Never Trust the Living (Battle Crows MC Book 7) Read online

  I felt my insides stir.

  “What?”

  “I have to break it off with her,” he repeated. “Because it wouldn’t be fair to her otherwise.”

  No, it wouldn’t.

  But was it really necessary?

  That question was answered a few seconds later when there was an insistent knock on my door.

  Bram cursed and yanked off his shirt, then started to toe off his boots.

  “What are you doing?” I squeaked. “I need to be putting clothes on. You don’t need to be taking them off!”

  Bram shot me a grin. “Gotta look the part.”

  That grin did things to my insides I’d never felt before.

  “Bram…”

  He disappeared through my bedroom door, then out into the living room.

  I could hear men’s voices, and I cursed.

  Pulling on some sleep shorts, I hurried out of my bedroom to find Bram facing off with two of Intercourse’s finest. One of which being Detective Alto, the man that always looked at me as if I was crazy pants.

  The one that’d shooed me away more times than I could count, thinking that I was full of shit.

  I hope it weighed on his conscience, my friends’ deaths in addition to the deaths of our parents and my foster parents.

  Had he taken me seriously, they might be alive right now.

  I might not have lost my only two friends in the world.

  “What’s going on?” I asked quietly, my voice shaky and filled with fear.

  Detective Alto turned his gaze to me, and I felt like I was being stripped alive.

  His eyes lingered on my unrestrained breasts—hello, didn’t everyone sleep braless?—until the other man beside him cleared his throat.

  Detective Alto looked away from my tits to the man that’d done the throat clearing.

  “This is Detective Green. We’re here to ask you about your whereabouts on the day of Amon’s trial,” Detective Alto growled.

  I shivered under his intense gaze, then looked over at the other detective, who was glaring at his partner.

  “We were here,” I said quietly, fearfully. “We already told you that. When the trial was over that day, we left together and came straight here.”

  Then the detectives commenced asking me every question under the sun.

  Had I seen my brother lately? No. Would I mind coming down to the station and answering a few questions? Yes. It’s the middle of the night. Had either of us heard about a commotion at the river today? No.

  Then started the back-and-forth questioning about our relationship.

  “Are you still seeing Mimi?” Detective Alto looked contemplative.

  I wanted to throat punch him.

  “We are on the verge of breakup,” Bram lied. “Ever since the time I was held… I… she… I can’t deal with her overprotectiveness anymore. And her obvious abhorrence of Dory has put me in a position where I’m having to choose. So I’m choosing Dory.”

  “Dory,” Detective Alto drawled. “Not Dorcas?”

  “I can’t stand that name,” I blurted out. “Amon used to taunt me with it… I can’t stand hearing it anymore.”

  And that was the one hundred percent truth.

  I hated being called Dorcas.

  Hearing Bram call me Dory felt like a weight had been lifted off of my chest.

  “Okay,” Alto snorted as if he couldn’t quite comprehend that a name could have any negative effects on a person.

  But, oh, could it.

  I would know.

  “Detective,” Detective Green growled, “I think that we’ve established an alibi for both of them.”

  “What’s going on?” Bram asked as if he didn’t already know the answer to the question.

  Detective Alto started to say something, but Detective Green spoke over him.

  “Amon, your brother, was found in the river this morning. He has a knife wound to the chest. We believe he was murdered,” Detective Green explained.

  So did that mean that my knife wound won? That I killed him?

  I’d seen Bram punch him in the throat, and likely that’d affected him greatly. But if they weren’t looking past the knife wound…

  “That’s…” I hesitated, unsure what to say.

  “I think the word you’re looking for is horrible,” Detective Alto snapped.

  I looked at him for a few long seconds before saying, “Detective, Amon has—had—done nothing but torture me my entire life. He killed those two girls—girls that were my friends. He almost killed Bram. And I’m fairly sure he killed my parents and then my foster parents when I was younger. So, though you think it’s ‘horrible,’ I certainly do not. I feel like karma is a bitch.”

  I could see that Detective Green agreed with me. It was Detective Alto who didn’t.

  But before he could say anything more, Bram put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his naked chest.

  One that I’d been dreaming about since I’d seen it last.

  Mimi’s chest. That chest belonged to Mimi. You can’t think about that chest.

  It didn’t matter.

  No matter how many times I told myself to control myself when it came to Bram, the more my body and my mind screamed that I was nuts.

  “We’re sorry to bother you so late.” There was a long pause as Detective Green considered us for a moment. “Do you think that Mimi could’ve done that?”

  My mouth fell open, and Bram’s body tensed.

  “No!” I blurted. “Mimi is a kindhearted person. Plus, she’s all of a hundred and thirty pounds. Do you honestly think she could lift someone my brother’s size?”

  Detective Green shrugged. “She could’ve had help.”

  “Mimi didn’t do it,” Bram promised. “She’s been staying with her dad at the racetrack in town. Most likely, if she needs an alibi, she’ll have one. She’s been helping run that place.”

  Racetrack in town? Mimi’s family owned that?

  I shivered.

  That racetrack was cool and all, but it was a dirt track. Dirt tracks unequivocally equaled dirt.

  And I didn’t do dirt.

  Not even after all these years could I stand to be dirty.

  One of my teachers from when I took psych last year called the inability to deal with dirt a trauma response when I gave her a ‘hypothetical’ situation during class.

  Needless to say, dirt and I didn’t get along too well.

  When I got dirty, I freaked out. And that wasn’t a good thing.

  “Okay,” Detective Green said. “We’ll head out. Sorry to bother you so late at night. But we wanted to get a quick jump on this.”

  Bram’s arm slung more purposefully around my neck, pulling me even closer. “It’s not a bother. But for what it’s worth, he killed two young girls in our community. Both had boyfriends, lots of friends, parents, and grandparents. I can see any of them wanting to deal with him the old-fashioned way. Especially after learning of his insanity verdict. I can’t say that I blame whoever did it, either. That is just a slap in the face to all of us that suffered at his hands.”

  Detective Alto rushed off after Bram’s parting comment. It was Detective Green who said, “I can’t say that I agree with you. Because that would put me in a position I don’t necessarily want to be in. But if I did, I would try really hard to figure out what that guy’s problem is.” He hooked his finger toward Alto’s departing back. “I’m sorry that this happened to you two. And for what it’s worth…”

  He left that hanging, but his eyes said something completely different.

  As if he knew what we’d done, and he approved.

  Bram’s hand stiffened on my shoulder that he was now holding, but the rest of him was calm.

  After everyone left, and it was just the two of us standing there, I said, “What the fuck are you doing? You can’t give up Mimi!”

  Bram sighed. “Mimi’s already halfway given me up anyway. This’ll be a clean break. I love… loved… whatever. I like her still. But I can’t deal with it anymore. This last week has been from hell. And if anything, today gave me a perfectly good reason in my conscience to give her up. I won’t feel bad anymore about letting go.”

  I shook my head. “This is going to be a disaster.”

  • • •

  Things happened really fast after that.

  As in, I never once expected him to spend quite so much time with me to sell our lie.

  Nor did I expect him to leave his girlfriend.

  The first time we saw her while we were out to eat, I nearly threw up the food that I’d been barely eating.

  It was barbeque and probably would’ve hurt coming back up.

  Weeks passed, and each time we saw Mimi, the more the dagger in my heart twisted.

  Because Bram felt horrible. I could see it in his eyes, on his face, and the way he held himself when she was around.

  He clearly still loved her.

  But Detective Alto, if anything, had doubled down his efforts in trying to prove our guilt.

  If we ever needed to sell the lie, now was the time.

  I only wish it hadn’t come at the expense of Mimi’s heart and my own.

  CHAPTER 7

  FYI—I’m out of medicine that makes me like you.

  -Bram to Shine

  BRAM

  “I don’t believe you,” the detective admitted. “I feel like there’s more going on here than what meets the eye.”

  He was a suspicious man with good cop vibes.

  He was right.

  Yet…

  I moved to my truck and opened the passenger side door. Then I yanked open the glove compartment and grabbed the box that’d been sitting there for nearly six months. The ring that I’d been planning on giving to Mimi and hadn’t.
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  The ring that’d been practically burning a hole in the glove compartment of my truck as I thought about Mimi never wearing it over the last few weeks.

  Overall, leaving Mimi had been a good decision.

  I loved her, but I didn’t love her like I should love her.

  We’d been high school sweethearts and moved into adult lovers. But what we were not, was forever meant to be.

  That wasn’t saying that Dory was my forever, either.

  But it looked like she was about to sell the lie that she was.

  “Look,” I said. “Dory’s the real deal to me. Would I have a ring for her if she weren’t?”

  “I just don’t believe it,” Detective Alto snapped. “There’s something going on here.”

  Did I also mention that Detective Alto was Mimi’s cousin?

  They were close, and it was obvious that Detective Alto had it out for me after breaking Mimi’s heart.

  When I’d told Dory about it the day they’d found Amon’s body, she’d said, “Well, that explains the hatred between you two. And somewhat me. But why did he hate me before? Why didn’t he believe what I had to say about Amon previously?”

  “You’ll break her even more if you do that,” Alto said stiffly.

  I shrugged and shoved the ring into my pocket.

  I guess that meant that I would have to head toward Dory’s place now.

  We’d have to sell this for real, now.

  No more playing and pretending.

  What we had to do next would be a game changer.

  • • •

  DORY

  “We’re going to try to make this work,” he said to me. “We’re going to stay married. We’re going to make this a real relationship. We’re going to sell this lie. You on board?”

  I was on board with anything that wouldn’t have me seeing the inside of a jail cell.

  “Yes.”

  He slid the ring that used to be his ex-girlfriend’s onto my finger, then grinned.

  “It fits.”

  I felt my heart sink. “It fits.”

  Some other girl’s ring fit.

  Yay for me.

  • • •

  Three months later

  We got married at the courthouse.

  None of Bram’s family was in attendance, mostly because they were all mad at him.

  In fact, they disliked me so much that not a single one of them would even spare the time to talk to me.

  It was, by far, much worse than I could’ve ever imagined.

  To make matters worse, Bram didn’t even kiss me as we were married.

  My entire childhood, I had nothing to do but think about the future. About how, one day, I would get married and it would be the most magical thing in the world.

  Only, that was the exact opposite of what I got.

  Which fuckin’ sucked.

  What sucked worse was, an hour later, he dropped me off at home in his truck—he’d refused to give me a ride on his motorcycle because it didn’t feel ‘right’—he left.

  No telling me where he was going. No explanation about what to look forward to from there.

  In fact, he’d dropped me off at my house with instructions to call a moving company to help box my shit up.

  Which, I didn’t do.

  After telling me to handle getting my stuff to his place that he’d once mostly shared with Mimi, I got in my own car and moved my crap into the one-bedroom apartment.

  It took me three hours to do.

  Once I had everything moved, I spent the rest of the day cleaning up my apartment to ensure that I would be getting my apartment deposit back.

  Only after hours of hard labor did I return to Bram’s house to find him still not home.

  I went to sleep on the couch and slept there every night for the next six months.

  CHAPTER 8

  I have two moods. Sleepy sleepy, and overthinky.

  -Dory to Bram

  DORY

  I’d like to say that life got better after that. But it didn’t.

  Bram’s family hated me. Bram resented me.

  And, to make matters worse, I finally got to sleep with Bram.

  But only because he was drunk off his ass, and he wanted it, he said.

  I’d given it to him, as well as my virginity, and he didn’t even notice.

  From there on out, we shared a room.

  He fucked me, but he didn’t love me.

  The day that he graduated from his welding school and got his first job as an underwater welder, I went out of my way to plan a party for him.

  No one spoke to me once.

  Well, no one but Jeremiah.

  He spoke to me.

  • • •

  “Why don’t you ever eat my food?”

  I looked up at the gruff biker that honestly scared the crap out of me.

  Actually, all of them scared the crap out of me.

  That was why I’d battened down the hatches and tried to appear bitchy and aloof. Because if I showed them a single hint of fear, they would pounce on that thread like hungry cats.

  I blinked. “What do you mean?”

  I’d hoped that none of them noticed that I didn’t eat any of the food that I didn’t personally make.

  In fact, I didn’t even eat the food that Bram made well.

  I could choke it down, but there was a fifty percent chance that I’d puke it back up later.

  Mostly because I didn’t trust Bram.

  He was my husband, and I didn’t think that he’d ever put me first if push came to shove.

  “Umm.” I hesitated, unsure what to say.

  I mean, technically, them (them being the Crow family) knowing that I didn’t do well eating their food wasn’t a big deal. I wasn’t sure that they would care whether I ate or not. And knowing that I couldn’t eat it probably wouldn’t be any skin off their noses. But still.

  “Come on.” He took a seat next to me.

  Nobody had approached me all night.

  They’d all eaten the cake that I’d purchased, the alcohol that I’d painstakingly braved the wilds of the liquor store for, and the food that I’d asked Jeremiah to cater—that I’d paid for.

  Yet, none of them had said thank you at all.

  Not even Bram, who was well on his way to drunk, had said a single ‘thank you.’

  It was days like today that really hammered the nail into my proverbial coffin.

  I loved a man that would never love me back.

  I went out of my way to do everything for him—and his family—and not a single one of them paid me even a single ounce of their attention.

  Except for, apparently, Jeremiah.

  And, since he was actually acknowledging me—I had a feeling it had to do with the book in my hand and not the fact that I hadn’t eaten—I decided to go for it.

  I hadn’t meant to go for it quite so spectacularly as I had, though.

  But once I started to talk, the words just kind of vomited out.

  “When I was younger, my brother used to do things to my food,” I said. “I was diagnosed with ARFID—avoidance/restrictive food intake disorder. Pretty much, sometimes I just can’t eat. Can’t make myself eat. I try, and then I throw it up. That’s what usually happens when I eat y’all’s food. I try it. Then I spend the next thirty minutes outside puking it up.”

  “What did he used to do to your food?” Jeremiah growled, sounding pissed.

  I looked at him skeptically, wondering idly if he actually cared.

  Shrugging, because what did it fucking matter at this point, I continued to speak.

  “What didn’t he do would be an easier question to answer,” I admitted. “He once collected mouse droppings and put it into a cake. He waited until I’d eaten a piece before he showed me what he’d done. I got really sick from that.”

  I sighed. I’d spent two nights in the hospital for that one.

  “Then there was the time that he’d known he couldn’t get away with it, and then he’d put cilantro into my food because that was the easiest way to hide the fact that he wanted to fuck with me. I can’t stand cilantro. It tastes like soap to me,” I admitted. “He did that a lot. And then I was forced to eat it because there wasn’t anything else to eat if I didn’t. And he liked to see me starve more than he liked to fuck with my food.”

  Jeremiah’s fists clenched hard. “What else?”

  “There’s a lot.” I shrugged. “I…”

  “Yo, Dorcas.”

  I looked up to see Price looking at me.