Trey frowned as he considered that. “But why would something like that be on the remains of a serial killer’s victim?”
All Samantha could do was shrug as she finished bagging up the leg for transport. Because she’d been wondering the exact same thing and didn’t have a clue.
Chapter 10
“Thanks for coming with me,” Trey said, amazed at how nervous he felt as he pulled into the parking lot of the low-budget motel off Interstate 20 near Lawson. “I have to warn you in advance that Kyson can be a little intimidating. He’s a big guy and sort of intense.”
Trey smiled as he thought of his old army buddy Kyson Daughtry. Well over six feet tall and super muscular, his blond, blue-eyed friend was a monster of a man, so calling him “big” was putting it mildly. He cursed under his breath when he heard Samantha’s heart begin to beat a little faster. Realizing he was making her nervous, he did his best to backtrack.
“But don’t worry,” he added quickly, parking in a space around the backside of the building. The rooms there were the cheapest the motel had, and the only ones his friend could afford with his veteran’s benefits. “I think you and Kyson will hit it off. He might be kind of gruff, but he’s a teddy bear at heart. He’ll be thrilled to meet you.”
For Trey, introducing Samantha to Kyson was like bringing her meet his family. He and Kyson might not be related by blood, but after everything they’d gone through in Afghanistan together, they were as close as brothers. Maybe closer.
“That’s cool you and Kyson stayed in touch after you guys got out of the army,” she said, hopping out of his Jeep before he could come around and open the door for her.
Trey nodded as they walked toward his old friend’s room. It was even cooler that she hadn’t minded stopping to see Kyson on the way to dinner. Being around the homeless camp today had reminded him that he hadn’t checked in on his buddy in a while and that he was way overdue for a visit.
“Kyson is actually the reason I ended up in Dallas after getting out of the army,” he admitted. “Remember that firefight in Afghanistan I told you about that happened right before I was supposed to reenlist? Kyson was that best friend who ended up in worse shape than I did.”
“What happened to him?”
“A rocket-propelled grenade slammed into the truck we took cover behind. It hit the gas tank and sent me flying, but Kyson wasn’t so lucky. When the truck blew, flames engulfed him, covering the lower half of his body.” Trey winced at the memory. “It was so bad that he got transferred to the military hospital in San Antonio for long-term care. I moved to Dallas to be close to him and would drive down there a few times a month to see him. He stayed in the army a lot longer than I did, but spent all of that time rehabbing his injuries. They finally medically discharged him about three years ago.”
“That’s terrible.” Samantha looked around, taking in the run-down motel and its dirty surroundings, the empty beer cans and other trash lying in the corner of the stairwell. “No one should have to live in a place like this, but it seems even more of a shame for a veteran who’s served his country.”
“Unfortunately, his VA benefits aren’t enough for him to afford anything else,” Trey said. “Kyson hasn’t handled the transition back to civilian life very well and there’s still some stuff he’s working through that makes it hard for him to hold down a job. I do what I can to help, but he won’t take any money from me, so I have to settle for stopping by to see him every week or so.”
Damn, now he was babbling, not to mention telling her way more than she probably wanted to know. But the connection he had with Samantha made it easy to confide in her about things. Maybe that came with the territory when a werewolf found The One, making it easier to tell your mate what you were.
“I’d do so much more for him if he’d let me,” Trey added. “I told him he could move in with me until he saved up some money for a nicer place, but he’s proud as hell, and if I do too much, he gets pissed and thinks I’m trying to take care of him. He thinks it makes him a charity case and he hates that.”
“Does he have anyone in his life besides you?” Samantha asked, empathy clear in her eyes. “Any family?”
Trey shook his head. “Not really. He doesn’t have any family, and after what happened in Afghanistan, he does a good job of pushing people away. God knows he tries hard enough to get me to walk away. I’ve seen him with a homeless woman named Shaylee at the food bank a few times, though. She frigging adores Kyson, but he refuses to see it. He doesn’t think he’s good enough for her.”
He smiled a little when they got to Kyson’s room. Unlike the rest of the place, the exterior walkway was clear of all trash and dirt. Kyson liked his surroundings neat and orderly, always had. He might be down on his luck right now, but that didn’t mean he wanted to look like it.
“I can’t wait for you to meet him. I promise you’re going to like him,” Trey told Samantha again as he knocked on the door.
When Kyson didn’t make an appearance, Trey knocked again, a little harder this time, leaning in closer to the door to try to pick up any sounds from within the room. His friend was always home by this time of the day, since all of the manual labor temporary jobs usually finished up by six o’clock. And while Kyson would occasionally buy some beer and drink a little bit too much when he did, then go to sleep early, that was normally on the weekends when he didn’t have to get up with the sun in order to find work.
“He’s gone,” a rough voice said from their left. “Manager already cleared out the room and everything. Gave away all his stuff…what there was of it.”
Trey turned to see a skinny guy with a scraggly gray beard standing there.
“What do you mean gone?” Trey asked.
He got a sinking feeling in his stomach while he waited for the man to answer. It hit him then that the familiar scent he associated with his friend was so faint it was almost nonexistent.
“He killed himself three weeks ago,” the guy said bluntly. “I found him hanging in his shower. I heard some noise in his room and thought he might be in trouble, so I came over to check, but I was too late.”
Trey stopped listening, his whole world coming to a screeching halt. There was no way in hell that Kyson could be dead. He wouldn’t kill himself. He would have called Trey if he even thought of doing something like that.
That was a lie. Kyson had never called him when he’d needed help or anything else. How many times had his friend told him that he didn’t want to be a burden? And how many times had Trey told him that he wasn’t?
Trey vaguely heard Samantha talking to the man, heard the guy say something about Kyson being fired from a job for getting mad and punching someone. From what the man said, Trey got the feeling his friend had been fired from quite a few jobs lately. He and Kyson had shared a couple boxes of pizza and breadsticks a little over three weeks ago, and his friend had never breathed a word of any of this to him.