Don’t Play With Odin by Cynthia Eden
Chapter Nineteen
“Why do you get to be happy?” Ramsey was in the shadows. Away from the cops and the flashing lights and growing throng of reporters.
It was gonna be another big story. Trouble for Hire had captured two killers. Jinx was currently handling the explanations. Smiling his easy grin. Twisting details just the slightest bit so that Ramsey was left out of the story.
Maisey inclined her head as she listened to a cop. He knew she was telling him about Heather’s confession. Hell, Heather was confessing left and right to everyone. She liked to keep telling everyone that they hadn’t actually killed Whitney.
As if that made it better.
“You get to go off into the sunset with your lady. Have the whole picket-fence ending. The kids. Probably a freaking dog. You get all of that…” Ramsey turned toward him. “And I don’t even get Whitney’s body. I can’t even bury her.”
There was fury in Ramsey’s voice. On his face. But there was also pain. It was the pain that got to Odin. “I’d be lost without Maisey.”
Ramsey stiffened.
“I’d be lost and I’d be furious, and I would want to destroy anyone who had ever hurt her.” He motioned toward Ramsey. “We aren’t so different, you and I.”
“Yes, we are.” Ramsey turned away. “You get to sleep with your woman tonight. I’ll never see mine again.” He took two steps forward. Stopped. “Make sure Jinx stays the hell away from me.”
“He was saving you from jail. If you’d killed Heather and Steve, you would have spent the rest of your life behind bars.”
“Maybe. But I would have also felt one hell of a lot better.”
“I’m not so sure about that.”
Ramsey looked back at him. “Why do you get to be happy?” he muttered again. Then he shuffled away.
Odin exhaled. He didn’t know why he was lucky that night. He did know that he hadn’t been lying to Ramsey. He would be lost without Maisey. When he’d gone down those stairs and seen Steve with the gun to her head, his whole world had stopped. In that instant, he’d forgotten his training. His plans. He’d been helpless and terrified and willing to do anything in order to get that gun away from her.
Maisey darted away from the cop. Her gaze swept the scene. Odin knew she was searching for him, and he hurriedly stepped from the shadows. Thunder rumbled in the distance. A storm was coming.
When she glimpsed him, relief flooded across her delicate features. She ran toward him. He caught her. Pulled her close. Felt her warmth and softness.
You get to sleep with your woman tonight. I’ll never see mine again.
Ramsey’s words rang through his head. Odin held her tighter. Maisey was alive. Safe. He had her in his arms. He would be sleeping with her that night. That night and every other night that followed.
He had no idea what he’d done to deserve her. He didn’t know why he got a happy ending. But he would never let anyone take that ending from him. He would never let anyone take Maisey.
“I love you,” he said, and the words were natural. Easy. He didn’t stumble. Didn’t screw up and say something stupid. He just told her how he felt.
Maisey was his world. He loved her.
He loved her.
***
There were explanations to give. Statements that had to be taken by the cops. Maisey spent more hours than she could count at the police station. Odin was by her side. Jinx was there, too, in an oddly helpful mood with the cops. Giving smooth replies to everything.
She didn’t mention Ramsey. Neither did Odin or Jinx. Steve hadn’t seen him, as for Heather…
Well, she’d been talking plenty so far. She’d confessed to attacking Whitney and leaving her to drown in the Gulf. She’d admitted that Steve was the one who’d tried to abduct Maisey at the college. That Steve had been the one to shove the storage shelves onto Maisey and Odin.
According to Heather, everything had been Steve’s idea.
Maisey wasn’t so certain of that. Heather was playing the traumatized, terrified victim now, but Maisey remembered how well the other woman had acted in the parking lot of Dunson College. How she’d pretended so effectively to be in a breakup. How she’d acted as a desperate lover at Clay’s house.
Maisey thought that Heather had been fully involved in everything that had gone down. But the cops would be the ones to press the charges. The cops and the DA. The Coast Guard was doing sweeps in the Gulf, over the area where Heather had told them that she’d left Whitney.
Not that those sweeps would do much good. Not at this point…
Not after so long.
We’ll probably never find her body. Maisey knew that, and it broke her heart.
“You should go home. Get some rest.” Jinx stood in front of her. “I can get a cop to drop you off.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Odin and I have to tie up more loose ends, but the detective said you were clear to go.”
Falling into bed seemed like a wonderful idea to Maisey, but she hated to leave Odin. Her gaze automatically searched for him.
“Thank you,” Jinx said.
Her attention jumped to him. “For what?”
“Odin.”
She shook her head, lost.
“You don’t know what he was like after those last few missions. How he pulled away. Shut down. He was hurt badly, and the darkness was pulling him under.”
Maisey rose from the sagging chair. “I saw the scars on him.”
“Those are the ones on the surface. The wounds I’m talking about are on the inside. He saw too much blood. Too much war. And he came far too close to dying.”
He’d come too close to dying just hours ago. When Steve had been taunting him and fired that bullet, her heart had nearly shattered.
“He put up a wall between himself and the world. You shattered that wall. When he looks at you, his eyes change. I see it. I mean, not like the man goes around grinning from ear to ear now or anything, but his eyes are different. I swear, they fucking light up when he looks at you.”
She put a hand to her chest. “I love him.”
“And that’s why I’m saying thank you. Odin is one of the good ones. He’s always had my back, and it’s nice to see he found a woman who will always have his.”
She would always have his back. In a heartbeat.
Odin came around the corner. She turned her head and watched him, and as he approached, she realized Jinx was right. His eyes did seem to light up when he saw her.
She smiled at him.
Odin walked right up to her. His hand slid under the fall of her hair, and he bent and pressed a kiss to her lips.
“Oh, yes. He’s different.” Jinx’s voice held its usual teasing edge as he added, “That’s like, a super suave move. Odin is never suave. I could be staring at a stranger.”
“Fuck off,” Odin muttered.
“Fucking off. And, hey, I’ll get that ride ready for Maisey. She needs to crash, man.”
Odin’s head lifted. He stared straight into Maisey’s eyes. “I know what she needs.”
I need you. I want you. Forever.
Her arms rose to curl around his waist. “It scared me to death when he almost shot you.”
“You knocked his aim off me, baby.”
Her breath caught. “H-he said he was deliberately missing.”
Odin shook his head. “Thanks for saving my ass.”
“Anytime,” she whispered.
He kissed her again. Deep. Slow. So good that she was pressing against him before he pulled away. “A cop is staring at us,” he murmured.
They were in a police station. There were probably lots of cops staring at them.
“I think Jinx asked her to take you home. I’ll be there to meet you as soon as I do some more paperwork. Probably need to call War and update him, too, before he sees the stories on the news.”
If he hadn’t already.
Another tender kiss from Odin. Then he let her go.
The cop cleared her throat.
Right. Time to go. Maisey squared her shoulders and advanced toward the waiting cop.
“You found out what happened to her, Maisey.”
Odin’s voice stopped her.
“You’re gonna get justice for Whitney, too.”
Yes, yes, they were. Her steps seemed lighter as she joined the cop.
***
Maisey watched the patrol car drive away. Wind blasted against her, and she felt the light touch of raindrops on her skin. The promised storm was finally about to hit.
Even though the sky was dark—nearly pitch black—she figured it had to be close to noon. There had been so many questions. So much drama.
But it was all over.
She heard the slam of a door. Her head turned toward Clay’s house. Almost over. Her hands pressed against the front of her jeans. This wasn’t going to be easy, but she needed to do it. She’d been colossally wrong, and he deserved an apology. Her stride was determined as she headed for Clay’s house. She ignored the light drops of rain that fell against her skin.
His trunk was open. The big duffel bag was tossed back there again. He must have a basketball game that evening that he needed to coach. She peered down at the bag.
“Maisey.”
Her gaze lifted and her head turned. Clay was jogging toward her.
“Where’s the boyfriend?” A curt question.
“At the police station. He’s still answering questions.”
He crept closer to her. Darted his stare toward the trunk.
“You heard, I guess?” She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “About Heather and Steve?”
“Cops were here earlier.” He stopped less than a foot away from her. “Heather had left earrings here. She’d set me up. And the cops were here to collect them as evidence.” He cast a glance over his shoulder. “I think they are going to come back and do a whole crime scene sweep, just in case more evidence was left behind.”
She realized he had another duffel bag slung over his shoulder. “Got a game today, huh?”
“Yes.” Again, he was curt. “Now if you don’t mind…?”
“I’m sorry.” There. She’d said it. “I was wrong about you. I thought you were behind Whitney’s disappearance.”
“Yes, I know. You broke into my house, Maisey. Your boyfriend attacked me. You thought I was a killer.”
“Heather was setting you up. She found out about what happened in the past, and she and Steve were trying to put the blame on you.” Don’t half-ass the apology. Go all the way. “I found out about your past, too. Instead of seeing you as the victim, I put you in the role of the killer. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t really change much, does it?” He moved around her. Dumped the bag in the trunk. Something banged.
Automatically, Maisey glanced toward the trunk. Something had fallen out of the second duffel bag.
Something…
Wait, is that my laptop? She moved closer and dipped her head toward the open trunk.
“Besides,” Clay added, “you weren’t entirely wrong.”
The top of the trunk slammed down on her. Maisey fell forward and her upper body careened toward the bags.
He hit her again with the trunk, driving it into her shoulders and back, and Maisey screamed. She tried to kick back at him, but he grabbed her legs and shoved her fully into the trunk. Before she could jump out, he was plunging a syringe toward her. He drove it into the side of her neck.
“Got this from a med student. Nothing too strong, don’t worry. Just a little something to knock you out for a bit.”
She scraped her nails over his face. She’d been aiming for his eyes. She’d missed.
“Fucking hell!” He surged back. “You are such a pain in the ass, Maisey. I’m going to make you pay for that.”
He slammed the trunk.
And Maisey’s eyes sagged closed.
***
Odin’s phone was ringing. He had a detective waiting to talk to him, but he automatically glanced down at the screen. When he saw the caller, he realized that he’d almost forgotten…
“Excuse me, would you?” He turned away from the detective. Took the call. “Ali, hey, look, I don’t need the intel any longer. We got the perps.”
“Are you kidding me?” Ali demanded. “I was up all night long looking for your info. All night. I need beauty sleep, and I didn’t get any.”
He winced. “Yes, well, I’ll make it up to you. But right now, I have a cop waiting so—”
“He didn’t have his own boat, but he did have a membership. That’s why you didn’t find it the first time around. You didn’t look at boating club memberships. I looked because I am awesome like that. FYI, the membership is under his dad’s name, which made it trickier.”
“Clay isn’t the killer.”
“It’s a membership in one of those boating groups,” she continued, as if he hadn’t spoken. “You know, you pay a flat fee to get in the club, then a monthly bit for dues, and bam, you get access to all the boats in the fleet.”
“Okay. Good to know, but I’ve got to go—”
“I pulled up all the dates he took out boats. Thought you might be interested to know that the day Jenny Lynch disappeared, he took a boat out that night. Coincidence, sure, but thought that was something to note.”
The detective called Odin’s name. “I have to go,” he told Ali. “Thanks for your help.” He shoved the phone into his pocket.
The detective motioned toward him. “We need you to sign your statement.”
He didn’t move. “You figure out how Steve and Heather got past the security system at War’s place?” Because War had a top-of-the-line system installed both at the bar and at the PI office.
“Heather told us her boyfriend is some kind of tech whiz. He disengaged the setup, the same way he disengaged all the security cameras at the college.”
Odin advanced. Picked up the statement. Scanned it. Then he slashed his name across the paper. A sudden, hard intensity was riding him.
Maisey.
“What about the break-ins at Maisey’s house?” Odin asked, keeping his voice casual. “Did Heather cop to those, too?”
“No, actually.” The detective tilted her head as she considered the matter. Her dark eyes were thoughtful. “She denied that. Weird, because she seemed more than happy to talk about everything else. She’s angling for a deal, but we’re not exactly in the mood to bargain with a murderer.”
Why wouldn’t Heather admit to the break-ins?
The detective took the signed statement. “Thanks. We’ll be in touch if we need more.”
Jinx came up and clapped a hand on Odin’s shoulder. “And that, my friend, is a done deal. Case closed.”
“It doesn’t feel closed.” Something was off.
“Uh, sure it does. The bad guys are in jail. One is confessing to pretty much everything under the sun. That means—done.”
Not to everything. “Heather didn’t confess to the break-ins at Maisey’s place.”
“Well, give her time.” Jinx didn’t seem concerned. “I’m sure she’ll get around to it.”
Odin broke from him and hurried for the door.
Jinx scrambled to follow him. “Where is the fire, O?” Jinx wanted to know as soon as they stepped outside.
Odin yanked out his phone again. Rain pelted down on him. The fact that Clay Prescott had a membership in a boating club didn’t change the situation—Heather and Steve had been the perps who attacked Whitney. And maybe it was just coincidence that Clay had taken a boat out on the same night Jenny Lynch disappeared.
He dialed Maisey. Her phone rang and rang. “She’s not answering.”
“Maisey?” Jinx side-eyed him even as he flipped up his collar. “Uh, probably because she’s asleep. She went home to crash, remember? Dude. You need to take a breath. I get that we had some big drama, but all is well. Your lady is fine, so calm down.”
He didn’t feel calm. Not at all. His instincts were screaming at him. “Clay didn’t call the cops.”
“What are you talking about?”
The rain was coming down harder.
“When we left last night, we told him to call the cops. He didn’t. Somebody reported gunshots. That’s how the cops knew to come to Trouble for Hire.” Maisey wasn’t answering. Fuck it. He made a different call. This time, it was to Ali.
She answered on the second ring. “I think I just stopped talking to you. There is no way you are missing me already.”
“I want to know where the hell Maisey is. Ping her phone or do whatever the hell you need to do.” They were still monitoring her phone. He hadn’t ordered that to halt.
“I can ping it, as long as it’s on. I can hit the different towers and give you a location, but…why?” In the background, he heard the sound of her fingers tapping a keyboard. “I thought you told me that you had the bad guys.”
“I need to know where she is,” he said from between clenched teeth. “She should be at her house, resting. Make sure that’s where she is.”
“Stalker,” Jinx muttered. “Just when I thought you were getting better—”
“Uh, she’s not at home.” A faint note of alarm entered Ali’s voice. “You sure that’s where she’s supposed to be?”
He nearly shattered the phone. “Where is she?”
More tapping on the keyboard. “So, this is gonna sound crazy, but remember when I told you that Clay had membership in the boating club? I just pinged her phone, and it’s coming up about one mile away from that place.”
Odin took off for his Jeep at a run.
“Odin!” Jinx shouted after him.
