Page 34 of Finding His Redemption

“Hey, uh, thanks,” Jax called. “For the alibi.”

“Wasn’t an alibi. It was the truth. Security footage shows you arriving with Walker and 0109, and leaving at 0532. Coming back with Boone at 0715. Sheriff wanted to know where you were between four and six, which leads me to believe the time of death was sometime in the middle of that, and you were here.”

“Still… thanks.”

Ghost nodded once, then turned to open the door. But he paused at the threshold, not quite turning around.

“For what it’s worth,” he said quietly, “even if I didn’t have the proof on camera, I still would’ve lied for you. You didn’t kill anyone that night.”

Jax blinked, surprised by his certainty. “You don’t know me well enough to be sure of that.”

“Don’t need to. I know killers. Spent most of my career working with them. The ones who do it for pleasure have a particular look.” He turned fully back then, and his gaze scanned over Jax, assessing. “You’ve killed, but not like that. Not an innocent woman. Not for fun.”

Except hehadtried to kill an innocent woman. And, at the time, he had thought the cat and mouse chase of it was fun. “You don’t know about?—”

“About what you did to your CO’s wife?” Ghost’s voice was stripped of emotion, all calm and clinically detached. “I know. I also know you were strung out on enough drugs to kill a horse and having psychotic episodes due to untreated PTSD.”

Jesus. Did everyone here know about his past, and how fucked up his head was? Shame burned up the back of his neck.

“Don’t worry.” A flicker of a smile crossed Ghost’s face. “Far as I know, it’s just me, Walker, and Boone who have the details. Walker doesn’t bring men here blind, but he’s also a technophobe, so he asks me to put together dossiers of every man he’s considering.”

“You put together a dossier on me?” Jax tried to keep his tone neutral, but tension crept in around the edges.

“On everyone. It’s my job to know who’s coming through those gates.”

“So you know everything.” It wasn’t a question.

“Enough to know you’re not the monster you think you are. Point is,” Ghost continued with a note of impatience, “what you did to your CO’s wife is not the same thing as what happened to that girl on the service road. The dead woman was Bailee Cooper. Twenty-three. Local girl. She was a waitress until recently leaving her job to work for Craig Foster, a local real estate developer, and she was tortured by someone who was either very angry at her, or someone who is just a sadistic bastard.”

A chill crawled down Jax’s spine. “How do you know? The sheriff didn’t say any of that.”

“I make it my business to know.” Ghost’s expression remained unreadable. “I’ve been keeping tabs because this is the third dead girl to turn up in the last eight months.”

Jax stiffened. “You’re saying there’s a serial killer?”

“I’m saying Goodwin’s looking for a convenient scapegoat, and you just walked into his jurisdiction with a record that makes you perfect for the part.”

“But he can’t get me for the other two. I was still in prison in California.”

“Doesn’t mean he won’t try.”

“Shit.” The word came out on an exhale.

“I assume Walker and Boone told you to stay on the property?”

Jax nodded.

“Sucks trading one prison for another. I’ll see what else I can dig up.” Ghost tapped his thigh, and Cinder moved with him toward the door. “And Thorne?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t take it personally if Boone watches you a little closer for a while. It’s not that he thinks you did it. It’s that he doesn’t want you doing something stupid that makes it look like you did.”

Boone’s not your judge, son. He’s your shield.

At the memory of Walker’s words, he nodded again. “Understood.”

The door closed behind Ghost with a soft click, and he was alone again with Echo and his thoughts.