Page 31 of Savage

I stepped through the doorway and took in the complete and utter destruction. His shit was everywhere it shouldn’t be: clothes on the floor, drawers pulled open and emptied of all contents, his sheets—the ones we’d made a mess of that night—tossed as though the perpetrator had been searching for something.

I stopped once I reached the middle of his place and turned back to see him frozen by the entrance.

“They really did a number in here. It’s a mess.”

Cooper frowned, and I wanted to slap myself upside the head. How the fuck would I know this was a mess compared to usual?

Hello, genius,Lachlanhas never been here before. Remember?

But Cooper merely looked around at the chaos and nodded. “It really is. I’m usually much neater than this, I swear.”

It seemed his consternation was over the mess, not my reaction, his mind too busy trying to work out what had happened to realize my fuck-up.

“You said you had something to show me?”

“Right.” Cooper rushed inside past me and to the computer desk that sat by his window. The same window I’d watched him from, the same one I’d climbed inside of, but that was the last thing I needed to think about now.

He grabbed the backpack resting on his desk chair and unzipped it. Then he peeled back the front flap and pulled off the logo’s lining, revealing a small metallic rectangle the size of a credit card.

“I think it’s a key card.”

I reached for it, and when I turned over the cool metal item and caught sight of the symbol on it, I cursed inwardly. I knew exactly what the fuck I was holding.

Cooper was right, thiswasa key card—one that belonged to the dealers I’d been surveying the night I ran into him. The same dealers who were putting people in morgues after one hit from their product.

No wonder they’d tossed Cooper’s place. One of those fuckwads I’d laid out in the alley must’ve dropped it.

But how did Cooper get a hold of it? He’d been too busy trying not to die.

“Where did you get this?”

Cooper’s eyes widened at my harsh tone, but then he said, “I, uh, don’t know. I must’ve picked it up by accident somewhere.”

Bullshit he didn’t know. He just didn’t want to tell me for whatever reason. But that was fine. I didn’t need him to go intodetails; I knew most of them already. It was clear he’d gotten his hands on it sometime during the commotion that night, maybe when he dropped his phone. It didn’t matter either way—he had the damn thing, and I knew that was the reason behind his apartment’s ransacking.

I turned to take another look at the place, sweeping my eyes over every upturned item. “Was anything taken?” I asked, just to cover my bases, and Cooper shook his head. “But you think they were here for this?” I held the card up between my fingers.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“But you just said you think this is why they were here.” I knew I was pushing, but I wanted to see if he’d give me anything more, if he’d admit why he was in that alley that night and clear up at least one of the mysteries that had been plaguing me since I laid eyes on him. “Why would you think that? What is this?”

Cooper swiped his tongue along his lower lip. “I don’t know what it is.”

So now we werebothdealing in half-truths. The only difference was, I knew it. He didn’t.

“It’s the only thing that’s different that I can think of,” he rushed out. “I mean, if they were going to rob the place, why leave my computer? Or the cash in the jar over on the counter? They didn’t take any of that, and, well, it appears they were looking for something. Right?”

I nodded and took another look at the card in my hand. “It definitely seems that way, and if they went to all this trouble to find it, I think it’s a safe bet that they aren’t going to stop.”

Cooper’s fingers tightened around the backpack. “You think they’re going to come back?”

“It’s highly likely.” Drug dealers in general weren’t the kind of people to let some random person walk around with anythingthat belonged to them. They’d somehow connected Cooper to the failed deal and tracked his ass down. He wasn’t safe here, and there was no way I was going to leave him behind. “I think it might be best if you come with me for now. Until we can look into this some more and make sure you’re safe.”

Cooper’s eyes widened at my suggestion.“Come with you? Like, you mean stay with you?”

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