Twenty-Six

Vale

From my living room, I saw Anderson show up a half hour later with a couple plain clothed officers, I assumed were other detectives. A pair of uniforms and a forensics team showed up, too.

Staying out of sight, I covertly watched and waited. I hoped Dayton would understand and he'd come to me. Maybe time and evidence would shine a light of clarity that he couldn't refute.

It seemed like forever before they all left the house, Dayton included. He never looked my way. With his head down and shoulders slightly slumped, I saw the weight dragging him down, he was right back in the thick of the past. He nodded as Anderson spoke to him, and then the entire group was gone.

Not even a minute later, my brother's armored SUV pulled into Day's driveway, and Brennan got into it.

"He's coming over here to get you, too," Planny told me. He'd been on watchdog duty since relieving Biter in the wee hours of the morning.

"How do you know? You haven't even…"

I trailed off as he tapped a spot behind his ear.

"We all have subdural coms. Can't talk back through it, but the team can relay messages and track members through the device. Kale let me know a few minutes ago that you'd be heading to the club with Brennan. He's already talked to Dayton, too—ostensibly about Dayton's little brother. But your man knows where you'll be."

"He's not…" I swallowed, trying to get rid of the sawdust from the words. "He's not my man."

Planny laughed. "Right. Tell that to anyone who's seen you two together. Whatever's going on, you'll get past it."

"Don't think so, but that's a nice thought." I stood from the chair where I'd been doing my nosy neighbor routine. "I'll go pack a few things."

I'd arrange for the whole house to be packed up soon. I didn't know where I'd go, but I couldn't stay living across the street from Dayton while he thought I was a con artist and liar.

Some people might berate me or judge me for giving up. Heck, my brother might. Hadn't he told me to fight for my cop? I'd have to let him think what he would. It wasn't as if I could tell him why Day thought I was crazy.

Sure enough, the SUV was in my drive by the time I'd thrown a few things into a duffle. Holding me as close as the secret service ushering the President away from imminent threat, Planny rushed me out to the back seat and practically hefted me in next to Brennan before he leapt in to the front and Kale took off.

"Prick and Wrecker are two minutes behind us, scoping for roaches."

"Scoping for roaches?" Brennan mouthed at me.

"Looking for who comes out when it's dark or quiet—like vermin," Kale explained, though we hadn't asked aloud.

I smiled grimly to myself while I looked out the tinted window. Kale got that right about Dutch. He existed in the underbelly of society, preying on vice and pain and desperation, and apparently eliminating anyone who stood in his way.

"Can I ask you a question?" Brennan leaned forward toward Kale.

"Anything, kid. Unless it's top secret."

"It's not something classified. Just asking for a guess. Why do you think Dutch went after my brother's wife?"

My gaze whipped toward him. I hadn't expected that.

"It's really tragically simple," Kale replied. "Best guess? Your brother is great at his job, and he was getting too close to some uncomfortable truths that could blow up a whole arm of the Marreta operation. It's not uncommon for family members to be targeted to leverage some sort of cooperation or to throw a good man off his game. To answer your question, in your brother's case, and by default his wife's, it's the latter option. They wanted to turn Dayton's head away from the target."

"That's bullshit!" Brennan exploded. "She didn't deserve that, just because she was his wife. She never did a mean thing in her life."

I grabbed his hand, silently giving him reassurance. Comfort.

"That's how it is too many times, kid," Kale replied. "It's shitty. You're right."

It sure was.

"Unknown subjects. One vehicle at the cop's place," Wrecker reported through an open com link on Kale's dash.

"Deal with it," Kale bit out.

"Bring ‘em back?"

"Yeah. We can find out if they know where our subject is, then we'll hand them over to Alpha Team. They'll be very interested in Marreta info."

"On it, sir."

"What are you going to do to them?" Brennan asked. I wanted to know, too. I knew Kale went out on runs with his club, but they protected me from what they really did. And now, I wondered what it entailed.

"We'll just extract a little info," Planny said over his shoulder with a congenial smile. "Nothing to worry about."

Kale snorted quietly.

"You're lying," Brennan told him.

"Excuse me?" Planny asked.

"I can see it."

"Kid has abilities," Kale offered. "Sis mentioned it last night."

"Cool." Planny reached back over the seat, offering his fist to Brennan for a bump. "Welcome to the club."

I wasn't so sure how Dayton would feel about that. I didn't particularly feel comfortable with it. But since I was on the outs, I supposed it didn't really matter. Once we were at the club, Planny ushered Brennan away with promises of video games—a promise I knew he meant, since tech was his passion, including first-person RPGs.

Pleading a migraine, I headed to my room, knowing Brennan was safe and well taken care of. I needed to think and plan, and it would take awhile. Then I'd settle in back here at the club.

And that's how it went for the next day and a half. I walked around like a ghost, epitomizing the club's name. There was no word from Day, not that I figured he'd call me. But neither Brennan nor Kale heard from him, either.

It was the next night when a haggard-looking Dayton startled me from sleep, haloed by the bedside lamp, the circles beneath his eyes purple with fatigue and stress. His haunted eyes searched me while I stared up at him.

He was here. Day was in my suite at the club, sitting on the side of my bed.

"You almost died five years ago."

"I did die."

His throat worked as he stood. I fought the urge to reach for him and draw him back. My chest ached, and tears threatened. Again.

He stared at the ground with his hands shoved in his pockets. "I… Melonie? You're Melonie? I want to believe it. I really do. I just… I don't understand. How? I—"

"It's Vale now," I interrupted gently. "I was her. I was. But I've changed too over the past five years."

"Your heart is the same. The sweet way about you." He sighed. "I should known."

"How could you? It's not what anyone would ever expect."

His head tilted. "Yeah, well, that's true. But you know… All the bricks have been piling up, one after the other. A million little things I refused to acknowledge. Then yesterday morning took me by surprise. I'm sorry I called you a liar."

"You believe me now?"

Tears glistened in his eyes, startling me. I'd only ever seen him cry one time—at his parents' funeral.

Climbing off the bed, I tentatively wrapped my arms around him. When he didn't pull away, I held him tighter and could have cried, too, when his arms closed around me, holding me like a lifeline in a hurricane.

"Why?" he whispered.

"Why what?" I asked, confused.

"I mean… How?"

"That's probably easier to explain. But geez, Day. Don't you want to quiz me or something? Test me?"

He shook his head. "No. You gave me almost everything I needed to…finish this."

My brow furrowed.

"Finish this?" My voice cracked as my eyes burned, and my heart severed from my body.

"Oh my God, baby girl! Not us," he exclaimed, my desolate tone revealing my misunderstanding.

He swung me up into his arms then settled on the bed I'd just left, cuddling me to his chest. "I meant you gave the clues I needed to nail Dutch. I talked to Kale before he showed me up here. He told me his theory about why Dutch did what he did. It's not gonna work the way he planned."

"He got in because he flashed his badge at a client who was leaving," I said. "He told me that while he held the gun on me. It felt like an eternity, waiting for him to kill me, but it was so fast I didn't have time to even think. He was your partner. I thought he was coming to tell me something had happened to you. I was so scared you'd been hurt, and then he laughed at me. And I realized I needed to be scared for me."

"You don't have to tell me right now," Day murmured, rubbing his hand up and down my back.

"I need to. I haven't told anyone. I've keep the secret bottled up inside me all this time. Wrapped up tight with my love for you." Closing my eyes, I pressed my face into his chest, breathing in his warm, pine and citrus scent, recentering myself.

When I'd calmed slightly, I pulled up the words, forcing them out. "You wouldn't think it could happen, but I was panicking. Clinging to my body. There were forces there that tried to pull me away, but I refused to leave you. I couldn't… I was still there with my body when it got to the hospital, even though I was dead."

"Died in the ambulance, a minute out. They couldn't bring you back. Too much damage."

"Yeah. And the forces were pulling me harder and harder. I was going to lose my grip, then here was this girl there… She said, put her in my body. My best friend is dead. My fiancé was murdered. There's too much. I don't want to stay. Let her stay in my place. And then it was done. She was gone, and I was Vale. Ask Kale or any of the guys, and they'll tell you, I can't remember anything from Before-Vale."

"The amnesia?"

"Yeah. I mean there are public record things I could find out, but Kale is glad I can't remember the fiancé. I guess he was part of the team before."

"And you came back to me," Dayton whispered. "You came back." He grasped my chin and pulled my mouth up to his, and I sank into the first kiss with no secret between us. I lost myself in him, finally feeling one with my soul mate again, and letting that be all that mattered in that moment.