I swallow hard, set the phone down, and lie back without undressing because the idea of being exposed tonight makes my skin crawl. My eyes stay open longer than they should.
Oaks
Legend doesn’t lock his door. He probably should, but men like him don’t live like they expect to be surprised. I knock once anyway because I ain’t stupid, then push it open when I don’t get an answer, and I walk straight into Hudson Welles mid-thrust with Sophie pinned against the wall. She gasps, breathless and annoyed, and Legend turns his head slow like he’s deciding whether to kill me or finish what he started before he does.
“Jesus Christ,” I mutter, turning halfway around because I ain’t trying to see all that.
Legend exhales like I’m the inconvenience. “You got about five seconds.”
“I’ll talk to you in the morning,” I say first. Then I think again. “Need it now,” I reply, because the picture of that crawl space behind the wall is still sitting in my head like rot.
Sophie laughs, still catching her breath. “Of course you do. Ever think I do too?”
Legend swears, pulls a blanket around her like he’s got manners even when he’s pissed, then steps away enough to give me his full attention. “Make it quick,” he says.
“I don’t know how long I’m staying married,” I tell him, and his eyes sharpen like he already knows what I’m about to say but wants to hear it, anyway.
“That ain’t new,” he says.
“It is if I’m serious.”
He studies me like he’s weighing risk. “You made a choice,” he says. “You made a commitment. For the club.”
“I know.”
“Bethany’s daddy had leverage,” he continues, calm and cold. “Land. Access. Influence. You tied us to it. That wasn’t romance. That was strategy.”
I nod once, because I can’t argue that. “I’m tired of it,” I say.
“That’s different,” he answers, and he’s right. Being tired is a feeling. Being done is a decision.
I force my attention back to why I’m here in the first place. “We got a problem on this lake,” I tell him. “Not just the missing girl. Not just the sheriff being useless. Somebody had eyes on Brittany inside that floatel. Built a hidey-hole. Stayed long enough to get comfortable. Then ran when we found it.”
Legend’s face hardens. “You see anything?” he asks.
“I did.”
“Anybody else?”
“Holler. Maybe.”
Legend nods once like he’s filing it away. “And your boat?”
“Shot clean through,” I say. “Somebody wanted me stuck out there, or wanted me dead.”
Legend’s eyes narrow. “That ain’t Bethany.”
“I don’t think it is,” I admit. “But it could be Pearly Gates, or it could be somebody using Pearly Gates as cover.”
That lands. He knows how Hell works. People hide behind bigger monsters because it makes the story simpler.
I take a breath and say the second part even though it makes my skin feel too exposed. “I want to pursue Brittany.”
Legend’s mouth twitches like he expected it sooner or later. “You want my advice?” he asks.
“Yeah.”
“Fuck her,” he says simply. “Get it out of your system like you do every other woman.”
