CHAPTER SEVEN

With a Lindt chocolate bar in her purse, Peyton parked her car in the underground parking garage near her work, hit the fob to lock it and clutched her keys in her right hand.

Then, because she was on the lookout for Tiberius, she reached into her purse and grabbed the pepper spray, too.

She held onto each weapon, remaining alert as she headed for the stairwell that would take her to the street.

She was nearly at the stairs, making sure she glanced around her and behind her as much as she could, when out of the shadows came a man who fit Jace’s description of Tiberius perfectly—birthmark and all.

“So you’re his new hot piece of ass?” Tiberius grumbled, eying Peyton with curiosity. There was no malice in his gaze, though, or his body language. Nothing about the man said he was preparing to attack or harm her.

But that meant very little. He could be trying to lull her into a false sense of security .

She remained on guard and flicked off the safety of her switchblade, keeping it tight in her fist.

“I … I don’t know what you’re talking about. Excuse me, please. I need to get to work.” She tried to step around him, but he was a big guy and stepped to block her passage to the stairs.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about. That pig,” he spat. “The one who put me away.”

“I …”

“Don’t play stupid,” he barked, making her jump.

Fear made hot steps through her. Her hands shook, but she just squeezed the pepper spray and her keys tighter to stave off the trembling. Her heart beat wildly, her chest hurt.

“I was the only person my sister had to protect her, you know?”

“I … I …”

But he wasn’t listening to her. He came there to send a message. That was it. “And when I went away, she had nobody. They got her addicted to heroin. Then sold her. I don’t know if she’s dead or alive. And all because that pig whose dick you’re sucking wanted to pop his arrest cherry and put me away.”

The hair on Peyton’s arms and the back of her neck lifted, and her knees wobbled. She was scared of this man, but the pain in his eyes, the worry and love for his sister pulled at a string of her heart and she wasn’t prepared for it. Swallowing, she nodded. “I’m so sorry about your sister.”

Tiberius grunted.

“Wh-what was … what is her name?”

“Huh?” he barked again.

“Y-your sister. What is her name?”

“Michaela. Michaela Mackinley.”

Peyton nodded. “Okay. I … I will see if I can find out where your sister is. ”

He obviously wasn’t expecting her to say that and shock flicked into his blue eyes. But they turned hard again a moment later. “Don’t think your pig would like it too much if I hurt someone he cares about, huh?”

“No, he wouldn’t. He never intended for Michaela to get hurt, though. That was an unfortunate side-effect of your incarceration.”

Tiberius scoffed. “ An unfortunate side-effect ? Fuck you, bitch. I was wrongly accused and put away for eighteen fucking months because of your pig.”

And where had he been for the last eighteen months? Because Jace said Tiberius was arrested three years ago.

“L-let me look into your sister. Nobody else needs to get hurt, okay?”

What the hell was she doing? She had no way to look into Michaela’s whereabouts. Not if the woman was over eighteen. Peyton worked with children in the system, not adults.

But she needed to give Tiberius hope. Hope would keep him from hurting Peyton. At least long enough for her to get away.

He jerked his chin. “Just know, lady, if you don’t find her, I’ve got nothing to lose.” Then he disappeared back into the shadows like an ethereal demon.

She booked it up the stairs into daylight, careful not to trip. She was out of breath and a little dizzy when she finally reached the street. She was going to immediately call Jace, but Tiberius could still be watching her. She needed to keep all her senses on high alert. She couldn’t be distracted by her phone.

So she waited until she was in her office building and at her desk. She closed her office door and took five deep, calming breaths. Her nerves were shot.

And she still had the pepper spray and her keys clenched tightly in her fists. Her hands ached from how tight she squeezed them. It took a couple of minutes of wiggling her fingers to bring life back into them and keep them from cramping. Then she dug out the chocolate in her purse—the salted caramel flavored one—and brought up Jace’s number. He was on his second day off, so hopefully he wasn’t already at the gym.

Even if he was, she hoped he picked up when he saw it was her calling .

“Hey, babe,” he greeted.

“Tiberius cornered me in the parking garage.”

A chair skidded in the background. “He what? Are you okay?”

“He didn’t want to hurt me. At least, I don’t think. He didn’t touch me, anyway. I think he came so I could deliver a message to you.”

“And?”

“When you put him away, you removed the only protector his sister had. They, whoever that is, got her hooked on heroin and then she was sold. Tiberius can’t find her. He’s worried she’s dead. He holds you responsible. Says he was your first arrest ever, and that he was wrongly convicted.”

Jace exhaled a deep sigh. “Only one of those things is true. He wasn’t my first arrest. I’d been a cop for two years at the time I arrested him. And we had video evidence from a CCTV camera of him beating a man unconscious with a wrench. But, yes, he was his sister’s only protector. She was eighteen and had just aged out of the system. They were both foster kids. He fell in with the wrong crowd, but was trying to keep his nose as clean as he could for her. He fell on hard times, ended up in debt to a gang leader, and had to follow through with an assignment . They used Michaela as leverage to get him to do their bidding. So he beat a guy to within an inch of his life.”

“And ended up in prison and Michaela got hurt, anyway.”

“Yeah.”

“I told him I’d look into the whereabouts of his sister.”

“You did what?” Jace exclaimed.

“I don’t know. I panicked. He had me cornered in a dark parking garage. Yes, I had my keys and my pepper spray, but I was still spooked. And I also felt bad for him.”

“He’s a hardened criminal who nearly killed a man, Peyton.”

“His sister didn’t kill anyone, though. She’s a victim of circumstance.”

“Do you even have jurisdiction to look into Michaela? ”

“No,” she said sheepishly, opening up the bar of chocolate and breaking off a square, then popping it into her mouth. “I was hoping you could look into it.”

Jace exhaled deeply again. “Jesus Christ.”

“He said something else, too.”

“What?”

“He said that if I don’t find her, he has nothing to lose.”

“Fuck,” Jace muttered. “That was a threat.”

“I know it was. He said you wouldn’t like it if someone you cared about got hurt.”

“Son of a bitch,” he said, more under his breath than anything.

“I’m sorry.”

“You did nothing wrong. You tried your best to deescalate a situation and, from the sounds of things, it worked—sort of. I’ll see if I can get tabs on Michaela.”

“You may want to involve the Harty Boys. They have … unorthodox means of finding people and getting things done. I’m sure you know about Rayma getting kidnapped when she was seventeen and that the guys found her in a house down in Vegas. It was a human trafficking operation.”

Jace grunted. “Yes, I know about that. But it’s still not something you should be telling a cop, Peyton. I know what they do, and most of the time it’s for the greater good and we turn a blind eye. But the more ignorant I am to their comings and goings, the better.”

“Right.”

“Do you understand what I’m saying? That the more ignorant I am, the better. But I know that they’re good at what they do, and it’s for the greater good.” He slowed down his speech and enunciated certain words.

The lightbulb in her rattled brain finally flicked on.

“Got it. Right. Got it.” She nodded.

“I’m coming to pick you up from the office tonight. Don’t leave until I’m there, okay? ”

She wasn’t about to argue with him after her encounter with Tiberius. “Okay.”

“Try not to let this bother you. If he wanted to hurt you, he would have. And you’ve bought us some time now, which is good. We’ll see if we can get a lead on Michaela, and I’ll let Vic PD know what he said to you.”

Her smile was small and forced, not that anybody was in her office to see it anyway. She broke off another piece of chocolate and popped it into her mouth. “Okay.”

“It’s going to be okay.”

“I believe you.”

They said goodbye, and she did the best she could to put this morning out of her head.

It didn’t help that the cards she pulled for her and Jace that morning were ominous at best. She pulled the Nine of Swords for herself, which was a sign that life might be getting challenging. Sleepless nights, mental suffering and constant worry could be ahead and affect her quality of life.

Jace’s card greatly disturbed him, too. It was the Seven of Swords—again.

Just like in his reading, when she pulled ten cards for him, he took it as a sign of bad things to come, and he wasn’t wrong.

In less than fifteen minutes, she finished her chocolate bar.

A knock at her door made her jump.

Rayma poked her head in, a Starbucks cup in each hand. “Thought you might need some caffeine.”

“You’re a true angel, Rayma Lassiter,” Peyton said with a sigh.

Rayma lifted her brows in curiosity and sashayed into Peyton’s office handing Peyton her chai latte, then she plunked herself down in the chair opposite Peyton’s desk. “Spill.”

So Peyton spilled. Every gritty detail. Including the tarot cards, how she felt about Bronwyn and her worry about Jace and Bronwyn reconnecting.

It was cathartic to get it all off her chest, but also painful. She also felt a little stupid when she said it out loud because some of it was petty and childish.

“Feel better?” Rayma asked, having listened in contemplative silence the entire time Peyton prattled on.

Peyton exhaled and nodded. “Yes. Thank you.”

“Good. Now, was that just a vent, or do you want advice?”

“Advice,” Peyton said without hesitation.

“Okay. Stop thinking about Jace and Bronwyn. That’s dumb and high school. He is fucking crazy about you, and she was just batshit crazy. He’s never going back to her. If he does, I’ll beat him over the head with a cast iron frying pan, then dance my way to jail because of it. Trust me, that relationship was toxic. She’s a narcissist and extremely jealous. She didn’t even like Jace coming over to our house because I was there. Like, what the fuck?”

“Okay.”

“Secondly, I will call Heath as soon as this conversation is over and we’ll figure out what happened to Michaela. At the very least give Tiberius some closure.”

“Thank you.”

“And thirdly, maybe cool it with the tarot cards for a bit, hmm? I’m not saying stop them, but just … cool it until this shit all blows over. They’re just getting you more frazzled than you need to be. You keep looking for meaning in them.”

“But I pulled the Nine of Swords!”

“Okay. I have no idea what that means. And for all I know, I could have pulled the death card today in a parallel universe where I pull tarot cards. Doesn’t mean I’m going to die, does it?”

“No, the death card doesn’t actually mean you’re going to die, it mean—”

Rayma held up her palm, a look of mild irritation on her face. “Shut up. Don’t know. Don’t care.”

“Sorry. ”

Rayma’s brown eyes softened. “Just take a break from the cards for a few days. Maybe a week.”

Peyton exhaled and nodded slowly, staring at her lap like a chastised child. “I’ll try.”

“On a happier note, I found a home for your little guy. Rowan, the FASD kid.”

Peyton’s gaze shot back to her friend’s face.

Rayma smiled. “Fiona is taking him to his new foster home today. It’s two women out in Sooke. They’ve got dogs, cats, rabbits and an enormous house with an ocean view. It’s perfect. They’ve been doing the foster parent thing for a long time and are excited to have a little guy again. They’ve just got teenagers right now.”

Peyton exhaled in relief. “Oh, thank you.”

Rayma nodded, her eyes twinkling. “Of course.”

“I love you,” Peyton said, sipping her chai latte and enjoying the sugar and caffeine that flowed through her bloodstream.

“I know. I love you, too. But also, that Tiberius fucker needs to know that if he messes with my girl, I’m going to rip him a new asshole.”

Peyton smiled at her best friend. “I believe it.”

As promised, Rayma called her brother-in-law, Heath and within the hour, the Harty Boys were on the job.

Rex, one of the four brothers, was Peyton’s assigned body guard. If she left the office, he went with her. But she didn’t leave at all, and Jace came to get her .

He met her outside her office and wrapped a protective arm around her shoulder. “How are you holding up?”

“Been better,” she said wearily. “I don’t think Tiberius wanted to hurt me, though.”

“I’m not going to take that risk. Cops are out looking for him.”

“So are the Harty Boys.”

All Jace did was grunt.

“And Chase is doing his computer genius-thing to try to locate Michaela.”

“I’m going to pretend you haven’t said any of this. If they’re doing things outside the law, I need to remain ignorant of it.”

“Right.” She nodded. “Sorry.”

They made their way down the street and to the parking garage.

“Did you just walk here?” she asked him.

He shook his head. “Had Jordan drop me off after the gym.” He shoved his free hand into his coat. The wind had picked up throughout the day and as it whipped across the bare skin of her cheeks, it created a burning sensation. They took the stairs down to her car and she handed him the keys. She hated driving on a nice day. There was no need for her to drive on a cold, dark, icy night if she didn’t have to.

He slid in behind the steering wheel and she got comfortable in the passenger seat. The seat warmers came on when he turned over the ignition and her buns began to heat up, thawing out the numbness she felt all day after her encounter with Tiberius.

As terrifying as the moment was, after finding out the why behind his actions, she actually felt sorry for the guy. Compassion trumped the fear in her heart, and she found herself nearly as desperate as Tiberius to find Michaela.

It was a long shot that she was still alive. They all knew that. But even if she wasn’t, Tiberius deserved closure. He deserved to know that his sister was at peace and to stop looking for her .

A big, warm hand landed on her thigh and gave a squeeze. “Haven’t known you that long yet, but I can tell you’re thinking about Tiberius and his sister.”

She smiled weakly. “Knowing his motive changes things.”

Jace sighed and nodded slowly. “It does. But it also doesn’t. He’s going about things the wrong way.”

“And going to the police and asking for help would have gotten him where? He’s an ex-con with gang ties. Would you have given him the time of day or entertained his notions about his sister? Based on everything I’ve learned from television, the cops would have made him rejoin the gang as a snitch as payment for information on his sister.”

His mouth twisted in thought for a long moment. They reached a red light, and he finally shook his head. “No, probably not. But also, we wouldn’t use his sister as leverage. That shit doesn’t happen in real life.”

“So, he’s doing what he can to get attention. Just like a toddler, negative attention is still attention. And you never know, maybe he did go to the police and ask for help, but they brushed him off. So this is Plan B.”

He squeezed her thigh again and glanced over at her with a warm smile. “You’re something else, you know that?”

She didn’t feel like “something else” she felt helpless. Which was probably very similar to how Tiberius felt.

“Soooo, I thought about cooking for you,” he said. “But then I thought maybe after a long day at work and after everything that’s gone on, you’d rather just hunker down at your own place. So I ordered from the Ravenous Rabbit, that vegetarian place that just opened up in the fall. Have you been?”

She shook her head. “No, but I’ve been meaning to try it. Wait, are you going to get enough calories with a vegetarian meal? Don’t you need meat?”

He chuckled and took a left onto a one-way street, heading out of the downtown core. “I ate like nine hard-boiled eggs today, a huge protein shake, and two chicken breasts. I think I can handle just having chickpeas and tofu for one meal. ”

They drove for another five minutes before he turned off onto a side road, then pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant.

“You want to come in with me, or are you cool staying here?”

“I’ll be fine,” she said. “Just make sure you lock the doors.”

He nodded, leaned forward and pecked her on the cheek, before exiting the car and jogging toward the front door of the Ravenous Rabbit.

The locks engaged when he hit the fob.

Closing her eyes, Peyton took some deep, fortifying breaths, making her exhale longer than her inhale to engage her parasympathetic nervous system and calm herself down. She was on her third round of the breathing technique when her phone warbled in her coat pocket.

A glance at the screen said it was a private number. Trepidation hit her in the chest instantly, but she talked herself out of having an anxiety attack. It was a phone call. Nobody could hurt her over the phone.

Hitting the green call button, she put the phone on speaker. “Hello?”

“Peyton?” came a deep, friendly rumble.

The prickles along her arms almost immediately subsided. “Yes?”

“Hey, it’s Chase Hart, Heath’s brother. We met at the bachelor and bachelorette party, then again at the wedding.”

“Oh, hi, Chase. Right, of course I remember you.”

Jace appeared through the windshield and was walking toward her, carrying a big paper bag. He unlocked the door and opened the back passenger door to put the food in the footwell.

“Yeah, so listen, I did some digging into that Michaela Mackinley and …”

Peyton held her breath as Jace closed the back door and opened the driver’s door, sliding his big frame back into the seat. He was quiet and stared at her phone screen on top of her thigh.

“The girl fell off the grid about a year ago. I was able to track her whereabouts until then. She was in Victoria for a while, then Vancouver. Once in a while, a debit card purchase popped up. She went to the hospital a couple of times, but then as of last January, she just vanished .”

Jace’s nostrils flared when Chase said he saw that Michaela had been to the hospital and made purchases on her debit card. Chase wouldn’t have figured that out without doing some database hacking. Illegal database hacking. But Jace didn’t say anything.”

“If there was a body, it’d be in the hospital records. Even as a Jane Doe, and I’ve scoured hospital records on the island and lower mainland and no Jane Does matching Michaela’s description turn up. I even fed her image into the software program I’m using and had the system do a facial recognition scan through the hospital morgues and nothing turned up. If she’s dead, she didn’t die in British Columbia.”

“Tiberius said she was sold ,” Jace chimed in. “So she could be anywhere.”

“True,” Chase said. “I’ll expand my search. Going international is going to get trickier and take a bit more time, but I’ll keep you posted.”

“Thanks, Chase,” Peyton said.

He grunted a response, then the call ended.

Jace exhaled deeply through his mouth and turned over the ignition. “I heard none of that.”

Peyton smiled. “Heard none of what?”

He grinned and glanced over at her, reaching for her thigh again as he backed out of the stall. “How many communists are in the funhouse tonight?”

Her smile turned sly and her eyes slid sideways toward him. “Not so many that we can’t have a little party of our own.”