“I don’t understand. If he wasn’t looking for his wife, what did he want?”
“That’s just it. He does want his wife, only it’s not Annie,” Havoc admits.
I take in G’s gritted jaw and Amity’s expression as she looks between him and Havoc. Nevaeh’s face is blank, so I suspect she already knows.
When Amity gasps, I know she’s just figured it out too. “Lil,” she whispers.
Havoc doesn’t answer, but he continues to explain. “Kruger took a meeting with Jack because, at that time, we had no idea what he was really after. They were supposed to meet at a cafe, but at the last minute, we needed to change the venue. I was the one who suggested Kruger’s old place.”
Nevaeh gets to her feet and storms off. Amity looks at me, asking with no words if I need her to stay. I nod toward where my sister disappeared to, knowing she’s pissed on my behalf.
Once they’re gone, Havoc rubs his eyes, looking exhausted. “I swear to fuck, I had no idea this was going to play out like it has. I had very little info on the guy and needed to make a snap decision. And I made the wrong one. For that, I’m truly sorry.”
I sigh. “I’m not mad at you for how it played out. You couldn’t have known what kind of man you were dealing with. I’m mad you didn’t give me a heads up. I could have moved Star and me somewhere else. Now we’re on this guy’s radar, and I have no godly idea how to get off it. If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.”
“He wants Lil.” G leans forward, his forearms resting on his thighs.
“I don’t think I’ve met Lil.”
“She took off just after everything went down with Legs,” Havoc replies. “I think she figured out there were two stalkers before I did.”
“And she knew one of them was after her. She’s this guy’s wife?”
Neither of them says anything, so I look behind me to Ambros.
“I missed a shit-ton myself, spending most of my time at the hospital with Ella or at the gym, but?—”
“This is where it gets tricky. The guy, Jack, Sam, or whatever, is a PI. He’s doing the dirty work for his client, which we learned only recently. He calls her Lilac, but we managed to find out her real name is Lilian Taylor. She is, or was, the wife of a prominent surgeon. Which is how we figured out who the real client is—Dr. James Taylor. Lilian went missing and was presumed dead during a boating accident almost a decade ago. Only, apparently, she isn’t dead. She was here, with the Raven Souls MC.” G pullsout his cell phone and shows me a photo of a bearded guy with black-framed glasses and a fresh-faced Lil.
“She looks so young.”
“She was barely eighteen here. She was married and went missing before she celebrated her nineteenth.”
“So it was the Jack guy that broke into my place and took Star?” I ask, staring at the photo.
“Yeah, and my guess is he’s the one who tried to take Star from school. He’s not even trying to hide, mostly because he doesn’t seem to exist. At least on paper.” G sighs.
I look at her face and recognize the sadness behind her eyes. That haunted expression isn’t something you get from burning dinner or spilling your wine on the carpet. “She’s sleeping with the enemy.”
Havoc grunts. “I’m sure she knows that now, but?—”
I cut him off with a shake of my head. “One thing about not having cable is that I never got to watch new movies, but I saw so many older ones. AndSleeping with the Enemywas one of my favorites. I think it’s from the early nineties. It’s about a man who beats his wife so she fakes her own death to get away. And do you want to know how she did it?”
Nevaeh walks in after catching the tail end of the conversation, her arms wrapped around herself, her eyes locked on mine. “She threw herself off a boat and pretended she drowned.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
AMBROS
We leftthe women to talk and head out to the backyard with a beer each.
“This whole situation is fucked-up. He’s not gonna back off unless we give him Lil, but with Lil in the wind, that’s not an option,” Havoc grunts.
G glares at him.
“Don’t look at me like that. I wouldn’t hand Lil over to that motherfucker even if she were here, but at least I’d be able to pump her for more information about this guy. Right now, we need to take out his lackey. That shit at Star’s school? We know that has the PI all over it. No way will we find Dr. Dickhead on there.”
I look between them, feeling like I’m missing something.
