Mace, p.5
Mace, page 5
“No, Imogen,” he thundered. “You are not going down for this, so I don’t.”
“But you didn’t kill Kent,” I insisted. “I killed him.”
“You killed him because he fucking raped you, Imogen. He deserved exactly what you gave him.”
“You’re right, Mace. He deserved what I gave him, not you. You are not going to prison for something I did.” I shot up from the chair and snatched my purse off the hook by the front door. Mace was not going to go down for what I did.
“God dammit, Imogen,” he cursed.
I bent over to grab my shoes but levitated off the ground before slipping them on. “What are you doing?” I screamed.
Mace’s arms were wrapped around my waist, and he tossed me on the couch. “Keeping you from making a huge mistake,” he spat. “What the hell do you think you are going to do?” he demanded. “You don’t know anything, but you’re going to march out of here?”
“You told me they are trying to charge you with Kent’s murder. That is all I need to know.” I struggled to get off the couch, but he leaned over me and pinned my arms to the back of the couch. “This is why you came here. I’m going to help you.” I could repay him for what he did for me fifteen years ago. I, of course, didn’t want to go to prison for killing Kent, but I absolutely did not want Mace to go down for it, either.
“I did come here for your help, but not the kind of help you are trying to give me.”
I stopped struggling and looked up at him. “What other help can I give you?” I spat.
“Talk to my lawyer. Tell her what happened. If we both have the same story, that is better than just me saying I didn’t do it.”
I shook my head. “No one is going to care about my why for killing Kent. They are only going to care about me killing him.”
“You killed him because he raped you and then was going to kill you, Imogen. It wasn’t like you were just walking down the street and killing an innocent man because you were bored.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re right, but that isn’t going to happen.”
“Right now, you aren’t connected to his murder at all, Imogen. They are only coming after me because they found my fingerprint on the asshole's shoe. That is the only thing they have on me.”
“Well,” I drawled, “I’m not a lawyer or anything, but I have watched enough true crime shows to know they can more than convict you with that one fingerprint, Mace.”
“I have a plan, Imogen.”
“A plan?” I growled. “You have the plan to get you out of being convicted of murder?”
“Yeah, I do, but I’m gonna need you to stop talking for two minutes.” He shook his head and stared at me. “Just let me talk without you arguing with everything I say, yeah?”
“I’m not arguing,” I insisted. “I’m just trying to... Well, I don’t know what I’m doing because I’m still shocked this is happening after fifteen years.” I tipped my head to the side. “Why is this happening after fifteen years? Shouldn’t this have happened fifteen years ago?”
“Imogen,” he growled. “Just stop talking and let me talk. I will answer all of your questions. Deal?”
I sighed heavily and relaxed my arms. “Fine, talk.”
Chapter Seven
Mace
“They are coming after me because they allegedly found my fingerprint on Kent’s shoe.”
“But why did they just find the fingerprint?” she interrupted.
“Babe,” I grunted. “Just let me talk, and save your questions for the end, yeah?”
She nodded.
“They just found the fingerprint because they decided to run everything again for fingerprints because Kent’s brother Darrin is now the mayor of Sutter Creek. He’s got an axe to grind to find out who murdered his brother. It has been a cold case for the past fifteen years because no one really liked the guy, and there weren’t any obvious leads on who did it.”
“That’s stupid,” she whispered. “And no one liked Kent because we all knew he was not a good person. I can tell everyone that firsthand.”
“It may be, but that is how this whole ball got rolling.” I straightened and stepped back from Imogen. “Darrin doesn’t want the only cold case in Sutter Creek to be his brother. I can’t blame the guy, but he’s got it all wrong.”
“Kent was an asshole who deserved to die,” Imogen spat.
“Not wrong again, Imogen. You know, if you wouldn’t have killed him, I would have done it myself when you told me what happened.” I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. “So, I told my lawyer what happened that day.”
“You told her what happened?” Imogen gasped. “Why haven’t the police arrested me yet?”
“Because I told her what happened but didn’t mention any names. Plus, I’m sure she’s got some client-lawyer confidentiality thing that keeps her from sending me further up the river.” I paced back and forth in front of the couch. “She’s going to use my story to explain what happened, but having you telling the same story is just going to make my case stronger.”
“But if I tell the story, I will be arrested just like you.”
“Not if Pam can prove it was all self-defense.”
“She can prove it because it was self-defense. If I wouldn’t have killed Kent, he would have killed me.”
“Babe, I know,” I reassured her. “The problem is we don’t have any evidence in our favor since it has been fifteen years. You had bruises and whatnot on your body back then, but all of that is gone now.”
Imogen chewed on her bottom lip. “What if there were pictures and evidence from back then?”
I stopped in my tracks and stared at Imogen. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, there should be pictures and medical records.”
That was exactly what we needed. If we could prove that Imogen was assaulted and raped, it would more than prove that killing Kent was self-defense. I might still do some time for helping to cover it up, but I could handle that.
I could not handle Imogen or I going to prison for the rest of our lives for the murder of Kent because the asshole deserved it.
“Did you report the rape to the police?” I asked.
Imogen shook her head. “No, but I did go to the hospital when I got to San Diego. While my grandma was more accepting of taking care of me, she does have some of the heartless ways my mom does. She made me go to the doctor to prove that I had been raped and to make sure I wasn’t pregnant. That first month after I moved there was hell because I was waiting for that pregnancy test to be positive. I about wept when I got my period.”
I never even thought that there could have been a possibility of Imogen being pregnant. I could tack that onto the list of things I could feel guilty about for not talking to her for fifteen years. “But didn’t the hospital report the rape?”
“Well, they should have, but since my grandma worked there, she swept it under the rug. That report somehow didn’t make it to the police.” Imogen sighed and rolled her eyes. “I was glad about it back then, but now I kind of wished it would have been reported to prove Kent was a rapist.”
Dammit. If there had been a police report about the rape, it could have helped prove that Kent was killed in self-defense. “Do you remember what hospital you went to? Maybe they might have files on it even if it wasn’t reported to the police.”
“I mean, yeah. It’s where my grandma worked until she retired.”
Finding those files might be a wild goose chase because there was a good possibility that her grandma had destroyed everything. “Did your grandma know everything?
Imogen shook her head. “No. I just told her I was attacked walking home and had no idea who the guy was. She tried to convince me to tell the police, but I told her I would run away before I did that.”
“Well, you told her half of the story, then.” Imogen had been attacked while walking home, but she knew who it was and then killed him.
“She suspected there was more to the story, but she never pressed me for it.”
“Do you still talk to your grandma?”
Imogen nodded. “Yeah. She lives in a nursing home in San Diego but is still sharp as a tack. I don’t want to tell her what is happening, though. She put up with a lot with me when I moved in with her.”
“She could be the missing piece we need, Imogen.” I had been worried that Imogen wouldn’t be able to help me, but she was giving me a little bit of hope. Though if she didn’t want to talk to her grandma about this, I might have come here for nothing.
“Why can’t I just tell your lawyer what happened and see what she can do? You told me that was why you came here in the first place.” She stood and threw her hands in the air. “Why don’t we try that first, and then we can figure out if we need to get my ninety-year-old grandma involved. For all we know, your lawyer could decide to spin this on me, and I will be the one going to prison.”
I shook my head. There was no way in hell things were going to go that way. The worst that was going to happen was that I would be spending the rest of my days behind bars, not Imogen. “We’ll talk to Pam and then figure out what to do.”
“Which won’t be till Monday since it’s Friday night.” She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed heavily. “For the next forty-eight hours, I can worry myself sick, wondering if we’re going to prison or if I need to go on the run.”
“You’re not running,” I insisted. “Neither of us is. I will fight till my dying breath to let the world know that Kent was a rapist and deserved to die.”
“But we don’t have any proof of that besides your word and my word,” she moaned.
“That’s better than just my word, Imogen. I’m just a dirty biker in the eyes of the police. You’re way higher on the ladder of life than I am, babe.”
She rolled her eyes and motioned around her apartment. “I am a mortician who lives above a funeral home, Mace. It’s not like I’m living high on the hog.”
It wasn’t about how much money she had or where she lived. It mattered that she was on the right side of the law in the eyes of the police, and I was just a dirty biker who worked at a strip club. That was all they saw.
“Just trust me, babe. Having you say the same thing I am to is going to be a good thing even if we don’t have any evidence.”
“This is crazy, Mason,” she whispered.
I really wished she would call me Mace. I hadn’t been called the name Mason in fourteen years. The second I left Sutter Creek, I left Mason behind.
“I kind of imagined this happening years ago. I was terrified they would somehow find out I was the one to kill Kent, but with each year that went by, the less afraid I was.” She sighed heavily and flopped onto the couch. “Fifteen years, and now they are coming for us.”
“Me, babe. They’re only coming for me.”
She glared at me and shook her head. “They wouldn’t be coming for you if I hadn’t done what I did, to begin with.”
“You were defending yourself, Imogen.”
“Yeah, and then I became a murderer.”
“Have you ever talked to anyone about this?” I asked softly. I had taken people’s lives before, and even with a black heart, I had to process it, or it would drive me insane.
She shook her head. “Well, not about Kent, but I was in therapy for a few years to deal with what he did to me.” She smiled sadly. “It’s not something I’ll ever forget, but I didn’t let it change who I became. Kent took a little piece of me that day, but I took it back when the life left his eyes.”
I ran my fingers through my hair and grabbed my water from the table. “I never should have let you run away and not talk to you.”
“I didn’t run away from you, Mason. I ran away from that town that never did anything good for me. My mom never wanted me, the kids were assholes to me, and Kent Bing was the final straw.”
“Then I should have gone with you. There wasn’t anything keeping me in Sutter Creek. The second I graduated high school, I was out of there and hadn’t been back since this morning when I drove through to get to Jackson.”
“Hell,” Imogen laughed. “I haven’t been back ever. I will drive around that town and go completely out of my way just to avoid it.”
“Well, for never wanting to go back there, you sure did pick a place pretty fucking close.”
“Right? I was over seven hours away in San Diego, fresh out of college with my mortician certification, and ready to get out there. I didn’t want to stay in San Diego, so I started applying for jobs around the state. I actually called this place by mistake. There are two Brooks funeral homes in the state of California. I thought I was calling the one in Victorville, but it was this one.”
“And you still decided to work here even after you figured it was so close to Sutter Creek?”
She shrugged. “Enough time had gone by at that point, and I figured no one would know who I was, and I didn’t need to ever go to Sutter Creek if I didn’t want to. It was fate working again because the second I met Dorothy, I knew this was where I was meant to be.”
“You like to think everything is fate, babe.”
“Everything is fate, depending on how you look at it.”
“Me being here is fate?”
She shrugged and leaned back. “Yup. I mean, the reason why you’re here is not good, but I guess fate is telling us that fifteen years was long enough to be on the run.”
“I’m not on the run, babe. I’m facing this problem head-on, just like I always do. Kent Bing deserved to die, and I am going to do everything in my power to make sure everyone knows it.”
“And I’ll help. However and whatever you need from me, I’ll do. I don’t want anyone to know what he did to me, but for you, I will. You saved me all those years ago, so now it’s time for me to repay the favor.”
“Thank you, Imogen.” I pulled my keys from my pocket and hitched my thumb toward the door. “I better get back to Sacramento. The whole club will be out looking for me soon.”
“Your family,” she whispered. “I’m glad you finally found that, Mason.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “I mean Mace. I promise I’ll try harder to remember that.”
“Eh,” I shrugged. “You got it right about fifty percent of the time.” I moved to the door and glanced back at her over my shoulder. “I’ll be back Monday morning, Imogen,” I promised.
She raised her hand, and a soft smile played on her lips. “I’ll be here, Mace.”
“You can’t run away from me anymore, Imogen. I’ll follow you this time.”
“Bet,” she laughed.
I pulled open the front door and jogged down the stairs. “Lock the door behind me,” I called up the stairs.
“Will do,” she sang. She appeared at the top of the stairs and smiled down at me. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay for dinner?”
God, that was fucking tempting. Having Imogen in front of me was a million times better than I ever would have thought. “Raincheck?”
She clamped her lips and nodded. “Of course. Whenever works for you.”
“Later, Imogen.”
I wanted to stay, but I had just dumped a pile of shit at Imogen’s feet, and she needed some time to process it without me in her face.
“Bye, Mace,” she called.
She would have to call me that when I was walking out the door.
I unlocked the door and slipped out to my bike.
I hadn’t been lying to Imogen when I told her the club was my family, and they would be looking for me if I wasn’t back at the clubhouse soon.
The first thing I needed to do was get all this Kent Bing bullshit taken care of, and then I could focus on Imogen.
Fifteen years ago, I knew that Imogen was the girl I wanted.
Life had intervened and taken her away from me.
I wasn’t going to let that happen again.
Imogen had been within my grasp before, and I wouldn’t let her go this time.
Chapter Eight
Imogen
“Why is he kidnapping you on a Monday morning?”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed my purse off my desk. “He’s not kidnapping me, Dorothy.”
“Right,” she drawled. “Kidnapping would imply you don’t want to go.” She looked me up and down and shook her head. “I can see your foot tattoo.”
I looked down at my feet and stuck out my foot. “Can you?”
“Yes, I can, and it looks good, but you better pray Mr. Brooks doesn’t see you before you take off with your hot biker. He’ll say you should be working.”
I rolled my eyes and hitched my purse over my shoulder. “He is not my biker.”
“But you admit that he is hot.”
I waved my hand in front of my face. “I could be blind, Dorothy, and I would still be able to tell Mace is hot. And I have nothing to do today. I got everything done over the weekend, so I can take today off without feeling guilty.”
“What if we get a body?” She propped her hands on her hips.
“Then you, Merv, and Bruce can handle it. It’s not like you’ll have to plan and have the funeral today. I’ll be back tonight, and all will be back to normal tomorrow.” This was one of the downsides of working at the funeral home. You were on call twenty-four hours a day, and time off was not a thing. Today it would be, though. I was meeting with Mace’s lawyer, and hopefully, we were going to get this whole Kent Bing crap taken care of.
Dorothy fanned her face with her hand. “His name alone is hot,” she panted.
“Down, girl,” I laughed.
“Is his friend coming with him today?” she asked.
The roar of a motorcycle sounded outside. “Why don’t we go find out? Maybe you could ask him for a ride if he brought his hot friend.”
Dorothy wiggled her eyebrows. “What kind of ride are we talking about?”
“Dear God,” I laughed. “You are absolutely shameless, Dorothy.”
“You love it,” she smirked. She pushed open the front door and held it open for me. “Your hot biker awaits, my lady.”
