It Happens (Bear Bottom Guardians MC 6)

I could see myself in the mirror, and I saw with clarity that I looked just as much the lunatic as the man I was currently beating to a pulp.

“Why not?” The man laughed through the blood that was quickly filling his mouth.

His teeth were stained dark red, and his eyes were watering.

I wasn’t sure if they were watering due to the fact that his pain had hit a level that he couldn’t deal with, or because he found this entire situation humorous.

I was going with the latter over the former.

I picked him up by the stupid tie, then slammed him back down so hard that his head cracked against the stained concrete floor.

“Answer me, or I make it really start to hurt,” I growled.

“Zee, you’re starting to get blood on your uniform shirt,” Jubilee whispered.

I ignored her, but apparently hearing her voice was enough to get the man talking, so I wouldn’t complain…yet.

“Had to watch over her. Protect her,” the man informed me. “The best way to do that was stay with her. Make sure nothing happened to her.”

I sat back on my haunches and stared at the man in disgust.

“You’re telling me, that for over ten years now, you’ve ‘watched’ over her like a sick fuck?” I asked. “Do I have that right?”

The man grinned, and I hit him again just to wipe that smile off his face.

“That’s enough.” I was hauled to my feet by two strong hands, one belonging to Castiel, and another to my future father-in-law. “Step back so we can bring him in.”

I pulled free of both of their holds. “You’re not bringing this sick fuck in. You’re going to let me get more information out of him.”

Castiel stepped in front of me, keeping his back to the sick little fucker who was still on the floor, and stared me straight in the eyes when he said, “Trust me when I say that I’m going to get every piece of information that he has out of him before the day is through.”

Staring into his eyes, I believed him. One hundred percent.

“Okay,” I growled. “But I get to be there.”

Castiel grinned then.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

***

“Crest DeLoe,” I said to my father, but keeping my eyes on Pete as I ascertained whether he was about to lose his shit or not. “That’s the man that’s been living in her house since she moved in.”

Pete’s eyes narrowed. “There’s more.”

This was the part that I knew he wasn’t going to like. Not at all.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “There’s a lot more.”

“How much more?” he pushed.

I pulled out a stack of photos that I’d been able to pilfer from the hotel room that Crest had been using since his unexpected eviction from Jubilee’s attic.

Pete took one look at the first one and blanched.

By the second one, he was looking green around the gills.

By the last, the worst one, he bent over the nearest trash can and lost his lunch.

“These are of her and Annmarie. When they were fifteen.” He gasped, looking once again at the photo.

I nodded once. “That was the night before junior prom. I remember because Jubilee and Annmarie bought the same dress.”

That had been such a big fight over that stupid fuckin’ dress. When Annmarie’s had ended up shredded into a million tiny pieces, everyone had blamed Jubilee for the mess.

But, seeing that photo, I had no doubt in my mind that it’d been Crest having made the move.

“That dress had been so revealing that I’d been happy that the dress had been destroyed and I could tell Jubilee that she wasn’t allowed to wear hers,” he said, devastation clear in his voice.

“Crest didn’t like them in the dresses, either,” I confirmed. “Here’s the playback.”

Pete had chosen to stay with his daughter—something I should’ve probably done myself—when the questioning had gone on.

I was now giving him a play by play of everything that had gone down.

“Why did he confess?” Pete shook his head.

“Jubilee asked him to,” I ground through gritted teeth. “As we were leaving, she stopped Castiel and looked at Crest. Told him he needed to confess his sins. So he did.”

“What else?” Pete croaked.

“Crest DeLoe was the doctor that the two girls saw for an emergency flu situation when they were both fifteen. From then on, he was there when he could be. Whether it was by chance or purposefulness that DeLoe was Jubilee’s and my doctor when we were struck by lightning? We don’t know. He doesn’t remember. But from that point on, DeLoe took it upon himself to always ‘watch over her’ and by doing that he was there every step of the way. He owns the house beside y’all’s. When Jubilee moved, DeLoe did, too.”

Pete scrubbed his face.

“And he moved into her attic,” he said, sounding sick again.

I could concur with his feelings. I hadn’t gotten rid of the stomach ache since I’d started listening to his explanations.