Page 138 of Arran's Obsession

I swapped a glance with Shade, and he slid a hand around Riordan’s throat.

“Double-cross us and you’re a dead man walking. We don’t tolerate men who hurt women, understand? I’ll see ye out. Need a ride home?”

Riordan blinked at the two sides of my friend. The hard line and the helpful. “I brought my bike. It’s parked in your fucking car park because I wasn’t hiding.”

Shade reinstated his blindfold, and we left the apartment, Gen hugging her brother goodbye then coming back to me. She drooped with exhaustion.

The lift took the two men away. Jamieson stood in my doorway.

“What now?” he said.

“The five minutes is up. I’m kicking you all out and taking my woman to bed.” I curled an arm around Genevieve. “If Don is the culprit, which sounds likely considering he was escalating in violence and Riordan accepted the accusation easily, we need to find him. Until then, he might act again. We’ll stay locked down until Friday night, and my crew will be out looking for him in force.”

“If ye don’t find him?” he asked.

“Then we open the doors again. Once a club night has passed, we’ll see what’s arisen. By then, Riordan should’ve shaken something out of his girlfriend, and Kenney should have results back from Natasha’s post-mortem.”

Cassie snorted. “Doesn’t take a genius to tell how she died.”

I eyed her. “Cherry’s gave us a motive we believed for a while, so don’t dismiss it.”

Jamieson palmed his sister’s shoulder. “On that note, we’ll head home. My family is missing me. Cass, let’s go.”

Cassie hovered, her eyes rounding and a small plea coming my way. “Okay, but can I come back? I like it here, and this has been more fun than I’ve had in forever.”

I sighed but agreed, once the heat was off. Having Cassie under my roof meant I could keep an eye on her, and fuck knew she needed something to do.

One by one, they all left. Jamieson and Cassie hitting the road, an angry but resigned Riordan escorted off the premises, and Shade to his own bed.

At last, I closed the door on the world and took Gen to our room.

She let me hug her. “I can’t help but feel my brother’s in danger.”

“The acts have all been against women, plus he’s a big guy. He can handle a world he chose to go into.”

“Just like I wandered into yours and am due whatever comes my way? Great. Will you take the choker off now?”

“No.”

“Fine.”

In my arms yet so distant, Gen curled up and slept.

I couldn’t. All I could think about was how in this lull of the storm, I was going to prove to her we had everything we needed, exactly how things were.

Chapter 40

Arran

Throughout the week, we kept to the warehouse, holed up and with the stories about Natasha settling. News articles screamed about there being a serial killer on the loose, but the police downplayed it, pointing out the differences between the two women and how the lack of any connection made it highly unlikely.

We didn’t share our theory, nor did we need to.

Natasha had put up a series of increasingly angry posts on her social media in the days leading up to her death, stating how she had found religion and was going to dedicate her life to helping others turn their back on sin. This made her a target, according to the cops, and someone coming at her for that madea much more likely outcome than any random link to a street worker.

An arrest was made. An online troll had posted comments about her being hypocritical and a fake which made the keyboard warriors connect him to how she’d been dumped outside a strip club. He was released soon after, but the blame game took the public’s attention from Deadwater and off my front door.

The police action on Cherry’s case dwindled, implying she wasn’t as valuable as Natasha, but they were wrong on all counts.

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