Page 38 of Inflame Me
“Mearna, sorry to have to see you under these circumstances,” Griff says to my mother, moving over to the chair across from her.
“I still can’t believe he’s dead,” Mom says. I have to say she’s pretty damn good with it. Or maybe she really does feel that way. Whichever, this is good.
“Me, either. This is Officer Miller.”
Mom nods at him while I take a seat on the couch at my mother’s feet. Before these guys came, I pulled out my makeup and gave her a hell of a lot of cover up, just leaving enough to make the car accident a plausible story.
“You said on the phone that you and your daughter decided to go on a road trip. It just happened to be the same day that your house was burned to the ground with James’s body inside.”
I turn to my mother and see a lone tear fall from her eye. My mother hasn’t had it easy in life, working her butt off for everything that we had, including helping James pay for that house. Shit!
“Yes.”
“Why did you decide to leave that morning?”
My mother wipes the stray tear from her face and sniffles. “Tanner kept asking me about her father, and I finally gave in. I told James where we were going, and he told me to be safe.” That wasn’t a total lie. I had asked about my father over and over again, but not recently.
Griff’s eye twitches. “James told you to be safe. Is that all?”
Crap. Griff knows James. James would have thrown a fit had my mother said she was going to see my father. He didn’t like other guys even looking at my mother, let alone for her to pick up and leave.
“Yes,” my mother says with the calm of a cat purring.
“Mearna, I’ve known James a long time. You want me to believe that he said that?” Griff asks.
My mother looks him dead in the face. “He did.”
“I don’t believe you.” He looks at his partner, who eyes him wearily. “There is no way he’d let you out of his sight, let alone to go find Tanner’s father, who is part of the Ravage Motorcycle club from what I hear. Didn’t know you were a biker bitch.” The sneer in his voice has me sitting up in my seat. Here comes the Griff I’ve met, the one who always made my skin crawl just by being in the same room as him.
“Officer Miller, go out and check the car,” he orders. “Where is it?” he asks my mother.
“Garage,” she responds.
“Are you sure?” Officer Miller says, and Griff gives him a stare that would breathe fire. I really don’t want the other officer to leave right now. “Okay.” He gets up and walks out the door.
“I know you did something,” Griff starts in the minute the other officer is out the door. “There’s nothing of the body left but bones, but I know for a fucking fact that James would never let you step out of the door to go to another man. You are full of shit. Tell me what you did to him.” His eyes pierce my mother and me, and my stomach falls, remembering the knife in my hand and how it felt going in and out of his flesh.
“I did nothing,” my mother says honestly, because she didn’t.
“Bullshit. I learned that your baby daddy is part of a gang full of criminals, gangsters, murders, drug dealers, and thugs. You want me to believe that James would allow that? What happened? He put you in your place, Mearna?”
Fury builds in my stomach and slowly begins to rise. How dare he feel that everything was okay because James was putting her in her place!
“That’s enough,” I cut him off.
His icy glare comes to me. “Enough of what?” he spits. “The truth? Maybe I need to start looking into this club you came to.”
The fury mixed with panic rises.
“Why? We have nothing to do with what happened to James,” I tell him.
“You’re a lying, little slut. James told me how you threw yourself at him, begging him to fuck you. Each time, he refused.”
My mouth falls to the floor, and I suck in a deep breath. “I never—”
“Save it,” he cuts me off. “I believe James over you any day. You’re both worthless trash.” He rises from the chair, his presence making me quiver.
He moves quickly in front of me, grabbing my arm and pulling me up from the couch with a yelp.
