“Not eating?” Asher asked, sitting down across from me and placing a cold bottle of water in front of me. “You should eat.”
I looked over at Ryan and Dave, who were manning the barbeque, and shook my head. “No, I’m not hungry.”
I looked through the crowd, scanning the scene for the one person I still hadn’t seen today. I’d hoped she’d have been here. I wanted to have a minute with her, to talk to her, especially now that some time had passed. But the more time passed, the more I was convinced that she wouldn’t be coming.
“So how’s things with Bailey?” Asher asked, taking a bite of the burger that sat in front of him. “I saw she spent the night.”
“How the hell you know that?”
“I saw her car in your driveway. I was going to come and knock on the door but figured you might just kick my ass, especially if you were…you know.” Asher spread his fingers and brought them to his mouth, sticking his tongue between them, a shit-eating grin on his face.
“Well, at least you were smart enough not to find out.” I chuckled.
“So, how are things with her?”
“Same as always,” I bit out, wishing I could give him a different answer.
“Here, I hoped that the two of you might be back together.”
I ignored the comment and looked through the crowd one more time. It was then that I finally saw her standing beside her mother. They were engaged in a conversation with the two officers who oversaw Connor’s case.
“Have you told her about the dreams?” Asher asked, pulling me back to our conversation.
“What is it with you and the million questions today?” I barked as I watched Bailey leave her mother’s side and cross the park over to the water’s edge, where she sat down on the grass and looked out over the water. The confrontation I’d had with Garrick the other night still tormented me. The words he had spewed at me once I had shut the door to the alley ate at me. Connor had been actively investigating the Green Cobras when he’d been killed, and the threats Garrick had thrown at me had me wondering if he perhaps Connor hadn’t been onto him. I wondered if he wasn’t the one responsible for Connor.
“What’s with you, Walker?” Dave questioned, sitting down with a plate full of food, Ryan following.
I knew this wasn’t the time or the place to bring this up, but I didn’t feel it could wait. “Dave, after Connor died, did you guys investigate any of the Cobra members as suspects? I mean, he was actively investigating them when shit went down. It is a possibility that he ran into one of them.”
Asher, Ryan, and Dave all stopped chewing their food and looked up at me. “I don’t think this is the time to talk about this, Jackson,” Dave bit out and nodded to the people who were surrounding us.
He was right, and I knew it. The incident had incited a lot of unrest for every citizen of Sunset Cove. It was the first time in over twenty-five years one of our members had been killed in the line of duty. Those things just didn’t happen here.
I ignored his warning and lowered my voice. “Dave, seriously, it’s been five years, and we have no more leads than we did that night. I think it’s time that we look at them, especially one of them—Garrick Barton. We know for a fact that those men were in the area that night. I just had a run-in with him the other night, and he said some things to me that lead me to believe he might…”
“So, they were in the area. Connor was alone. You saw a shadow of a man who resembled his height and build but no face. That’s it. There was nothing on the video feeds from the alley, and no other witnesses. We can’t just go making suspects up out of suspicion.”
“Dammit, Dave, please, just listen to me,” I said, smashing my fist on the table, which pulled a lot of attention over to the four of us.
“Jackson, it’s enough,” Dave bit out, giving me a look of warning.
I stared back at Dave, searching his eyes for any more allowance of what we had been talking about, but I saw none. Instead, he went back to eating, talking to Asher and Ryan while I sat there waiting for the tension between the four of us to dissipate. Ryan soon had them all laughing, and soon it was as if none of the talk between us had even happened.
“Hey, Bailey,” Asher said, looking behind me as the others greeted her, and I turned in time to see Bailey approaching us.
“Hey, guys,” she said, smiling.
I stood up, and she surprised me by immediately wrapping her arms around me, pressing her body up against mine.
“Everything okay?” I whispered in her ear.
“Yeah. I just thought I would come over and say hi. I wanted to let you know I’m going to take Mom home now. She says she is tired. I’m tired myself, and I have to work tonight,” she said, looking up at me, her eyes hiding something.
“Okay,” I said, pushing a strand of hair from her face. “Everything else, okay?”
She shrugged and looked at Asher, Ryan, and Dave. “Do you have a minute?”
I nodded and turned to the guys. “I’ll be right back. Let Mike know I will be back in time to man the grill.”
“Nice to see you, Bailey.” Dave waved.
“You too, Dave.”
As we walked away, I heard Ryan invite Bailey’s mom to sit down with them and offer her a burger. “She’s in excellent hands.” I said, my voice low.
“I know.” She said, slipping her hand into mine. We finally found a quiet spot over in the corner of the room.
“What’s up?” I asked, looking into her eyes to see them lined with worry.
“Um, I am not sure how to tell you this,” she bit out, almost on the verge of tears.
“Tell me what?”
When she wouldn’t look at me, I placed my hand on the side of her cheek and turned her head toward me.
“I was sitting outside. I needed to get some air and that Garrick guy approached me again.”
I felt every muscle in my body tighten. “What? Did he put his hands on you?”
“No.” She sniffled. “I ignored him, told him to go away, but he wouldn’t. Instead, he kneeled beside me and started asking me questions about you and I.”
“What questions?”
Her cheeks were red, and she avoided my eyes.
“What questions, Bailey?”
“Questions about…” She swallowed hard. “About our personal life.”
“About sex?” I asked through clenched teeth.
She slowly nodded her head. “He wanted to know if you…”
Anger shot through me while I waited for her.
“If you pleasure me.”
“You’re sure he didn’t touch you?" I barked, pulling her against me.
She nodded. “He didn’t. I refused to answer him, and I got up and came inside to see my mom, but he stopped me. He told me he would see me tonight at work. That he would wait at the end of the bar like you do because you wouldn’t be able to be there. Then he took off.”
Bailey put her face in her hands and sobbed. I pulled her against me while I scanned the room for signs of him or any other member of the Green Cobras, but saw nothing out of place.
“You don’t need to worry. I will be in the bar later tonight, okay? I will make sure I am there to pick you up.” I whispered, placing my thumb and finger under her chin, tilting her head back, leaning in and meeting her lips. “Until that time, I’ll have one of the other guys come and watch.”
“Jackson, you don’t have to do that. He just gives me the creeps, I guess,” she said, wrapping her arms around me, giving me a hug. “Please be careful tonight,” she whispered in my ear.
“Always am, you know that.”
She kissed me once more before heading off toward her mother, while I stood there still scanning the venue for Garrick. If I found him here, I knew I’d kill him.