Want Me (Dark Obsession 2)

“I’m going to Wicked,” Lex said. “I’ll take care of Sophie.”

Chance nodded. “Dev and I will follow the money.”

Because the money was their biggest lead. He turned to the right, but Chance caught his arm.

“Do me a favor, man?” Chance said.

Frowning, Lex glanced at him. Only he saw that Chance’s gaze was on the building across the street.

“Don’t get shot,” Chance said flatly. “I don’t like this case. Not one bit.”

Who did? But Lex nodded and hurried away.

***

Wicked wasn’t filled with dancers. There were no drunk men and women eager to escape into the wild beat of music at the club. The place was as silent as a tomb as Ethan led Sophie inside.

Dark. Too empty.

“All these years,” Ethan muttered. He went straight to the bar and grabbed for the whiskey. “I thought I was protecting you.”

“Who else would have wanted them dead?” She was the one with the biggest motive. When he poured two glasses of whiskey, she grabbed one and downed it in a quick gulp. “The rest of the world thought my dad was perfect—so big at church, great at his job. That’s why none of the cops ever did anything. They bought into his lies.” The monster had only come out at home.

Ethan drank his whiskey just as fast as she had, then immediately poured more. “So many years have passed. It’s not going to be easy to track down the killer.”

Maybe. Maybe not. She reached for her refilled glass, but didn’t drink. “What if the killer has already tracked me down?”

He stilled, with that whiskey midway to his mouth.

“Did you send that man to break into my house?” Sophie had to ask that question.

Ethan slammed the drink down on the bar top. “Hell, no! I would never do that to you!”

She took a sip from the glass. She hadn’t even noticed the burn of the whiskey during her first glass. She noticed with the sip. Weird. “The man who came in said he wanted to make sure that I was all right.” Her mind wouldn’t let this go. “He said he wanted to kill Daniel because of what he’d done to me.”

Ethan’s glass was still in front of him. He glanced around the bar, jaw tight, then he looked back at her. “And now Daniel’s dead.”

“Did you put the hit on him?” They could talk freely in Wicked. She knew that.

“No.”

Was he lying? Would he really lie to her? Sophie stared at him, trying to see deep inside to Ethan’s soul, wishing she could magically know the truth.

“I love you,” Ethan told her. “You called me your brother, and Sophie, you have to know that I think of you as family. Every dark secret I have, you know.”

He didn’t know all of her secrets. He didn’t know that she’d come close to taking her life right before her parents’ death. I wanted the pain to stop. She’d been on that bridge, ready to jump, but she hadn’t gone into the churning water.

Sophie took a longer sip—more of a gulp—and didn’t feel the burn of the whiskey that time. “The man in my home wanted to kill Daniel because of what he’d done to me. Do you think it’s possible…? No.” She tightened her grip on the glass. “There’s no way that same man could have killed my parents. That was so long ago. It wouldn’t make any sense.” Would it?

“No one has hurt you since then.” Ethan’s voice was considering. “No one but Daniel.”

If she did have a stalker… it was almost as if the guy saw himself as her protector. Would Daniel’s attack have set him off? After all of those years…?

Maybe.

“Ethan—”

A faint beeping filled the club’s interior. Sophie stiffened.

Ethan didn’t look concerned. “I put in a few security upgrades after the last mishap here.”

Mishap? Is that what he was going to call the time he’d nearly died in that place, courtesy of Daniel?

“During the day, I have a security monitor in place that tells me when anyone gets a little too close.” He tapped a button, and a screen appeared behind the bar. The shelves of glasses slid back, and the flat screen literally just appeared. Ethan tapped a button on his phone, and an image immediately appeared on that screen.

She saw the front exterior of Wicked.

She also saw a very determined Lex heading their way.

“Here comes the new lover,” Ethan said. He glanced over at Sophie. “You sure you know what you’re doing with that one? He doesn’t seem like the type to let go easily.”

No, he wasn’t. He also wasn’t the type to give up on someone. “I trust him.”

Shock flashed on Ethan’s face.

A bit self-consciously, Sophie tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “And that’s not the whiskey talking, okay? Lex is one of the good guys.”

He tapped another button on his phone, and, on the screen behind the bar, she saw the door to Wicked swing open. Remote controlled. Handy.

“Since when…” Ethan asked, “do you date good guys?”

Lex quickened his steps and entered Wicked. “Since him,” Sophie said.

Ethan swore, but she was already turning away from him. She hurried across the bar and met Lex seconds later. “Look, I can explain,” Sophie began even as she wondered how he’d tracked her to Wicked. Dev, probably.

Lex caught her in his arms. He pulled her against his chest, holding her tightly. She could feel the frantic racing of his heart. Then—

He kissed her. Wildly, desperately.

“I am standing right here,” Ethan called out. “And this shit is extremely awkward. It’s like you’re making out with my sister right in front of me. Stop it, seriously.”

Lex pulled back, but only a little. He rested his forehead against hers.

“Lex, what’s wrong?”

“Griffin is dead. He was shot right in front of me. There wasn’t a damn thing I could do to save him.”

She shook her head, an instinctive denial.

“The shooter was good. He hit from across the street. Sniper position. He took out his target then got the hell out of there before the police arrived.” Lex looked over her shoulder, and she followed his gaze.

Ethan had the whiskey glass in his hand as he frowned at Lex. “Not me, man. I didn’t hire anyone to kill Daniel. The guy was rotting in prison. He wasn’t my concern.”

“Bull. You came huffing and puffing to my house because you were afraid he’d turn on you. But he got shot before he could, then—bam—Griffin is taken out, too.”

Ethan rolled his shoulders. “So you think that means I eliminated all of the ties to me. Clever, but—”

“Stop it!” Sophie nearly yelled. “Drop the tough guy act, Ethan! I told you, I trust Lex.”

She felt the ripple of surprise roll through Lex.

“She’s been drinking,” Ethan said quickly. “Don’t go getting all excited there, Lex. Whiskey makes her say crazy things.”

The hell it did. She could drink him under the table any day of the week. “Drop it,” she ordered Ethan again. “We need to find out who is doing this. What if he comes after me again? What then, Ethan?”

Ethan seemed to pale, but he nodded toward Lex and admitted, “I knew Sophie would stop the deal from going through, okay? I wasn’t planning to kill the guy right there. And if—fucking worst case scenario—Daniel had talked, then I would have applied pressure directly on the ADA. It’s not like that guy doesn’t have skeletons in his closet. Hell, years ago, Clarke liked to go slumming on the wrong side of town. I saved his ass a time or ten, but he likes to act like that never happened.”

She hadn’t known that.

“And all the times that Griffin came here?” Lex wanted to know. “What was that about?”

“Man, I don’t even stay here at night. Don’t like the crowds.” Ethan stroked the scar on his left cheek, then grazed the one on his right. “I’m not really in the mood for the ladies to look at me like I’m some kind of freak.”

“You’re not,”

Sophie said immediately.

Ethan laughed. “Soph, I’ve always told you, we have to do something about that soft heart.” Then his face tightened as he focused on Lex once more. “I didn’t even see Griffin so I sure didn’t go hiring the guy to kill for me. Look somewhere else, and look fast.”

Sophie opened her mouth, ready to tell Ethan that she’d fired the guys from VJS, so there would be no looking for them. That Lex was there because…

He wants me?

But Lex beat her to the punch. “Dev and Chance are already searching. We’ll find the bastard.”

“Good,” Ethan retorted. “Because it almost sounds as if the SOB wants to make me look guilty. Been there, done that shit already, and I sure don’t plan to do it again. I’ve got enough hell already on my plate.”

Yes, he did.

“Let’s go, Sophie,” Lex said. His fingers twined with hers.

She nodded.

“Sophie!” Ethan’s voice held a worried edge. “Be careful with him.”

With Lex?

“Good guys can hurt you, too.”