Ride: A Bad Boy Romance (63 page)

She swallowed.

That was probably dumb
, she thought.

She couldn’t say exactly
why
— it wasn’t like anyone else would ever know — but it was a vague, gnawing feeling that she had. Private investigators weren’t supposed to sleep with their clients, for one, and it made her feel unprofessional, for starters.

Besides, what if he’s implicated somehow
? She thought.
Worse things have happened, and am I going to want to believe him just because we slept together?

She stretched gently, and Garrett rolled over.

He yawned, and Ellie rolled onto her back.

“Morning,” she said.

Garrett smiled sleepily, scratching his belly.

“Morning,” he said.

He looked so smug and satisfied that Ellie
had
to laugh.

“What do you look so pleased about?” she said.

“I finally hit that,” he said, and winked.

Ellie rolled her eyes.

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep our secret,” he said, and pulled her in for a quick kiss.

See?
Ellie thought.
It’s fine.

Above their heads, floorboards creaked.

“I gotta sneak back before they’re up, though,” he said. “Act normal at breakfast, will you?”

“Just
go
,” Ellie said, tossing a pillow at him. Garrett caught it and tossed it onto the bed, standing now.

Then he made a face and stretched, frowning.

“You okay?” Ellie asked.

He didn’t answer right away, rubbing his neck like there was a crick it in, stretching his back.

“Yeah,” he said. “I think I just slept funn—”

Garrett disappeared.

Ellie yelped, sitting up and pulling the sheets around herself.

“Garret?” she said, blinking.

Did he just fall over or something?
she thought, beginning to panic.
Or am I losing my mind
?

Sheets still tight around her, she crawled to the other edge of the bed.

Before she got there, a
very
large bird’s head, with yellow eyes and a wicked-looking hooked beak, popped up over the edge and blinked at her.

Ellie screamed. She scrambled back to the middle of the bed, heart hammering as she glanced over the other side.

What the fuck is that thing
, she thought.
Are they everywhere?

What happened to Garrett?

Before she could do anything else, footsteps thundered down the hall and Ellie just pulled the sheets over herself before the door burst open and Jules charged in, followed moments later by Seth.

Ellie and the bird both looked over.

“What’s wrong?” Jules asked, her red hair wild.

Ellie just pointed at the bird. She was too surprised to even form words, and wasn’t even sure how to describe what had happened, anyway.

Jules looked at the huge bird. Seth looked at the huge bird.

The bird blinked back, then looked over at Ellie.

Jules burst out laughing, one hand on her chest. Seth grinned.

Ellie wanted to cry, and she just looked from one of them to the other, her mouth slightly open.

“It’s fine,” Seth managed to say. “Don’t worry, this is totally fine.”

“Where’s Garrett?” she managed to ask.

Seth looked at the bird.

“Just do that, but in reverse,” he said.

The giant bird hopped.

“It takes a couple tries the first time,” Seth said.

It hopped again. Then it ruffled its feathers.

Then, suddenly, Garrett was there, kneeling on the floor, totally naked.

Jules averted her eyes and Garrett cupped both his hands over himself. Seth walked to the bed, not looking at Ellie, grabbed the pillow she’d thrown and handed it to Garrett.

“What the
fuck
,” Ellie said. “Garrett?”

“What the
fuck
,” echoed Garrett.

“We’ll leave you to get dressed and work this out,” Jules said, grabbing Seth and pulling him. “She’ll believe you now, Garrett.”

They left and closed the door behind them.

Ellie turned to Garrett, who was staring back at her, looking flabbergasted.

“Well?” she said.

“
I
didn’t think
I
could
,” Garrett insisted.

“How did you not
know
?” asked Ellie. “How do you accidentally realize that one morning?”

The four of them were standing in the kitchen. Ellie and Garrett were now dressed, and Seth and Jules were standing there, drinking coffee, looking slightly amused.

“He found out when he fell off a cliff,” Jules said.

“Oh my god,” muttered Ellie.

“Yeah, I just about had a heart attack,” Jules said. “At least Zach was there to convince me I wasn’t crazy.”

Garrett ran one hand through his hair. He had no idea how to convince Ellie that he really,
truly
hadn’t thought he could shift.

And I thought the hard part would be telling her that my brothers could
, he thought.

“Can Violet turn into an eagle?” Ellie asked.

“No,” Seth and Jules said, and then looked at each other.

“It’s an adult thing,” Seth said.

“He means a sex thing,” Jules said.

Garrett swallowed, looking at his older brother.

For the first time in
ages
, he could feel a blush creeping up his cheeks.

“Really?” he said.

Seth just nodded.

Garrett glanced quickly at Ellie, then back at Seth.

“That wasn’t
exactly
my first time,” he said.

“According to mom’s ghost, you have to have sex with the right person,” Seth said.

“You saw mom’s ghost? Where?”

“Sort of,” Seth said. “Up on the mesa. It’s a whole story.”

“We’ve got time,” Garrett said.

“Not really,” said Ellie, glancing at the microwave clock. “The police station opens in five minutes, and we should get there as soon as possible, before anyone
else
does.”

“We can’t stick around to hear about how my mom’s ghost told Seth that having sex with the right person would let me turn into a bird?” Garrett said.

Silence.

“That’s the gist of it, really,” Seth said. “You should probably go.”

Jules shrugged.

Garrett let Ellie pull him out the front door and into the Jeep.

* * *

“
I
’m just saying
, you should be more weirded out by this,” Garrett said.

Ellie pulled up to a stop sign, stopped, then continued down Main Street.

“Garrett, there has been a
lot
of crazy shit the last couple of days
,
” Ellie said. “I’ll figure out whether I’m losing my mind when it’s all over, okay?”

“Sorry,” Garrett muttered.

“I think you’re more worried than I am,” Ellie said, softly. “Did you really not know?”

“I really didn’t,” he said.

“You didn’t know it was a sex thing,” she said, pulling into a parking spot in front of the Obsidian police station.

“I probably would have dated more if I’d known,” he admitted.

Ellie laughed, to Garrett’s relief.

“Well, I’m glad that my vagina turned out to be the magic key,” she said, and hopped out of the Jeep before Garrett could respond.

Not that he was sure what to say to that.

Me too
, maybe?

The police station didn’t open for five more minutes, and they stood around on the steps, waiting for someone to come unlock the doors. Ellie leaned against the handrail and rubbed her eyes, and Garrett jammed his hands into his pockets.

No public stuff
, he thought.
You’re not her boyfriend, you’re her client.

For now
.

Even the way she turned her neck tantalized him, and he thought about the night before, the way she’d—

“What’s
that
?” Ellie said, interrupting him.

Garrett turned. A sleek black car emerged from the underground garage below the police station.

“
Nobody
who works for the Obsidian police can afford
that
,” Ellie said. “Is that a Lotus?”

Garrett had no idea what the car
was
, but he could tell it cost a lot of money, so black and shiny that he felt like his eyes glided along its smooth curves.

God, it was almost
sexy
.

Then it turned and drove down the street, somehow looking sleek and
dangerous
as it did, barely making a sound.

“That’s him,” Garrett said. “That’s
gotta
be him, right? What was he doing here? I’m going after him,” he said, and started down the steps.

“No,” Ellie said, and caught his arm.

“He’s
behind
this, Ellie,” Garrett said, rage seething through him. “If I go now, I can catch up to him, and...”

He trailed off.

And do what?
he thought.
Beat the living hell out of him? Kill him? Make him confess?

“We’ve got nothing right now,” Ellie said, keeping her voice low. “Even if you catch up to him, what then?”

“He killed my parents,” Garrett said, jerking his arm away from Ellie. “He tried to hurt my brothers. I’m going to
kill
him.”

He turned to go.

“No, you’re not,” Ellie said. “You find him, and then what? His guys shoot you? He takes you captive and does the kind of experiments to you that he wanted to do to your brother?”

Garrett stopped, something cold in the pit of his stomach.

“I can take care of myself,” he growled, but he didn’t move.

“That’s not the question,” Ellie said, her footfalls soft on the steps behind him. “The question is, can we do something
about
him? And the answer is, not yet.”

Garrett ground his teeth together, his pulse thundering through his temples.

She was right, and he
hated
it.

“This is going to involve a lot of microfiche, not car chases,” Ellie said. “And you’re not going to get to punch him at the end, but hopefully justice will be served anyway.”

The door to the police station swung open, and the two of them turned to see a young woman, hair in a bun, wearing a police uniform. Garrett didn’t recognize her.

That was good.

“Come on,” Ellie said. “Let’s go sift through some paperwork.”

* * *

A
n hour later
, Garrett was explaining himself yet again, now to a man in his forties who was wearing a button-down shirt and tie, his suit jacket slung over the back of his chair.

“You just want an accident report?” the man said. “Those are searchable on the department website.”

Garrett shut his eyes and took a deep breath, then heard Ellie’s voice.

“The website only goes back to 2005,” she said. “This happened a few years earlier.”

“Did we investigate this accident?” the man asked. “Was it suspicious, or routine?”

That’s what we’re trying to ask you
, Garrett wanted to shout.

“Two people careened off a cliff,” Garrett said. “It’s my understanding that the department usually opens a case in scenarios like this.”

Ellie’s rubbing off on me
, he thought.
That almost sounded professional
.

“So you don’t
know
whether there’s a case file,” the man said, finally understanding. “We might have purged all that paperwork a few years ago, but it’s your lucky day. The guy who runs the archive is in today.”

He heaved himself out of his chair and stood.

“Rogers,” he shouted over the top of a cube wall. “You know if Walter is here yet?”

“Got here early this morning,” another voice called. “Said he couldn’t sleep so he just came in.”

Walter
, Garrett thought.
I know that name. He did... something.

“Come on back,” the detective said.

* * *

W
alter’s office was downstairs
, in the half-basement level of the building. When Garrett left town, the police station was a little brick building on one corner, and the few cruisers mostly parked on the street outside it.

Now, it wasn’t exactly
impressive
, but it was a real police station, and had at least twice as many officers working as before, even though it still wasn’t very many.

“He’s retired, but we let him come in a couple times a week and keep records,” the man leading them said. “His wife died, and he needed something to do, you know?”

He knocked on a door and pushed it open, revealing a large desk with an old man in front of a room full of shelves.

“Thanks,” Ellie said. The man nodded and left.

Walter looked up, peering through his glasses.

Now
Garrett recognized him.

The little old man was Walter Thompkins. He’d been a cop in Obsidian for as long as Garrett could remember. When his parents had died, he’d been just a few years from retirement.

He’d also been completely dismissive of Garrett, Seth, and Zach. He was the one who’d told them about their parents’ accidental cremation, the one who’d told them that the case was closed, it was a clear accident.

The one who’d insinuated that maybe their parents had been drunk or reckless for taking that road at night, in the rain.

Fury swelled in Garrett, and he balled his hands into fists, then jammed them into his pockets.

Don’t get mad
, he thought.
Get evidence, and get justice.

“Seth?” Walter said, peering up.

“It’s Garrett, actually,” Garrett said.

“As I live and breathe,” Walter said. “We thought you were gone forever.”

No thanks to you,
Garrett thought.

“Here I am,” Garrett said. It was the only thing he could think to say.

“Well, welcome home,” Walter said. “I guess you also want to look at the file on your parents’ accident?”

“Do you have one?” Garrett asked.

“Also?” said Ellie, stepping forward.

Walter looked from one to other, and then nodded.

“There’s not much in it, I’m afraid, but we’ve got one as long as no one’s gotten rid of it,” he said. “And yes, your uncle was just here, looking at it. He said that the three of you had asked him to do a little sleuthing, and he just wanted to put your minds to rest. Very nicely dressed.”

“Shit,” whispered Ellie.

“Hmm?” asked Walter.

“Nothing,” she said. “When was Garrett’s ...uncle... here?”

“A few hours ago,” Walter said. “Your family should really communicate better. I assume you’re Mrs. Monson?”

“No,” Garrett and Ellie said together.

“I’m a private investigator,” Ellie said.

Walter frowned.

“The file’s family only,” he said.

Garrett saw red for a moment.

You just let someone who’s been after me for years look at it, you old idiot!
he wanted to shout, but he felt Ellie’s hand on his arm.

“That’s fine,” she said. “I’ve got some things I need to do in the library. I’ll see you later.”

Then she walked out of the room.

Garrett looked back at Walter, who stood, slowly.

He walked toward the shelves that took up most of the room, “Now, where did I put it...?” he muttered.

Garrett just watched, feeling helpless.