I knocked on the door to Seth’s room. After Alice confirmed that Seth was okay and that I could talk to him, I didn’t waste a second. Still, before going to him, I’d told her to make sure there wasn’t anything lying around that he could use as a weapon. Although, if Chiara’s assumption that he was a hitman was correct, then he could probably kill with pretty much anything. Or maybe I’d just been watching too many movies.
My palms were a little sweaty, but I didn’t let my anxiety deter me. Chiara was in the room nearby and had said she’d leave the door open and have the gun ready in case I yelled for help or if she heard noise coming from Seth’s room. Not that any of that would help if Seth strangled me, but at least I knew Chiara would avenge my death. Okay, now I was overthinking this.
I lightly pushed the door open and poked my head inside. “May I come in?”
Seth was propped up on a bunch of pillows and he was wearing a white shirt. His blue eyes settled on me, and then he nodded, so I entered the room, closing the door behind me.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“Okay, I guess,” he said softly, watching my every move as I lifted one of the chairs and dragged it closer to the bed.
“Good. I hope you no longer think I had something to do with John’s death.” I took a seat, observing him for some kind of a reaction, but he only averted his gaze.
“I’m sorry about... about what I did when you were here last time.” His gaze found mine again. “I was a little...”
“It’s okay.” I offered him a small smile. “You thought I killed John, and if you knew him even a little, I understand why you’d want to make his killer pay. But what changed your mind? Why do you think it wasn’t me?” I didn’t want him only to pretend he trusted me.
“You were right. There’s no evidence against you, and if you knew I was on to you, you would’ve reacted differently. You would’ve let me die. You didn’t pull the trigger.” His eyes were intent on mine. “But I stopped suspecting you a while ago... You just don’t seem to be the kind of person who would do such a thing. And you’re right, there’s no motive. Hell, John would’ve probably let you run the club instead of him anyway because it was starting to become a nuisance to him. Before I met you, I thought it was money you were after or that you were enacting some dark fantasy of yours, but after spending some time with you, I knew I was wrong about you. The other day... I was... not right in the head, so it all kind of got mixed up and I... I don’t know what got into me. I’m sorry.”
“I told you, it’s fine. You didn’t hurt me.” Was I willing to believe what he’d said? I didn’t know just yet. There were a lot of things I wanted to find out now, but it was a bit easier to talk to Seth knowing the real reason why he was here. “Then why did you stay? If you realized I’m not the one...”
“I was investigating others, and Rubio showed up too. I’m certain it was someone who wanted the club for themselves.” He shifted on the bed, sitting up straighter, and grimaced.
“You need help with...?” I shot to my feet, reaching for one of the pillows that had to be poking Seth in the back. “Here, just let me...” I placed my hand on his arm, and I could’ve sworn he flinched, but he let me adjust the pillow. “Better now?”
“Yeah, thank you.” The corners of his lips tilted up.
“So how come you didn’t find out about Rubio sooner?” I sat back in my chair. “If anyone wanted to get their hands on the club and could’ve benefited from John’s death, it’s him, especially since no one knew about John’s will.”
“John never told me.” Hurt flashed through his eyes. “Even when I... had an encounter with the Wolves... He didn’t give me the impression he knew anything about them or that he had any connection to them. I assumed men like Rubio could get whatever they wanted, and that Rubio wouldn’t be interested in the club since he already has his own clubs.”
“Yeah, John liked to keep his secrets. Didn’t want anyone to worry about him.” If only he’d confided in one of us, or at least left us a letter, but he’d probably be upset about any of us wanting vengeance and putting our lives at risk for it. It was possible John had underestimated Rubio’s threat. He probably wouldn’t have put me in charge of the club just like that if he thought my life could be in danger because of it. Maybe he thought Rubio’s desire to get the club was just a whim and that he’d forget about it. “You said John saved you.”
Seth looked away at a spot on the wall. “Yeah,” he whispered.
“He kind of saved most of the club’s members in some way,” I said gently. “Me included. Were you in a gang or something? Or are you still...?”
Seth shook his head. “No. I was... I was a fighter.”
“At some fight club? Underground one?” I offered.
“Yeah.” The haunted look in his eyes made me realize it had been probably the sort of a fight club Rubio owned.
“And John helped you get out of it and stop fighting? Is that why you didn’t want us to take you to a hospital? Because there are people still looking for you because of that?”
Seth nodded. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”
“That’s fine.” I didn’t want to talk about what John had done for me either. But that look in Seth’s eyes had been genuine. He’d probably fought and killed his opponents. For a gang or for some other reason. But it explained why he could fight so well. John must have wanted to steer him on the right path, and that was why he hadn’t brought him to the club.
I had a feeling that whatever had happened to Seth was still too fresh in his mind. Or maybe he’d enjoyed it all too much... He certainly didn’t have any problems trying to kill me or going against the guys who’d taken Chiara.
“But there’s one thing...” I said.
He looked up at me again, his face serious.
“If someone was really responsible for John’s death, I want to know who it was,” I said. “And I need your help.”
“Believe me, when I find the culprit, he’s going to regret having been born,” Seth said through his teeth, his face darkening, and he looked like he could really make true on that threat, even like this, injured and lying in bed.
“Shouldn’t we work together on that? If you have any evidence that you collected, maybe Chiara and I can take a look at what you found? We also knew John, so there might be something club-related that you weren’t able to connect or see. And Rubio... We should definitely investigate him. There’s no one else who attempted to get the club, although he probably just hired someone to do the dirty work for him... or one of his men did it.”
“I don’t...” His brow furrowed.
“Come on. What can it hurt? You can’t always work on your own.” I flashed him a smile. Considering it hadn’t seemed like he’d been in contact with anyone while guarding me, that meant he was probably a loner, and his family had no clue what he was doing or they simply didn’t care.
“Fine,” he said after a few moments of silence. “But once we find the person who did it, I’m going after them alone, and anyone who gets in my path won’t have a good time. Understood?”
“Sure. There’s just one small thing... You’re not mad at Chiara for shooting you, right? She was scared and thought you were one of her captors, so she shot you without meaning to and she’s really, really sorry.” The last thing I wanted was Seth going after Chiara, especially if he was always revenge-thirsty for everything, and not just when it came to John. Even though he wasn’t waving a gun in my face, Seth was still a dangerous man.
“No, of course not.” His eyes became a shade warmer as his lips pulled into a small smile. God, he was even more handsome when he smiled like that.
“Great. Do you have an apartment or is everything you found somewhere else?” If he had photographs from the accident scene or anything like that, it could be really helpful. “Or in your car maybe? I can go grab it and bring it here... if you want, of course. You still need to recover and Alice will totally kill us both if you screw up the stitches again, so we have to stay here. I’ll have to swing by home anyway to make sure my father doesn’t assume I died or that someone took me. And since the only thing we can do here is watch TV and play video games, I’d rather spend our free time doing something useful. Not to mention my people at the club are still in danger and...” I was babbling, so I just clamped my mouth shut and smiled at him. We hadn’t had such a long conversation before, so this was a totally new experience.
“You can find it in my car,” Seth said. “I made multiple copies of what I have, so even if you lose or destroy the ones I send you for, I’ll still have more.”
“Okay.”
“Guilty or not, Rubio’s still a threat, and he has to be dealt with. He took your friend and he would’ve killed her if we hadn’t gotten to her first. He might try something like that again, and I...” Seth said.
My phone vibrated, making me jump because I’d completely forgotten it was in the pocket of my jeans. I pulled it out and quickly checked the text I’d gotten.
“Why are you frowning? Did something happen?” Seth’s voice was filled with worry.
“No, just... Levi texted me. He says Rubio engaged with another gang in the south. Rubio thinks they were behind the attack on him... and that they took Chiara. That’s so weird.” I tapped a reply to Levi and sent it, then pocketed the phone. “I don’t understand why he’d think that. I mean, maybe he never expected me to be a threat to him, but...”
“That’s good,” Seth said. “If he thinks his plan failed because of someone else, his attention will be diverted.”
“Yeah, but I don’t know if I believe it. Maybe he used it as an excuse to attack that gang. Why would he think someone else went to rescue Chiara and that I didn’t have anything to do with it? It doesn’t make sense.”
“He wouldn’t lift a finger for anyone, especially not for someone who isn’t related to him by blood, no matter how close they might be,” Seth said. “Maybe he thinks you’re like him.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “So first he thought I’d run scared, cry somewhere, and give in to his demands without doing anything else to get Chiara, and when she got rescued, he assumed it couldn’t have possibly been me and that I was some kind of a bitch who didn’t care about her friend?” That just didn’t sound right to me.
“He must have figured out you don’t have the protection of some mob boss. That’s why he dared to take Chiara and why he thinks you couldn’t have possibly hired someone to rescue her without him knowing about it.”
“I guess. But does that mean he knows who I am?” Not many people really knew me. I’d been leading a double life, but only one of my identities felt real, and it wasn’t Victoria’s.
“I don’t know.”
Aside from his goons stopping by and spying on me, I only had a brief encounter with Rubio, who’d assumed my club was just a game to me. There was no way for him to know the real me. And yeah, someone like Victoria would’ve run to her daddy for protection and possibly even left her friends to die because she was just too scared and didn’t care for anyone other than herself, but I hoped he hadn’t figured out I was Victoria Hampton. “So Rubio probably thinks I’m hiding somewhere...?”
“Maybe. Or maybe he’s waiting for you to close the club or sign it over to him when you see exactly what he’s capable of.”
I ran my hand over my face. “Rubio’s a fucking idiot.” As I got to my feet too quickly, the chair scraped over the floor too hard and fell over with a loud thud. “Shit.”
A few seconds later, the door burst open and Chiara ran in, gun in hand, her eyes wide, her hair flying around her. “Vix!”
“Hey, I’m fine. Put the gun down!” I quickly stepped in her way and placed my hand over the gun until she lowered it.
“Um, hi.” Chiara gave Seth a sheepish grin. “I was just... I mean, I didn’t plan to... I’m just jumpy, that’s all.”
“Yeah, you are,” I said, stifling a laugh. “Wait for me outside.” Pushing her through the door, I offered Seth an apologetic smile, but his face was serene, with no trace of anger or annoyance. “Where’s your car key? So I can get the evidence or whatever it is that you have?”
He nodded. “It should be in my pants. I don’t know where Alice put them.”
“I’ll check with her then. And I’m really sorry about Chiara. She just thought...”
“It’s fine.” He gave me a small smile.
“Great.” I slipped through the door and closed it behind me.