“Did your mum overdose, Rebel?” he asked, perhaps sensing I couldn’t go on.
“Yes.” There was more to the story; what had happened between the time I pounded on the bathroom door and less than an hour later, when I found her. Most of it, I didn’t remember. “He gave her the drugs.”
Edge nodded again. “That is a logical assumption.”
I shook my head as a torrent of tears spilled onto my cheeks. “He admitted it. That night, in the parking lot. He laughed about it.”
Edge lay back on the bed, against the pillows, and pulled me into his arms. I rested my head against his beating heart, wishing I knew what he was thinking but, at the same time, dreading it.
“Let me see if I can piece the rest of this together.”
I couldn’t have spoken even if I wanted to. I was crying too hard.
“Possum showed up at the Long Branch. Did he recognize you?”
I shook my head.
“Your intention was to kill him, but it didn’t go as planned.”
I was stunned at how one simple sentence conveyed exactly what happened that night.
“I lured him out there. I had a gun, but I wasn’t strong enough to fight him once he realized what was about to happen. He knocked the gun away and tried to rape me instead.”
Edge’s eyes bored into mine. I so wanted to know what he was thinking. What he said next was not at all what I thought he would.
“Earlier, you said you wanted to know what was happening with finding Possum’s killer.”
“I do.”
He ran his fingers through my hair. “Some of what I have to tell you, might be difficult to hear.”
“I have to know, Edge.”
22
Edge
I scrubbed my face with my hand. This was a first for me. I would never have been tempted to talk about a job outside of the team, but as she’d said, this was her life. I was still reeling from her admission that she’d intended to kill Possum. I couldn’t let myself think about how close she’d come to death that night. Instead of just killing her, Possum had decided to rape her first. When I came along, I’d actually saved her life.
I took a deep breath. “As you know, Possum was connected to the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.”
Rebel nodded.
“What you might not know is he had prior rape arrests. Evidently, he was in trouble with the Aryan Nation, the parent organization, because of it.”
I watched as Rebel processed what I was telling her.
“We believe that his arrest the night of your attempted rape, triggered a hit. You, Steel, and I played into the setup. I’d even go so far as to say that someone made sure Possum not only got out of jail two days later, but showed up at the Branch the night he did.”
“They set it up so I’d be the one to take the fall for his murder?”
“That’s right.”
“If you find Possum’s real killer, what does that mean for me?”
“First, it means you’re exonerated. The second part is more difficult.”
“Second part?”