Chapter 78 #78

Chapter 78 #78
Chapter 78
~Dwayne’s pov~

"Get out of my chair, Marcus."

He grinned wider, leaning back like he owned the place. "Is that any way to greet your best friend?"

"You're not my best friend."

"Lies." Luke spun the chair in a full circle. "You love me. Admit it."

"I tolerate you," I corrected, setting my coffee down harder than necessary. "There's a difference."

"Dwayne, Dwanyy." He finally stood, moving around the desk with that infuriating casual energy he always had. "You know, for someone who claims not to care, you sure do let me get away with a lot."

"Because firing you would mean finding someone else who's actually competent at their job."

"Aw, you think I'm competent." Luke clutched his chest dramatically. "I'm touched. Truly."

I sat down in my now-warm chair and glared at him. "What do you want?"

"Can't a guy just visit his childhood friend?"

"No. Not at seven in the morning. Not in my office. And definitely not sitting in my chair like you're auditioning for my job."

Luke laughed, dropping into the chair across from me. "You're so grumpy when you haven't had enough coffee. How's that going, by the way? The whole 'I'm definitely not in love with my brother's wife' thing?"

I nearly choked on my coffee. "What?"

"Shailyn," he said, like it was obvious. "The woman you're completely obsessed with. The one carrying your babies. Ring any bells?"

"Keep your voice down," I hissed, glancing at the door.

"Relax, it's seven AM. Nobody's here yet except the cleaning crew." He leaned forward, grinning. "So? How's it going? Have you told her you're madly in love with her?"

"I'm not..."

"Dwayne. Buddy. Pal. Best friend I never wanted."

"You're not my best friend."

"We've been friends since we were six," Luke continued, ignoring me completely. "I've known you literally my entire life. I know when you're lying."

"I'm not lying."

"Your left eye twitches when you lie."

"It does not."

"It's twitching right now."

I pressed my palm against my eye. "I hate you."

"No, you don't." Luke settled back, looking entirely too pleased with himself. "So come on. Tell Uncle Luke what's going on in that emotionally constipated head of yours."

"There's nothing to tell."

"Bullshit. You found out those babies are yours. You found out your real mother was murdered. You're falling apart and you won't admit it."

I was quiet for a moment, then sighed. "It's complicated."

"Everything with you is complicated," Luke said, his tone softening slightly. "That's why you have me. To uncomplicate things."

"You've never uncomplicated anything in your life."

"Fair point." He grinned again. "But I do bring you valuable information. Speaking of which..."

"Finally. The real reason you're here."

"See? You do love me. You're excited for my intel."

"Marcus."

"Fine, fine." He pulled out his tablet, swiping through files. "I tracked those texts Shailyn's been getting. The creepy 'don't be a fool' messages."

My entire body tensed. "And?"

"It's Jack."

"Jack Patterson?"

"The very same." Luke turned the tablet toward me, showing call logs and metadata. "He's been using burner phones, routing them through different towers to make them harder to trace. But I caught a pattern in the timing. He sends them right after he meets with someone in your family."

"He's warning her," I said slowly.

"Looks like it. About what, I can't say for sure. But yeah, warning seems to be the intent."

"Fuck." I ran both hands through my hair. "She's terrified, Marcus. She thinks someone's threatening her."

"Technically, someone is. Just not in the way she thinks."

"That doesn't make it better."

Lukeshrugged. "True. So what are you going to do about it?"

"I'll talk to Jack. Tell him to stop."

"You think he'll listen?"

"He'll listen," I said firmly. "Because if he doesn't, I'll make sure he regrets it. And he seems to care about Shailyn. Like he knows her."

"Ooh, scary Dwayne. I like this version." Luke grinned. "Very protective alpha male of you."

"Shut up."

"Can't help it. It's entertaining watching you pretend you don't care about her."

"I do care about her," I said. "That's why I need Jack to stop scaring her. She's pregnant with twins. She doesn't need this stress."

"Pregnant with your twins," Luke corrected. "Important distinction."

"Not to her."

"Yet."

I glared at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means eventually she's going to find out. The truth always comes out, Dwayne. And when it does, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "But until then, I need to keep her safe."

"From Dante?"

"From everything." I leaned back, exhausted. "What else did you find?"

Marcus's expression shifted, becoming more serious. "Not much, unfortunately. I've been digging into Cynthia's past, Jesse's death, the hospital records. But whoever covered this up did a damn good job."

"There has to be something."

"There is. I just haven't found it yet." He swiped through more files. "The autopsy report we found? That's solid. But without the attending physician's testimony, it's just circumstantial."

"Did you find the doctor?"

"Still looking. He disappeared about six months after Jesse died. No forwarding address. No paper trail. Like he just vanished."

"Or disappeared," I said darkly.

"That's what I'm thinking too." Luke set down the tablet. "My team is still digging. We're cross-referencing hospital records, financial transactions, anything that might connect to Cynthia or Tyler around that time."

"How long will that take?"

"Could be days. Could be weeks. This isn't an episode of CSI where everything wraps up in forty-five minutes."

"I know that."

"Do you?" Luke studied me. "Because you seem like you're about to explode from the pressure you're putting on yourself."

"I'm fine."

"Your eye's twitching again."

I pressed my palm against it again. "I'm handling it."

"Are you?" Luke leaned forward. "Dwayne, listen to me. As your friend, not your investigator. You need to tell Shailyn the truth."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because she's happy!" I stood abruptly, pacing. "For the first time since I met her, she's actually happy. She smiles. She laughs. She bakes midnight cakes because the babies want them. And yeah, it's all based on a lie, but at least she's not miserable."

"So your plan is to just... never tell her?"

"My plan is to wait until she remembers on her own."

"And if she doesn't?"

I stopped pacing. "She will."

"You sound pretty confident about that."

"I have to be." I turned to face him. "Because the alternative is me destroying everything. Her marriage. Her family. Her entire understanding of who she is. And I can't... I can't do that to her, Marcus."

He was quiet for a long moment. "You really do love her."

"Yeah," I said softly. "I really do."

"Well, shit." Luke stood, moving toward the door. "I'll keep digging. If there's evidence out there, we'll find it."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet. I haven't actually solved anything." He paused at the door. "But Dwayne? When this all comes out, and it will come out, you need to be ready."

"I know."

"Do you? Because from where I'm standing, you're about to lose everything or gain everything. There's no middle ground here."

"I know," I repeated.

"Good. Because I'm not cleaning up another one of your emotional disasters. The last one took me months."

"What emotional disaster?"

"Exactly." He grinned. "See you around, best friend."

"You're not my best friend!"

"Keep telling yourself that!" he called back, already walking down the hall.

I sat back down, staring at the files Luke had left behind.

Jack was warning Shailyn. Cynthia had killed Jesse. The babies were mine. And I was falling in love with a woman who didn't even remember we'd met.

"I hope she remembers," I said to the empty office. "God, I really hope she gets her memory back."

Because when she did, when everything came crashing down, I needed her to remember that night. To remember what we'd had, even if it was just for a few hours.

To remember that before Dante, before the lies, before everything fell apart there had been us.

And maybe, just maybe, there could be us again.