Heaven Sent

She came to California to hide, even Red told us that. If her wanting to work under the table didn’t raise red flags, the escape bag filled with a change of clothes and cash might have sealed her fate in the club’s eyes. She was pla

“Hero, get your fucking ass out here right now,” Raze’s voice bellows from outside the door.

“Go fuck yourself, Raze. I don’t need a lecture from you. I know we’re fucked.”

Raze barges through the door, huffing in anger. “The next time I order you to open the door, you fucking do it. I don’t want to keep sending the prospects to Home Depot to get new ones every fucking day.”

“What do you want from me, Raze? I know I fucked up. I trusted her too goddamn much without really knowing her.”

The bed dips with Raze’s added weight. His face is hardened, but his eyes are gleaming with pity. I know he’s trying to keep his cool, but I don’t need pity. I need Dani, as much as I hate to admit it. Guilty or not, I need a chance to find out for myself.

Raze slaps his hand on my shoulder. “I understand, Hero. Trust me, I do. The women in our lives royally fuck us up to the point where we even doubt our own minds. Without them, we’re fucking lost in this life and damned to hell.”

“I never thought I’d be torn like this, Raze. One minute, we were fucking blissfully happy. The next, she has bodies lying in her wake back home. I just don’t know how to process this. I want to believe her, but I just don’t know if I can. I handed her my heart on a silver platter, and she grabbed it with bloody hands. She was the only pure thing left in my life, and she’s just as fucked up as I am. I wanted her to be my saving grace with all the shit in my life, and she’s just like the rest of us. Her soul is stained just as black as mine. ”

“Hero, I know what you’re going through. Once you lose trust in them, everything falls apart. Dani’s a good girl. I know it, and you fucking well know it, too. Voodoo hacked into her police file from back in Cleveland and is looking through it now. If she’s guilty, we’ll know within the hour. I sent Slider down to the police department to see if they’ll let him talk to her. I’ve got you, brother. We’ll find out the truth. Until we know one way or another, do not give up her on like I gave up on Maj.”

“Wait. Gave up on Maj? What the hell are you talking about? You love Maj.”

Raze’s head hangs low. “I’m divorcing her, Hero. The night we went to the club to get them, I found two of those male strippers fucking Maj in a private room. She knew I was there watching them. She came home spouting some bullshit about how it was a mistake and she was drunk, but I know it wasn’t the first time. She slept with a guy from Trax’s chapter the night before the hit on Twisted Tribe. I found them in our bed together. She’s living at her mother’s for the time being and she’s ba

Is no one happy anymore in this club? Everything is imploding around us. Twisted Tribe was just the begi

“Fuck, Raze. I’m sorry. What about Ky and Harley? When are you going to tell them?”

“They already know. We told them yesterday. Honestly, they weren’t surprised.”

“Shit, Raze. How the fuck did we get here? Your woman’s a cheater and mine may be a killer.”

Raze laughs and slaps me on the back. “Brother, I’d much rather have your problems than mine. At least there’s a chance she’s i

Raze is a broken man, just like I am. These two starkly different women ripped apart our lives. He’ll get a chance to repair his life once the dust settles and Maj is gone, but for me, it’s not that simple. I need proof she’s i

“Raze? Hero?”

Looking up at the doorway, Slider hesitantly stands. Damn, Slider has perfect timing. Hopefully he got her to talk, or at least found out something that would prove her i

“Did they let you see her?” Raze hopefully asks. I need her to be okay, even if I’ll never see her again.

“She wasn’t there, Prez. The fat cop sitting at the front desk said they had no idea what I was talking about. They didn’t have a Danae Espinoza booked nor did they know anything about her.”

“What?” I exclaim. “If they don’t fucking have her, who does?”

Raze and I stare at each other before jumping up from the bed and bolting down the stairs into Voodoo’s tech room. He’s frantically tapping away on his computer when we walk in.

“Talk to me, V. What did you find?” I ask.

He looks up from his computer before sliding over to the printer and retrieving a stack of papers.

“This is her file. It’s muddy at best. Cleveland PD found her mom and step-dad gutted in the dining room of their house. DNA in the room was a match for both victims, Dani, and an unknown male related to the step-dad. According to the police report, a family member reported Dani missing the morning of the murders and they issued an APB for her. It was a standard issue search for the Cleveland area. It was never expanded outside of Ohio. We, of course, know where she ended up, but I found something odd about her file.”

Flipping through the pages, I verify everything Voodoo reported while searching the pages for the oddity. The answer doesn’t immediately become blaringly apparent, but Voodoo points to the details of the APB.

“Look here, Dani was never officially listed as a suspect. They considered her a possible kidnapped victim.”

The pictures of her parent’s mutilated bodies are amongst the reports. The DNA does confirm Dani was there, but just looking at the bodies I know it takes a lot of rage and a lot of strength to gut someone like this. Handing the pictures to Raze, I see shock register in his eyes.

“Look at her step-dad’s body in this photo,” I say pointing to the photo. “He has to be at least two hundred pounds heavier than Dani. How in the hell did a woman weighing a buck forty-five force him into that chair and restrain him? It doesn’t make sense. That’s Ruby versus Voodoo. There’s no way a woman could do that, even if he was drugged. Not without help anyway.” Grabbing the photo back from Raze, I toss the pile back onto Voodoo’s desk.

“Any information on the other set of DNA found at the scene? You said it was a relative. Maybe she had help,” Raze suggests. He looks at me while speaking. His words stoke the fire of anger within me, but I know he’s just trying to be thorough.

“I hacked into the criminal DNA database and it’s still searching. It could take weeks before I get a hit, or I could get nothing at all. It takes time.”