Page 22 of Insatiable

“What if I don’t want my father’s company?” he asked. “You know that our families have to do some questionable things when it comes to the law and right or wrong. I don’t want to do anything that might hurt you or Crew’s careers.”

“You know, Ross and Leo took over the family’s business and they both have changed a lot of things,” Dakota said. Zane knew that the guys weren’t really running their family’s businesses like their fathers had. They were on the straight and narrow, and Zane wondered if he could run his family’s business the same way, but he wasn’t sure if that was even possible.

“Before you make up your mind, how about you talk to both of them and find out how they’re running things? They might change your mind,” she insisted.

“I will,” he promised. “Ready to break and enter, officer?” he asked. She smiled over at him and nodded. He wasn’t sure how he’d get through any of this without Dakota, but he was glad that he didn’t have to.

Crew

Crew woke to someone banging on his motel room door. He looked over to check the clock on the nightstand and groaned. “It’s only four in the morning,” he grumbled. Only one person knew about his location—his boss, so it was either him at the door or unwanted company. Crew sat up and pulled his gun out of the nightstand’s drawer. He wiped the sleep from his eyes and walked over to the door, not caring that he was only wearing boxer briefs that did nothing to hide his morning wood.

He looked out the peephole and moaned again. The last thing he needed was a visit from Dakota or Zane. For fuck’s sake, he was investigating him, and talking to Zane right now wasn’t a great idea. If his boss knew that he was about to open his motel room door and have a face-to-face with the man and woman he loved, he’d have Crew’s badge, but he knew that he had no choice. From the look on Zane’s face, he wasn’t going to leave until he talked to him.

“Crew,” he shouted, “we know that you’re in there, so just open the fucking door.” He smiled at the way that his guy was still as bossy as ever. God, he had missed them both so much.

“Please, Crew,” Dakota begged, not as bossy as Zane. The crack in her voice gave away that she as on the verge of crying and that was the last thing that he wanted. It’s why he had left them a note before packing up his stuff and moving it out of the house. He couldn’t live with the man that he was investigating. It was a conflict of interest, but it nearly tore him up having to leave them both. His boss gave him no choice in the matter and made it very clear that he wouldn’t be keeping his badge if he didn’t leave Zane and Dakota.

He pulled open the door and his first thought was to pull them both into his room and hold them close. It had felt like an eternity since he was in the same room with them both—not just two weeks. “You guys can’t be here,” he insisted. “If they find you here, my whole case will be blown,” he admitted.

“You mean the case where you’re blaming me for Susan O’Hare’s murder?” Zane asked. He sounded angry, and rightly so. Crew hated that he had caused him hurt and anger.

Zane stood there, staring him down, until Crew nodded his head. “Yes,” he whispered. “I didn’t want to do it, but my boss believes you’re guilty. He thinks that you helped your father to kill Susan,” he said.

“And you believe him?” Dakota asked. “Zane didn’t kill Susan. And he didn’t help his father kill her either. He wasn’t anywhere near the club that night.” Hearing Dakota stick up for Zane hurt Crew’s heart a little. He wished that she was standing next to him, holding his hand for comfort and support, not Zane’s.

“The first time I’d ever been in the club was a week before I met you. I had just bought into the club with Ross and Leo,” Zane admitted.

“But you said that you knew about the club before the guys took it over from their fathers,” Crew insisted.

“Well, that doesn’t make him an accomplice to murder,” Dakota spat.

“I know that, but my boss needs hard evidence,” he said.

“So, it’s guilty until proven innocent now, Crew?” Dakota asked. God, she was a force when she was pissed off—a beautiful force.

“All of that doesn’t matter,” Zane insisted, stepping between the two of them. “We have the evidence that will prove my father murdered Susan, and that I wasn’t his accomplice.” He handed Crew a thumb drive and told him to play it. He walked over to his computer and when a video of Zane’s father and some other guy dragging Susan down the hallway of the club and into a private room started playing, he almost felt relieved. Zane was innocent.

“Who’s the guy?” Crew asked.

“His name is Johnny Newton. He’s one of my father’s most trusted men. I’m betting that they found out that they were recorded the night of the murder, and my father got the recording and kept it as one of his trophies,” Zane said.

“Trophies?” Crew asked.

“Yeah, apparently my father likes to keep trophies from everyone that he hurts or worse—kills. I’m just wondering if Ross or Leo’s fathers knew about this,” Zane said.

“It really won’t matter if they did,” Crew said. “They are both dead now, and Ross didn’t even know about the club before is father died, and Leo has an alibi for the day Susan was killed. He was on a business trip and has the video proof to show he was in a meeting in Switzerland at that time.”

“So that just left me and my father as suspects,” Zane said.

“You said in your note that you have enough evidence to put Zane’s dad away, Crew,” Dakota reminded. He had written that, and maybe it was a mistake to do so. “What was the evidence?” she asked. The last thing that he wanted to do now was hurtZane, knowing that he wasn’t involved, but the evidence would end up hurting him.

“Susan was pregnant,” Crew admitted.

“Fuck,” Zane whispered, “and the baby was my fathers,” he guessed.

Zane nodded his head. “I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, Zane. We got a court order to be able to exhume her body. I don’t know for sure yet, but my guess is that your father paid off a few people, including the former police commissioner, to bury Susan without an autopsy. He had to have known about the baby, and I’m betting that’s why he killed her.”

“Yeah, that would have really messed things up for him and my mother. I’m betting that he didn’t want her finding out and shut Susan up permanently,” Zane said. “Why haven’t you arrested him yet?” Dakota asked.

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