Jude has set down a wineglass in front of me and instead of moving back to where he was sitting, he’s picked up his beer along the way and is now sitting at my left.
“She’s smart,” Boyd says to Jude.
He scoffs as if he disagrees, and this makes my face burn hot.
I take a sip of wine without looking at Jude.
They wait.
“I’m not tryin’ to be contradictory here. I’m just lookin’ to help. So, how about this? Talk to me and I’ll talk to you before I make any decisions that would make this official.”
“Unless I deem it needs to go official and then it does,” Jude puts in.
I glare at him.
He glares back.
“Talk, Ally,” Jude orders.
“Ally, I’m letting you drive this thing for now,” Boyd says. “The only way you move to the backseat is if shit gets extreme. Regardless, your safety is the primary concern through it all.”
“I’m far more worried about everyone else’s safety,” I say softly.
Boyd’s expression is already soft, but it goes softer.
I swallow another sip of wine. My fingers are trembling, and I know they both see it.
Jude puts his hand on my knee under the table.
“Baby, please,” he says low.
I can’t look at him. I’ll burst into tears.
“I don’t even know where to start,” I say, my voice raspy.
“How did you become acquainted with the Steele family?” Boyd asks.
“I met Jonah Steele first at my job at a restaurant.”
“Okay. Tell me about that,” Boyd invites.
“He came in and there was chemistry. He came in again and the second time he asked me out. We dated for about two and a half, almost three months.”
“And it’s been said you left because you found out he was a criminal? What did you know about him before that revelation?”
“He said he was in digital marketing, and he had money, nice clothes, looked good, liked to travel. We seemed to have things in common. And he was nice to me.”
“Did you live together?” Boyd asks.
“No. It was early days. We dated, saw each other a few times a week most weeks, but we were both busy. But… it felt like it had potential to move in that direction. To me, at least.”
I feel Jude shift uncomfortably beside me. I resist the urge to look at him.
“Okay. What about Thaddeus?” Boyd asks. “And the rest of the Steele brothers?”
“I met the rest of the family, including Thad after our fourth or fifth date at a wedding for a cousin of theirs, and we sat at the same table during the reception. I really didn’t like him. Something about the way he looked at me creeped me out. He was overly friendly, touchy feely, and would make remarks when Jonah wasn’t around.”
“Remarks?” Boyd asks.
“Just… innuendoes. Gestures and facial expressions. He seemed… predatory. He asked me to dance and was too touchy, you know. I just got a predator vibe. At the wedding, Jonah had to leave the reception to go outside for some important work call and I’m sitting there with Thad and the other three brothers. They were all kind of indifferent toward me, but Thad was really drunk and got in my ear. He starts telling a cryptic story about how someone he knew had someone trying to hurt his family. He says that the person he knew made sure their bodies were unrecognizable and also said the guy also made sure before they died that they knew that everyone they loved would also get dead. He then laughed and said, ‘What do you think happened to my wife?’ And that was super awkward. He laughs and tells me he’s joking. It was all really bizarre. He was drunk. Way drunk.”
“Sounds like it,” Boyd says.
“I later ask Jonah what happened to Thad’s wife, and he says she died in a snowmobiling accident while they were on vacation, that his brother was devastated and hasn’t been the same since. He asked if Thad got weird with me. I kinda brushed it off as nothing and dropped the subject.”
I take another sip of wine and then continue.
“Then, I didn’t see Thad or anyone else in his family again until just before I left, so kind of put that weird exchange mostly out of my mind, but only mostly because you don’t forget a random conversation like that. At the point just before I left Columbus, Jonah has to go away and my apartment is being painted and repaired because of a flood from the upstairs neighbor, so the super has offered motel vouchers. Jonah tells me to instead stay at his place while he’s gone even though we’d only been dating a little while. He was gone about a week and during this time, Thad kept showing up. Flirting. Finding dumb reasons to come over. Finally, a day before I left, he made a blatant pass at me, pinning me against a wall, kissing me and groping me and when I turned him down, he told me I should not go to Jonah about it, that it’d hurt him. If I hurt Jonah, I’d be put in a category of people that hurt his family and people who hurt his family could get hurt, too. So of course I’m thinking about the conversation at that wedding. Thad tells me to forget it, he read me wrong and he’ll never try anything like that again if I keep my mouth shut about it. He was laughing it off but there was this edge to him.”