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“Was it really that hard?” Nicole says softly. “Or did you just feel guilty because you know the truth?”
“What do you mean?”
“I understand feeling guilty, but was it really hard to just not mention it? I know it’s not ideal, but as a lawyer don’t you try to sugar coat things all the time? I mean, would you outright tell a client that you know for a fact you can’t win their case? Or would you tell them that you’ll try your best?” Everything she’s saying makes sense. When I think about my meeting with Noah, it all lines up. It wasn’t hard to not mention it. But I felt awful about it. If I had to do it again though, I probably could.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“Besides,” Willow jumps in, “it’s not like you’d be out of the loop anyways. This time was harder for you because it involved other people. That’s not a common thing. Alec is your brother, An. If we all need to be in the loop on something going down, you’d still be included because he’s going to keep you safe no matter what.”
“So being with Hunter isn’t going to change that.” Nicole sounds so excited to add that bit in. But I still can’t help but think that they’re jumping too far ahead.
“Okay, I get it. But you guys are forgetting one big thing.” They both look at me in question. “I don’t even know how he feels about me. If he even wants more or not. I might just be an easy lay to him.” The words taste bitter and gross in my mouth, but it’s the truth. I don’t actually know what he wants.
“I’ve told you before,” Willow says, “and I’ll tell you again… that man is crazy about you.” I glance out the window, a perfect view of Hunter sitting on the bench across the street watching us. How he manages to look so damn casual while also being intimidating as hell is amazing to me.
“You know,” Nicole adds, “you could always just ask him.” She’s cut off when our food finally arrives and we immediately begin to dig in.
Her words continue to circle around in my head. Just ask him.Now there’s an idea.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Sebastian
The one goodthing about Anya staying with me is that I don’t have to worry about her as much when Alec calls a meeting. We got home for the day, and before Anya even had a chance to change out of her work clothes, Alec sent a message for me to get over to HQ.
Everyone is here, even Grant. He doesn't sit in on the meetings too often, mainly because of his hours and the fact that he doesn’t live on site, or on the property. I don’t know if Alec told him he has to be here, or if it just worked out that he could. I’m standing back against the wall, but instead of by the door, I’m against the far wall so I have a view of Tanner and Wyatt’s wall of monitors.
“Anya helped me narrow down any possible suspects. She’s convinced it’s none of them, but we’re still looking into all of them.” Tanner throws up pictures of six different people on the screens. None of them look threatening or concerning at all. But if there’s anything I’ve learned over the years, it’s that how someone looks doesn’t mean shit. In fact, the people who are dressed to the nines and look like they have the entire fucking world at their disposal, are usually the ones you have to worry about the most.
“I ran checks on all of them, nothing sticks out except these two.” He presses a couple of buttons and four of the pictures disappear. “This guy,” he enlarges a photo of a blonde guy that I would consider the definition of a pretty boy. “When he was eighteen, his girlfriend’s family took out a protective order against him. Since she was a minor, the full list of reasons was redacted from the documents.”
“We don’t know what he actually did?”
“We do.” He jerks his head to Grant, before pressing another button and what are clearly pictures of different papers pop up. “Grant found the original, hard copies of the documents and took some photos.” Grant doesn’t say anything, but I have to admit I’m kind of surprised. I don’t know the man all that well, but from what Alec has told us in the past, he’s kind of a boy scout. He’s not clean as a whistle, considering he stabbed the fuck out of Elijah Wilson, he has a past. But when it comes to being a cop, he usually follows the rules. The fact that he went in and basically stole classified documents doesn’t seem to be like him. Then again, it just solidifies that I really don’t know the guy.
“Aggravated assault and battery, stalking, the whole nine yards.”
“What the hell was Anya helping him with?” Jax asks, and his question mirrors my own thoughts.
“Based on his record, after this, he’s managed to keep his record pretty clean. Whether he’s actually cleaned up his act, or he just hasn’t been caught, we don’t know. But about nine months ago he got into a physical altercation at work with his boss. Testimonies of co-workers and friends say that the owner, David Ricks, was pushing employees to the brink of exhaustion. Overworking them and not honoring breaks or time-off. A few of the female employees had filed multiple harassment claims against him but they went ignored by HR. As far as we can tell, this guy,” he points to the picture. “Marcus Wehling, was just standing up for all of them after holding back for the five years of his employment.” There are a few grumbles around the table, but no one actually says anything while Tanner continues. “Anya had the case thrown out before it even went to court. An investigation was done on the company and now Ricks is in jail for not only the shit he pulled on his employees, but for tax evasion and fraud.”
“So why is this Wehling guy on our radar, then?” Cole asks.
“Well, besides his record, Anya said that once the case was thrown out, he asked her out.” That knowledge alone has me standing straighter and has anger thrumming through my veins. “She said that she let him down easy, told him that she doesn’t date clients, current or old. He seemed to handle it well, but with his past, we’re not going to just ignore the possibility.”
“Where does he live?” I ask and Tanner presses another button and another photo pops up of a piece of mail addressed to Marcus Wehling with his address.
“That’s not that far from her apartment.” Since she lives close to her office, it’s all too fucking close for comfort.
“That’s another reason why we won’t rule him out yet.” My gaze focuses on the pictures in front of me on the screen. My mind works overtime trying to recall if I’ve seen him at all. The chances of whoever is stalking Anya, has been lurking around, is pretty high. That’s usually how people like that work. They follow, learn their routine. But no matter how hard I stare at the photos, nothing stands out to me. I don’t recognize him.
“What about the other guy?” I ask, and everything on the screen changes. The photos of Wehling disappear, and the one of the other guy is enhanced.
“Steven Lawson. Doesn’t have a record, but his wife died mysteriously two days after she filed for divorce. He had an alibi, so an investigation was never pursued.”
“So why did he hire Anya?” Gunnar asks.
“His wife’s family tried to sue him for her life-insurance. Comparatively, it wasn’t a large sum. Fifty-grand. But since she had him served before she died, they felt like he shouldn’t get the money.”
