Page 65 of Spyder
“That goes both ways.”
She looks at me for a moment and gives me a soft smile. “I believe you. But let me just say, if you hurt her, I’m going to cut your balls off.”
I laugh softly. “She said you’re a good friend like that.”
“Excuse me,” a gruff voice intrudes.
We both look up to see Sheriff Singer standing in the doorway. He looks from Ruby to me then back again.
“I just talked to the head nurse. They say the surgery went well and they’re moving her to a recovery room. There’s nothin’ more you can do here,” Singer says. “She’ll be out the rest of the night. So, you might as well go home, Ruby. Get yourself some shut-eye.”
She looks over at me and I give her a nod. “I’m going to stay. You might as well go get some rest. I’ll call you if anything comes up.”
She nods and gets to her feet, but she turns to me, giving me as warm a smile as she can muster given the circumstances.
“And when this is all over and she’s back on her feet, the three of us are getting together for a drink.”
“Deal.”
Ruby leaves and Singer leans against the wall near the door, looking at me. There’s a frown on his face and I can tell there’s something on his mind. Something he wants to say but seems to be having trouble saying it. My first thought, of course, is that Bellamy’s condition is worse than he’s letting on.
“What is it, Sheriff? Is there something about Bellamy you’re not saying? Is she all right?”
“She’ll be fine,” he replies. “But I saw the scene and it looks to me like she was forced off the road. It looks to me like somebody did this to her intentionally.”
“Intentionally?”
He nods. “Yeah. Looks that way to me. I can’t imagine why. She’s a good person, doesn’t get into trouble—”
“Peter Wells,” I tell him. “Peter Wells did this. You need to find that son of a bitch before I do, because if I get to him first, I will kill him, Sheriff.”
He shifts his feet, frowning. “I’m going to overlook the threat as an emotional outburst. But who in the hell is Peter Wells?”
“The guy outside the Chinese food place. The one I was fighting with,” I say.
“Why do you think it’s him?”
I get to my feet and start to pace the room. And as I do, the pieces start falling into place in my head. That night, he said that my actions could have consequences for those I cared about. At the time, I assumed he meant the club and pretty much just wrote it off and forgot about it.
But as I think on it harder now, it hits me this guy Jacob that Bellamy kept running into has to be the same guy. She said he was always asking questions about me and the club. She said that he was constantly trying to poison her against me. Make her think I was this horrible monster.
I’m kicking myself for not putting it all together before now. For ignoring my gut instinct and just forgetting about it altogether. I can see it now though. He’s been deliberately trying to get close to her so he could keep tabs on me. He was plotting something. He was using her to get to me. To play out some revenge fantasy he had in his head. There can’t be any other explanation for it.
“You heard him that night, Sheriff. You heard him threaten to do exactly what he did. He went after Bellamy to get to me.”
Singer seems to be considering it then gives me a nod. “At the very least, it’s a good enough reason for me to scoop him up and have a conversation.”
“Good. That’s good,” I say. “Is there anything else you need from me?”
He shakes his head. “No, I just wanted to pass on what I knew. Thought you’d want to know.”
“Thanks, Sheriff. Then I’m gonna go sit with her. I want to be there when she wakes up.”
“I don’t think you’re allowed in the recovery room.”
“Let them try to stop me.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
