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Too exposed.
She had been way too fucking exposed already.
It bothered me to expose more of her personal life.
But this was the job.
This was what needed to be done.
Even if I didn’t fucking like it.
I simply couldn’t bring myself to be the one doing the digging. I knew Kai. And Kai loved women. He would do a thorough search, but be delicate about it, only sharing with the team what he deemed relevant, and locking the rest of it down, so it never got out.
“Anything, in particular, you want me to focus on?”
“I don’t know much. She works as a waxer in town.”
“Kennedy’s,” Lincoln mumbled, drawing my attention.
“Say what?”
“My last girl. She said the only place in town to get waxed is Kennedy’s.”
Smith looked over then, brows low. “Kennedy. As in Pagan’s Kennedy?”
Pagan.
He was a member of the local Henchmen MC, a long established group who traded arms all up and down the East coast. His girl owned a full-service salon in town. Where, apparently, Aven worked.
“I don’t figure that is relevant. Seems like it is just a job. She has no friends – or so she says – so I doubt she’s close with her coworkers. But look into it. And her life before she moved here. It doesn’t sound like she’s been here very long. I’d like to know what she was up to before she made the decision to move here, of all places.”
Navesink Bank, from the outside, wasn’t a bad place. You had the shitty area, where I chose to set up my business for a multitude of reasons. But you also had the extremely wealthy side full of McMansions. There was also the in-between where all the normal people lived. The locals tended to refer to parts of the town with directions. Oh, I live in East Navesink Bank. Where the crime rate was higher, and no woman felt safe walking alone at night. Then the others would say I live in West Navesink Bank with their noses up in the air, thinking they’re better than everyone else.
There was the beach right around the corner. There was shopping. Apartment buildings, townhouses, and free standing homes. There were parks and good schools.
If you were moving in from, say, the city, it made sense to check out Navesink Bank.
It also made sense to move here if you were in some sort – really, any sort – of illegal activity. You could shack up with a local crew, and be back to work in no time.
It didn’t make sense, however, to move here from halfway across the country.
So we needed to figure out why Aven was here in particular. Did she follow a boyfriend? Was there family here that died, or moved away? Was it supposed to be a stepping stone to New York City, and some harebrained dream of being on Broadway?
“Got it, boss,” Kai said, flipping his folder closed.
“We’ll meet back here to discuss around seven. Aven will be sitting in as well. Give Jules your order for Chinese.” Which I may or may not have chosen because I had seen a stack of Chinese menus on her counter like she ordered from the same place often.
With that, the men moved out to get to work.
I sat down to deal with the pile of paperwork that had accumulated while I was away on business, then checked in with Finn who was almost done at the house.
And I didn’t, I absolutely did the fuck not, think about Aven one floor above me. Literally. Her room was over top of my office. I had even heard her move around like she was pacing, before there was nothing, not a peep for hours. She had likely passed out.
It meant, though, that she hadn’t lost it, cried, purged whatever was inside her regarding the whole situation.
That wasn’t good.
That meant that sometime down the road, and there was no telling when this might happen, she was finally going to crack, and it was all going to come rushing back.
Killing wasn’t easy. Hell, the most ruthless of killers out there struggled here and there. Nightmares, flashbacks, compulsive tendencies, rage issues. There were no perfectly well-adjusted killers in the world.
Even the people who accidentally hit a pedestrian tended to struggle with guilt their whole lives.
Aven would not get through this unscathed. This was going to give her nightmares and trust issues and be something that would always exist at the back of her mind. When she saw sirens behind her when she was driving. When she saw a shadow outside her window. When she tried to get close with a man, and share her secrets like you would normally do, but she would know that this one, this would have to go to the grave with her.
It would be better for her to get it out here, in privacy, with people who would understand just a floor below, who wouldn’t judge the swollen eyelids and red cheeks.
