Page 49 of Tempt Me

“I did some searching into his crime,” he said, picking at the blanket. “There was a shit ton of evidence in the start. I followed a bunch of leads with Zee to talk to witnesses and shit. Like the woman who owned the diner.”

I waited, holding my breath and forcing myself to let it out.

“The witness said that Judas was at the diner talking to a red-haired woman, and they got into an argument.”

I knew very little about Judas’s case, but it was said to be a crime of passion, so an argument made sense.

“He jumped over the divider to the kitchen, grabbed a cleaver, and left.”

“A cleaver is what was said to be the murder weapon, yeah?”

Goliath nodded. “Yeah. Two days later, he went back to the diner and stabbed the woman over sixteen times. The diner owner said he was laughing and singing some nursery rhyme.”

I blinked, Judas was out there, but he had never even let us kill spiders. He said everything had a purpose, regardless of whether it scared or grossed us out.

“I asked the company to email the CCTV footage of the restaurant that day. They’re getting it to me, but it’ll take a while.”

I sighed. Of course, it would, but maybe once we saw the footage, we could finally clear Judas’s name because we could identify the real killer. Fuck, we needed proof to show it was not our brother who committed the crime. Judas didn’t do that. I know he didn’t.

“We need to go talk to the owner. Maybe see if we can find the original waitress on the clock that night…” I said.

Goliath fiddled with the blanket more. In fact, I was getting annoyed.

“Stop.” I smacked his damn hand, the tugging driving me nuts.

“There’s more,” he said, reaching forward and picking at that damn blanket even harder. “I commissioned a private investigator to look into Ariah’s death.” I started to speak, but he put his hand over my mouth. “And Xenia’s.”

I was fuming now, the heat in my body chasing away any chill I had.

“They’re connected, man,” he said, and for some reason, I felt like a plug was pulled out of my heart, a slow shutdown happening in my brain and body.

“The guy I hired is a man who knows his shit. He used to live on the streets and worked his way up. It’s hard not to respect his hustle. Hell, he’s not much different than us.”

I didn’t give a fuck, who the man was or how honorable he was. I stayed silent, stiff as a damn board. Finally, I felt his big tattooed hand lockdown on my shoulder as if he was afraid the information he was about to speak would have me on the floor without some stability.

“Ariah, Tiffany, and Xenia were all killed by the same person.”

Eighteen

Secret: Not known or seen, or not meant to be known or seen by others.

But what did you do when the truth was uncovered?

“Sir, please calm down. Your fiancé is healing well. She has undergone passive rewarming lung irrigation, and her body temperature is back to normal. The previous hospital took all the proper measures. There is not much else to do, so we have her on fluids and a vitamin regimen.”

I heard the sound of items falling from a shelf and a surprised feminine gasp.

“Sir, please, I understand you are angry, but there is truly nothing more we can do for your girlfr—”

“She is my property! Not my girlfriend. She is to be wed to me. I go away on a business trip to come back and find her compromised with a male. You can see how my anger is warranted, doctor. Who is the heathen that defiled my betrothed?”

The woman cleared her throat and sighed. “Mr. Grosvenor, as I sympathize with your situation, I cannot disclose another patient’s medical information. I can tell you that the rape kit we did on your fiancé, per your request, came back with no unusual findings or foul play present.”

“Does she still contain her innocence? What of her hymen?” His booming voice in the room cut her off, the shelf clattering with more items as they fell.

There was a pause.

“Sir, that is an outdated analogy. Many things can break the hymen. A tampon, for example, or simply riding a bike.”