Keys To My Cuffs (The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC Book 4) (13 page)

“Tell me what you know,” Cabe demanded.

After telling him how I thought the cases were related and why, I finished off with one last succulent statement. “Goddammit, he’s just playing with me. He knew turning the lights off would draw me out of there. He also knew I’d be the one called on this one due to its similarity to the last murder. He wanted me to be the one to lead the case.”

Cabe shook his head. “I don’t see how it could be Varian. He turned over eight men, who are now in the custody of BPD. They’re on a trip to county lock-up in the morning.”

I knew that just because he gave up some names, didn’t mean he would give up all of them. “He’s got at least one more out. This guy’s got to be his partner, or right hand man. He knows Varian won’t give him up; that’s why he’s taunting me. He thinks he’s going to be able to get off scot-free, and I guaran-damn-tee you that he’s got a plan to get Varian out as well. It’s just a gut instinct right now. I can’t prove it, but why else would he give up that easily?”

Cabe watched the crime scene techs do their work for nearly five minutes as he thought over what he was going to say.

Finally, he turned and started asking questions. “Have you questioned the men? And speak with the neighbors as well as his workers.”

I nodded once.

I’d already planned on doing that in the morning.

“I need someone on Channing,” I told him.

“The department’s already strapped on funds as it is. I think it’s time you pulled your club in. Don’t take her out of the picture completely, though. She plays a part in it somehow, and you might need her to flush whoever it is out,” he said.

“I won’t use her as bait,” I snapped.

He rolled his eyes heavenward. “Did I tell you to use her as bait? Besides, my wife has a fondness for the woman, and I have a fondness for my wife. If I let something happen to Channing, I’d be denied my favorite place in the world. God help anyone and everything if my wife withholds herself from me. Everybody
would be feeling it if that were to happen.”

After the chief left, I called Tunnel over.

“Come over to Sebastian’s house in the morning. Ten or so. We have some things to work out,” I commanded.

He saluted me. “Aye, aye.”

I flipped him off and left, making a note of the crowd that’d gathered since I’d arrived.

No one in particular stood out, but I had a feeling that the killer, whomever he may be, was there. Watching the activities going on at his murder scene, and getting his jollies off while he did.

That moment when you realize life really is like a box of chocolates.

-Life Lesson

Channing

“Are you sure they all won’t be glaring at me the whole time?” I asked as I reluctantly walked up the sidewalk.

It was ten thirty in the morning, and we were already thirty minutes late, according to Loki. However, I couldn’t make my feet move.

What if they didn’t like me? What if they thought I was an uptight bitch, when in reality I was just a shy person?

“No, they won’t be glaring at you. Sebastian was the one who told me to bring you. It’ll be fine, I promise. They’re my family,” he said with those puppy dog eyes that made me do anything he wanted to do.

For instance, this morning, I made French toast, even though my stomach had been roiling at the thought of having to meet his club.

And I’d made it with a fucking smile on my face.

“Don’t leave me, okay?” I pleaded with him.

He winked at me. “We’ll see. I won’t leave you if you’re getting along with the women. And even if I do, I won’t go far.”

After that announcement, he knocked on the door, effectively stifling the sharp retort that was on the tip of my tongue.

He knew it, too, if the look on his face was any indication.

Sticking my tongue out at him in defiance, I punched him in the ass just as the door opened and a very pretty woman with mid back length blonde hair opened the door.

She also had the cutest little toddler on her hip that I’d ever seen.

“Woki!” The kid bellowed and launched herself at Loki’s empty arms.

She was cute. I mean really cute. And with Loki holding her in his arms like she was a precious angel, it was exponentially cuter.

“Hi, Blaise. How are you doing today?” Loki asked.

There was no baby talk in his question, which surprised me. Wasn’t it just a natural thing to do to talk to them like they were children, and not adults? Loki spoke to her like she was an adult, but Blaise loved it. She grabbed onto his face and pressed her lips to his scruffy cheek.

“Okay,” she said in the cutest, little voice I’d ever heard.

I wasn’t a big fan of kids. I only had experience with kids that weren’t mine or family. I’d heard that once I had my own kids, my outlook on kids would change, but I hadn’t met a child I’d liked yet.

Until this one.

“That’s my daughter, Blaise,” the blonde said. “I’m Baylee.”

She held out her hand to me, and I automatically offered the hurt one to her out of habit.

“Oh, is this the famous hand that got sliced while you and Loki were doing some BDSM sex play?”
She asked with a mischievous tone to her voice.

I looked at her like she was crazy. “No, I cut it on Loki’s badge. Hurt like a mother, too.”

Baylee smiled a secret smile at Loki, then opened the door wider. “Come in.”

Loki entered first, cutting off my questioning about what that smile was about after the knife-play question, and I followed.

He led us into a huge, open room.

I’m talking massive. The ceilings had to be a good fifteen feet high, with large brown beams lining the peaks of the ceiling.

In fact, it was so big that the room had three ceiling fans set on a long pole that spanned the width of the room.

It was decorated in a rustic way with distressed furniture, a large brown leather sectional, and a massive plasma screen TV on the wall.

There were no cords or anything, and I absently wondered how they hid them.

“Hi, Channing,” a deep male voice said from directly in front of me.

I jumped and turned my head from the study of the cordless television to the tall man standing in front of me.

He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t quite place him.

“Hello,” I said softly.

Big men had always intimidated me, but he was about the exact same size as the pseudo police officer who’d attacked me.

His build was stocky, and he had muscles that bulged with just the tiniest exertions.

His hair was brown, and his eyes were honey brown in color.

Luckily, his eyes were warm and friendly.

His smile showed me that he was genuinely happy to see me, and I instantly relaxed.

This must be Sebastian. The VP of The Dixie Wardens. The firefighter.

I liked firefighters.

“You don’t remember me from last night, do you?”
He asked with a wide smile on his face.

I shook my head, feeling the tail of my hair hanging at my back swish and sway with the motion. “Nope.”

I popped the ‘p’ as I spoke, putting emphasis on the fact that I couldn’t remember a thing about last night other than the events leading up to getting hurt, and when we were just arriving home.

Sebastian and Loki traded that secret look again, making my eyes narrow on the two.

“Why do you keep making those looks to each other? What’d I do?” I asked Loki.

“I,” he said, “will tell you later.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “You can tell me now...”

My voice trailed off when Loki’s phone rang, and he handed over the little girl to her father and walked out of the room without a backwards glance.

“Well wasn’t that just convenient,” I muttered to no one in particular.

So much for not leaving me.

The big man holding his daughter snorted. “You can say that again. He’s been avoiding us for months now.”

My attention turned from his daughter to him. “What do you mean?”

“He hasn’t come on a run with us in over six months. Keeps ducking out at the last minute. Doesn’t come by the club. His best friend hasn’t even seen him in weeks now,” he explained.

He sounded like his dog had been run over by a semi.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

I was genuinely sorry for the fact that his friends thought he had changed, but I didn’t really know what to say to that. Loki had been the same since I’d met him. He was passionate about his job. He cared about his community. He was a good man, and an even better police officer. Was that bad?

“Nothing you’ve done, sweetheart,” Sebastian said as we moved towards the kitchen.

He placed Blaise down on the ground.

His daughter followed her parents as we walked up to the granite island. I was left with Baylee and Sebastian both staring at me curiously.

“What? Do I have something in my teeth?” I asked worriedly.

Baylee giggled. “No, we’re just curious. We’ve been wondering about you for a long time.”

“Me? Why?” Surprise laced my voice.

Baylee busied herself with cracking eggs into a bowl as she spoke.

“We’ve heard a lot about you, but we haven’t actually seen you. Loki’s been undercover, and then out of town for so long that we were beginning to wonder if he’d ever pull his head out of his ass and make a move,” she explained lightly.

I watched as she whipped the eggs with a fork, and then poured them into a frying pan.

“Oh, well it was never his fault. It was mine. I have a certain hang up about cops,” I said quietly.

“Daddy! I’m pooping!” A young boy’s voice followed my statement. “Blaise is playing in the shaving cream!”

Sebastian cursed and ran out of the room after the child I hadn’t even seen disappear.

Baylee kept cooking as if the fact that her young child playing in shaving cream was of no consequence to her.

“What do you have against cops?”
She asked inquiringly.

Looking around the empty room, I ascertained it was empty before explaining.

“When I was sixteen, I was pulled over by an unmarked police car. Or what I’d thought at the time was a police car. It had the lights, and even the siren. When I pulled over, he stepped up to my passenger side window and asked me to get out. What I didn’t learn until later was that he was impersonating a cop, and he’d already raped three other women in two other parishes. I was his fourth victim, or would’ve been if it weren’t for a few teenagers trying to boost a car a half a block down from us. His fifth victim was killed, and they caught him in Mississippi three days later trying to do the same thing again,” I said quietly.

Why I’d just told all of that to a virtual stranger, I didn’t know. But Baylee was easy to talk to. She just kept cooking her scrambled eggs, and didn’t judge me in the least.

It also didn’t hurt that I knew she cared for Loki, and only wanted the best for him.

I saw the affection in her eyes for him when she’d opened the door.

“Does Loki know what happened?” She asked quietly glancing at the doorway behind me and back to me quickly.

I let my eyes drift to the doorway to find Sebastian leaning against the door jam, his eyes on his feet, and his hands clenched into tight fists at his sides.

Glancing away from his overpowering figure quickly, I nodded in affirmation. “Yes, most of it. I haven’t gotten into the
nitty
gritty with him, but I have a feeling Cabe let him know everything he knew about it. Or at least I hope. It’s not really something I like to revisit all that much.”

The doorbell rang, and heavy footfalls went from the doorway to the kitchen, through the living room, and stopped at the front door to let someone in.

A cacophony of noises came from the living room, and I got up and edged closer to the door and watched the living room fill with people.

Some wore leather vests, while others wore regular t-shirts; even Trance was there.

But he was in his police uniform, and I immediately stiffened at the sight of him.

“Trance works as a K-9 officer,” Baylee said quietly from behind me. “He’s one of the sweetest men you’ll ever meet, and he loves his wife dearly. Just last week, I saw him pick out baby cowboy boots for his new nephew. Trance’s wife is a twin. I promise, he would not be in this house with my kids if he was a bad person.”

I relaxed minutely as she spoke, and finally relaxed enough to study Trance.

He had blonde curly hair, and his build was smaller than Loki’s was, but no less powerful.

He looked sharp in his navy blue police uniform, and the dog at his side was gorgeous.

“He’s got two different color eyes. He’s beautiful,” I said in surprise.

Baylee’s giggle burst free and she covered her mouth with her hand. “Whatever you do, don’t say that in front of him. He’s so sensitive about his looks.”

My eyes moved from Trance to the other men in the room.

The older one I remembered from when Loki had met them outside his house in only his towel.

The man was hard to forget with his salt and pepper hair, muscled build, leather biker vest, and his goatee that hung to mid chest.

The fact that it was braided didn’t help, either.

The man looked badass.

In fact, if I were to think of any man to portray what I imagined a biker would look like, that man would surely be it.

“Who’s the guy with the beard?” I whispered.

Baylee looked around the room with her lips pursed. “There are like, four men in the room with beards. Do you mean Silas, the one with the gray hair? That’s the one you’re looking at right now.”

I nodded. “Yeah, him.”

“That’s Sebastian’s dad, Silas. He’s the president of The Dixie Wardens. He’s also a jerk at first, so don’t hold it against him,” she informed me.

I looked at the man in awe. “What does he do? He’s in extremely good condition despite the fact that he’s pretty old.”

“I heard that, girly. I have ears like a hawk, FYI,” Silas called from across the room, making both Baylee and I jump.