Page 69 of Hurt for Me

“What do we do now?”

“Well, they know I recorded the party. The video they took showed me checking the bodycam on my jacket, but they also probably know I can’t do much with it, so I think their warning was just that. A warning.”

Rae didn’t agree. If there was one thing she knew about powerful men, it was that they enjoyed swinging their dicks around, displaying their authority however they could.

“But I’m going to look into Felton Holdings and see what I can find,” he said. Then he paused. “I did find out something interesting about the Santa Monica address you gave me. It suffered a large fire in 2009, and two people died, neither with active dental records to identify them. The owners filed an insurance claim, said the house was supposed to be unoccupied at the time of the fire and blamed squatters, but it was denied because authorities deemed it arson.” His eyes probed hers. “Would you know anything about that?”

Rae closed her eyes. She didn’t want to lie to Dayton any more than she needed, so she opened her eyes and nodded.

“That’s why you thought Robert Coulter—Bobby—was dead. Did you start that fire?”

She was positive he could hear how fast her heart was pounding, but she had no choice but to lie about this part. Dayton was an open person, but even he wouldn’t be cool with her murdering someone, even someone as horrible as Clint. “No. And I don’t know who could’ve been in the house besides Bobby.”

Dayton had the peculiar ability to make his face go completely blank, so she had no clue how he felt about something.

He sighed. “Okay,” he said to himself. Then he gazed at her. “Are there any other skeletons I should know about?”

“Before what? You decide to cut your losses?”

“That’s not what I’m saying.” He rubbed the stubble on his chin. “I’m just trying to figure out how you got into such a desperate situation when you were so young. Why didn’t your family help you?”

It was nearly impossible to explain to others, so Rae never did. But she tried with Dayton. She told him about how her mother had abandoned her and her dad, remarried someone else, and had another kid. She almost broke down talking about finding her dad after his overdose.

“No offense, but your mom sounds like an awful bitch.”

“No offense taken,” Rae said. “You know, after she left my dad and me, I asked her why. And she told me, ‘When you want something bad enough, you need to pay the consequence.’ So, I guess a new life was what she wanted, and leaving me behind was the consequence.”

It was the worst thing her mother had ever said to her. The pain of abandonment was no longer the same, but she was sure it would hit her again when her mother died. But it wouldn’t even come close to when she’d found Viv—who would always be her true mom—strangled to death, and she wasn’t ready to tell Dayton about it yet. That kind of pain was evergreen.

“I will never understand how a parent could do that to their child,” he said. He held her hand. “I’m sorry you went through that.”

In the past, Rae had a sneaking suspicion her relationships hadn’t worked out because of the imbalance of trauma, not that she normally spoke about her own. It was hard to pretend she’d grown up in a normal family situation with an average teenage life only so she could feel equal in a relationship. Most of her past partners didn’t understand why she didn’t enjoy certain sex positions or dirty talk, but it was because it reminded her too much of what had happened in California. With Dayton, she didn’t have to worry about those aspects as much for some reason. Maybe it was because he had his own demons. Or maybe he shared her innate ability to read body language, something she did every day in her work, and he knew when she was uncomfortable.

“As much as I love talking about my fun past, I need to ask you something,” she said with a bitter smile. “Not so much for me but for Angel.”

He leaned into the couch. “You mean the whole are-you-two-still-suspects thing?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“You can tell Angel she can take her trip without worries.”

Rae released a huge sigh.

“Guess I should’ve told you sooner.”

She slapped his leg hard. “Asshole!”

“Hold on, feisty, I have a call.” He pulled his phone from his pants. “I have to take this.”

He stood up and moved over to her front windows, to where she couldn’t catch what he was saying. After he ended the call, he came back over to the couch but didn’t sit back down. His face was tense.

“I need to go. They just found Thomas Highsmith’s body.”

CHAPTER 43

RAE

2009

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