I know quite a lot. His mom really screwed him over, and now… Now he’s saying she did something even worse. That she set him up to go to prison.
Could he be telling the truth? Would she…?
No, that’s crazy. That would be horrifying. Unimaginable.
I get up, pace the length of my living room. I stop at the window and look outside. It’s raining, the clouds low and leaden.
If he’s dealing the drugs, instead of using them, then there’d be no signs. Only, he’d have money, and he doesn’t. All this makes no sense.
Pulling away from the cold window pane, rubbing my hands up and down my arms, I recall his face yesterday when he talked about his mother. He’d looked… lost. Pale and somber. Ill-at-ease, pained and sad.
What if…?
Seriously, Manon? You’ll believe such an obvious lie because the guy’s hot? The judge found him guilty, sentenced him to prison. It’s all in his criminal record, which Zane apparently read.
That’s it. Zane. I’ll talk to him, ask what he read in Seth’s rap sheet. No idea why, but I think it might be important.
***
Tracking Zane down proves kind of hard. He’s not at Damage Control, Tyler who mans the reception desk tells me. He’s meeting with a cousin of his girlfriend Dakota, who’s a lawyer.
Doesn’t take a genius to guess it has something to do with Seth.
Instead, he tells me I can talk to Rafe, the young owner of the tattoo shop I’ve seen around a few times.
“What can I do you for?” Rafe growls into the phone, startling me.
“I was looking for Zane,” I stammer.
“Not here. Anything I can do?”
“Maybe. I’m Manon. Madeline Torres.”
“Seth’s girl?”
My next words freeze on my tongue, his question echoing in my ears. Am I? Was I?
“A good friend of his,” I manage, and he chuckles. “What’s so funny?”
“Don’t know, Manon. Boy’s been crazy about you since forever. If you don’t want him, then damn. With all that’s been happening to him, I guess he was right to think he’s the unluckiest bastard in the world.”
A lump forms in my throat. “Don’t say that. God, that’s awful.”
“Yeah, it is.” He’s silent for a long moment. Then he says, his voice deepening, “I take it you believe him?”
“Let’s just say I think it’s possible he’s telling the truth.”
“And why is that?”
“There are clues. For instance, I never saw needle marks on his body. Not even on his thighs or feet. I don’t think he’s a user.”
“And a good friend like you regularly checks his body. I see.”
Shit. “Not the point.”
“The lack of track marks doesn’t mean anything, Manon.”
“I know, okay? It’s just hard to believe he’s that.” God, I hope my voice won’t crack now. “He’s a good guy.”
“He does seem like a damn good guy,” Rafe agrees. “But one can’t rely on that. Sad fact of life.”
True. “I want to talk to Zane. He read Seth’s file, right?”
“That’s right. He’ll be back in town within the hour. Why do you want to talk to him?”
“I want to know what the file says. I may…” I hesitate, because hunches aren’t taken seriously most of the time, and something in my gut tells me I need to do this. “I may have information regarding Seth’s past.”
“Do you, now?” Rafe again sounds amused, and it annoys me. “All right. I’ll call you with a place and time to meet him. And, Manon?”
“Yeah?”
“No matter what, you should know… Seth may be unlucky in many things, but he’s damn lucky to have a true friend like you on his side.”
***
Hawk’s Bar and Grill. Haven’t been here in ages. It’s loud inside, the tables full. Zane’s sitting at the back, I can see his tall blue Mohawk from where I’m standing inside the entrance.
He’s not alone, I realize as I approach him. Rafe is with him, blond and tall, with cat-like eyes. They’re all kind of hot in this group, with their handsome faces and ink.
Not as much as Seth, though.
And God, that’s not what I should be thinking about right now.
Rafe gets up to greet me and pulls my chair. He’s every bit the gentleman, even with the tattoos climbing up his neck, his inked, muscular forearms bare and a wicked grin on his face.
Zane merely lifts a dark brow at me and nods.
“You know what I’m here for?” I’m nervous, my palms damp. I don’t really know what I’m doing. I just know I don’t want Seth to be a bad guy.
Which is probably just wishful thinking, as Rafe helpfully pointed out over the phone, but still.
“Said you wanna know what’s in Seth’s rap sheet.” His almond-shaped eyes narrow. “Didn’t say why.”
I glance at Rafe who stares steadily back at me, giving away nothing. “I thought if you tell me, I might be able to work with you on this.”
“On what?”
I lick my lips, my mouth suddenly bone-dry. “On finding out the truth. On proving Seth’s innocence.”
Now I have the attention of both boys, and quite frankly, I am a bit stunned myself. No clue when I went from doubting the truth of Seth’s guilt to believing he’s innocent.
That’s it, I’ve gone round the bend.
Maybe it’s a side effect of being in love with him. That I want to believe the best of him.
“What makes you believe he might be innocent?” Zane wants to know, folding his arms over his chest. “He was convicted. Served his time in prison.”
The thought of him behind bars is too much. I shake my head to dislodge it. “The same thing that makes you believe it.” I stare into his dark eyes, somehow similar to Seth’s, and tell him the truth as it comes to me, uncensored. “You know him. You’ve lived with him, worked with him. You know how bad his past was. You know he’d do anything to help his brothers—Micah. Shane. Jesse. You’ve seen it. Seen him get beaten up for them, stand up for them. He’s no druggie. He’s not a person who’d deal drugs. If he was, he’d have done it. He’s dirt poor, Zane. You know all this. So why do I have to spell it out for you?”
His brows arch. “Go on.”
“I almost ran him over with my car, gave him a concussion. He never pressed charges. Never even blamed me. Is that the kind of person his criminal record says he is? Because this is the truth, right in front of us.”
“He says his mother set him up.”
“Do you know his mom’s boyfriends used to beat him up? That she used up the money he stole and gathered to buy herself fixes? That she had her boyfriend break him.” I pause, thinking back to the few things he told me. “Break him and leave him for the police to find.”
Zane leans forward, frowning, and Rafe drags his chair closer to mine.
“He said that?” Rafe asks. “When?”
“A few days ago, when talking of his mom and how he thought she’d been dead all this time. He said she just left him and vanished, never came back.”
“Until now,” Rafe whispers. “Z-man…”
“Yeah.” Zane grimaces. “I dug deeper. The night the fucker was arrested, he had many broken bones, including a knee cap. He was found at his mom’s house, with Shane who was trying to help him. That seemed strange to the policemen who found the two, but the judge decided their juvie record condemned them anyway.”
“If he’s telling the truth,” Rafe says, his golden eyes shining, “it’s his word against the evidence. It won’t fly.”
God.
“Ah fuck.” Zane scrubs both hands over his face and pushes his chair back. “We should talk to Seth. See if there’s any detail that we could use to reopen the case or something.”
“If we prove he’s telling the truth about his mom, this means he deserves a dragon tat,” Rafe mutters.
“Yeah, he does. Fucker should have talked to me about this from the start,” Zane says. “But I get it.”
That it’s hard to trust when the ones closest to you have let you down so badly.
***
After knocking on Seth’s door for what feels like ages, my stomach is a knot of worry. Meanwhile, Rafe is muttering under his breath, and Zane who’s been on his cell phone all this time, looks murderous.