photos in there. It might be best to save looking through it until after dinner.”
“Oh. The mother?”
“Yes. I found her death certificate. She was originally logged as a Jane Doe until she was identified a few weeks later by her fingerprints in the IAFIS system. They found her at a truck stop.”
Those poor kids. If their mother is dead, how in the world did they end up with this uncle? Next of kin determination, or did he just claim them?
“It gets worse, Gracie. A local lot lizard found her in a ditch near the back end of Ricky’s truck stop off of I-35 and called it in. She had enough heroin in her system to kill an elephant. She OD’d.”
A tidal wave of sadness washes over me. “That poor woman,” is all I can get out. Addiction never leaves you. It takes an ugly hold around every aspect of your life and wrings you dry, until there’s nothing left. “Did you find anything about what happened to the kids?”
“I spoke with the lead investigator this morning, who ran her death investigation. He didn’t even know she was a mother, so that rules out that DFPS or law enforcement had anything to do with the current placement of either child.”
“Shit. Shit, shit, shit.”
Aaron’s brows lift in surprise. “That’s a lot of swearing for you in one sentence.”
“It’s got to be those bikers. There’s no other explanation. She got caught up with them and OD’d. When she died, they took her kids with them. Nothing else makes sense. I knew I should’ve pressed that man further.” I mutter away to myself, trying to work it all out while totally forgetting I hadn’t planned on telling Aaron about my little adventure into the strip club a few days ago.
Aaron’s body grows still. “You talked to them?”
“I might have,” I answer sheepishly.
I listen for the ringing bell that should be dinging, because this dinner is about to go DEFCON now. Aaron has always been protective of me, but I haven’t exactly thrown myself into the lion’s den of danger with a group of men like the Black Hoods before. It’s a first for us both, and the way he’s staring a hole through me right now tells me all I need to know about how he feels over my little folly.
“After everything I told you about them, you still went there? They could have killed you, Grace. Those men, that group. They don’t care who they kill, as long as it serves their purpose.”
“I don’t even know why I followed them into that strip club, but I did.” Lord have mercy, mouth. Connect with my brain already. If I could facepalm myself right now for my lack of a verbal filter, I would. Why did I tell him that too?
“A strip club? Jesus, Grace! What were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t, but I had to find that man.”
“I don’t like this,” he declares. “You’re obsessed with this case. I knew you were one hundred percent dedicated to your job, but this,”—he waves his hands in front of him—“this nonsense will get you killed. You need to leave it alone and let me handle it. Let anyone else handle it.”
Feeling scolded, I look down at the table, avoiding his gaze. “Those kids have no mother, no father. They only have me to look out for them.”
“Risking your life isn’t worth it. Not to the people who love you.”
Love. That word between us gives me an uneasy feeling. He can’t love me. He knows I don’t love him, right? It has to be the heat of the moment talking. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.
“Grace, you can’t be involved in this case. It’s going to get you killed. Don’t you see that?”
I finally meet his eyes. “That’s for me to decide, isn’t it? The last time I checked, I’ve never had a father in my life, and I’m not in the market for one now. I can make my own decisions just fine.”
He stills at my tone, but his fermenting rage lingers on his face.
“You have a death wish if you think going headlong into that club is going to give you the answers you need. Those men are killers.”
“And yet, here I am in one piece.” He’s treating me like a child. Was it stupid to walk into that strip club without so much as a gun to protect me? Of course it was. But that gray-haired brute of a man needed to know that his club