I slammed my forehead against the door. “Fuck.”
What should I do?
“Is there a problem?”
I tensed at the sound of his smooth voice, which echoed around the narrow hallway of the third floor. Glancing toward him, I noted that he didn’t look mad. He had his arms crossed,his muscles straining the baby blue material of his shirt, but his face was soft and unconcerned.
“What are you looking for, boy?” He took a step toward me.
Downstairs, I heard Bernadette bark and Ginny laugh, and the muscles in my shoulders bunched together as I shuffled backward. There was nowhere for me to go. Behind me was a wall with a window and I was at a dead end. The hair on my arms rose as that darkness in his eyes made an appearance. Deep, deep down, there was a monster, and the craziest part was that I wanted to tame it. Maybe I’d finally gone insane.
His gaze flicked to the door I’d been standing at and back to me. “Tell Daddy what you want to know.”
I inhaled sharply and stood straighter, even though my knees wobbled from fear. I was a fighter, a man who enjoyed pain and the thrill of a good fistfight, but I’d never been this close to a murderer. I’d never thought about literally ending someone. Once in a while, someone died in a fight, but that wasn’t the same. They signed up for it and those were accidents. That wasn’t to say I hadn’t wanted to kick the shit out of Roger, but Ginny needed me and I couldn’t protect her from jail.
Taking a deep breath, I raised my chin. “I need the truth. Did you kill Roger, Daddy?”
16
ZAYN
For a few seconds, time stopped.
Keaton’s attention danced around my face, looking for clues I didn’t want to give him. Couldn’t give him. How had I not considered he might think I’d murdered his asshole ex when it flashed all over the news? Why didn’t I quietly make him disappear without a trace?
Because I wanted him to suffer.What’s done is done.
As far as that went, did anyone know Keaton had dated Roger? For the first time since I’d started this adventure in removing drug dealers from the face of the earth, I’d deviated off script.
If I ever got caught, this was going to be the body that buried me. Roger goddamned Postman.
“What brought this on, boy?” I forced a smile and tried to ignore the sensation that I’d been punched in the chest as I walked up to him.
“Why is this door locked?” He tapped on the wood.
My heart lurched, but I turned up the wattage on my grin. “I haven’t had time to move my gun collection yet, and you wereconcerned about Ginny being near weapons. Seemed prudent.” He was so cute when his nose wrinkled.
His eyebrows danced upward as his lips pursed. “Oh?” The seed of doubt, of distrust, was there, spreading. It made the line on his brow deeper.
I shooed him aside. The last thing I wanted to do was lie to him, but what choice did I have? I was pretty sure I could trust Keaton with some run-of-the-mill illegal crap, butmurderwas murder.
After the lock clicked, I pushed open the door and strode inside.
Keaton’s steps hesitated as he followed me in.
The room was my home office, so there were no big surprises. Desk. An ergonomic leather chair. Artwork of windmills in the Danish countryside. The only out of place aspect was the shiny black gun safe sitting against the far wall in a corner to the right of the bay window. The number pad on the front glowed an eerie green.
“See?” I gestured at the safe and leaned up to kiss him, but he took a step away. My heart skipped three beats as his lips drew back in a grimace. “Why do you think I killed him?”
“You had no problem with the blood and guts at the fights.”
“Neither did you.” I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from suggesting that perhaps he’d done it. I wanted to throw suspicion off me, but I didn’t want to upset him. He was still my boy. That wasn’t the direction I wanted this conversation to take. I stepped closer, and he mirrored me in a dance that had my head reeling. He was creating distance between us. Mentally, I floundered. I needed to make it stop.
“You had no problem pummeling Peanut,” he said softly.
I snorted. “The guy at the trailer park who was going to put a brick through your skull was named Peanut?”
“Well, not by his mom or nothin’, but yeah.” The corner of his mouth turned up in a weak smile.
