Page 23 of The Devoted Husband

He got a call from Sade.

He agreed to fly out two days later.

They were supposed to meet the next day.

But instead, she sent a text with a time and place to meet after his flight.

He showed up and heard her telling the man confessing his love for her that she appreciated what he did to Dante for her.

So, truth—Sade had some kind of sexual or romantic relationship with Atlas. Truth, Atlas was the man who tried to kill him. Truth, Sade, his best friend, asked him to do that.

Whenever he thought about it, Dante wanted to go after Atlas again. He’d have the chance. That, Dante was sure of. His phone began to ring, and that was the third time he’d received a call from an unknown number.

He finally answered with, “What?” before taking a swig of his beer. That was all he’d been doing since he’d been back in Memphis—drinking...and thinking.

“Dante Williams?”

The voice was familiar, yet Dante couldn’t place who it was. “Who is this?”

“This is Detective Jones from the Vanzette Police Department. Is now a good time to talk?”

Dante chuckled. “It’s never a good time to talk to you, but what do you want?”

“This is something I’d prefer to talk to you about in person.”

The last time he heard that, it was from Sade. And what she had to say, Dante didn’t want to hear at all.

“I’m no longer in Vanzette, Jones.”

“I know. You’re in Memphis.”

Dante’s leg stopped shaking. He stood. “You’re following me?”

“No, I’m following Sade and saw you approach her.”

“Does she know you’re following her?”

“No, and it’s best if it remains that way.”

Shaking his head, Dante massaged his temples. “I don’t know what you’re up to, but I want no parts of it.”

“I just want to have a conversation. I’m not going to lie; I’m still going after Sade, and because I’m convinced you’re the reason she committed several murders, this concerns you too.”

With a sigh, Dante nodded his agreement. “Fine. Where do you want to meet?”

Even meeting with Jones felt like some kind of betrayal against Sade.

But seeing as she was why he’d almost lost his life, Dante stuffed those feelings of loyalty inside to meet with Jones.

As he stepped inside the coffee shop, his eyes scanned the room.

He found Jones seated at a high-top round table in the back of the room.

There was already a mug of something in front of the seat Dante would occupy, so he didn’t bother heading toward the front counter.

Sitting down, he eyed Jones before lifting the mug to his nose and sniffing it.

“It’s just a cup of coffee,” Jones said. “I didn’t add anything else to it.”

With a nod, Dante pushed the mug forward and waited for Jones to continue.

“I know you and Sade are together, but I was hoping that if I shared some evidence and my theory with you, you’d help me bring her to justice.”

“We’re not together anymore. If you saw us yesterday, I’m sure you know that.”

Jones gave him a barely-there smirk before continuing.

“As you know, I am investigating the murders of Patrice Baker and Trina Roe, along with the missing case of Willow Frank. All these women have a connection to each other and your wife. Or ex-wife. I’m not exactly sure how that works.

Because you two weren’t actually married, right?

That was fake.” Dante remained silent. With a chuckle, Jones nodded his head and licked his lips.

“We found a strand of hair at Patrice’s nape that didn’t belong to her.

There was blood at Trina Roe’s home that didn’t belong to her.

We still have no evidence of where Willow is, but we were able to tap into Patrice’s phone, and she was talking to Willow before she came up missing.

Would you like to know what they were talking about? ”

“I don’t care, but I’m sure you will tell me.”

“They were talking about a missing man from Memphis they believed Sade was hiding. When we tapped Willow’s phone and tried to track her location, those messages were deleted. They weren’t, however, deleted from Patrice’s phone.”

“And?”

“You were the missing man. My theory is that Patrice tried to use Willow for information, and Sade killed her. Then she killed Patrice. And finally, she killed Trina. Because Sade’s DNA is not in our database, I can’t prove any of this, and that’s the only reason she hasn’t been arrested yet.”

“What does any of this have to do with me?”

“Your testimony can help me put her away. If you can admit to having amnesia at the start of the year, that will line up the murders with the timing that Sade had you, and it will give her motive. I would also go as far as to suggest you file a police report and have her arrested for abduction. If we can get her convicted on the lesser charge, she’ll be put in the system, and it’ll be easier for me to get her DNA to prove she was at each scene. ”

Dante shook his head as he stood, but Jones continued.

“Those women lost their lives because Sade wanted to keep you for herself. Doesn’t that make you feel even the slightest bit guilty?

I’m giving you the chance to do the right thing and help me get closure for their families.

Help me put Sade where she belongs... in prison for the rest of her life.”

Their eyes remained locked for a few seconds before Dante walked away.

It was his hurt and anger that even allowed him to briefly consider helping Jones.

But he couldn’t do that...right? Despite what Sade had done, she still helped prove Imani was committing fraud and kept him out of prison, which didn’t make any sense.

If she wanted to destroy Dante, why not let him stay in Memphis to face those charges?

His head began to pound as he tried to put together the pieces. Maybe he needed to hear her out himself, but at the moment, Dante didn’t trust himself to be around her. And he didn’t know when, or if, that would change.