“So you’ve said. I don’t see that but what-the-fuck-ever, man,” Mitch said. “Now. What is he talking about?”
“Friends share,” Cash said in a diabolical voice. “You know that saying. Share with others. Didn’t you learn to give and receive as a child? You should always share with your friends. We are friends, Mitch. We share everything. We shared when we were on the inside.”
Mitch shot Brock a quick glance.
“You shared Trixie with your other friends. I expected you to be generous with me as well.”
Good Lord, he was more deranged than Brock had originally thought. As the cops came through the back door with their weapons drawn, Brock took a step forward and jabbed his finger against Cash’s chest. “Trixie isn’t a grab bag with all sorts of neat prizes promised for the participants. She’s a woman who possesses the free will to make her own choices. She chose to love me, Rory, and Mitch. There isn’t room for anyone else.”
“There might be,” Cash said, glancing over Mitch’s shoulder. He no doubt saw the officers swarming the grounds outside. “Why don’t you ask her, Mitch? She might be anxious to give me what she willingly gives to you.”
* * * *
Trixie and Rory approached the lodge right as Cash was being led away to an awaiting police cruiser. Trixie stopped short of the winding path leading to the rustic building.
“He didn’t hurt me,” Trixie said. “I don’t understand why he is being arrested when he didn’t threaten me.”
Rory tilted her chin to his. “Honey, listen to me. He had at least fourteen photographs in his room. Strewn across a clothesline, a number of pictures of you were stained with…well, I hate to think what he’d done with those images.”
“When you put it like that, I do, too.” She watched as an officer flattened his hand against the top of Cash’s head and guided him into the backseat of the police car. She continued up the walkway and made it halfway to the lodge before she quickly veered off to the right.
“Trixie!” Rory called out. “Wait!”
She broke out in a run and stopped short of plowing over two cops. “I need to say something.”
“Trixie, damn it!” Rory met her at the car. “This is not a good idea.”
“Rory, please let me have a word with Mr. Whitehead.”
By that time, Brock and Mitch were there. Mitch grabbed her by the hand and pulled her aside. “What’s on your mind, honey?”
“Mitch, this is between me and Mr. Whitehead.”
Brock grabbed her by her other wrist and tugged her away next. “Like hell. You have nothing to say to him.”
Trixie yanked her arm free. “Brock, this is one time I can’t let you interfere. I need a word with him or I won’t rest until I have one. Unless you want to take me down to the station later, I suggest you let me say my peace.”
Brock rolled his lips and set his jaw in frustration. His face twisted in fury. “Damn it, woman. The man is not worth it.”
Trixie marched by him. “He’s a human being, Brock. Because of that fact, he’s worth trying to save.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Cash stared straight ahead. He acted as if he had no intentions of acknowledging her but she didn’t care if he looked at her or not.
“Why’d you do it?”
He blinked.
She glanced at Mitch. “I mean Mitch was willing to let you stay here. He would’ve given you a job. He would’ve stood by you as a friend. Why wasn’t that enough?”
Cash snarled. Slowly, he turned to face her. Underneath his shag-style crimped brown hair were handsome features. Pretty hazel eyes stared back at her.
The eyes were the deal breaker. Anyone could look into those hollow circles and see the instability, the quiet madness.
“Did I harm you, Trixie?”
“No,” she replied. “You didn’t.”
“Did I frighten you?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, you did scare me.”
“How?” he asked, tilting his head to the side. “How did I make you feel unsafe?”
Trixie swallowed. Was he playing with her or was he sincere? Taking a chance on the latter, she said, “You can’t enter someone’s home uninvited, Mr. Whitehead.”
“And I entered your home?”
“No, but—”
“I entered a public building.” He studied her with a more fixated gaze. “One would think a man wouldn’t be arrested for entering a friend’s place of business.”
“It was what you said, Mr. Whitehead,” Trixie explained. “Your words implied you had perversion in mind.”