“Howard?” she breathed.
I turned to look at Sutton, who was mirroring her surprise. “Helen?” he croaked, glancing at us with confusion all over his face as he stepped forward. “Helen Baker?”
I frowned hard. “This is HelenTaylor. Jon Taylor’s wife.”
Howard glanced back at Helen before he began to walk towards her, his movements steady and slow.
“You’re with them?” Helen asked the chief, her eyes frantically searching his face. “You?”
Taking a look at Eric and Ayda, I saw they were just as confused with this whole exchange as I was. I rolled my eyes, seeing another impending kink in the plan before I held up my hand and looked back at Sutton and Helen. “You two know each other?”
“Untie her right now,” Sutton demanded roughly.
“Chief…”
“I said now, Tucker!” he yelled, his tone full of authority as he spun around and glared at me like I was no longer a friend.
“Not until you tell me what the fuck is going on.”
“I swear to God, Drew, if you don’t untie her from this bed and set her free, I’ll…” Howard reached for the gun in his holster, the heel of his palm resting there as he stared straight at me with nothing but a promise of death if I didn’t comply.
Raising both hands in the air in surrender, I took a step closer. “We’re here to release her anyway. You know that. It’s what we discussed, right?”
Sutton stared at me, unblinking as he waited for me to go on.
Helen sighed, her free hand rising to rest carefully on Sutton’s forearm. He flinched and looked down at her, the two of them staring into each other’s eyes with nothing but familiarity. Whatever the hell was going on, I wasn’t privy to it, which really pissed me off.
“We went to high school together,” Helen told us all, her eyes fixed on Sutton as she spoke. “We haven’t seen each other in…years.”
“What the hell have you got yourself tangled up in, Helen?” Sutton asked softly.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“You don’t want to know what mistakes I’ve made since I last saw you.”
I glanced back at Ayda, my eyes wide withwhat the fuck?If I was picking up the right vibes, and admittedly, I was shit at that, Helen and Sutton weren’t just familiar with one another—they’d been fond of each other at one point, too.
Ayda made a shrugging motion, her face holding as much surprise as my own. She nodded toward Helen’s bound hand and took a slow step forward, trying not to startle anyone.
“Helen?” she said quietly, pulling the woman’s attention from Sutton. “Like Drew said, we’re letting you go, but we have some new information and a couple of questions for you first, is that okay?”
“What questions? I’ve told you everything I suspected.”
“Did Jon ever…” she trailed off, unsure how to ask it delicately. “I assume Jon met people at your home while you were there?”
Helen looked between all of us, the panic growing in hereyes. “What’s this about?” she asked quietly.
I was done with fucking games. Stepping forward, ignoring the way Sutton tensed, I stood close enough and looked down on her. “It’s about the rat in my club that I think you know about. The one I think your husband Jon was cozying up to while I was serving time inside, trying to protect my club and that rat’s ass.”
Helen blinked slowly, staring right at me. “You know about Owen,” she whispered.
“Sounds like you do, too,” I ground out through gritted teeth, folding my arms over my chest. “Which would have been real fucking good to hear about when you gave us all that other information just the other day.”
I was pissed, and she knew it. Everyone in this safe house knew it. If Sutton hadn’t been glaring at me like he was ready to put a bullet in my leg, I was pretty certain I’d have been reaching out to Helen and shaking some fucking sense into her.
Her breathing picked up as she watched me. “You have to understand my position here. You’re keeping mehostage.You put a bullet in my shoulder because of who I’d been married to. I’ve had to use a metal bucket as my toilet when you haven’t been around. Forgive me if I had to work out if I could trust you as much as you had to work out if you could trust me.” Her voice was timid, but there was a fight there—a fight I had to admire, even in the midst of the dark cloud and storm that was lurking overhead.
“You knew Owen was betraying us,” I growled.