Or I just wanted them to understand.
Cassie had come to collect me a few minutes after Tyler left, during which time I’d recovered. That cry had done some good to my system. Cleared my head. She’d escorted me across the hall, blowing a kiss to her boyfriend who stood guard, then I’d had the loveliest greeting from the other women. Genevieve had hugged me, and Everly had laughed when I’d complimented her boobs. When we’d first met, I’d done the same, and the girls were banging now she was pregnant.
Mila and Lovelyn had me sit between them, cosy and warm.
It made me wonder how I’d felt so alone when so many cared about me. I wouldn’t waste the chance this time around.
I squeezed Lovelyn back, took a deep drink of the coffee cocktail, then sat up straight, a decision made. “Do you all know what happened to me? Before I ran?”
Five faces watched mine. I had to be brave.
“A client tried to rape me. One man with his two friends. I was already a mess, but it pushed me over the edge of reason, and I was outta there, no looking back.” The telling was easier now I’d done it once. Which felt wildly unfair, considering it was the kind of thing you should never have to practice saying.
Cassie’s eyes showed her pain. “Oh, Dixie. I guessed it was bad, but fuck. Then that’s why Tyler took Sullivan.”
She hadn’t asked it as a question, but I nodded to confirm the name of that particular devil. “I told Tyler, and he handled it on my behalf.”
Her lips pressed together in anger. “If Sullivan wasn’t under lock and key already, I’d string him up by his balls.”
“I’d help.” Mila said it like she already had gloves.
The others repeated the same, then took turns in saying kind things. How strong I was. How awful the experience must have been. Everly and Lovelyn both wiped away tears. My sister hugged me.
Genevieve took a deep breath. “On Arran’s behalf, and mine, I’m so fucking sorry. That should never happen here. He knew from Manny that security fucked up that night, and that Shade had caged the guard in question, but he didn’t know the details.”
Because Tyler had kept my secrets. I’d never doubted him, but that cemented him as my man in my broken little heart. “You can tell Arran. If it helps another woman get the protection she needs, I want him to know.”
My bravery just kept going. I spread my hands, feeling oddly like I was in a bubble of safety. Nothing could touch me here. “It was traumatising, not gonna lie, but I’m working through it. I won’t let those men stop me from living. And definitely notfrom joining in with your detective work, if that’s cool?” I peeked around at them.
A chorus of ‘hell yeses’ was my answer.
Warmth filled me up from my cute heels to my high ponytail. Possibly the alcohol helped.
To catch me up, Cassie gave an update of what the skeleton girls had uncovered. Relevant because Presley, who might be discovered tonight by Tyler’s team, could be a murderer.
He’d been into skateboards and video games when I last saw him. But the real gateway drug for crime wasn’t gaming—it was being a Marchant.
Of the two women who had been killed, the first, Esther, had entered a sex auction, as had Mila, which was wild to hear. The assumption was Esther’s unidentified buyer killed her, but that was a reach as she’d later been seen picking up another auction girl, Becky. Becky had done a runner, so that was a dead end.
Karla, who I couldn’t stop remembering as kind of a bitch, God rest her, had come to Deadwater for Kane. The nerve of the woman. She’d known who he was when he came to Heaven, the club we’d both worked in. She’d told me he was a bad guy. It had been part of why I’d bolted.
As we talked, it was only too obvious how I’d been hurt in a similar way to the dead women. It had been on my mind since Mila told me my record was missing from the Marchant family vault. More, it brought back the questions Tyler had about my list of all those I thought might be hunting me.
I couldn’t deny it felt like a pattern.
I turned to Cassie. “Last year, you handled the Deadwater serial killer.”
Her mouth turned down. “I wanted to talk to ye about that. I was so sure ye were their victim.”
“But it’s possible I wasn’t, right?”
She shoved her fingers into her black curls, pushing them off her face in clear frustration. “I’ve racked my mind over exactly what happened. I said your name alongside the other women’s when I read out my death sentence. All badass and stuck on bloodlust. I took vengeance for ye. But I could’ve been wrong.” She held my gaze. “I’m sorry.”
“Aw, hun. Don’t apologise. You did that for me, and that means the world when I didn’t have anyone else.”
Cassie’s gaze turned curious. “Now you have Tyler.”
“I do. He’s amazing.”
