Page 98 of Stay Toxic

The wedge heels I was wearing would match perfectly with the red homecoming shirt and look like I’d intentionally meant to match it that well.

After stopping into the kitchen once more to find JJ and McCoy sharing a bottle of wine and letting McCoy know that the truck would be at Shasha’s tomorrow, I headed out to the truck and to Shasha’s.

In all, Shasha had been gone for over an hour by the time I arrived, but likely only at the house itself for forty-five minutes.

When I pulled into the street, red and blue lights were strobing through the darkness.

I spotted Shasha instantly, his arms crossed tightly across his chest, as he watched with a blank look as a tall, well-dressed man that was likely Gabriel shouted at him with four cops separating the two men.

There was an elderly couple and a younger woman off to the side, watching but not entering into the fray near the fence.

Two of Shasha’s men, only one of whom I recognized, were standing at the closed gate, watching everything.

Their eyes were a whole lot less blank than their boss’s eyes.

They looked furious, and I wondered what’d gone down in the last forty-five minutes.

I pulled to a stop pretty far back, left my bag, and got out.

Shasha’s eyes locked on mine the moment I exited the truck.

He moved slightly, and I realized that he was positioning himself so that his big body was blocking the angry man from view.

I walked up to him, past a cop that clocked me the moment that I got there as well, and curled into him from behind.

He wrapped one arm around me, his large hand going to my ass to bring me closer to him, and held me there.

I listened as the irate man continued to yell.

“…has my baby, and I want him back!”

“Mr. Stone,” one of the female officers on the scene said. “I realize why you’re here, but an officer has looked through that house as per Mr. Semyonov’s permission. There is no child in there.”

“He has him somewhere!” he yelled out.

“The only woman in there at all is an elderly woman that says she’s the maid. There is no child anywhere. No sign of a child. Not a single toy or baby paraphernalia in sight. There is no child in that house nor looks to have ever been in that house,” the female cop continued.

“I’m telling you, my wife was pregnant when she left, and then when she was hit, she wasn’t. There was no baby,” he continued. “It’s just suspicious that she was on this road at all. But there is no doubt in my mind that there was a reason for her to be on this road in particular. Why else would she have come out here?”

“I’ve already shared with the police months ago when this happened that I have no idea why she was here,” Shasha said. “This is a public road, and I didn’t close on the property on either side of my house until just two months ago. That was well after the accident. That means that she could’ve been here looking at lots of land for all I know. Hundreds of people were on this street looking at those lots.”

“I don’t care what you say, I know you’re…”

Gabriel was interrupted by the quiet officer that’d been observing everything without saying a word.

“Gabriel,” the officer said. “It’s time to go. This isnothow you’re going to solve this.”

“I don’t care what you say, Haze. I’m not leaving this time,” Gabriel said. “I’m staying until I get some answers!”

“Your answers aren’t coming,” the officer, Haze, said. “What you will get is trespassed, and then you’ll get arrested if you refuse to leave.”

“Do it,” Gabriel charged.

“Don’t bother,” Shasha interrupted then. “We’ll just go inside. It’s supposed to rain tonight anyway, so he won’t stay long.”

The guard that I didn’t know, but looked vaguely familiar, snorted.

That’s when Gabriel’s attention turned toward me.

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