Descend, page 9
“No one who’s been murdered has been yours, and the only reason you’re against Gary is because he and his aren’t afraid of you.”
I storm out of the house and through the muddy yard, not willing to stay in this place any longer. Matt tugs me to a stop. “Your dad…all that stuff you said––”
“All true, and no, I don’t want to talk about it.” I pull his car door open. “I need to get back to the bar. I should never have left.”
“Come here.” He stops me from getting into the seat, pulling me into a hug and pressing his face into my neck. “If I would have known, I wouldn’t have brought you here. Beth said… I didn’t know about your dad.”
I close my eyes and lean into his hug. “No one really knows the extent of what he is. Not even Gary, so keep it to yourself.”
He pulls away from my neck and stares at my face. “I’ll promise to keep it to myself if you promise me that when we’re not together, you’ll keep in touch and stay in public places.” He rests his forehead on mine. “We’ll stay together at night, my place or yours, until we figure out what to do about getting a place of our own. Through the day, you’ll stay where gobs of people can see you. All the time. Promise me.”
I nod to where Randy is parked at the end of the driveway. “I have shadows all around me, and the more I’m away from the bar, the thinner it spreads them. Let’s get back. I need to figure out how we’re going to get Gary and Chopper out of jail.”
~21~
I didn’t have to tell the club that Gary and Chopper had been picked up. They knew already. Gary’s one phone call was placed to the bar, and Chief let him make the call as soon as they arrived at the police station. Part of his reasoning would have been to keep the Leidolf calm, but it doesn’t make any sense that he picked Gary up so quickly after discovering Cheryl’s body.
“What are you not telling me, Chief?” I call him as I motion Matt around to the back of the Grille, rolling down the window to wave at Brian so he’ll let Matt pass.
“Tessa,” Chief grumbles. “I can’t discuss this investigation with you. And even if I could, Gary’s darn near forbade it.”
“Gary told you not to talk to me?”
He sighs. “Gary’s worried about you. Like the rest of us are.”
“Yet you’re arresting my cousin? And…colluding?”
I hear the squeak of his chair in the background, his voice coming out lower. “Tessa, I don’t have a choice in this arrest. People are talking. Naming names. And the only thing keeping Gary out of jail for Samantha’s murder was Warren’s alibi. But your boyfriend pulled the plug on that this morning, called ten minutes after Cheryl was found and said he lied. And it wasn’t me he called. So go figure out who Warren is colluding with.” He hangs up on me.
I stare at my phone while Matt parks as close to the rhododendron that borders his building as he can. “Warren’s the guy you slapped, right?”
I take a breath, wondering if I should have let that call be on speaker. “Now you see why I slapped him.”
He shrugs. “Why would he frame Gary? To cover his own tracks?”
I get out of the car and take Matt’s hand, bringing him in the bar with me. “Warren’s an idiot, but he’s not a murderer, so I don’t know why he’s lying.”
Matt’s hand tightens on mine as we enter the hallway. “You sure you’re not letting your past with him skew your opinions? He’s your ex-boyfriend, right?”
I stop and stare at him. “My feelings for Warren have been dead for years. Except for the hatred. So I’m not denying his ability to be a murderer to protect him.”
“Your feelings can’t be that dead.” He huffs. “Beth said you two have some cosmic draw.”
I remove my hand from his. “Is that why it’s been so easy to stay away from Warren for the last four years?”
He chews the inside of his cheek, trying to hide his grin. “I guess he’s not much of a destiny if I’m the one you’re kind of in love with now.”
I pat his jaw. “Exactly. And when did Beth tell you this fable of hers?”
He shrugs. “She didn’t so much tell me as I overheard her saying it to someone the night of that meeting. It was another reason I went out to find a bottle of vodka and got persuaded to follow you when I saw your car. I felt like I’d been broken up with before I ever had a chance to take you on a date.”
The back door opens and I cringe. Montrose fills the doorway. He’s the head of a northern charter and the few times we’ve met, we’ve not gotten along. And with Gary and Chopper in jail, he’ll take senior spot with the other members. As much as I support the Leidolf as a whole, I only vouch for our charter members. Some of the others aren’t as straightforward, and they’re not nearly as laid back. I move Matt along the hall and push him into my office. “I need you to stay here for a few minutes because things are about to get real messy and I’d like both of us to live long enough to go on a lot more dates…or one, since I’m not sure what we’ve done so far can be considered a date.”
I press a kiss to Matt’s lips and dart back into the hallway where Montrose and ten of his men are talking with Brian, Zeno and Randy. I turn toward the bar and run smack into Chopper. “Oh my gosh!” I throw my arms around his neck. He holds me tight, fingers digging into my back while he lifts me off my feet and slides us into my office.
Matt clears his throat. Chopper’s grip loosens but he doesn’t let go. “What’s he doing back here?”
I pull from Chopper’s arms, cupping his face as tears stream down mine. “I was with him when Beth called to tell me about Cheryl. Then I called Chief and he said… I’ve been so worried. Are you okay? Is Gary here?”
“No.” Chopper pulls me forward, his lips on my ear. “I’ve got to go to the sanctuary. Get rid of this kid, and then wait for me upstairs.” He moves his face to mine. “Now. My apartment. Nowhere else.”
I nod and wipe my eyes. He presses a kiss to my forehead and closes the door behind him. “That was intimate,” Matt grumbles.
I turn to him, taking his hands in mine and meeting his gaze. “Next to Gary and Beth, Chopper is someone I’m very close to. We have a type of love for one another that’s probably hard for most people to understand, but how I feel about him is not how I feel about you. I’ve just known him for a whole lot longer.” I stare at our hands, heart pounding because I felt the way Chopper’s was beating under his shirt. He’s spooked, and that terrifies me. “I’ve got to do something for club, Matt. Will you wait for me next door?”
His shoulders slump. “You’re kicking me out?”
Tears weigh heavy on my lashes. “I don’t have a choice. Chopper said you have to go and…something is happening. I don’t know what, exactly, but it’s something not giving me any time to say goodbye to you. You have to leave. Now. Go out the front door.”
“My car is parked in the back.”
I fish his keys out of his pocket. “I’ll have someone pull it around front.”
He wipes my tears, voice softening. “Come with me, Tessa. You don’t need to stay here in the middle of whatever this is. You don’t belong here.”
I look away and then let go of him, opening my door and checking to make sure all the men from the hallway have entered the sanctuary. They have, and the door is closed. Church is in session. I reach back a hand and Matt slips his palm into mine. I tug him along the corridor and out into the main bar. “I’ll call you as soon as I can.” I press my lips to his and turn away, slipping back into the corridor before he has a chance to say anything. Not every member of the Leidolf is in the sanctuary, so there’s no way Matt will be allowed to re-enter this part of the building.
Moving quickly, the urgency I felt in Chopper’s chest driving my haste, I traverse the hallway and reach the stairs. “Tessa.” My name rolls off a thick tongue. I didn’t see Bear come in with Montrose but there’s no mistaking that drawl. He thinks women like it and that if he sticks his meaty tongue in my ear I’ll like it. That way of thinking got more than his ego bruised the last time he was here.
I contemplate ignoring him, moving on up the stairs and locking myself in Chopper’s apartment, but the one thing I know not to show is fear. I face him and force a smile. “How was the ride down?”
“You look like you’ve been cryin’, sugar. I can help you dry those tears.”
I steel my nerves. “My cousin getting out of jail will dry them.”
His lips tip up. “Montrose wants to talk to you about that.” He steps aside and sweeps his hand back down the hall I just came from. “After you.”
~22~
I’ve never been in the sanctuary before. As far as I know, it’s forbidden to have a non-club member inside. Chopper doesn’t say anything when Bear pushes me through the door but I see the lines around his eyes deepen. He’s not happy I’m here.
Montrose is at one end of an oversized oblong table. There are chairs and benches around the room and even a podium, not unlike what you’d see in an actual church. But what’s in view isn’t the entirety of this room. The wall to my left was added after Gary bought the place. He reinforced the entire room with steel panels but he brought that wall in about five feet. I know this because my office is on the other side of that wall and behind a seemingly heavy old-school filing cabinet, there’s a door. The lock on it leads to the first safe. The place we keep the money. Behind that safe is the larger door of the second safe. I don’t know the code for it but I did see it before it was in use. I suspect that’s where Gary keeps the guns. Both the ones they traffic, and the ones the club uses when they need them.
I don’t presume to approach the table. I pick a spot on the wall where I’ll be able to watch Chopper’s face, and I stand perfectly still. There are now eighteen men in the room, nine from Gary’s charter and nine from Montrose’s, and they’re all staring at me. “I hear you’re in tight with the chief of police.” Montrose’s gravely voice scratches along my spine.
“I’m tight with the Leidolf,” I answer. Chopper’s head moves almost imperceptibly. He doesn’t want me taking a tone with Montrose, I’m to be nice. I take a breath. “Chief and I were friends until he arrested Gary. Now he isn’t talking to me much, but he’s said enough for me to know the cops are going to try to pin all the murders on one person.”
Montrose’s head tilts. “That’s why I’m here. We’re going to give them that person.”
My back straightens. “Not Gary.”
Disgust seeps from his pores. “Little girl, Gary is my brother before he’s anything to you. The men here aren’t friends of the wolf, we are the wolves. You are prey.”
A noise rumbles from Chopper’s chest. Montrose glances at him. The sound is clear, anyone wanting to mess with me will have to go through Chopper. Not that I wasn’t already under his protection, or any of the other members of Gary’s charter, but Chopper is making a distinction. I am his. Which is going to make explaining my relationship with Matt real fun.
Montrose pushes his chair back, agitation ticking his jaw. “We’ve been dealing the police hands for longer than you’ve been alive, Tessa, so tell us exactly what your police friend has told you, then you can go fetch us some drinks.”
I bite back the urge to tell him where I’ll shove those drinks. “Chief Dunbar implied that he’s being pressured to make an arrest and had no choice but to pick up Gary after several witnesses placed Cheryl on Gary’s bike, and another said he saw Gary go inside Cheryl’s house.” I don’t tell them about Warren. Only what I think they probably already know because something is off about Chopper’s demeanor. He wants me out of this room. “If you have specific questions, I’ll try to get Chief to answer them, but he’s only answered two of my calls today and hung up on me both times.”
Bear flattens a palm over his heart. “Our family is your family. We’re gonna to take care of this for you, sugar.”
Randy nods, looking around the table at Montrose’s men. “We appreciate the extra manpower. When Samantha was killed, we weren’t sure if it was because of her connection to Gary. To us. But now we have another. Whether the killer means it to be or not, Cheryl’s attack is personal, and it’s against all Leidolf.”
A prick of rot festers through my gut. Either these two attacks aren’t related to the other four, or Gary was connected to the other victims. His shirt being found with Layla’s body beats against my skull. I press my hands into the wall and steady myself. I can’t say any of this out loud. My cousin is not a murderer.
Chopper leaves his seat and presses himself around me, hand tightening on my hips until it hurts. His eyes are cold and hard. “Send Zeno with the beer, then wait for me in my room.” I nod, tears filling my eyes at the roughness of his touch. I want to hit him, scream at him, but if he’s hurting me, he has a reason. “Go,” he growls, letting me out of his grip. I rush from the room and break for the stairs. I’ll text Zeno from upstairs. But not one second before I’m barricaded inside Chopper’s apartment.
~
Pacing Chopper’s floor, I watch the clock. Fifty minutes have passed since I locked myself inside this room like a scared little kid. I don’t even know why I’m afraid, other than the fact that Chopper is acting weird. I pull the waist of my jeans out and check my hip. As I suspected, there’s bruising.
I take Matt’s keys out of my pocket and shoot him a text. Be in front of your building in four minutes. Not five minutes. Four. Unbolting Chopper’s door, I crack it open and listen. It’s quiet. Stepping into the hall, I tread softly until I make it to the stairs. I stop again and listen. Voices can be heard, but none of them sound close. All I need is a clear shot down the stairs and out the back door. Then I have to get by whoever is guarding the parking lot.
Taking a deep breath, I spring down the steps and rush out the door, running to Matt’s car and ducking into the driver’s seat without bothering to glance up. I throw the car into gear and back out of the space. Swiveling my head in the other direction, I don’t see anyone. I bring the front of the car around and hit the gas. I don’t know what’s happening with the club today, but I'm technically not ditching them since they’re not out here watching the lot.
I head down the alley and make the turn. Matt is locking the door to his office. I pull to the curb and blow the horn, watching the rearview for a tail. Matt’s eyes narrow as he opens the passenger door. “What’s going on, Tessa?”
“Get in!” I yell.
He drops into the passenger seat and grapples for the dash as I take off, squealing his tires a little as I head for the nearest side street. “Geez, Tessa! What’s going on? Where are we going?”
“We’re going to hunt down a liar whose destiny is to have the sole of my boot permanently affixed to his face.”
~23~
Matt’s quiet as I steer us toward the edge of town, out to where Warren somehow managed to buy enough land to set up a full bells-n-whistles mechanic’s shop. I drove by the place right after I heard the shop was opening. As far as I know, Warren took some automotive classes at a vocational school during his high school years but never did anything with that knowledge. And he sure as heck doesn’t have the capital to open up a modern garage like the one gleaming in the sun up ahead of me. Even the oval sign with orange lettering saying Town’s End Auto is too nice for Warren’s cheap pockets. He’s in bed with someone, and it isn’t his current girlfriend.
Since I was last by here, the parking lot has been paved and a little building with vending machines is labeled Snack Shack. Four garage bay doors are attached to a long two-story building that connects them with one oversized garage bay. Three of the four doors on the one side are open, and the one labeled Quick Oil has a car lifted over a pit. Warren’s cousin Jimmy is underneath that car while Warren leans over the side of a Pontiac two bays away. I send Chopper a text. I’m with Matt. Will be back soon.
That text won’t smooth anything over with him, but he manhandled me today so I figure we’re even. I slip the phone into my pocket and lean across the console, placing a kiss on Matt’s scowling lips. “I’m sorry about earlier, and for driving your car like I stole it. I wanted to make sure no one followed us.”
“You should have left with me this afternoon instead of kicking me out.”
“You’re probably right.” I sigh. “Wait here. I need to handle something.”
He swallows. “Can I at least get out and stretch my legs? Or am I just supposed to sit here like your lap dog?”
I move back to my side of the car and open the door. “If you want to fight, Matt, I’m all for it. Just wait until I rip out this snake’s tongue and strangle him with it, then I’m all yours.”
I slam Matt’s door and march in Warren’s direction. He glances up, head doing a double-take before it starts shaking. “Whatever you’re selling, I already have plenty of it, Tessa. So go back to wherever you came from and stay out of my sight the way I’m staying out of yours.”
He keeps working, eyes on whatever he’s tinkering with under the hood. I enter the bay and take hold of the hood. He jumps back, eyes wide as the hood slams closed. “Are you out of your mind?”
“You know as well as I do that Gary didn’t kill anyone,” I shout.
“Of course I know that!” He plunks his wrench into a toolbox. “Why do you think I lied for him to start with?”
“I don’t know, Warren. Why did you?”
He rubs his face, smearing grease through his five o’clock shadow. “I was trying to help him out.”
“You’ve never done a single thing in your life out of the kindness of your heart so the lie you just told me is the second one I know of you telling today,” I snarl. “I have no doubt there are plenty more, but all I care about is justice for Gary. I want the truth, Warren. Why are you so involved in this case that you get to be the one saying whether or not Gary goes to jail?”
He moves toward me. “Chief is the one arresting an innocent man, so why don’t you take your pretty little self on down to his office. He always was glad to see you coming. And going.”
