Ivy lifted her hips to find his beginning and pulled him into her with her hands on his ass. Dace was quickly reminded of his recent piercing. Though it had been several weeks, it was the first time he’d sunk into a woman and felt the new sensations it generated. It was pain and pleasure in a perfect mix…it was pure bliss, and he never wanted to feel that with anyone else but Ivy.
He made slow sweet love to her, rewriting their story, but not forgetting how they got there. There was love lost, and love renewed, and so much damn uncertainty. When he finally held her in his arms, each completely satiated, he wondered: had he just found his way back to the woman who completed his entire being or did he just get in bed with the devil. Either way, he had zero regrets. This was either their new beginning or sad goodbye.
CHAPTER 24
Dace sat in the lair at the table with his brothers so he could share the few details he’d pulled out of Ivy the night before. C.T. had just arrived after texting that he needed to see them, and it was urgent.
Dace had gone out first thing that morning for a ride on his Harley and to clear his head so he could figure out his next move. He pondered how they were going to clear Ivy’s name or, God forbid, close a case against her and bring her to justice? More and more information seemed to come their way, but they were no closer to real answers than they were the day she showed up in the alley.
He’d pulled over to take in the skyline at sunrise from the highest point in the city and work out the case that was starting to haunt him. He did some of his best thinking up there – there was something about the solitude and deafening quiet that brought him peace and clarity.
Despite the time with his thoughts early in the day and now the round table meeting with his brothers, they were no closer to answers or solutions. He’d hoped C.T. was bringing good news and was grateful for his request to see them…until he saw the look on his face when he got there. Fuck.
“We have another murder,” C.T. said. “I don’t have DNA back yet, too early, but it’s another staged crime scene with Ivy’s picture. Just like the two previous.”
“Shit,” Dace said. “You have anything we can dig into?”
C.T. held up a clear evidence bag that held a cell phone. “I got this. I was hoping I didn’t put my job on the line for nothing, and Liam could get into it and pull something – anything.”
Liam reached for the bag. “You already lift prints and stuff, or do I need to glove up?”
“Do whatever you need to do. My buddy in tech forensics let me take it under the radar when I said I was bringing it to you. Said I owe him a meetup sesh? I guess he’s a fan of your work.”
Liam smiled. “Aren’t they all? Bring him to the lair with you next time, and I’ll show him shit. Keep him on your good side.”
C.T. nodded. “I was able to look through the obvious, like this guy's phone log, and didn’t like what I found.”
“Familiar numbers, huh?” Declan asked, shifting his focus to Dace.
“Unfortunately, yes. The same two numbers we know were associated with her before as well as numbers from her phone that we couldn’t identify.”
“We have new information that may explain that,” Dace said. “Turns out, the only numbers she’s been dialing are her dads. The guy had multiple phones, and she’d been trying all the numbers she could remember since being here. Those were on Carly’s phone.”
“The phone that she stole,” Declan reminded.
“Thanks, that helps us a lot, Dec. Pointing out the obvious.” Dace was getting sick of the role of constant devil's advocate his brother was playing. “It was out of fear and desperation, not menace.”
“So she says.”
“I’d say the phone log pretty much confirms her claim. Sure, she called the numbers, but there was no answer on any of them. No incoming calls. Just outgoing.”
“Convenient,” Declan fired back.
“For fuck's sake, Dec – do you want her to be guilty that bad?”
“No. In fact, I want her to be completely innocent, but you’ve already judged and juried her as such, so one of us needs to keep this shit grounded and on track. And I’ll remind you that the call logs on her phone, from the alley, showed multiple calls over the past months to those same numbers that were quite lengthy convos.”
“Right. Before she got here. Before everyone started showing up dead. Since then, it’s been radio silence.”
“Dace. I want you to be right, but I don’t want you to be fooled. If I’m being honest, I don’t think she did any of this, but…”
“Until we clear her either way…”
Dace didn’t need to finish the sentence to know they were on the same page, even if it was a tough way to get there.
“There was a call last night.” C.T. dropped a game-changing bomb. “It shows a call from the second number just before the murders occurred.”
“Just before?”
C.T. nodded. “Yeah. 911 calls came in about thirty minutes after the last call from that phone. There was a three-minute conversation.”
“What time was that? Call took place around twelve thirty, murder around one a.m.”
“Couldn’t have been her. I was with her. I’d already found the phone and confronted her with it by that point.”
“You sure she didn’t sneak off to her bedroom at any point?”
“I was in the bedroom with her…all night. Couldn’t have been her.” Dace leaned back in his chair, waiting for the verbal assault surely coming.
“Fuck, Dace,” Declan said, slamming his palm on the table.Wylie laughed. “Sounds like it.”
Dace tilted his head in distaste. “Not the time or place, Wy.”
“This. This is why I’m riding you so hard and convicting her of shit I don’t even know to be true. You’re in too deep to keep a clear head about this.”
“Is there such a thing?” Wylie asked, trying to break up the feud with inappropriate humor. “Too deep…I don’t think it’s possible.”
A few of the men chuckled, but Declan sent a look of warning, seconded by Dace.
“Just trying to keep it light, boys.”
“We are past light,” Dace said. “We have a handful of dead bodies, cartel in our backyard, a reappearing fiancée, and a missing son I didn’t know I had. Past. Light.”
Declan shook his head and didn’t comment.
“I get it, Bro,” Wylie said. “We all missed her but not as much as you. You want her to be safe and honest. No judgment here. So, let’s get back on task and find this kid. I’d like to meet him.”
The others mumbled their solidarity in the mission because, at the end of the day, no matter who the good guys and bad guys were, one of their own was out there.
“So, I’m seeing a lot of burners here.” Liam brought everyone back to the case at hand. “Can’t really grab much other than incoming, outgoing, and length of calls. Everything else is clean, but I’ll keep digging. They all seem to match the last two phone logs too. These guys were all definitely connected to the same crowd.”