Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
The tight expression on Linc’s face told me that he didn’t believe the same.
“There is a sex video on here that says otherwise. There are also photos of a girl, naked, asleep in a hotel bed. The same girl in the video with him. And another thing. The video—I am almost one hundred percent positive she didn’t know he was recording it.” He paused for a moment. “There are also many pictures of them together and text messages, where he told her he loved her. They are very, uh, passionate messages.”
My head felt as if it might explode. That wasn’t like Crosby. What had gotten into him? Who was the girl? Had she been married? FUCK!
“Her lover shot him? Is that what you’re saying? He got mixed up with some woman who wasn’t single?”
Linc shook his head. “That’s just it—I don’t know. Crosby took pics of her at work, and I was able to find her there yesterday. See her for myself. She was there. She texted him the night he was killed, asking him what had happened. He never showed up. After that, she sent three more texts, spread out over the course of two weeks. The last one said she’d be waiting when he was ready to talk, but she wasn’t going to text him again.
“She didn’t have a wedding ring on her finger either. The two men who owned the food truck she works for ended up taking her home after she stood in the parking lot for over an hour. When she left work, I followed her. I have her address. I did a check on it, and I know that a Nick Talley rents the house, but without Levi’s help, looking into the other details, that is all I could get. I trust my son, but the less those inside the family know, the better. It can get spread too easily. Eventually, your father will need to be told. He deserves answers, but if this is not why Crosby was shot, then I don’t see why any of them ever have to know. Crosby wouldn’t want Saylor hurt.”
What did you do, little brother? Fucking hell!
He had better not be six feet underground over a fuck. I’d go to the address and burn the fucking house down with everyone in it.
“Can I see the phone?” I asked. My voice was hoarse. This wasn’t something I’d been prepared for. It was so hard to believe.
Linc handed it over.
I looked down at it as my throat tightened, to the point that it was painful. There he was, with his big-ass smile, but he wasn’t looking at the phone. His focus was on the girl in his arms. She was smiling at the camera, but he seemed completely captivated by her. There was no similarity between the female in that photo and Saylor. Yet he looked like she was the fucking sun and he could see nothing else.
“Fuck,” I hissed through my teeth.
“If that picture is hard to look at, then you might want to stop now,” Linc told me.
He would have married Saylor one day. I’d even asked him once if he thought he’d ever want someone else, and he’d looked at me like I was crazy, then said no.
Who was this girl? Where had he met her?
I didn’t want to watch a video of him having sex. Instead, I went to the text messages. The first one was exactly three months and one week ago. I saw the name he’d saved her number under and winced.
“My angel?” I asked.
Linc let out a heavy sigh, and what he was going to tell me, I could see he didn’t want to.
“I bought a burger from her when I went to find her. She was wearing a name tag. It said … Halo.” Linc’s voice took an edge when he said her name.
My eyes shot from the screen back up to look at him. “Halo?” I repeated.
“Yes.”
I had to take a minute to remain calm. Halo was the last word he’d choked out. At least, that was what Than had said. We thought he’d misunderstood or that he was so grief-stricken that he’d made it up in his head. The word hadn’t made sense. Than had said he struggled to move and looked panicked, then said Halo.
What had he been trying to tell us?
“Do you think he was saying she was why he’d been shot?” The words came out clipped as my body shook.
“That is something I have questioned. But the text she sent the night he was shot was about him not showing up. Had he been leaving early to go see her? Than said that he’d claimed he had a headache and wanted to go. That he’d only had one beer. From the looks of those texts, it could be he was worried about her. We have to also consider that she is in trouble too. Whoever shot him could be from her past, and Crosby got tangled up in it.”