Page 31 of Beyond Hate (Beyond #3)

London

T here were pictures of a dead man in front of me, and it only took me a few seconds to realize it wasn’t Hudson like I’d thought.

I’d assumed maybe Otto had been too confident in his abilities and they’d found him.

I was already trying to race around in my head and come up with a lie that would make him sound innocent.

I was already wondering if I could show them the cuts and bruises that Otto had left behind and blame it on a dead man so I could plead self-defense and take the fall for him.

I was willing to take the fall for him if it meant keeping Otto safe… but…

Well, it wasn’t Hudson I was looking at.

It was the man from the club. The one who’d left me the letter. The one who’d put his hands on me and I was pretty sure Otto had probably hunted down and killed while I was sleeping.

It was really the only explanation.

“Oh… oh, shit.” I couldn’t keep the tremble out of my voice as I stared at the photos with wide eyes.

I thought they only showed people things like this on the television, not for real.

Of course, we were in a little town, with a little police station.

I was pretty sure there were only a few cops on duty, and the man in front of me hadn’t even bothered to flip on the tape recorder sitting between us.

It wasn’t like this was anything official.

I wasn’t sure if that was better or worse for me. If they were bad at their jobs, did that mean I was more or less likely to be implicated for something that Otto had clearly done?

“I… oh, God.” I swallowed down the sick feeling in my stomach as best I could and turned my head. It was one thing to see Hudson staring at me with wide, dead eyes. It was another to see a man I didn’t even know with the same gash across his throat. “What happened?”

In front of me, Renn paused. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out.” When he blew out a breath and gathered up the photos, I finally turned back to look at him.

“You don’t think I—”

“No.” He cut me off before I tried to figure out if I was going to sound guilty asking…

because at the end of the day, it kind of was my fault.

Everything Otto did was my fault. “But it’s obvious they had a connection to you.

We have this man on the security camera running from Til’s.

” Renn only made the slightest bit of a face when he said the name of the club—I wasn’t sure if he was judging me for my job choice or remembering the scene he’d witnessed there.

Whatever it was, I kept my expression neutral.

“We’re wondering if it has something to do with the club where you work.

We haven’t had reports before, but we’re getting quite a few now. ”

Oh.

I could use that. I bit my lip and tried to look as innocent as I could. “I don’t know… I mean, we get some weird people in there sometimes.”

“Like Hendrick Caulson?”

My mind flashed to Mr. Caulson. Sure, he’d been a cheater, but he’d always been polite. He’d never made me feel uncomfortable, and…

“Yeah, like Mr. Caulson. He usually came in alone and asked for me specifically.” I was completely willing to throw him under the bus if it meant keeping Otto safe.

I was beginning to realize I’d throw anyone to the wolves if it meant I could keep Otto by my side.

“It didn’t happen very often, but… maybe word got out or something.

I don’t know.” I shook my head slowly, forcing my eyes to go as virtuous as I could make them.

“Honestly, I’m too spooked to go back. Too much has happened there. ”

I kept waiting for him to mention Hudson, to bring up the fact that he was missing.

It probably helped that he didn’t really have many friends, and the ones he did have were the kind of friends who wouldn’t call the police if you suddenly disappeared.

He worked odd jobs, so there was no boss to report him for calling out of work either.

And honestly… I wasn’t sure if many people even knew we were together. I was the dirty little secret he kept closed away in the apartment and took to parties when he wanted to show off that he was fucking someone pretty.

And we hadn’t done that since before Otto…

Was there really a world where we could just leave once this was all over and done? Where I could be someone else?

Where I could just be happy with Otto?

The thought made it easier for me to look at the pictures, made it easier for me to lie about the man who had died because of me.

It was easy to admit, even if it was just to myself, that I would sell my soul to keep the happiness I’d found…

and I’d sell anyone else’s that I had to if it meant I could finally give Otto a life where he could be happy.

He deserved it more than anyone I’d ever met… and I owed it to him to make sure he got it.

I was exhausted by the time Officer Renn stopped asking me questions.

He asked me about my client list at Til’s, and if anyone had ever made me feel uncomfortable before.

There still weren’t any questions about Hudson, which made something in my chest slowly relax.

If people had even known we were together, they’d probably thought we’d broken up.

When I got back to the house we were renting I was going to ask Otto to just give this up… I wanted to go.

I wanted to get out of this town and start over.

And I was suddenly very happy that I’d never filed a report about the first time Otto had taken me. It made it easier for me to seem innocent in all of this.

I blew out a breath when Renn left the room and came back a few minutes later, holding the door open for me.

“I’m sorry about interrupting your day, Mr. Ellis.”

I offered him the prettiest smile I could. “You can call me London. And it’s okay. I just want to make sure everyone at Til’s is safe.”

Of course, if I left the area, they would be, wouldn’t they? There wouldn’t be a reason for any more attacks or notes—no reason for Otto to off clientele because they were looking at me funny.

Honestly, everyone here would be better off if we just left. I just had to figure out how to convince Otto that figuring out who was trying to hurt me wasn’t worth it.

The only thing that really concerned me was the note—the one with the handwriting that looked exactly like mine…

Whoever was trying to hurt me somehow knew about our past.

I wouldn’t blame Otto if curiosity made him want to stay. I wasn’t sure if finding the person who’d left the note could somehow satisfy the anger he felt toward his past, or if it would even be worth the danger it seemed to bring.

“I can give you a ride home.” Renn’s voice was soft, still apologetic. It made me feel confident that I’d done a good job handling the situation.

“Sure, thanks.” It wasn’t really his fault that my…

what was he? Boyfriend, lover, soulmate?

Whatever else he might be, Otto was a psychopath who couldn’t help himself when it came to killing people who hurt me.

I wasn’t even surprised that he hadn’t told me about the man from the club…

It wasn’t really a lie, I just wasn’t sure he would have thought I needed to know.

We were going to have to have a discussion about killing people. I didn’t know if it would stop him, but at least he could warn me next time. It would give me a chance to figure out a better lie than whatever I’d spewed today.