Beautiful Outlaw by Emily Minton
Crazy As Hell
Bowie
My phone rings just as Lock sends his fist into Marcus’ face again. Pulling it from my pocket, I see Tin’s name flash across the screen. Instead of saying hello, I ask about my woman. “How is she?”
“She wants to talk to you herself, so I guess she’s doing pretty damn good.”
“Give her the phone,” I order as I head for the stairs, not wanting her to hear Lock question Marcus.
I hear the phone move, then she’s there, calling out to me. “Bowie.”
Just hearing her voice sends a wave a relief through my body. I stop at the top of the stairs and lean my forehead against the wall. “Fuck, baby. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, just a little beat up.”
Visions of her battered body float through my mind. “You were damn near beat to death. Why the hell didn’t you call for help?”
“I did,” she whispers. “I called my dad.”
“You should’ve called the fuckin’ cops,” I growl out, knowing I shouldn’t be bitchin’ at her but just can’t stop myself.
“I couldn’t do that. I didn’t know what was in the crates.”
My mind goes to all the guns I have stored in the safe room. If the cops went in there, I would’ve spent the rest of my life in prison. “You still should’ve called.”
Her voice is weak when she responds. “I didn’t want you to be in trouble.”
“Fuck, baby,” I say as I step back and send my fist flying into the wall. “You shouldn’t have worried about me.”
“Of course I should. I love you.”
Her words wash over me, knowing that she is every bit as determined to protect me as I am her. “I know you do, Shay.”
I hear Lock’s voice raise and know it’s time to get this shit over. “I gotta go, but I’ll be at the hospital in a little while.”
“I have to tell you something,” she says before I can hang up.
“I really gotta go.” I hate to rush her, but I need to get Marcus in the ground so I can get my ass to the hospital.
“It was Red. He was the one who took me,” she says in a voice so full of pain it tears into me.
“I know, baby,” I reply, anger at Red’s betrayal churning in my stomach. “He’ll pay for it. I promise you.”
Before she can say anything else, I hear a woman’s voice in the background. “The nurse just came in.”
“Get off here and let her do her job. I’ll be there in a little while, okay?”
“Okay, Bowie,” she says before whispering. “I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
I wait until the phone goes dead before putting it back in my pocket and heading back downstairs. Lock’s still asking questions, and Marcus still isn’t giving him the answers he wants. Nothing’s changed, and I know nothing will.
“I told you, I don’t know where she is at,” Marcus says between sobs.
“And I told you that I didn’t believe your lying ass,” Lock growls out as he sends his fist into the man’s kidney.
Curling into a ball, he finally starts to talk. “Heather couldn’t be my wife. She knew she could never be as perfect as Gwendolyn, so she ran away.”
“You’re fuckin’ crazy as hell.” I can’t believe my woman spent ten years with this man.
“No, I’m not,” he screams, shaking his head manically.
Lock leans down and shouts, “Where the fuck did she go?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” he chants, shaking his head back and forth. “I never looked.”
“Bull shit,” Lock says, sending an elbow into the man’s chest. “You looked for Laura, so I know you looked for Heather, too.”
“She was never good enough to be Gwendolyn, so I didn’t care if she was gone,” he says, pleading with Lock to believe him. “I swear, I have no idea where she is.”
Hearing the tone of his voice, I know this is over. Marcus is not gonna tell Lock anything, even if he knows something, and I doubt he does. “He’s done, and you know it.”
He nods then looks down to the man on the floor one last time. “I’m gonna find Heather, even if it takes the rest of my damn life.”
Lock turns to me, looking defeated. “Do what you gotta do.”
Stepping between him and Marcus, I start asking my questions. “Is anyone else looking for Shay?”
His eyes narrow, and he nearly spits out his words. “Her name is Laura.”
I nearly laugh, wanting to ask him why he called her Gwendolyn for years. Knowing it’s not worth my time to dig into his fucked up brain, I ignore his words. Placing my boot on his bloodied knee, the same one I shot when I first walked in, I ask my question again. “Did you hire anyone else to look for Shay?”
“Yes, but they didn’t find anything,” he whimpers out, trying to move his leg.
“How did you find out she was here?”
Still trying to pull away, he answers, “I received a call from a man named Alexander. He knew where she was, and for the right amount of money, he was willing to tell me.”
“How did you know Cash?”
Confusion clouds his eyes as he asks, “Cash?”
The fact that this man doesn’t know my father is obvious. “Alexander, how the fuck did you get involved with Alexander?” I growl out, wanting this shit to be over.
“I’ve never met him. I asked him how he knew to contact me, and he refused to answer.”
My eyes move to Lock. “There had to be someone else involved. No fuckin’ way Cash just stumbled across this shit.”
Before Lock can give his opinion, Marcus answers, “When I first arrived in town, I met with that red head and the woman that’s upstairs. They were working with him.”
Red and Domino have been in this since the beginning, but I already figured that out on my own. Still, he may know something I don’t. “What did they say to you? Did they tell you how they knew you were Shay’s husband?”
”The man said that his wife told him all about me and threatened to kill me if I double-crossed him.”
The thought of Lila being in on this shit sends a fresh wave of anger through me. Having Lila betray her is gonna kill Shay. “Did he say anything else?”
“The woman, she started telling me about you and my wife, but the man shut her up. Then, he told me when and where to meet him. That’s all.”
Shaking off thoughts of what I’ll do when I find Red, I focus on Marcus again. “Was Cash working with anyone else?”
“I don’t know,” he says as he gasps for air. “We only talked twice, and he never mentioned anyone else to me. I thought I would be meeting him.” “That’s it? No one else was involved? You don’t have someone watching your back?” Surely, the fucker wasn’t stupid enough to come here on his own.
He shakes his head as his hands do their best to push my foot away. “No one else knows anything. Everyone thinks she is dead.”
Knowing I’ve got all the information I’m ever gonna get from him, I pull out my knife and bend down. A second later, his blood is pooling at my feet.