
“Nix!” Dad comes walking into the kitchen. “Tell your mother that I don’t need a new laptop. The one I have is just fine.”
“Yeah, sorry, Dad.” Nix smirks up at our father. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not? You fixed it, right?”
“Yeah, but Dad—”
“Ah…” I rise from the stool, reading the email Nix sent me last week. “I gotta go…”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
“Damn, your brother Crash.” I laugh, stumbling through the apartment door. “He’s the worst drinking buddy.” I place my hand on the wall for support as I kick off my shoes, unsure how many beers and shots I had tonight. Shit! I’m going to have an awful headache in the morning!
“It was good to get out. You needed a night to unwind.” Stone, completely sober, reaches for me as I nearly teeter over.
I laugh again, catching his arm. “I did.” I nod. “We did.” I grin, a tight smile stretches on my mouth. I lick my dry lips. “I like you.” I pat him on the chest.
“I like you too.” His mouth twists, and his dark tawny eyes dance with those little mesmerizing specks of gold.
“Good.” His smile widens, and his eyes darken. “I really like you too, babe.” His arm reaches around me. “Now, I think maybe it’s time to go to bed.”
“I like Payton too.” I ignore his attempt to end my night. We went out with Crash, Maggie, Token, Harley, Steele, Jay, Nix, and Payton. It was fun and weird. All the Kane brothers in one bar with their girlfriends. Yeah, I’m drunk, so for tonight, I’m counting myself as Stone’s girlfriend. Sounds strange for me to be anyone’s girlfriend. After what happened earlier, calling him my boyfriend is a far cry from what I could’ve been calling him. I’m not sure if I’m happy or sad. I can’t think about that right now. I drank myself into a stupor to forget about it. “I think she’s smart, and she’ll give Nix a run for his money. What do you think?”
“Yes, those two are definitely cut from the same cyber space world cloth. They’re perfect for each other.”
“Just like us?” I twirl around and start for the living room. His arm catches me around the waist and pulls my back against his front.
“Yes.” He kisses my neck and shoulder as his hand slips up the front of my shirt. Goose bumps ripple through me. He snags my nipple between his fingers. “Perfect.” He pinches me. “Now, be a good girl, go brush your teeth, put your pajamas on, and go to bed before I take advantage of your alcohol-induced state.”
“Take away.” I throw my arms out and laugh.
“Jaggs.” He wraps his arms around me and holds me tight. “Please.” He spins me around, and his face transforms from jovial to serious. “We can’t keep doing this. You have to make a decision.”
“Not tonight, I don’t!” I grimace, aware I’ve strung him along for the past week or so without any answers, and by the tired look on his face, I’m not going to get away with it for much longer. “I’ll go brush my teeth.” I smirk. “I’ll start there, then we’ll see if I want to continue to be a good girl or not.” I pull away and start for the bathroom, pleased with my drunk self for not looking back at him.
In need of some sobering up, I finish brushing my teeth and get in the shower. It helped. I sneak into my room to do as I was told. I put on a long tee shirt and head out to the quiet living room, more prepared to deal with Stone. I stop, and my heart clenches in my chest.
He’s asleep on the sofa.
I stand and stare at him.
Without a doubt, I care about him.
I don’t know why I’m so afraid to say it. Could be our future is so uncertain.
He’s in a band.
I need a new job.
He jumps from one place to the other.
I want a home, rather, a house to call my own.
He deactivates bombs.
I need a man who’ll be there for me and…
His cell chimes.
I glance over and read the visible part of a message sent by Nix, I forgot to ask, did you hear anything about that Amanda Downey stuff…
What stuff?
I pick up the cell to try to read the rest of the message. It’s locked!
Dammit! What’s Nix talking about?
Does he know I’m Amanda Downey?
Does he know whatever he’s speaking of is about me? No one knows about me, except Crash and Stone. I don’t think either of them would tell anyone else without me knowing. I trust them both.
I glare down at the cell like if I stare at it long enough the message will reveal itself.
“What’s up?” I hear Stone say.
I snap from my guilty hand holding the cell to his blinking eyes.
“Someone call?” He rubs his face as if trying to wake up from the short nap.
“Nix.” I hold up the cell. “He wants to know about Amanda Downey. You didn’t—”
“No!” Stone grabs the phone. “Of course not. I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“Well, then what is he talking about?”
Stone checks the message and takes a deep breath.
“What the hell?” I set my hands on my hips.
“Shit.” He blows out. Eyes fully opened, he grimaces. “A few months back, I asked him to look into what happened to Jenny. Ya know, to see if there were any connections between any of the victims.” He throws a hand in the air. “Or to see if he could find something, anything that could help to provide some answers as to what happened that day.”
Now, I’m the one blinking, trying to digest what he said. I take a few steps back and lower myself into the chair. “And?”
He drops the phone on the table with another audible groan-sigh.
He sits up on the sofa and folds his hands together. “It doesn’t matter. There’s nothing we can do to change what happened.”
“Oh, no!” I clamp my own hands together and stretch out my arms to discourage myself from jumping up from the chair and throwing a full-blown hissy fit. “You need to let me be the judge of whether or not it matters. If you know something, tell me, Stone.”
Brows drawn downward in a frown, he takes a deep breath. “Can’t you just let this go?”
“No.”
“Fuck.” He runs a hand through his short hair, tattoos rippling along his forearm. He picks up his cell, and after a few clicks, he holds it up to me. “Do you know who this is?”
I lean forward. “Yes. That’s Mitchell Watts, the camera guy who died in the bomb with Jenny and Shannon Becker, but Jenny didn’t know him. She put an ad in her local college paper for a cameraman, but she’d never met Mitchell prior to that date. I already went through all of this with the police. Jenny was going to college to become a journalist, and she went to the Harriett Hotel to do an interview with Shannon Becker. Jenny didn’t have any other connection with her, either.”
“Right, there were no connection between any of them, and that’s why the case went cold.”
“Yeah. So?” I stare at him for a long second. “Well?”
“Does the name Kimberly Stratton ring any bells?”
I shake my head, no weird sounds going off in there.
“She owned a hair salon in Cleveland, and she—”
“Applied for a loan where I worked,” I finish. “Yes, I remember now.” I nod, recalling the young hopeful woman. “She’d put everything she had into this salon on Miller Street, but after the first year, she just couldn’t make ends meet. She came in for another loan, and I had to decline her. She had no equity, and the business was too new. It sucked. I wished I could’ve helped her. Telling people no was the shitty part of the job, but someone had to do it. She took it pretty hard, left the bank in tears. What does she have to do with anything?”
He stares at me, the fight in his head taking a toll on his face. “Shit, Jaggs. I hate this.” He rubs the back of his neck.
“Just tell me,” I remain calm, putting on my mitt ready to take whatever he’s holding back to throw my way.
“Kimberly Stratton, after she left the bank that day, she went home and killed herself.”
“What?” I touch my chest over my heart, the stab of guilt quick and instant.
“Yeah, but it wasn’t the first time she tried. She had a long history of mental illness, and that’s probably why the business went under. She didn’t always show up to the shop, and she lost a lot of clients. I, ah, had Nix investigate into it a little more so I could report it to the police. They’re probably going to reach out to you soon.”
I blink away the sting in my eyes and swallow down the hard, strangling lump lodge in my throat. “Is that it?”
“No.”
“Well?” I blink, and a tear drops from my heavy lashes and lands on my cheek. Paralyzed
from the feet up, I remain sitting in the chair, back as straight as my inert response. “Don’t you hold out on me, Stone Kane. You tell me everything.”
After releasing another long breath, he picks the phone up and again, finagles with it before holding it out to me. “Do you recognize this guy?”
“Toby Adler.” I nod. “He followed me on Facebook and Twitter. We’d message back and forth. We were sort of friends but only online. We never met or anything. He asked me out a few times, but I’m not into that cyber dating stuff. Why?”
“This guy”—he wiggles his cell—“is really Mitchell Watts. He’s Kimberly Stratton’s boyfriend, and I think, after she killed herself, he devised a plan to make you pay for it. So, he catfished you.”
“Oh my God!” Another tear tumbles from my burning eyes as everything pulls together all at once in my mind. “I told him about Jenny’s interview with Shannon Becker. I mentioned she was looking for a camera guy. I-I told him I-I was going to be there for the interview with Jenny, but at the last minute, something came up at work, and I had to cancel. He didn’t know. Oh my God! Oh my God!” I stand, arms and hands trembling uncontrollably. “It, it was me…” I struggle for air to get the words out. “I’m th-the reason Jenny was kill-killed.” I suck in more oxygen, unable to catch my breath, unable to see anything but the events leading to that day. The messages. The promises. The mistakes. The last-minute cancellation. “It’s a-all my fa-fault!”
Blinded by the painful truth, I don’t see him get up. Don’t feel his arms wrap around me. I’m unaware that gravity has left me as he scoops me up in his arms and sits on the sofa. He cradles my crumpling body, nuzzles his face into my neck, and whispers consoling and tender words into my ear.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
I walk into Crash’s shop, scoping out the place. “Hey,” I greet as he walks out of the office with a bottled water in his hand. “Jaggs around?”
“No, she left ’bout an hour ago. Said she had an appointment or something?”
“Oh.” A car door slams shut. My head snaps to the left. Jacob, Crash’s other employee, shrugs, holding out his hands.