Crew

C rew woke to someone banging on his motel room door. He looked over to check the clock on the nightstand and groaned. “It’s only four in the morning,” he grumbled. Only one person knew about his location—his boss, so it was either him at the door or unwanted company. sat up and pulled his gun out of the nightstand’s drawer. He wiped the sleep from his eyes and walked over to the door, not caring that he was only wearing boxer briefs that did nothing to hide his morning wood.

He looked out the peephole and moaned again. The last thing he needed was a visit from Dakota or Zane. For fuck’s sake, he was investigating him, and talking to Zane right now wasn’t a great idea. If his boss knew that he was about to open his motel room door and have a face-to-face with the man and woman he loved, he’d have ’s badge, but he knew that he had no choice. From the look on Zane’s face, he wasn’t going to leave until he talked to him.

“,” he shouted, “we know that you’re in there, so just open the fucking door.” He smiled at the way that his guy was still as bossy as ever. God, he had missed them both so much.

“Please, ,” Dakota begged, not as bossy as Zane. The crack in her voice gave away that she as on the verge of crying and that was the last thing that he wanted. It’s why he had left them a note before packing up his stuff and moving it out of the house. He couldn’t live with the man that he was investigating. It was a conflict of interest, but it nearly tore him up having to leave them both. His boss gave him no choice in the matter and made it very clear that he wouldn’t be keeping his badge if he didn’t leave Zane and Dakota.

He pulled open the door and his first thought was to pull them both into his room and hold them close. It had felt like an eternity since he was in the same room with them both—not just two weeks. “You guys can’t be here,” he insisted. “If they find you here, my whole case will be blown,” he admitted.

“You mean the case where you’re blaming me for Susan O’Hare’s murder?” Zane asked. He sounded angry, and rightly so. hated that he had caused him hurt and anger.

Zane stood there, staring him down, until nodded his head. “Yes,” he whispered. “I didn’t want to do it, but my boss believes you’re guilty. He thinks that you helped your father to kill Susan,” he said.

“And you believe him?” Dakota asked. “Zane didn’t kill Susan. And he didn’t help his father kill her either. He wasn’t anywhere near the club that night.” Hearing Dakota stick up for Zane hurt ’s heart a little. He wished that she was standing next to him, holding his hand for comfort and support, not Zane’s.

“The first time I’d ever been in the club was a week before I met you. I had just bought into the club with Ross and Leo,” Zane admitted.

“But you said that you knew about the club before the guys took it over from their fathers,” insisted.

“Well, that doesn’t make him an accomplice to murder,” Dakota spat.

“I know that, but my boss needs hard evidence,” he said.

“So, it’s guilty until proven innocent now, ?” Dakota asked. God, she was a force when she was pissed off—a beautiful force.

“All of that doesn’t matter,” Zane insisted, stepping between the two of them. “We have the evidence that will prove my father murdered Susan, and that I wasn’t his accomplice.” He handed a thumb drive and told him to play it. He walked over to his computer and when a video of Zane’s father and some other guy dragging Susan down the hallway of the club and into a private room started playing, he almost felt relieved. Zane was innocent.

“Who’s the guy?” asked.

“His name is Johnny Newton. He’s one of my father’s most trusted men. I’m betting that they found out that they were recorded the night of the murder, and my father got the recording and kept it as one of his trophies,” Zane said.

“Trophies?” asked.

“Yeah, apparently my father likes to keep trophies from everyone that he hurts or worse—kills. I’m just wondering if Ross or Leo’s fathers knew about this,” Zane said.

“It really won’t matter if they did,” said. “They are both dead now, and Ross didn’t even know about the club before is father died, and Leo has an alibi for the day Susan was killed. He was on a business trip and has the video proof to show he was in a meeting in Switzerland at that time.”

“So that just left me and my father as suspects,” Zane said.

“You said in your note that you have enough evidence to put Zane’s dad away, ,” Dakota reminded. He had written that, and maybe it was a mistake to do so. “What was the evidence?” she asked. The last thing that he wanted to do now was hurt Zane, knowing that he wasn’t involved, but the evidence would end up hurting him.

“Susan was pregnant,” admitted.

“Fuck,” Zane whispered, “and the baby was my fathers,” he guessed.

Zane nodded his head. “I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, Zane. We got a court order to be able to exhume her body. I don’t know for sure yet, but my guess is that your father paid off a few people, including the former police commissioner, to bury Susan without an autopsy. He had to have known about the baby, and I’m betting that’s why he killed her.”

“Yeah, that would have really messed things up for him and my mother. I’m betting that he didn’t want her finding out and shut Susan up permanently,” Zane said. “Why haven’t you arrested him yet?” Dakota asked.

“Because we’re waiting for the final reports to come back from the coroner. I have a friend down there who called to tell me the news, but it’s not official yet. I didn’t want to tell Zane until I knew for sure,” he said.

“And until you were sure that I wasn’t an accessory to murder,” Zane filled in.

“Yes, that too,” admitted. “I’m sorry, Zane,” he said. “I never believed that you were guilty, but I needed proof that I could take to my boss before I could do anything. He insisted that I leave you guys because living with you both was a conflict of interest. That’s why I packed up all my stuff and moved out. I take it that you found my note?” he asked.

“I did,” Dakota admitted, “and that was a shitty way of telling us that you were leaving. Why didn’t you just talk to us face to face?” she asked.

“You know how these things work,” said, “if Zane had been involved in Susan’s murder, all my evidence proving him innocent would be inadmissible in court since I’d be involved with the suspect. I needed to break away from you both to prove Zane’s innocence. Otherwise, it would have been for nothing.”

“I get that, but it doesn’t mean that you’re leaving didn’t hurt both of us,” Zane whispered. It had hurt him too, but didn’t point that out to his guy. He needed to give them both time to work through their hurt and hopefully forgive him in the end.

“And I’m sorry for hurting both of you. I hope that someday, you can both forgive me,” breathed.

“What happens now?” Zane asked.

“Now, I can go to my boss with the file that you found, and turn it over as evidence. I don’t want to know how you found it, or where, got it?” asked. He had a feeling that they had to do something unlawful to get the thumb drive, and if that was the case, the court might not allow it as evidence. “I’ll turn it in and hopefully, Zane will be completely cleared as a suspect. We’ll arrest this Johnny guy and your father.”

“Good,” Zane breathed. “Let us know when it’s done,” he said. He grabbed Dakota’s hand and tugged her along with him to the door. He wanted to protest them leaving before he had a chance to tell them both how much he loved them and wanted a second chance, but Zane wasn’t going to allow that. He didn’t even look back at as he walked out of the motel room. Dakota did though, and the look on her face nearly broke his damn heart. She mouthed the word, “Bye” to him and he nodded at her, not wanting to cause more trouble than he already had. Instead, he just stood in the middle of his shitty motel room and watched the two people he loved most in the world walk away. Maybe he deserved it since he had done the same thing to them both first, but it still hurt like a son of a bitch.