10. Ten

Ten

Spike

T he three of us stood in the graveyard three days later, listening as the pastor spoke about Blaire, her life, and how she was now free from all pain, living eternally with our Lord and Savior. Carter was standing beside her casket, and I squeezed Charlotte’s hand when she bellowed out a sob as his arm lifted, grazing his fingertips across the portrait of Blaire’s pretty face propped up on a stand. Behind us was Harley, Chief, Captain Burgess, Peter, most of the SPD, and some other unfamiliar faces I had to assume were Charlotte’s colleagues from work.

Charlotte was the first to place a rose upon Blaire’s casket.

She pressed her forehead against the wood, whispering something nobody else could hear, her beautiful, distraught face cracking my cold heart in half. This was killing her inside. Hell, she hadn’t stopped crying since she found Blaire’s body, nor had she really been getting much sleep thanks to the nightmares she’d been having since then. Phoenix and I had been swapping out staying with her at night, trying to distract her and ease her heartache, but nothing was working the way we’d hoped.

We had to find this bastard, and soon.

It was the only way to end this bullshit once and for all.

When she was done saying her final goodbyes, Charlotte hugged Carter tightly, and then the others came forward and one by one, dropped their roses, Phoenix and I the last. Silence filled the air as the groundkeepers began lowering Blaire into the ground, and then we each bowed our heads when the pastor began speaking a final prayer, officially ending the service .

Carter thanked everyone who came, and as the majority of the officers dispersed back to their vehicles to head back to work, a firm hand wrapped tightly around my arm. I glanced up at Phoenix just to whip my head around to his narrowed eyes trajectory, spotting Crow fucking Wilson watching everything from afar as he sat on his Harley, smoking a cigarette.

Great.

What the fuck was he doing here?

Phoenix released me, his scowl darkening, and before my hands could lunge out in time and grab ahold of him, he was gone, stalking vehemently towards Crow.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

“Spike?” Charlotte said worriedly, and I turned, taking in the fear crossing her puffy face.

“Stay here,” I demanded. “Hang back and talk to Carter.”

“Is that Crow?” she asked when I began to walk away, stopping me. “The guy Phoenix told me about?”

“It is,” I nodded, my throat tight. “Please, Charlotte, just stay here. We’ll be back in a minute.”

Or so I fucking hoped .

Again, what the hell was Crow doing here?

And most importantly, how the fuck did he know where to find us ?

Phoenix was asking the same question the closer I approached, and all Crow could do was release a dark chuckle and offer me an acknowledging nod when I paused at my partners’ side.

“Do you pigs not watch the news?” he asked, tilting his head in a smartass manner. “That poor woman’s death is being broadcasted everywhere.”

“What do you want, Crow? Why are you here?”

“Well,” Crow started, looking away long enough to swipe cigarette ash off his jacket sleeve. “Tell me something, Phoenix. Did you bother checking out the tip I gave you about the Rohypnol?”

“No,” he replied through clenched teeth. “We’ve been busy. ”

Crow tsked. “That’s a shame. I imagine Blaire’s death could’ve been avoided if you’d taken my advice.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I asked, cocking my head at him. “Is that a confession?”

“Of course not,” Crow taunted through a wide grin. “I was just simply pointing out a fact.”

He finished off his cigarette, then placed the stubbed filter inside the cigarette pack he’d fetched from his jacket pocket.

“I was only asking because it’s like I said, Blaire’s murder is all over the news, along with every single detail of what happened to her, the baby too. I know Harley and your bosses are convinced the father is the killer. As for me, I’m fairly certain it’s the same guy responsible for those rapes you were telling me about. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was among the crowd rallied together for the funeral.”

Phoenix twisted around and carefully scoped the now depleted crowd, as did I. Everyone was gone except for Harley, Chief, and Captain Burgess, who were each talking with Carter and Charlotte.

“If you know something,” Phoenix voiced in a deadly whisper, “then stop playing games and just fucking tell us.”

“I may know something,” Crow admitted with a smug bob of his head. “But it’ll cost you. After all, Phoenix, you owe me.”

“I don’t owe you shit. ”

Crow tsked again. “Oh, but you do. You see, I didn’t have to talk to you the day you decided to come prancing your pig ass inside of my bar, trying to siphon information from my daughter . I should’ve put a fucking bullet in your skull instead.”

My hand met Phoenix’s chest, pushing him back when he made to take a dangerous step closer to Crow, his eyes flitting with rage.

“However,” Crow continued. “Killing you would’ve hurt Kendall. My sister and I may not be on speaking terms, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love her or care about her feelings. ”

“Get to the fucking point,” Phoenix snapped, his chest heaving.

“Like I said, you owe me . I gave you what you needed to help solve your cases, and you were the one who neglected to listen. That’s not on me, Phoenix. That’s on you . Do you remember me telling you about that new shipment of Rohypnol coming in?”

“What about it?” I asked.

“I have it on good authority it’ll be here within two weeks.”

“And let me guess,” Phoenix said with a scoff. “You want me to help you intercept it.”

Crow offered us another smug grin. “You do this for me, then all the bad blood between us will be wiped clean. It’ll be like old times. You remember what that was like, right, Bonecrusher ?”

Now I was cocking my head at Phoenix, my brows raised. “What the hell is he talking about?”

“Oh, Phoenix never told you?” he asked, bellowing out a boisterous laugh when my hand met Phoenix’s chest again, pushing him back. “Phoenix was a Rolling Rebel back in the day, way before he decided to abandon us and follow my sister off to college. He was known as our Bonecrusher , and trust me, the nickname fit true to his capabilities.”

“Is this true?” I asked Phoenix, gaping at him in utter disbelief.

“It was a long time ago,” he muttered, the admission knocking the air dead out of my chest. “But yes, it’s true.”

Crow clicked his tongue then and began eyeing over our shoulder. “Oh my. And who do we have here?”

Phoenix and I spun, finding Charlotte standing behind us.

“Hey,” she said nervously, sliding her hands down the sides of her black dress. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but Chief and Cap told me to tell you to meet them at the precinct. They wouldn’t tell me why, but they said it’s urgent.”

“Think about it,” Crow said before he fired up his bike, revving the engine a few times. “I expect your answer within seventy-two hours. ”

He took off down the side road in the cemetery, and as I glared at Phoenix, he sighed and gave me a look that signaled only one thing—that we’d discuss it later.

“Is… Is everything okay?” Charlotte asked.

“It’s fine, baby.” Phoenix swept her up in his arms and kissed her. “Are you okay?”

“I guess so,” she murmured, though we could both see it was a lie. “Is it okay if I hang out with Carter for a little while? You two have to work and—”

“That’s fine,” I said before Phoenix could dare open his mouth. “It’s not safe for you to be alone anyway.”

“Promise to update me?”

I took a step forward and pulled her close to me, pressing sweet, tender kisses along her mouth and jaw, earning a soft moan in return.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” she whispered, her cheeks pinking as we parted.

Phoenix didn’t look at me, much less breathe a single word as we made the trek back to his car, my dark eyes fumingly daggering him when we were in and I’d slammed the door shut, the impact slightly shaking the car.

“ Bonecrusher? ” I sneered; my jaw clenched so tight it hurt. “Just who the fuck are you exactly? What else have you been hiding from me?”

“I’m not that person anymore,” he muttered, sighing through his nose as he fetched his keys and fired up the ignition. “That was over twenty years ago and—”

“What else have you been hiding from me?” I growled.

“Nothing!” He threw up his hands and scoured them down his face. “I was fifteen, Spike—hell, maybe sixteen when I joined. I was young, stupid, and worst of all, I did it to impress Crow and Kendall’s father. To show him and Crow that Kendall wasn’t dating some pussy who couldn’t handle himself or ensure Kendall’s protection just in case she ever found herself in a position to need it.”

“ And? ” I pressed, my brows furrowing.

“What the hell do you want me to say? I did a lot of fucked up shit, Spike. Things that I’m still to this very day, not proud of. I was nicknamed Bonecrusher because, hell, why do you think? I was good at breaking and crushing bones. I was the one Crow and his father sent inside to torture information from our enemies. There, are you fucking happy now?”

“What happened? Why did you leave?”

“Because of Kendall,” he said, and it was that response alone which made me realize I’d asked a stupid question.

“She wanted you to leave?”

“Kendall never wanted me to join in the first place. Come senior year in high school, she’d given me a choice. Her, or the Rolling Rebels. Despite all of the horrible shit I was involved in, I was, for the most part, a good kid. I got straight A’s in school and, come graduation, I had multiple scholarships to pay my way through any college I wanted. So, instead of staying behind and most likely landing myself in jail for the rest of my life, I chose to chase love and pursue a different path. I don’t expect you to understand, but I had to do something good with my life to make up for all the horrible things I’ve done.”

I still wasn’t happy. Not the slightest fucking bit. But regardless of how angry I was, I had to try and focus on the brighter side of the situation. On the facts. Had Phoenix chosen differently, I never would’ve met him that following year in college. He never would’ve become a cop and—as Phoenix wisely stated—he probably would’ve ended up in prison or worse, dead.

“And now?” I had to ask him. “What are you going to do now that Crow is trying to pull you back in? ”

He said nothing at first, just clipped on his seatbelt and double checked the mirrors. We were back on the road a minute later. “I don’t think that’s what he’s doing. Crow told us he was trying to go legit, get rid of all the drugs and whatnot. If he’s seeking my help, then it likely has to do with whoever’s been smuggling them in. It’s possible he’s captured a lead and whoever it is, isn’t giving anything up.”

I scoffed at that. “And let me guess… He needs the Bonecrusher to loosen up some lips.”

Phoenix sighed, nodding. “Knowing Crow like I do… Yeah. That, and then some. He’s playing a dangerous game saying what he did about Blaire, but if he really does know something, he won’t give it up until after I’ve helped him.”

Shit.

Which was a huge problem because we couldn’t afford to sit back and wait two long weeks for information that may or may not be credible. Something told me Crow knew that, too.

“I say we hear him out. We can’t wait that long for Crow to spill, not with how badly this shit is escalating.”

“ We? ” my partner thickly repeated, his brows crumpled.

Ignoring him, I said, “We need to devise some form of agreement with him. If we have to break some faces, then fine, we’ll do it. But in return, he has to tell us what he knows on the spot. It also might not be a bad idea to check in on that tip he gave us. If we’re lucky, we may find something we can use against him if he tries to fuck us over.”

It was either that, or we arrest the son of a bitch for interfering and withholding information on Blaire’s murder. The idea truly pleased me, but the longer I contemplated it, I couldn’t help but ponder the danger it could put us in should Crow decide to retaliate. One phone call from their President, and that was it, Phoenix and I were fucked. We’d be at the top of every single Rolling Rebels’ hit list. And given their history, and then all of the information Crow had on the crimes Phoenix committed in the past…

Mother fucker.

Phoenix was right. Crow really was playing a dangerous fucking game.

“I don’t want you involved with this, Spike.”

“Tough shit,” I told him. “You’re my best friend, Phoenix. Like it or not, I’m not letting you go through with this alone.”

He knew better than to argue with me, so instead of replying, he just leaned back in his seat and activated the blinker, preparing to turn inside the precinct.

As expected, when we stepped out of the elevator, Officer Brown, the same woman Phoenix favored calling Princess Peach, greeted us with brief orders to go to the conference room. When we made it there, walking in the spacious room which had a large boardroom table and about twenty chairs surrounding it, Kendall Wilson, Harley, Chief, and Captain Burgess were waiting for us. Behind them was a large whiteboard with Delilah, Amber, and Blaire’s pictures taped to it, with notes Kendall was still in the process of jotting down below them. On either side of the larger board were two smaller ones I’d recognized from Charlotte’s office. The pictures were gone, but all of Charlotte’s notes she’d taken about Amber and Delilah’s case, along with a few theories she’d written were still there.

“Good,” said Chief, who was the first to greet us. “Everyone’s here.”

Kendall stopped writing long enough to peer over her shoulder at us. She wasn’t at the funeral, which meant she’d stayed behind to finish gathering all of our test results from Blaire’s murder.

“What’s going on?” Phoenix was the first to ask. “Why are we meeting in the conference room?”

“Because shit just got a lot more complicated,” said Harley, sighing and shaking her head. “It turns out you boys were right about Blaire’s murder being connected to Delilah and Amber.”

Phoenix and I shared a look, our brows raised .

“What are we looking at?” I asked.

Harley waved a hand for us to take a seat. Phoenix sat behind Chief while I planted myself behind Captain Burgess.

“It’s like this,” Kendall said, spinning on her heel to face us. Aside from her jeans, black blouse, and her blonde hair pulled up neatly in a bun, she looked exhausted, like she frankly hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep in days. “He’s smart—I’ll give the son of a bitch that much—but not smart enough.”

“What do you mean?” asked Phoenix.

Kendall scoffed, then moved forward to grab a file I hadn’t noticed was on the table when we walked in. She pulled out two sheets of paper and then passed them off to the chief and captain, who then passed them back to Phoenix and me.

“I gathered DNA from the fetus and tested it with the DNA found in both Delilah and Amber’s cases. It didn’t match with Karl, but it did, however, match with our other perp. Whoever Blaire was sleeping with is the same man who attacked Delilah and Amber.”

I glared down at the page then, as did Phoenix, and read over the results, my heart pounding through my ears.

Holy fuck.

It was true.

“Harley, a word in private, please?” Phoenix asked, which had Kendall, Chief, and Captain Burgess blinking over at him in confusion.

He got up as Harley agreed, and as the others steered their expressions over at me, I offered them a shrug and then stood tall, joining Phoenix and Harley in the hall.

“You said you needed proof of Karl’s innocence,” Phoenix said to Harley when I’d closed the door behind me. “Isn’t this proof enough?”

Sadly, Harley shook her head. “It’s not. His hair was found on Amber, and the masks we found in his apartment have his and Delilah’s DNA all over them. Plus, there’s the GPS records from his cruiser that puts him near the sanctum on the night Delilah was attacked.”

“Karl didn’t rape Delilah,” I hotly reminded her. “DNA proves it. There’s also the data on his ankle monitor which proves he was at home the night Amber Strickland was attacked. His phone records prove it too. Plus, we have the security footage from the club. Assuming you’ve watched it, then you should know Karl isn’t our guy.”

“Then why was Karl camping out near the sanctum the night Delilah was attacked?” she asked.

“You already know the answer to that question,” said Phoenix.

Harley sighed deeply through her nose. “Charlotte,” she muttered.

“Yes,” I’d all but growled at her. “We tried telling you before, but you didn’t want to hear it, remember?”

“Let’s say I believe you.” Her eyes lifted and volleyed between us; her jaw irately set. “Why go through all this trouble framing Karl?”

“It’s because of Charlotte.”

Phoenix began spilling the beans about Karl and the death threats, and impulsively my hand launched across Harley and slapped him upside his head, my eyes lethally tightening as I glared him down.

“Blaire’s dead , Spike. She’s fucking dead. We have to tell her.”

He was lucky I didn’t deck him across his thick ass fucking jaw. Charlotte had asked us, fucking begged us to keep this a secret until she could figure out the truth for herself.

“When did he tell her this?” asked Harley, who honestly appeared shocked at the news.

“A few days ago,” I answered before Phoenix could dare open his fucking mouth again. “When Charlotte went to visit Karl.”

“Any proof to validate his claims?” she asked again.

I shook my head. “No. Not yet at least. We were going to look into it, but then Blaire’s murder happened. We’re behind. Severely behind. ”

Harley ran a flustered hand down her face and gushed out a hardy breath, her lips pursed. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. I did you boys a favor and kept my mouth shut over Charlotte’s connection to the sanctum. But now, everything has to come out in the open, and I mean everything. I’ll vouch for you to the chief and captain so that you aren’t taken off the cases. You’re the only ones outside of Charlotte who seem to know what’s really going on here, and we need you. We’ll figure out who tackles what when we get back in there and fill everyone in.”

She paused, then turned to me, straightening her spine and meeting me eye-to-eye.

“I understand this…relationship you have with Charlotte isn’t any of my business, but you have to understand it wasn’t my intention to anger you, Detective Hutch. I was just trying to help you. Charlotte, too. At the moment, Chief and Captain Burgess know nothing about your relationship with her. If you’d have questioned her—”

“You don’t have to say anything else, Harley. I get it. I do. And as for my temper… Well…”

“ Spike ,” Phoenix growled.

“I’m sorry I was an asshole.”

Harley smiled, and then reached out to shake my hand, pleased with my apology. “You’re forgiven.”