“You say the sweetest things.” She preened, wrapping her arms around me and tucking herself into my side. God, she’d only been gone a month, but it had felt like my entire world had ended when she left. Everything felt off, vacant, and now with her beside me like this I felt complete again.
“Should we call your detective friend?” Vas asked, shifting closer to us to brush a hand along Nic’s arm.
Nicholette thought about it before replying “Yes. Allen should know about this. I’m sure that means we’ll get questioned.”
“Good thing I’m here already,” a new voice said. I looked over to find Ansel F?rstner and a guy I hadn’t met before standing there.
“Roderick.” Blake tipped their chin, an odd expression flickering across their face before focusing on Nic again. “How convenient you were close by.”
“Full-service lawyer, Blake,” Roderick deadpanned.
Ansel walked over to join Rhodes and stared at him with a bland expression that made me shiver. “Gasoline was definitely used for some of the buildings, but not all of them.”
“What did they use?”
“IEDs,” Ansel stated grimly. “Filled with chemicals to cause a huge fire. I wouldn’t be surprised if they found shrapnel in the women that didn’t make it out of here. It’s one of the reasons this building was so badly burned compared to the others.”
“So they set the fires in other buildings to mask the explosion or explosions in this building?” Nic asked, thinking it over aloud. “Did you hear anything explode, Wrenn?”
Wrenn shook her. “No. But I was outside when it happened. I rushed in to help people get out, but I wasn’t inside when it happened. Why the women’s quarters?”
Ansel answered in a calm voice. “Because the merchandise was here. A warning and profit all rolled into one.”
Nic nodded a few times, and I could practically feel her brain turning it all over. “Is all the security footage lost then?”
“Yes.” Rhodes kicked a piece of debris. “Everything was destroyed. Maksim isn’t going to be pleased about getting a whole new setup.”
“IEDs aren’t hard to get a hold of, so that doesn’t narrow anything down.” Nicholette sighed. “Where are the others?”
“Our place and the warehouse. They decided to split up and get it all over with,” I answered. “How did your meeting go?”
Nic shook her head, not answering my question. “Call Allen. We need to get to Millfield. And that’s a statement I never thought I’d make. There’s something I need to do before we go.”
“Want company?” Wrenn asked as Nic pulled away. She turned to stare at the other woman, her eyes narrowed, before she gestured for Wrenn to follow her.
With that, they walked out without a word, and no one broke the silence until they were out of the building. Blake let out a sharp laugh and combed their fingers through their short hair. “So that’s her ex? She definitely has a type when it comes to women.”
Vas grunted, but I had to admit they were right. Wrenn and Maeve looked very similar—blonde, similar body types, and I bet once she was very comfortable around us, her sharp mind would come to the forefront. Another player to be added to our little mess of a group?How the hell did I get stuck in a potential nine-person circus of a relationship?Of course I was only with two people, Bodhi and Nicholette, but we still had to get alone and work together with everyone in some way. Fucking chaos.
“They’re both from the same hometown?” one of Blake’s guys said suddenly, the older one with dark hair, his eyes still trained on the doorway the two women had walked out of.
“Yes,” Blake answered, looking at the guy with a confused glance.
“She’s going to leave with Wrenn, isn’t she?”
The younger guy with Blake smirked, and that’s when we heard a car start.
Son of a bitch.
I patted my clothes and realized she had taken my keys.
I’m going to fucking throttle her.
* * *
Nicholette
Tuesday