A Whole New Crowd

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“I don’t know what you want me to tell you.” Dee was huddled in a corner, sitting on the bed. We had moved inside with Ro and a guy I didn’t know. The rest stayed outside and kept the crowd away. Dee crossed her arms and lowered her head, and I wondered if she thought she could hide from us. I snorted to myself at that thought. Fat chance, honey.
“What?” Ro was leaning against the wall by the door, her boy toy beside her. She asked again, “What’s so funny with what she said?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why do you care so much about Gray?”
She shot back, “Why do you?”
“He’s my friend.”
She lifted a hand and pretended to shoot herself. “You think you’re the only one that's friends with him?”
I opened my mouth, a retort at the tip of my tongue, when Tray cleared his throat. He straightened from the wall. “Let’s stick to the topic at hand.”
I turned my attention back to Dee. She was biting her lip, glancing between all of us. I could practically read her mind. “You’re not getting out of this. Spill what you know and I’ll let you leave with only Ro on your ass.”
“And if I don’t?”
Really? Flashing a grin, I kicked one of her legs to the side. Her elbows fell down and she almost tumbled to the floor. When a heated glare came at me, I moved my finger from side to side in front of her face. “I would’ve done real damage outside. Do you want to piss me off again?”
Ro sighed from behind me. “Dee, just tell her. My god, we’re not going to kill you. Stop acting like this. We all want the same thing.”
Dee’s loathing doubled and she pointed at me as she spoke to Ro, “Speak for yourself. She saw Brian last. He was doing something for her and he’s dead. Now Gray’s gone. All I know is that he didn’t want to talk to her for the longest time and the moment he decided to go see Taryn, he goes missing. Those two things aren’t a coincidence to me.” She swallowed, her throat jerking up and down. She crossed her arms over her chest again. “If I talk, I die. I’m not talking.”
I started for her.
She screamed and scrambled back on the bed.
No name guy jerked forward, saw that I didn’t do anything, and frowned to himself. He leaned back against the wall. Ro and Tray never moved.
“You’re sick, do you know that?” Dee pressed a hand to her chest.
I rolled my eyes. “Do you want to know what I said to Brian? I’ll talk, but you talk after I’m done. That’s the only way I’m doing this.”
She frowned.
Ro cursed. “Say yes, Dee. My god. This is taking forever. She was out for your blood. She’s not working with the bad guys. She wants Gray back as much as we do.”
“What if it’s a trap and she has us all killed?”
“If I wanted to kill you, I would’ve done it outside. These people stopped me.” I gestured around the room and to the door. “They held me back. I do my own dirty work. If I was who you’re claiming I am, I would’ve left, made a call, and had someone kill you off.” My eyes flashed. “I’m getting sick of your insults.”
Ro shot Tray a look. “She’s going dark again. Do something.”
He shot her a look back, but said to me, “Taryn?”
“What?”
“Make a call for her too, while you’re at it,” he said, staring right back at Ro. Everyone got his meaning.
She flushed, rolling her eyes. “I know Dee and she doesn’t buckle under pressure like that. You’re just intimidating her.”
I threw my hands in the air. “Asking her nicely didn’t work. Maybe treating her like an idiot will?”
“Whatever.” Ro glared at Dee. “Just talk. I’m getting sick of this.”
“Your patience has been noted.” My hands went to my hips and I turned so I was facing her squarely. “She’s not saying anything to you either.”
Ro glared at me.
“Hey,” Dee murmured, straightening on the bed. “Guys…”
“What?” We turned at once, barking the same word.
She gulped, cowered a moment, and then shook her head. “Fine. Okay. I’ll tell you.” She stopped and glanced between us.
I made a circling motion with my hand. “Go on. We’re all ears here.”
“Okay. Okay.” She nodded. Her arms unfolded and she patted her legs before moving to sit on the edge again. “Brian left me after he saw you that night at Rickets’ House. He wouldn’t tell me what he was doing or where he was going, just that you said something and he had to check it out.” She faltered, and her head moved down. “He was dead the next day. I didn’t know he was dead. I heard about it in the hallways with everyone else, and while I was devastated, I didn’t question anything. People were saying he was killed during a robbery. It made sense. He had a lot of money on him. He’d been dealing at Rickets’ all night.”
“He was Jace Lanser’s brother. No one would’ve robbed him.”
Her eyes turned to me. There was no fear. There was no caution or paranoia. I saw hurt and pain. She cared about him too. In that moment, she saw the same in me. I felt it and then she nodded. She murmured, “I know. Gray said the same thing.” She glanced at Ro, biting her lip. “He came to me two weeks later and he was asking a lot of questions. He didn’t think it was a robbery.” She nodded to me. “What you said. No one would rob Jace Lanser’s brother. They’d wind up dead themselves. Everyone knows that.”
“Tell me about Gray. I know about Brian and that night.”
Ro and her friend looked at me, but I ignored their silent conversation. I needed to know as much about Gray as possible.
“He thought there was a different story. He wanted to know what I knew and what Brian said to me. So I told him, but he didn’t want to tell you. He said you had enough to deal with. I didn’t know what he meant, but he was adamant about not bothering you with this. I believed him. I trusted him.” She lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “I didn’t know what he was thinking, but I cared about Brian.” She looked back to me as she said, “I’ve since learned about your history with him. I didn’t know at that time who you were, but it stung. And hearing that Gray was protecting you, that stung too. Who were you? Did you shit gold or something? That’s how they talked about you. Seeing you tonight, I don’t know, I was angry and maybe jealous.”
I started laughing. I was fed up. “Are you kidding me?”
She flinched.
I added, “My ex-boyfriend, someone who I loved, was killed. Someone else who I care about is missing, and you’re jealous? Get. Over. Yourself.” My chest was tight and I took two steps towards her. My hands were balled in fists again, pressing against my leg. “We’re not playing around here. Brian is dead. I’m hoping Gray isn’t. Your emotions don’t matter. Ever.”
She sucked in her breath, tears welled up in her eyes, and I saw her start to crumble again. I turned to Tray. I couldn’t hold back anymore. He saw my impatience and nodded. Gesturing for me to step back, he stepped forward and took my place. “What did you and Gray do?” he asked, his tone gentle.
I crossed the room and took up where he’d been standing, keeping watch outside the window, but I could see from the window’s reflection that she’ glanced at me.
“Dee.”
She turned to him. “We…” She looked at me again.
“Dee,” Tray said calmly, “what did you and Gray do?”
“We teamed up, okay? He didn’t want to tell anyone about this, but when he didn’t show up for school today, it’s like it’s happening all over again.” She shook her head. “He thought Brian was dead because of Jace. I didn’t know what to think of that. I mean, they’re brothers, right? But I know that Brian hated Jace and there hasn't been a relationship between them for a while. Gray wanted to ask his brother some questions.”
“What did Jace say?”
“Nothing. We never found him. Jace Lanser is missing or,” her lip trembled, “he’s gone or dead, you know?”
Reaching for the window frame, my fingers curled around it. I didn’t dare breathe, the hope was so strong in me.
Looking at Ro now, she added, “Gray didn’t want to tell you anything. He said he didn’t want you to worry either.”
I shook my head and turned around. “Why do you think Jace is missing? He’s never been available for just anyone to find him.”
“I know, but we staked out everywhere and waited for him. There was nothing. His clubs, his businesses, even the Panther’s headquarters. His house. Brian’s old house. Nothing. Gray said he had one last place to look and then he was going to tell you what was going on.”
“Do you know where that was?”
“I assumed it was your house. Brian always talked about how close you and Jace used to be. He thought his brother was obsessed with you. I just assumed that’s what Gray meant.”
Nowhere. That’s where this interrogation had gotten us. No-f*cking-where. I turned to Tray. “Let’s go. We have to find Gray.”
No one stopped us. We swept through the house and out to the parking lot. Once we were out of earshot, I stopped, bent over, and let out a scream. It had been sitting on the bottom of my throat, waiting for me to let it loose, and I didn’t hold back. My hands grasped my hair and pulled on it.
Once I was done, I glanced at Tray. He lifted an eyebrow. “You want to scream again or do you want to hear my suggestion?”
“No.” I had one more lead. “I know someone else who might know something about Jace.”
“Who?”
“Kevin. The guy he forced to adopt me.”
*

I knew no one was home, but I parked my car around the block and walked anyway. I was dressed from head to toe in black with a red bandana around my neck. There were better items to wear, a black bandana would’ve been better, but I wanted red. It stood for Brian’s death. I was being dramatic, but I didn’t care. I didn’t know what would happen or what lengths I would go to that night. I wanted information. Kevin was going to tell me everything and if I needed to look like a homicidal maniac to get it, so be it.
Letting myself into the house, I pocketed my key and kept the lights off. Mandy was with Shelly. The two left town for Austin’s tournament and Tray texted me that Kevin had driven past him further down the road. He was on his way home. So I sat and waited.
A few minutes later, the car’s headlights flashed through the house as it turned into the driveway. The garage door opened and he parked inside. The engine turned off. He was coming. Closing my eyes, I took out my knife. That, also, was intended to strike fear in my adoptive father. When he opened the door, the light switched on and I heard his gasp. Then he belted out an abrupt laugh. “Taryn, you scared the hell out of me.”
I was still in the shadows. The kitchen light didn’t extend all the way to the end of the table where I was sitting. When he closed the door and stepped closer, he saw what I was wearing. The laughter faded and his eyes dropped to the knife. “What’s that for?”
I picked it up and put the end on the table. Then I let it spin. As I held it in place with the palm of my hand, I watched him. He watched it spin. He wasn’t laughing anymore, and he moved back a step.
“Taryn?”
I continued to stare at him until I saw his hand slide inside of his pocket. He was reaching for his phone. I asked, “Who are you going to call?”
His hand fell out of his jacket pocket. “I suppose I can’t call the cops.” He looked down. His tie was twisted, but he let it be. “I had a business meeting. What are you doing in my house?”
I glanced to the hallway. There was a pile of boxes lined up by the front door. “Are you moving?”
“Taryn.” He grimaced. “Just tell me what you want to know and I’ll tell you. I won’t hold anything back. I’m tired of all the lies. I want it over.” He closed his eyes. Resting his elbow on the counter, his fingers rubbed at his temple. “What do you want to know, Taryn?”
I laid the knife down. “Everything. Start with what you did for Jace.”
He nodded. “Okay.” His shoulders lifted and fell. “I did anything Jace wanted. Mostly, I wrote prescriptions for whatever name they gave me. He sent people to me to treat. I was their physician on hand, their medical bitch.”
“What did you get out of it?”
“Money. I got a lot of money. Both Mandy and Austin have their futures set. They can go to any college they want, and I put enough in their trust funds so they should never hurt in life. Shelly wanted to adopt a child a long time ago and we started another trust fund for that person.” Regret and pain flared in his eyes for a moment. “We had someone picked out. She even stayed with us, but there was a problem with the paperwork and she went back to her real family.” He turned away. His hand dropped from his temple and his shoulders drooped. “She died three months later. Her father beat her to death.”
“You had another foster kid that you wanted to adopt?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“Why didn’t Mandy or Austin say anything?”
“We never told them. They didn’t know who the girl was. We told them she was a daughter of a friend.” There was anguish in his voice. He dropped to a whisper. “Shelly cried every night for months, but the kids never knew. We didn’t want to get their hopes up.”
I frowned. “Let’s get back to your work with Galverson and Jace. How did everything start?”
A soft chuckle left him. He nodded. “Yeah, okay.” His hand went back to pinching the top of his nose. “Uh, Jace recruited me. He said he wanted a physician on hand to treat their people and to give them pills when they needed. It went on for years. Then things changed a few years ago—”
“How long ago?”
“Maybe five years? I think. I was stupid, Taryn. Jace recruited me when he was young. I took him as a real patient. He built a relationship with me. He came in with broken ribs, bruises all over him. It was obvious that he was getting beaten at home. I’m supposed to report that, but he asked me not to. He told me it wasn’t what I thought and that he was getting out. I think I was worried that if I reported anything, something would happen like—”
I nodded. The pieces were beginning to connect and I said for him, “Like the girl who went back home and was killed. You thought Jace would get hurt like that.”
“Jace was just a kid to me.”
“Yeah.” I picked up my knife and stood it upright. The tip rested on the table, grinding into it. “He manipulated you.”
“Yeah.” His head bobbed slowly. “I can see that now. I think they picked me because of what happened with the foster girl.” He looked at me again. A shine of tears in his eyes. They were sitting there, but they never spilled. “He talked to me about Brian, his brother, and about you. He talked about their dad. How their mom left them. I was emotionally involved before I realized it. I cared for Jace like he was my own son. I started talking to him about Mandy and Austin. I told him about the other girl. Her name was Cara. God,” he laughed bitterly, “I can’t believe I even told him her name, but he knew. Thinking back, he never reacted. He knew all of it. He probably knew everything about my children.”
I gritted my teeth.
He kept going, “A lawsuit was brought against me. I messed up in a surgery, and the case against me didn’t look good. I was going to lose my practice. Jace picked up that something was wrong, and I told him about it.” He paused for a moment. Then another moment. I sat and waited. When he spoke again, his voice was hoarse. “He took care of it. Just like that. The case against me was gone. I didn’t know what he did. I didn’t want to know, but it was gone and I still had my future.”
“That’s when you started working for him?”
He nodded. “It started with one prescription, for his brother. Then his cousin. Then his friend. Then there was a list of five every day. I panicked. I didn’t want to keep working for him.”
He stopped, and I waited.
“Then the money started coming in. He paid me in the beginning, but it was nothing compared to what he paid me after I tried to stop. They dumped money in my bank account. If I had gone to the police, I would’ve looked guilty. I already looked guilty with the lawsuit. I still don’t know what Jace did to get the case dropped against me. I don’t know if I could handle that on my conscious.”
“This kept going?”
He nodded. “Years. I got in so deep. I was too far in and there was no way out and then I got a call one day. Someone died and the overdose came from a prescription I wrote. I didn’t know the person, but I had to pretend I did.”
I frowned. “Who called you?”
“It was a family member. They didn’t know who I was. They were trying to figure out how their sister got a bottle of pills when their family doctor had referred her to a treatment facility.” He stopped again. His breathing was becoming labored and his hand went to the counter. It was balled in a fist, but he forced his fingers to flatten. “I panicked. I hung up the phone and called Jace. He—”
He cut himself off.
“Let me guess.” My tone was wry. “He took care of it again.”
He nodded. “The protocol was that I was supposed to be eliminated. One of the patients they sent to me dropped a notebook, and there were rules written inside. He came back the next hour in a panic looking for it, but I lied. I told him he hadn't left anything or if he did, the garbage had been taken out so he shouldn’t worry. He still did. I could see the fear in his eyes. The next time I saw him was in the morgue. He had my card in his pocket so I was asked to identify his body.”
My stomach clenched, but it was faint. As he kept going, a layer of dirt was laid on top of another, then another, then another. There were so many layers, I was growing numb.
“Keep going.”
“Yeah.” He let out a sigh. His shoulders were slumped so far down that his forehead was almost resting on the counter now. He looked like half the man he had been when he first sat down. “Jace took care of it. I don’t know what he did, what he could’ve done, but he did something. There were no emails in the morning. No more patients sent to me. It was like I had been let go. I didn’t work for them anymore.” He shook his head. “I didn’t ask Jace because I didn’t want to know. I’m ashamed of myself. I can barely look at my own children when I’m home. I can barely handle being in the same room as my wife.”
“Then Jace came to you about me?”
He nodded. “I was golfing with a few of my friends when he showed up. I almost pissed my pants when I saw him driving towards me in a golf cart. He didn’t give me a choice. He handed me your file, said I needed to adopt you, and we were supposed to move. There was even a back story of what I could tell Shelly if she needed convincing.”
“That Brian was violent.” I remembered Austin’s words.
“Once I said that, Shelly was all-in. You were her mission. She wanted to save your life, whether you wanted to come along or not.”
I glanced at the boxes now. “You were supposed to move?”
“That was the other deal. As soon as we got the adoption papers signed, we were supposed to move. Jace was furious when we didn’t go, but I couldn’t convince Shelly to go. We didn’t want to argue where Mandy and Austin could overhear, so we left. We’d go to a hotel and check in and just fight about it.”
“Those were some of your trips?”
“Some of them. I’d get another reminder from Jace that we had to move, so I would call her to meet me. She didn’t want to move. That was the one thing she put her foot down about. She didn’t want to upset Mandy or Austin’s social lives. She said their well-being was too shaky and she wouldn’t do any more emotional harm to our children.” A hollow laugh came out of him, sounding like it was being dragged from the bottom of his throat. “I told her the truth. Once the adoption set-up came out, I told her most of it.”
“What sealed the deal for her to agree to move?”
“Jace threatened to kill Mandy.”
I felt as if a knife had been plunged into my gut. It was invisible, but it was there. I could imagine Jace being in the room, smiling as he twisted the knife to the side. Hearing the same threat he gave me from Kevin had me breaking out in a cold sweat. I had to ask the next question. “When?”
“They’re already gone.”
My eyes leapt to his. “What?”
His eyes grew guarded. “Shelly took Mandy to Austin’s tournament, but they aren’t coming back. Movers are coming tomorrow, and I’m bringing everything with us. I wanted to take you with us. Shelly was supposed to convince you to come, but I can’t make you go. I’m sorry, Taryn.”
They were gone. It was already done. The knife was yanked out and shoved back into me, but a part of me no longer felt the pain.
“I haven’t heard from Jace for a while, not since his brother was killed.” He paused. “I’m assuming that’s who that was? Your ex-boyfriend? Unless that was a lie as well.”
“No,” I whispered. “Brian died.”
“I’m sorry about that too. I am, but we can’t stay. I believe Jace. I know what he’s capable of. After I leave, none of us are ever coming back.”
I’d never see them again. Then I asked one last question, “Was the adoption real? Am I really your adopted daughter?”
“No.” He didn’t look away. There was no hesitation. There was no doubt. “It was faked for Shelly’s sake. None of the documents are real. There was no real background check. Shelly just thinks it went fast, but it was all a lie.”
I nodded.
I was the lie.