“Dru Dendinger was his PT,” Bear answered low. “He says they were just friends, but Pumpkin suspects they were more.”
Like many of the brothers, Ghost had picked Bones up or dropped him off to therapy over the years. He’d never gone inside or met any of the staff, because Bones didn’t need his hand held. But after his accident, Pumpkin had also been in therapy, and to help with travel, they’d been scheduled together.
Ghost didn’t like to get involved in his club brothers’ personal lives. They were grown men who could do what they wanted without needing him to wipe their asses. If they needed him to help with their kids or they needed an extra set of hands to fix a roofing issue, he was right there, but digging into their lives? No, Ghost did not do that.
The accusation, though, was clear, and Ghost certainly had an issue with one of his brothers having an affair with a married woman. Luckily for Bones, now was not the time, and Ghost had bigger priorities at the moment.
Cameron wasn’t Ghost’s favorite person in the world, and he certainly wished her no ill-will, but right now, he was cursing the woman for choosing an apartment on the third floor instead of ground level. Ghost thought he might pass out by the time he reached the second landing, let alone the third. The burns on his palms protested his need to hold onto the railing, and he was pretty sure he could hear his old instructors laughing behind him with every slow, agonizing step, telling him to hurry his ass up.
Maybe Tessa had a point about leaving the hospital early.
It was times like now that Ghost hated his own stubbornness. He didn’t need to go up to Cameron’s apartment. He didn’t think he’d be able to find the magic door to Narnia or that Becks and Ranger were playing hide-and-seek in Cameron’s apartment, and Ghost was the only person who could find them. But fucking hell, he needed to see it for himself. Keys had offered to video call him so he could see the apartment, but it wouldn’t be the same. He needed to see it with his own two eyes, needed to get afeel for the last place anyone knew for certain Becks and Ranger had been.
It was irrational, but Ghost was desperate. And maybe a part of himself thought he deserved the pain. He’d failed to protect Becks. He didn’t know where she was or why she was there, but he did not believe that she was there of her own free will. Ranger either. Chances were, Cameron had also gotten mixed up in whatever had happened too. She wasn’t family, nor did she wear Ranger’s cut, but she was important to Ranger, which made her important to the club.
The apartment was somewhat clean. Lived in, but nothing was broken, nor were there signs of a struggle. A beer bottle and a glass of water sat on the island immediately to his right upon entering. They both had rings of condensation under them, and neither was empty. Becks drank wine, not beer, so it was easy to make the assumption of whose was whose.
Were they interrupted? By what? If they’d been inside the apartment at the time of the explosion, they would have both felt and heard it. Ranger’s alarm would have gone off.
Ghost hobbled over to where Keys was by the couch. “What do you know?”
“Other than you being too stubborn for your own good?” the kid shot back at him.
Ghost’s eyes narrowed. “What. Do. You. Know?” he repeated in a clipped tone that dared Keys to get sassy with him again.
Keys, though, was smart enough to hold up his hands in surrender. He handed Ghost a tablet. “Cameras show Ranger, Becks, and Cameron getting into Cameron’s cage. Ranger appears drunk. I thought perhaps they were taking him to the hospital or even club property, but they went in the opposite direction.”
Ghost looked down at the tablet, watching the soundless video of Becks helping Ranger into the cage. He had to leanagainst the side of the couch as he lifted his other hand to zoom in on the video. It was blurry, but he caught the moment Becks dropped her ring.
Was it intentional? She looked upset, even worried, but if Ranger was that drunk that he needed assistance into the cage, then that was understandable. It felt off, though. Ranger wasn’t a heavy drinker. Like many of the brothers, he enjoyed beer, and he occasionally had more than the legal limit, but he wasn’t a fall-on-the-floor, sloppy drunk.
“How many beers did he have?”
When Keys didn’t have that answer, Ghost looked to Bulldog in the kitchen. The SAA opened the trash and frowned. “None in there.” He walked over to the bottle, picked it up, and took a sniff. “Nothing specific, but you can’t smell most drugs in alcohol.” He eyed the water. “Was Becks acting drunk too?”
Ghost and Keys shook their heads. “Get them tested,” Ghost instructed, not caring who did it so long as it was done.
“You think Becks drugged Ranger?”
Ghost rounded on Keys. “Becks would never harm her brother. But something made Ranger act drunk after only a few sips of that beer, and I want to know what.”
“Prez?” He turned to see Artemis step out of the bedroom. “Apollo would be able to tell us if there’s anything in that drink without needing to wait for an over-the-counter test.”
“Get him,” Ghost snapped. Everything was hurting, and his worry over his missing wife and brother-in-law was making every ache and pain more intense. The idea that Ranger had somehow been slipped a date-rape drug left a sour taste in his mouth.
As Artemis left to get her dog, Bulldog came over to Ghost. “Are we thinking Cameron is innocent in whatever is going on or not?”
Cameron had gotten into the cage on the other side of Becks and Ranger, making it harder to see her expression. She’d been with Ranger on and off for over a year. What cause would she have to harm him? But if Becks didn’t slip Ranger a drug into his beer, then Cameron was the only other suspect.
She had seemed pissed when she’d left the bar earlier.
“What is it?” Bulldog asked when Ghost frowned.
“What are the chances that Cameron was at the bar minutes before it explodesandat the apartment with Ranger and Becks when they disappeared?” he asked his SAA.
Bulldog nodded his agreement. “Until we know otherwise, we’ll operate as if she’s involved.”
The question still stood as to why. Ghost had never harmed a woman in his life, but if Cameronwasinvolved, he’d kill her himself.No onetouched his wife and lived to tell about it.
