Page 22 of A Twist of Fate

Double-D stood and moved away from me. Understanding was in his eyes, but he had a purpose now too. “Find her,” He ordered one of the men who had come into my room at some point. Jesus, there were too many people in here.

“I’ll find her,” the man said before he took off like a flash of lightning. No one else said anything for a few long moments, but even I could feel the tension ramping up in the room.

“Excuse me, I need to be able to speak with a Ms. Gretchen Tierny,” someone stated. Whoever it was had been blocked by the people clogging my room. Double-D stepped aside and I was able to see that the man who had spoken was flashing a badge that hung around his neck. It’s a good thing he had it because his jeans and polo shirt didn’t quite scream ‘cop’ to me. Then again, I remembered speaking to him before when I first brought in. At least, I thought I did. There were flashes of memory coming to me that hadn’t been there moments ago. Being taken out of the ambulance. The man standing in front of me was shouting questions as they wheeled me into the hospital. What a dick. Why didn’t he wait? I shook off the thought because there was something more important that I wanted to know now.

“Did you find her?” My voice sounded scratchy and abused even to my own ears, but that couldn’t be helped.

“We have her in custody, ma’am. I just needed to go over things with you one more time.” I tipped my head forward and back in slow agreement. “You all can wait out in the hall while I speak to Ms. Tierny.”

“That’s not going to happen!” Lucy told the man without any hesitation.

“Excuse me?” The cop asked her as one brow raised nearly into his hairline.

“This girl just lost her baby, my grandbaby, and we are still waiting to hear news about my son who is currently in surgery.”

“Your son is Tobias Brothers?”

“Yes, and we are all family so don’t even think about dismissing anyone.”

The officer muttered something under his breath that I didn’t catch before he started his questions. “Okay, let’s start from the beginning. You said this woman had been following you around?”

I shook my head to indicate that was false. “She wasn’t following me. It was Toby. She’d gotten it in her head that he was going to be hers.” I’m sure there was no way I could hide the distaste I felt at having to tell anyone that. Not that some of the club men didn’t already know, but still. “He had been with her intimately once before, at the club.”

The detective glanced at all the men in the room and the kuttes they were still wearing. “The Aces High Motorcycle Club?”

“Yeah, she was one of their whores,” I confirmed.

“A hang-around who fucks the men when it pleases them,” Merc corrected. “Not paid for services, and not against her will.” I understood why he had to butt in there. Honestly, I hadn’t been thinking about the difference between the slang term and the official title a paid prostitute might use.

“You mentioned she followed Toby around,” the cop stated, not the least bit surprised by Merc’s clarification of things.

“It’s been months. It started when Toby and I began dating. I didn’t want to get involved with him then because of,” I hesitated, glancing at Ever for a moment. I didn’t need to go into this with the cop when she still needed to be told how her brother and I got together in the first place. It wasn’t fair. I turned my attention to her instead. “I met him when he was there about the tattoos.”

“I know that,” Ever informed me with a small little smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

“Tattoos?” The detective questioned.

“We work at Permanent Marks,” I explained. “Ever tattoos there and I work the front desk. Toby is her brother.”

The detective gave Ever a once over before turning his attention back toward me. “Why didn’t you want to date him?”

“That’s a family matter,” Ever explained. “It has nothing to do with this. It was about me.”

“Still,” he insisted, not willing to let it go until he could decide for himself if it was relevant.

“I was angry at my brother then. We’ve since reconciled. I’m guessing Gretchen was feeling a bit disloyal to me when she took a liking to my brother. She shouldn’t have felt that way. My brother is a charmer, but he’s also a good man.”

A shocked breath left me as she spoke those words. I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear that acceptance from her. It gave me the strength I needed to finish telling the detective exactly what had gone on. “We had gone out a handful of times, and I liked spending time with him. Then we were coming out of the movies one night and this woman was standing there by his motorcycle, waiting for us. She started making claims that Toby was hers and she simply didn’t mind sharing, but that it was time for him to come home to her now, because I’d had my turn.”

Lucy’s gasp of surprise caught everyone’s attention. “When was that?”

“About six months ago, I guess,” I told him.

“Six months?” Lucy whispered the question. “She’s been following him around and causing trouble that long? I thought it was something new.” She glanced over at Double-D with the question still in her eyes. I don’t know if Toby’s dad knew anything before the other day. I was under the impression that Toby had tried to handle it without his biological family being any the wiser considering their troubled history with club whores in the past. He hadn’t wanted to add to their stress and cause a bigger rift between his parents and the club. I had a hard time not feeling regrets about his decision considering sparing them meant we ultimately ended up here like this. Then again, maybe it would have happened anyway. I didn’t know and the detective didn’t give me time to dwell on it any further.

“What happened after that?”

“We broke up for a while, but then he sweet talked his way back into my life. He told me about how he had been with Gretchen once, what her purpose was at the clubhouse, and that she was just crazy because he wouldn’t be with her. We spent that night together, making up.” I felt the heat of my own blush burning up my face, but I couldn’t leave that bit out. The officer would need to know why she had fixated on Toby.

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