He gave me his address and I jumped out of bed. “I’ll be right there.”
I grabbed a pair of jeans and a T-shirt from my drawer and threw them on. Since Bristol and I spent more time at her place, I had my own drawer in her dresser. Her condo was more accessible to her work and to the training facility where I practiced. Staying there just made it easier for the both of us. Bristol stepped out of the shower, a concerned look on her face when she noticed me rushing around.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
I grabbed my wallet off her dresser and stuck it in my pocket. “Jason called. He said he found something on Sadie. I’m heading over to his house now.”
She groaned. “I wish I could go with you.”
“Me too, but I’ll tell you all about it tonight when you get back from work.” Wrapping my arms around her waist, I lifted her up and kissed her. “Love you.”
“Love you too.”
I set her down and hurried out the door.
By the time I got to Jason’s house, I was pumped. I was ready to end this shit with Sadie very fast. Jason lived in a brick, ranch-style house with several acres of land and a barn that housed horses, from the looks of it. It was the kind of place where Bristol wanted to live.
Jason stood by the door and opened it for me when I walked up the front porch steps. “Thanks for coming out here. I would’ve come to you, but I’m on a secure line here. It’s a lot safer, especially with all the shit I have to show you.”
“Are you serious? What all are you talking about exactly?”
He waved toward the back room and I followed him. “First things first,” he said, sitting down at his desk. “Is this the Sadie you’re talking about? From the pictures she sent Bristol, you can’t see her face, but I researched all Sadies in the area that might have a criminal record.” He turned his laptop toward me and Sadie’s face stared back at me.
I snarled in disgust. “That’s her.”
Releasing a heavy sigh, he leaned back in his chair. “I was afraid you’d say that. I was hoping it wasn’t her, but now that it is, you might have bigger problems.”
“Like what?”
He typed away on the computer, and his printer started spitting out page after page of information. “This girl has a history of going after guys like you.” He grabbed the papers and showed them to me. “Look at those names,” he said, pointing at the list. “Those are men who filed restraining orders on her. Do you recognize any of them?”
I read them off one by one and recognized them immediately. “They’re all sports players. Bobby McGruff is a baseball player for New York and Mark Wellington is a linebacker for Miami.” There were several others, but I got the picture.
“Exactly,” Jason said. “Sadie likes going after the rich men. The guys you see on this list didn’t fall into her trap. The others, however…”
“Others?”
He skipped through the pile to a few more pages; they were Sadie’s bank statements. “Do you see the deposits?” I nodded. There were several of them, all by wealthy sports players. “Is she blackmailing them?”
“Looks like it. Or maybe they’re paying her off to keep her mouth shut. Those guys are married. My guess is their infidelity is paying the price. All I know is she’s making a pretty decent income off of their money.”
“What about me, though? I’m not married, and she sent the pictures to Bristol, so she can’t blackmail me for money. The only thing she has is those pictures.”
Releasing a heavy sigh, he sat down. “And here is where things go a little deeper. Do you remember Nate Bryson? He was a baseball player for Atlanta.”
Aaron had mentioned him just a few weeks ago. “Yeah, he was murdered. One of the guys on my team talked about him.”
“Get this then. I called and talked to one of the witnesses who said he saw Nate with a woman other than his wife. It was thrown out in court, but my guess is that Bryson’s family didn’t want his name being dragged through the mud. Anyway, the description of his mistress fits Sadie spot-on. I think she’s the one who killed Nate and his wife.”
Out of all the things I expected to hear, that was the last. If that was the case, things were worse than I could ever imagine. “We need to find her,” I growled. “If she tries to hurt Bristol, I’ll kill her.”
Jason held up his hand. “I already have guys out looking for her. We’ll find her.”
“What should I tell Bristol? I don’t want to scare her, but I definitely don’t want to leave her unprotected.” Whether she liked it or not, I had no choice but to keep her safe, even if that meant hiring a bodyguard to be with her when I couldn’t.
He shrugged. “The truth is always the best. She might not like it, but you can’t keep her in the dark.” Our relationship had already been tested beyond the limits and now I was adding another obstacle.
“Got a list of good bodyguards on hand?”
—
Bristol still had three more hours left at work, so I went home and called the list of men Jason gave me. I felt like an overprotective ass for doing it behind Bristol’s back, but she needed someone to watch over her, even if it was to protect her from another girl. Although Sadie could easily have a partner in crime no one knew about. She did, after all, have a friend take pictures of us that night at the hotel in Seattle. After everything Jason had said, I was certain it was Sadie who broke into my house. I didn’t give a shit about the drawings she stole anymore. All I cared about was getting her ass in jail or in the fucking mental institution where she belonged.
My doorbell rang and when I opened the door, Luke Collins stood there, dressed in his dirt-bike gear and covered in mud. “Hey Luke, what can I do for you?” I asked.
He huffed and nodded profusely. “You can design me a bike. This is the third time I’ve had to walk home after riding that piece of shit. I figured I’d make a detour and stop by here first.”