AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“This all has to be related, doesn’t it?” I asked. “I can’t see how, but it’s the only thing that makes sense. Or am I just grasping at straws?”
“I don’t know if your kidnapping comes into play here, but it seems like too big of a coincidence. First, it was the thing with Jerry.”
“Who’s Jerry?” Dimitri asked.
“It happened before you came,” Hunter replied. “He’s better known as Corpsicle Jerry, or Loraine’s husband.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot all about that dude.”
“Hellcat, I think you’re forgetting the plausible cause and effect,” Erik told me.
“What?”
“Think of the sequence of events and then tell me you don’t think it’s all related. You ended your relationship with Dirk, then Brax shows up and suddenly there’s a hit on him—”
“That hit was because of his testimony,” I interrupted.
“Was it?”
“I don’t know,” I groaned. “Nothing makes sense anymore.”
“What if everything isn’t coincidental? Dirk, the hit on Brax, Jerry’s corpse reappearing, Loraine and Jessica meeting, Dirk and Loraine knowing each other, your subsequent kidnapping the night you saw them together, and finally Brandt is attacked, our bar is vandalized, and someone placed drugs in your office.”
“There’s no way Dirk could have pulled this all off. He’s just a—”
“That’s what I think our problem is,” Hunter cut in. “We all expected him to just be some psycho stalker, but he isn’t just that. If he was only a stalker, his obsession with you would most likely have contradicted with his desire or plan to seduce Liam’s mother.”
“His hometown is River City and people have reported seeing him there,” Dimitri agreed. “That’s a huge red flag.”
“So, the connection has to be Loraine, then?” I asked.
“I’m not sure it’s as simple as that.”
“Nothing could be simple,” I grumbled. “Why can’t someone just spot that dickhead so I can question him myself?”
“He’s gonna make a mistake,” Kujo assured me. “Most idiots like him think they’re invincible, and that’s when we’ll get him.”
“I wish I had your confidence,” I told him.
“It’s not confidence,” he argued. “It’s experience.”
“So, what’s our plan, then? Just wait for him to fuck up?”
“First, we need to wait until Brandt gets out of surgery. We’ll be able to ask him if he knows who attacked him. It might have nothing to do with the other events, but I doubt that’s the case,” Erik explained. “Then we’ll have to deal with the clubhouse.”
“So, the lockdown is still in effect?”
“It won’t be a complete lockdown, but it’s gonna last at least until we figure out who’s messing with us.”
“After that?”
“Then we go on the offensive.”
ChapterTwenty-Six
HARLEIGH
The day followingthe destruction caused by the fire, I went downstairs to the office in an attempt to collect the remnants of our documents. All of a sudden, there was a loud crash that sounded as if something big had just hit the front door. It was as if whoever was outside was using a battering ram to forcefully break it down. In an instant, my gun was out of my waistband, and I was ready to respond to any threat.
