“He put up a wall between himself and the world. You shattered that wall. When he looks at you, his eyes change. I see it. I mean, not like the man goes around grinning from ear to ear now or anything, but his eyes are different. I swear, they fucking light up when he looks at you.”
She put a hand to her chest. “I love him.”
“And that’s why I’m saying thank you. Odin is one of the good ones. He’s always had my back, and it’s nice to see he found a woman who will always have his.”
She would always have his back. In a heartbeat.
Odin came around the corner. She turned her head and watched him, and as he approached, she realized Jinx was right. His eyes did seem to light up when he saw her.
She smiled at him.
Odin walked right up to her. His hand slid under the fall of her hair, and he bent and pressed a kiss to her lips.
“Oh, yes. He’s different.” Jinx’s voice held its usual teasing edge as he added, “That’s like, a super suave move. Odin is never suave. I could be staring at a stranger.”
“Fuck off,” Odin muttered.
“Fucking off. And, hey, I’ll get that ride ready for Maisey. She needs to crash, man.”
Odin’s head lifted. He stared straight into Maisey’s eyes. “I know what she needs.”
I need you. I want you. Forever.
Her arms rose to curl around his waist. “It scared me to death when he almost shot you.”
“You knocked his aim off me, baby.”
Her breath caught. “H-he said he was deliberately missing.”
Odin shook his head. “Thanks for saving my ass.”
“Anytime,” she whispered.
He kissed her again. Deep. Slow. So good that she was pressing against him before he pulled away. “A cop is staring at us,” he murmured.
They were in a police station. There were probably lots of cops staring at them.
“I think Jinx asked her to take you home. I’ll be there to meet you as soon as I do some more paperwork. Probably need to call War and update him, too, before he sees the stories on the news.”
If he hadn’t already.
Another tender kiss from Odin. Then he let her go.
The cop cleared her throat.
Right. Time to go. Maisey squared her shoulders and advanced toward the waiting cop.
“You found out what happened to her, Maisey.”
Odin’s voice stopped her.
“You’re gonna get justice for Whitney, too.”
Yes, yes, they were. Her steps seemed lighter as she joined the cop.
***
Maisey watched the patrol car drive away. Wind blasted against her, and she felt the light touch of raindrops on her skin. The promised storm was finally about to hit.
Even though the sky was dark—nearly pitch black—she figured it had to be close to noon. There had been so many questions. So much drama.
But it was all over.
She heard the slam of a door. Her head turned toward Clay’s house. Almost over. Her hands pressed against the front of her jeans. This wasn’t going to be easy, but she needed to do it. She’d been colossally wrong, and he deserved an apology. Her stride was determined as she headed for Clay’s house. She ignored the light drops of rain that fell against her skin.
His trunk was open. The big duffel bag was tossed back there again. He must have a basketball game that evening that he needed to coach. She peered down at the bag.
“Maisey.”
Her gaze lifted and her head turned. Clay was jogging toward her.
“Where’s the boyfriend?” A curt question.
“At the police station. He’s still answering questions.”
He crept closer to her. Darted his stare toward the trunk.
“You heard, I guess?” She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “About Heather and Steve?”
“Cops were here earlier.” He stopped less than a foot away from her. “Heather had left earrings here. She’d set me up. And the cops were here to collect them as evidence.” He cast a glance over his shoulder. “I think they are going to come back and do a whole crime scene sweep, just in case more evidence was left behind.”
She realized he had another duffel bag slung over his shoulder. “Got a game today, huh?”
“Yes.” Again, he was curt. “Now if you don’t mind…?”
“I’m sorry.” There. She’d said it. “I was wrong about you. I thought you were behind Whitney’s disappearance.”
“Yes, I know. You broke into my house, Maisey. Your boyfriend attacked me. You thought I was a killer.”
“Heather was setting you up. She found out about what happened in the past, and she and Steve were trying to put the blame on you.” Don’t half-ass the apology. Go all the way. “I found out about your past, too. Instead of seeing you as the victim, I put you in the role of the killer. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t really change much, does it?” He moved around her. Dumped the bag in the trunk. Something banged.
Automatically, Maisey glanced toward the trunk. Something had fallen out of the second duffel bag.
Something…
Wait, is that my laptop? She moved closer and dipped her head toward the open trunk.
“Besides,” Clay added, “you weren’t entirely wrong.”
The top of the trunk slammed down on her. Maisey fell forward and her upper body careened toward the bags.
He hit her again with the trunk, driving it into her shoulders and back, and Maisey screamed. She tried to kick back at him, but he grabbed her legs and shoved her fully into the trunk. Before she could jump out, he was plunging a syringe toward her. He drove it into the side of her neck.
“Got this from a med student. Nothing too strong, don’t worry. Just a little something to knock you out for a bit.”
She scraped her nails over his face. She’d been aiming for his eyes. She’d missed.
“Fucking hell!” He surged back. “You are such a pain in the ass, Maisey. I’m going to make you pay for that.”
He slammed the trunk.
And Maisey’s eyes sagged closed.
***
Odin’s phone was ringing. He had a detective waiting to talk to him, but he automatically glanced down at the screen. When he saw the caller, he realized that he’d almost forgotten…
“Excuse me, would you?” He turned away from the detective. Took the call. “Ali, hey, look, I don’t need the intel any longer. We got the perps.”
“Are you kidding me?” Ali demanded. “I was up all night long looking for your info. All night. I need beauty sleep, and I didn’t get any.”
He winced. “Yes, well, I’ll make it up to you. But right now, I have a cop waiting so—”
“He didn’t have his own boat, but he did have a membership. That’s why you didn’t find it the first time around. You didn’t look at boating club memberships. I looked because I am awesome like that. FYI, the membership is under his dad’s name, which made it trickier.”
“Clay isn’t the killer.”
“It’s a membership in one of those boating groups,” she continued, as if he hadn’t spoken. “You know, you pay a flat fee to get in the club, then a monthly bit for dues, and bam, you get access to all the boats in the fleet.”