Make It Right (13 page)

“Couple of candles and a flashlight. All we had at the bar. No need to use 'em until I'm gone and I'm going. Got to say one thing to you first, though. And you need to put that lamp down.”

“Say what you've got to say.” Amelia prepared herself for the inevitable argument and set the lamp down.

“I don't like you. Never have. Probably never will.” Train wasn't one to mince words, ever.

“I already know that, Train. I'm not as stupid as you think I am.” Amelia had no delusions about how he felt by her. He'd never been shy about it, which had caused more than a few scuffles between him and Danny.

“Shut your mouth and listen. That cop bitch has it out for Nightshade and she's going to do whatever it takes to fuck us. I don't care what she says to you, you better not say a word about the club, or you'll be as fucked as your little blonde friend.” Train didn't make idle threats. He was capable of just about anything. She'd heard stories of things that he'd done in defense of Nightshade. From all accounts, there wasn't much that he wouldn't do.

“Jackie doesn't know enough to do any harm. Earl saw to that.” Amelia reminded him. “You know that.”

“If that's the case, why are they so far up our asses? And why is Jackie tucked away nice and tight? She knows something, and now Harris knows it. This isn't a game. This is the life. So if you're going to cut and run on your husband again, it'd be really great if you could just do it now.” Without another word he turned and left.

The fact that he'd even think she'd rat on Danny or Nighshade infuriated her. Amelia grumbled to herself as she shut the door and unzipped the backpack he'd handed her. After she found the flashlight she looked for the phone and dialed the only number programmed in.

When Danny answered she felt tears sting her eyes. “Hey, Baby. How are you holding up?”

“I'm not.” Amelia replied. “What the fuck is going on?”

A heavy silence followed. Finally Danny cleared his throat. “I can't go into the details but I need you to trust me.”

“I thought that these lines were secure. Isn't that why you send me the phone?” Amelia was confused.

“The lines are fine. I just can't tell you what's happening. It's club business.” Danny said shortly.

Club business? He was pulling the club business line on her now? “I am not Jackie. You don't pull that club business shit on me.” And that had been the way it was since they first got together. She'd never been in the dark. It was one of the few things that she insisted on.

“I do now. It's how it has to be. Do you trust me or not?” It was a loaded question, because there was a part of Amelia that hesitated to trust him and he knew it. It was the part of her that remembered the pain of being served the divorce papers and completely iced out of his life. “Amelia?”

“I trust you.” Amelia shut her eyes and hoped that it was the right call. A large part of her feared that it wasn't. Feared that she'd once again end up not only alone but broken. There would be no picking up the pieces if she broke again.

<#<#<#

Amelia hadn't felt butterflies in her stomach like this since she was in the eighth grade and singing a solo at the Spring Choir. She felt like everyone turned to stare at her as she walked into the police station; maybe they did. It didn't matter. She walked over to the first uniformed officer that she saw. “I need to see Detective Harris, please.”

The man looked at her, blankly at first but seconds later recognition dawned. “Amelia Mason. We've been looking for you.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to correct him, she was Amelia Benson, but she didn't. “Have you been? I didn't realize.” The lie rolled off of her lips effortlessly. “I guess you should get me to her.”

“Come with me.” She followed him down the hall and to an elevator. They got off on the second floor, and she was put in a windowless room with only a scarred metal table and two chairs in it. One wall was glass, obviously an observation mirror. Amelia sat, stared down at her hands and hoped like hell that Danny knew what he was doing by sending her into the lion's den.

James had taken her idea of going to find Jackie to Nightshade and they'd flipped it. They didn't want Harris rattled. They wanted her to think that she'd won. Amelia played the conversation with Danny over and over again.

It seemed to take an eternity, but finally Harris strode into the room a few minutes later, her trademark smug smile on her face. “Mrs. Benson, I've got to say that the last thing I expected was for you to walk in here. Care to share why?”

Amelia took a deep breath. “I want to know what happened to my family. I want to know exactly what happened to them and I want to know now.” She folded her hands on the table. “I'd like you to tell me.”

“And what do I get in exchange?” Harris took the seat across from her.

“What do you want?” Amelia had a good idea what the woman wanted, but she was going to play dumb, dumb and scared, though the scared part wouldn't really be too much of a stretch. She was terrified; there was so much riding on her ability to convince the woman in front of her that she was willing to turn on Nightshade.

“You're a lot of things Amelia, but stupid is not one of them. You know what I want.” Harris leaned forward, a gleam in her eye. “I want Nightshade.”

“Why? Why are they so important to you? What makes them special?” They were the questions that Danny had told her to ask. A clear reason as to why Harris was so focused on them might give them what they needed to get her to go away for good. Nothing in her past had shed any light on the matter, no matter how deep Ace dug.

“They've left a trail of blood and bodies behind them. They're not special. They're sociopaths and don't deserve to be on the streets. You want to know what happened to your family? That knife, the one that they all carry, was what took their lives. Tests confirm it, even though it was cleaned pretty well, but not well enough to get rid off all the blood. We found other knives in the safe at the bar so we know that they mean something. We know that someone is missing their knife.”

“So why haven't you arrested anyone?” Amelia questioned. “If this is just about cleaning up the streets, why not make the arrests? You don't have any proof, do you?”

“We don't have enough evidence, but we're almost there.” Harris replied. “Once the evidence takes shape, we will be there.”

Amelia kept her eyes on Harris. She didn't blink. She didn't fidget. “What happens when you get there?”

“We press charges.” Harris replied in the condescending tone that some people used for small children or really stupid people.

“What charges? Murder? You can't charge them all with it.”

“We'll get them all, Amelia, because that's what they deserve for all the hurt they've caused. They've hurt you. You spent the last seven years barely scraping by without a friend you could reach out and touch because Danny being part of Nightshade got him locked up. Got him taken away from you and then he threw you aside. The same thing will happen again, if you let it. I can help you stop it.”

“How?” Amelia felt like she was going to throw up.

“You talk to me and I'll help you. I'll give you the same deal that I gave to Jackie. She and her mother are being relocated. They'll have good paying jobs, a nice house in a nice neighborhood. They'll get to live a happy normal life. You can have that, too.”

It was on the tip of Amelia's tongue to tell the woman that normal was overrated, she'd much rather live her life. It might not be perfect but there was Danny, and at the end of the day he was what mattered to her more than anything. “What do I have to tell you?”

“Everything.” Harris replied.

“You're asking for a whole lot. You know that, right?”

“I'm aware. I'm also aware that you wouldn't be here if there wasn't a part of you that knows I'm right about them being dangerous. I think that you're scared, and I think that you're right to be. Tell me, does Danny have an insurance policy on you like Royal did on your sister? I spoke to the insurance company, they are contractually bound to pay out on the policy unless Royal is linked to the death. Do you want that?”

“I want whoever held that knife to pay.” Amelia avoided the question, but that didn't make the answer any less true. She wanted to find out who had taken them from her, but she knew that it wasn't Royal. He'd loved them too much. Had he snapped, it wouldn't have been so planned out and the knife wouldn't have been left behind. Even Train, it was after all his knife, wasn't capable of it. He might have hated her, but she believed that he'd loved Fiona and Taylor.

“If you want the killer to pay, if you want them all to pay, you've got to talk to me. You've got to tell me what you know.”

Amelia let the silence linger between them for a few moments. Really she just liked watching Harris start to squirm a bit. “And I will talk. First, I need everything you've promised me in writing, all official like. It's not that I don't trust you. If they ever found out, they'd never stop looking for me. Now Amelia took a deep breath. She could do a sign of good faith. Danny had told her that Harris would ask and she'd known it herself. “The knife that you have belongs to Train.” The information would be figured out eventually, once all of the other knives were printed. It was throwaway information; Danny had said so.

Harris smiled as if she'd just been handed an oversized check for a ridiculous amount of money. “That helps, Amelia, thank you.”

“Just get the papers drawn up. I'll call you.” Amelia rose to her feet. “I'm leaving. Don't bother having anyone follow me. You know where I'll be, at home with my husband.”

<#<#<#

Amelia didn't get sick even after she got home, she was proud of herself for that. She let herself into the empty house with a sigh. Danny had told her he had something to do but that she should go home and stay there with all the doors and windows shut until he called. There had been an edge to his voice, something that told her whatever task he was about to undertake was dangerous.

The thought that he might not come back made her feel sick to her stomach all over again, so she started to clean up to keep herself busy. Something had to make her mind turn off or she was going to go completely bat shit crazy. Danny would come back to find her sitting in a corner, rocking herself for comfort and humming an appropriately creepy song. So she swept and mopped floors, took down the curtains and threw them in the wash before starting on the bathrooms with a bucket and some bleach.

She was taking all the sheets and blankets off of the bed when she heard the front door close. For a moment she went tense, but then she recognized the sound of Danny coming up the stairs. He burst into the bedroom, and Amelia dropped the sheets in her hand as he grabbed her.

There was so much to be said, but they didn't say any of it. Instead he acted, his mouth crashed on her with so much force that she felt the impact in her teeth. The dull ache didn't stand a chance against the heat rolling through her. His hands were all over her body and it was suddenly hard to breathe because her heart was beating so fast.

He wasn't going to be slow and sweet. She could feel it in his hands and the way he was already hard and ready against her leg. He wore his cut and she could smell gunpowder on his hands. He'd been cleaning his gun; he was heading for a situation where he wanted to be prepared.

Amelia pushed him up from her. Confusion spread across his face but was replaced by hunger as she pulled off her shirt. She wore nothing beneath it and nothing beneath the shorts she'd thrown on, which Danny found out as he grabbed them and pulled them down. She was naked beneath him. He was still fully dressed.

She unbuckled his belt, yanked down the zipper and closed her hand around him. Danny let out a growl and pulled her hand away. Amelia nearly protested but then his hands were pushing her legs apart. “Oh!” She dug her fingers into his back when he pressed himself inside of her.

Amelia admired his restraint; she felt the way that he was holding back until her body finally took him all the way in. The feeling of fullness was enough to start a tight coil take root in her stomach. Danny began to move faster, long deep strokes that both took her breath away and made her whimper with pleasure.

The coil in her stomach grew, tightened and warmed her from head to toe as Danny shifted. He was off of the bed, her legs spread wide by his hands. His grip was tight and the change in position allowed him to slide even deeper into her.

Her body began to twitch. She was so close and figured Danny couldn't be far behind. The
combination of him so deep inside of her and the roughness of his jeans against her skin made it impossible to hold back. Amelia thought she screamed his name. She couldn't be sure because everything went a blindingly beautiful shade of white. Slowly she floated back to the surface and reality, opening her eyes just in time to see Danny's mouth coming down towards her.

He kissed her frantically as the movement of his hips changed, quickened so that the sound of skin meeting skin filled the air. Danny bit down on her bottom lip as he came. She felt him pulse deep inside of her. “Fuck.” He ran his hands over her inner thighs. “Really hate to say it, but I've got to go, Baby.”

“I figured as much.” Amelia propped herself up on her elbows. “I'm assuming that you still can't tell me anything?”