Chapter Eighteen

Coyote

We spent hours trying to track down Rufus to no avail. He hadn't shown up to work today, he wasn't at home, and his mother didn't know where he was. Because, yeah like every good stalker slash creeper, he lived in his mom's basement. I had the idea to scout out the place where Bethany worked. Rufus had met her at the party supply store and might go back there to see how terrified she was, that's if he was the one who'd set fire to her boss' home. I kept going back and forth in my mind about whether he was trying to kill her and just incompetent, or if he was really just trying to scare the bejesus out of her and maybe remove one of the obstacles to approaching her. I know that Reggie had told him off about harassing her at their place of business before. Maybe he was butthurt about it, maybe he'd deliberately burned down Reggie's as revenge and not because he thought that Bethany was in the main house?

We hung around for about three hours before I began to second guess myself. "It doesn't look like he's going to show. Maybe we should be staking out his place."

"Be patient. If it's true that he's obsessed with Bethany, this is where he'll show himself. I think he was trying to get rid of Reggie so he could pop up here whenever he wanted. Maybe he intended to kill him or just thought he'd get badly injured, and away from work for a while. Either way, it would give him an opportunity to harass Bethany."

"Yeah, I'm tracking with all that. The problem is, he hasn't shown his ugly mug."

"He will," Breaker insisted.

As for myself, I didn't know for sure. We were sitting in my van across the street from the store, drinking coffee and twiddling our thumbs and it was starting to really get to me.

That's when I noticed him drive by without taking a second glance. He had another man in the car with him and they were so busy talking that they didn't even notice me giving them the evil eye.

I shifted the van into gear and pulled out. Breaker grabbed his coffee off the dashboard and spilled it on himself in the process. "Thanks for nothing, jackass! So we're packing it in for the day? You're a serious lightweight when it comes to tracking assholes down. You know that, right?"

"I just saw him drive past. He didn't even glance at the store. But I'm gonna follow him and when the time is right, I'm gonna have my fucking say with him."

"That's what I'm talking about. I brought my brass knuckles. I'll hold him down for you and, you can mess him up," my brother-in-law sounded quite cheerful at the prospect.

"I don't need brass knuckles or someone to hold the stupid fucker down. Believe it or not, I can tune him up all on my own."

Breaker just shook his head and drank down the rest of his coffee before grumbling, "Spoilsport. Where's the fun in that."

We followed Rufus out of Patterdale and to a mall on the outskirts of town, where he dropped off his friend and headed back in the direction of his house. Dark glee sparked in my mind, thinking of all the things I was gonna do to him for hurting my Bethany. I guessed when push came to shove, I was really no better than Breaker when it came to enacting violence on others, I thought wryly—though in this case the fucker deserved every ounce of my rage.

We pulled in right behind him, blocking him into his own driveway. The car that had been parked in the driveway earlier was gone, so I reckoned his mother was out for the afternoon. His house was in the middle of nowhere, so we could be more brazen than if there were potential witnesses around.

The moment he caught sight of us, he said, "Aw shit, what did I do this time? Did I accidentally cross into biker territory?"

I started with a solid punch square in his face. "That's for playing dumb, asshole."

Holding his nose, he responded, "I'm not fucking dumb. How the fuck can I keep out of your way if I can't even drive down the road in my own fucking town?"

"Someone burned down the house next to Bethany last night, putting her life and the life of her child in danger. I think it was you." My direct statement took the wind out of his sails.

"Say what now? Someone did fucking what?"

If I didn't know he was a lying scumbag, I'd almost think he was shocked by my news.

"Just what I said. Someone was either trying to kill her and got the wrong house, or they wanted him out the way, or they simply wanted to intimidate her. Which of those numbers is on your bingo card, Rufus?"

"None of the above and I resent you jumping to conclusions. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a lover, not a fighter. I wouldn't even know how to go about burning someone's fucking house down. That's some seriously fucked up shit, man."

"Unlock your fucking phone and give it to me," Breaker growled.

Rufus jerked his phone out, unlocked it and tossed it to Breaker. He'd apparently learned that the Slayers don't play, which means he was trainable at least. While Breaker searched his phone, I kept interrogating him.

"Her boss doesn't have enemies. Since everyone loves him, that only leaves Bethany. Her only problem at the moment is you. Ergo, you are right at the tippy top of our list of suspects."

"Yeah, I get that it's convenient to pin all this on me, but if you do, that means the actual guilty party is still running around. Is that what you want?"

I glared at him, fighting the urge to smack his smug fucking face once more. I wanted the fucking truth. Breaker looked up from scrolling on the man's phone. "I think I've gotten some answers. It seems as though Rufus here wasn't exactly obsessed with Bethany. He was obsessed with winning the betting pool."

Rufus said, "Oh fuck," with a note of actual fear in his voice.

"What fucking betting pool?" I asked, clearly expecting whatever Breaker found to provoke my rage.

"Rufus and three of his buddies targeted a dozen local women and started a betting pool to see who could sleep with all twelve of them first. The money is significant."

"We all put in three grand each. Look, don't get your panties in a bunch. I can explain."

"That's some seriously fucked up shit. You know that, right?"

"In my own defense, the rule was no rape. Any kind of involuntary sexual conduct automatically disqualifies you from the pool."

"Well, aren't you a fucking gentleman," I spat out.

Breaker snapped a few pics of the list, then he dropped Rufus' cell down on the pavement and ground it under his boot shattering it into a million pieces.

I took a step closer. "I guess if you're hell bent on being a complete, degenerate asshole a rule like would go a long way in making you feel less scummy."

The man took a step back with his hands up. "Alright, I know the betting pool was a shitty idea. It's just there isn't much entertainment to be had and none of us play sports, so we have to resort to other sorts of competition."

I moved closer, keeping pace with him as he backed up. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen you quite this articulate, Rufus."

"I don't know why you care so much."

Breaker came up behind him, trapping him between the two of us. "It's because you never removed her name from the list, you stupid fucker."

"I meant to. I really did," he says in a panicked voice.

Breaker and I proceeded to work him over with the kind of care such a transgression deserves. Just the thought of these filthy fuckers manipulating twelve women into having sex with them for money pissed me off. But what really infuriated me was that they never took her name off the goddamned list, even after I made it clear that she was off limits. Now we have three other suspects to investigate as well. I was looking forward to kicking every single one of their asses.

We left Rufus picking up his teeth in his driveway and went looking for the other three. There was chance that the women were picked because they were nearly impossible to compromise. It made sense they would go after hard targets because what would be the challenge in having sex with a dozen easy women.

We needed Hacker's help finding out their addresses and places of business. It took all damned day long, but each and every one of them was about as stupid as Rufus. It was pretty clear most of the others hadn't even thought about getting around to approaching Bethany. One was even stupid enough to tell me he'd been saving her for last because she had a kid, and he didn't want no stretched out loose holes to fuck. I beat on him extra hard.

Breaker was cheerful and seemed to be having the time of his life. Tracking down these fuckers and beating the shit out of them put spring in his step. He was really in his element. It's like we had inadvertently paired together two of his favorite things, tracking targets, and fighting. Who would have guessed that my normally mild-mannered brother-in-law would have such diverse hobbies.

***

We came home at the end of the day, tired and hungry. It was late, Callie and Bethany were curled up on the sofa under throws, talking like old friends. Seeing this all go down in my own home really hit me in the feels. This felt so right to me, like how Bethany and Nessa fitted into my life and family so well.

The women in our lives had saved plates for us in the kitchen. We took turns microwaving them and wolfed our food down so fast I barely tasted it, then Breaker and Callie took off.

After eating I took a quick shower, I should have done it before the food, but I didn't want to draw attention to what me and Breaker had been doing that afternoon. We'd cleaned up at my shop before heading to my place, so the worst of the blood had gone, but I'm sure Bethany suspected that something had gone down. From the looks my sister gave Breaker, she certainly did.

I was exhausted as I'd not really slept more than a couple of hours in the last day and a bit, Nessa had conked out and Bethany looked tired too. We'd chatted a bit after dinner, but I hadn't wanted to say anything about what happened around Nessa. Instead, I told Bethany about the family day that was happening at our clubhouse next weekend. It was something fun to lighten the mood. Every so often Storm would organize one, it was like a big cookout for all the brothers and their families. We usually had grills set up and loads of attractions for the kids. Callie had already told Bethany about it, and she thought it sounded great, even Nessa got excited when I told her there'd be an inflatable castle.

"Shall I carry Nessa upstairs?" I asked.

"Seems a shame to move her, she looks so cozy there," Bethany murmured.

The little girl was curled up on the floor with Ruby at her side. Both were lost in their dreams. For a moment I wondered what little girls and dogs dreamed of—whatever it was, it must be a damn sight better than what I had going on in my mind. I was relieved that we'd caught up with Rufus and given him and his sick buddies a beat down, but part of me wasn't sure that they were to blame for the fire.

Storm had spoken to one of his insiders at the precinct and apparently there had been another arson attack in Patterdale a couple of weeks earlier, so they were tentatively looking at a link. So maybe it was just random, and not linked to either Bethany or Reggie.

"I've got this," I told her as I cradled Nessa in my arms and carried her upstairs. Bethany moved around me opening the door and turning down her blankets. Ruby woke up and followed us.

In this moment I felt like we were a team, Bethany and I. I loved everything about this idea. When I slid this precious little girl into bed and tugged the blankets up to her chin, her mother added several stuffed animals so she would see them if she woke up in the night.

Her new doggy friend didn't even put up the pretense of sleeping in her own bed tonight. She jumped on the bed and curled up at her feet. I looked at Bethany and smiled, she looked radiant as she watched on.

"You think it's okay if Ruby sleeps on the bed?" I whispered, "I can take her dog bed into our room if you think that's better?" Because in my mind now it was our room, not mine.

"Ruby seems sweet, and it's clear that she's used to snuggling at the end of her old owner's bed. I think they'll be fine," The little dog opened her eyes briefly before tucking her head back down.

Bethany reached out to pet the dog before we left the room, picking the baby monitor on her way out.

Once we were in the bedroom Bethany quickly shed her clothing and climbed into the bed. When she rolled over to watch me undress and her eyes lit up with appreciation, it made me feel seen and desired. I couldn't get undressed and in bed fast enough. Last night we didn't make love because neither of us were feeling it after the horror of seeing Reginald's house go up in flames. I didn't know what would happen tonight as we'd both had a hard couple of days, so I was equally happy at the thought of a long, unbroken night of sleep with Bethany cuddled up in my arms, as I was to a night of passion.

She took a deep breath before speaking. "I guess you didn't find Rufus. Am I right?"

"Oh hell, no. We found the stupid fucker alright, and I gave him a beatdown to remember."

"What?" Bethany exclaimed. "Did he admit to setting the fire?" Her voice was filled with worry.

I snorted a laugh. "As near as Breaker and I could figure out, he had nothing to do with that."

Her mouth fell open. "Are you sure? If Rufus didn't do it, we're out of suspects."

"The cops are thinking it might be a serial arsonist. There was a fire last month, so they're looking into a link between them."

Bethany nodded thoughtfully.

I concentrated on explaining what went down with Rufus. "We went through his phone. It seems that Rufus and three of his asshole friends were playing fuck a beautiful woman bingo. Whoever won, got a pile of money."

Her expression blanked out so fast it had me concerned. "What the actual fuck?"

"Breaker found a list of twelve women on his phone and e-mails between him and his buddies negging each other about who was going to clear the list first. The goal was to have sex with every woman on the list at least once and move on to the next. It wouldn't have made sense for any of them to risk killing you, because they couldn't win the game that way."

Bethany frowned. "They could have just replaced me."

"But why would they harm or kill you, only to have to replace you? Anyway, we tracked all of them down and none of the assholes were currently targeting you. That's why we're reasonably certain the fire wasn't linked to Rufus."

"God, I can't believe this whole thing with Rufus was just some kind of competition with his friends. What about the other women on the list?"

"Hacker's gonna give them the heads up. Never underestimate the depravity of true assholes. This struck me as the kind of thing that frat boys do in college, not how grown ass men spend their time and energy."

"I swear," Bethany stated with exasperation. "I always draw the worst men. It's like they can see I'm flawed or easy and jump at the chance to exploit what they perceive to be a weakness."

I cupped the side of her face tenderly with one hand. "It wasn't like that. The women were intentionally chosen based on beauty and the fact that they were anything but easy targets. They only put women on the list they thought would be nearly impossible to get into bed. It wouldn't be a challenge otherwise."

Her expression brightened. "They saw me as morally upstanding?"

"Querida, I wish you could see yourself the way the rest of the world does."

She moved closer, "I'll be sure to work on that."

Having that burden lifted from her shoulders seemed to make Bethany relax. She leaned forward and kissed my cheek, "They were right about the chastity thing. I've only ever voluntarily been with one man, and I want to keep it that way."

Shock roiled through my gut. I wondered if she realized what she just admitted to me. Outside of the rape she already told me about, that meant Nessa's father was either because of another rape after she left Griffinsford—the thought of which broke my heart all over again—or she was mine. That thought settled in my mind as I felt Bethany drifting off to sleep in my arms, safe in the knowledge that I was gonna protect her.