I was shaken from my reverie when we pulled up in my driveway and saw a car I didn’t recognize parked there. We got out and two men in suits stepped out of the car, walking toward us. “Gabriel Dalton?” the blond man in the navy suit asked, extending his hand.
I shook it, nodding. “Yes.”
“I’m Detective Cotterill.”
I was slightly confused, but figured it was in reference to Ellie’s case, so when she came up next to me, I introduced her, but he only gave her a fleeting glance. “I was hoping I could ask you a few questions.”
The other man had walked around the car and introduced himself as Detective Barbosa, and we shook his hand as well before I answered Detective Cotterill. “Of course. Uh, come on in.”
I led them to my front door and inside, where I gestured to the living room area. “Can I get you something to drink?”
They both declined and we sat down. I glanced at Ellie, and she looked slightly nervous. “I’m assuming this is about Ellie’s case?”
Detective Cotterill shook his head. “No. This is about a boy who was abducted in town.”
“Wyatt Geller?”
Detective Cotterill looked up from his notepad. “Do you know him?”
“I know of him. I’ve been following the case closely.”
He looked at me strangely. “I see. Any particular reason for that?”
I frowned, looking back and forth between him and Detective Barbosa, who had leaned back on the couch with one arm resting on the back and an ankle on his knee. “If you don’t know, I was abducted myself when I was—”
“Yes, we’re aware of that.”
What was going on here? “Okay, well, then you can understand why I’d be interested in what happened to Wyatt Geller.”
Neither detective answered that, instead turning to Ellie. “You’re Eloise Cates?”
“Yes,” she murmured, scooting closer to me. I put my hand on her knee protectively, and Detective Cotterill looked at it there for a moment before turning his gaze back to my face. “And you work at the Platinum Pearl, er, gentleman’s club?” He’d described it in polite terms though he looked at her distastefully, conveying exactly what he thought about her job. Judgmental bastard. Anger arced down my spine.
“I used to. I’m no longer employed there,” Ellie answered.
“Is that where you met Mr. Dalton?”
“Yes.”
“How often do you patronize the Platinum Pearl, Mr. Dalton?”
“I don’t anymore.”
“Hmm,” he hummed shortly. “We spoke to the manager there.” He flipped a page on his notepad. “Rodney Toller. He said you became pretty obsessed with Ms. Cates and made several of the other girls uncomfortable, almost had to be escorted out a couple of times.”
Ellie shook her head. “No, that’s not true.”
“That’s an inaccurate version of what happened. I’m sorry, Detective, what is this about?”
“The parallels in your case and the Wyatt Geller case are very similar. We’re simply trying to figure out why. Do you know why that would be, Mr. Dalton?”
“In what way are our cases similar?”
“We’re not able to share that information at this time. We were wondering if you might already be aware.”
I paused. “If you’re implying I know something about that little boy’s disappearance that I haven’t told the police—”
“We never said that, Mr. Dalton. After all, your abductor is dead. You stabbed him, correct?” By the look on his face, he knew very well I had. Condescending asshole. Next to him, Detective Barbosa picked at his teeth.
My heart had started beating rapidly, and I worked not to show that this was affecting me. I was confused and upset that I was being questioned in this case as if I were a suspect. “Do I need a lawyer?”
“Why would you think you need a lawyer?”
I let out a pent-up breath. “Listen, Detectives, I don’t know a thing about the Wyatt Geller case that I haven’t read in the news. And I can’t speculate on why there might be parallels in our cases if you won’t tell me what the similarities are.”
Detective Cotterill closed his notepad and put it in the pocket on the inside of his suit coat, along with the pen he’d been holding. “We appreciate your time, Mr. Dalton, Ms. Cates,” he said, standing.
That was it? I stood, too, rubbing my hands down my hips. Detective Cotterill followed my movement and then gave me a tight smile. “You think of anything we should know, you give us a call.” Detective Barbosa pulled a business card out of his pocket and handed it to me.
I walked the detectives to the door and said a terse goodbye, shutting it behind them.
“What was that about?” Ellie asked, walking over to where I remained standing by the door.
“I have no idea.” I looked at her and gave her an encouraging smile. “Just covering their bases, I guess.” Still, a chill moved through my blood at the news that our cases were similar. How? And why? And what was that little boy enduring right this minute? God, I didn’t want to think about it. But I couldn’t help it.
I’d been there.
I already knew.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
We’re a team. If you hurt, I hurt.
Racer, the Knight of Sparrows
ELLIE
The weeks passed with no further communication from the police. I had to figure they’d just been doing their jobs by questioning Gabriel, although the way they’d done it, and the fact that they’d brought the Platinum Pearl into it, had shocked and shamed me.
They had looked at Gabriel as if he were some pervert when nothing could be further from the truth. Even I had recognized that he didn’t belong in the club the very second I saw him there.
The detectives had twisted things in a way that made Gabriel unrecognizable, and it filled me with anger and a burning need to defend him. And yet, I had no way to do that.
He was everything to me. If I could have crawled under Gabriel’s skin and lived there, I would have done it happily. I felt most complete when he was buried inside me, his eyes closed and his lips parted in pleasure. No other woman had ever put that look on his face. It was mine and mine alone. The sun rose and set in his eyes, and I was so deeply in love with him that I wanted nothing but to spend every waking second in his arms. It was only there I felt completely at peace.
Gabriel had all the things that brought him peace and joy. His work, his sunrise, his wind, and the raindrops on his window. But I didn’t need any of that. To me he was all of those things—I only needed him and nothing more.
Gabriel asked me to stay with him at his house, and so I did. I guessed I’d have to go back to my own apartment at some point, but our relationship was so new and so wonderful that I didn’t want to spend a second apart from him. Luckily for me, I didn’t have to since we worked together, too.
I brought the phone headset with me as much as possible and answered calls in his studio, where I watched him work. If the noise and distraction disturbed his focus, he never said so. He was working on another piece of architectural carving for a library in Germany, a foliate band, he called it, that would go on the front of the structure. It was gorgeous with intricate vines, flowers, and butterflies. If I squinted, I swore those butterflies would start fluttering their wings and come to life. That’s how real they looked.