Death and Her Devotion (Rogue Vows #1)(8)

“What the f*ck?” Spider shouted, pushing in front of Zane and staring at Cyndee. “What the hell is she doing here? Did she do this? Did she kill Chase?”

Stevie jumped to her feet and blocked the tall man, who was moving toward Cyndee. She wasn’t kidding that they don’t like her. “Back off!” she ordered. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cyndee cower in her seat, leaning as far away from Spider as possible.

“What’s going on?” Zane grabbed Spider’s shoulder and pushed him toward the wall, planting himself in front of Chase’s brother.

“She’s a psycho!” Spider hollered. “Don’t believe a word she’s told you,” he said to Stevie, nearly spitting as the words spilled out of his mouth.

Stevie turned to Cyndee.

“I told you they hate me!” Fresh tears ran. “They’ve tried to destroy our relationship from the first day!”

“Did she lie like usual and tell you she was Chase’s wife?” Spider bit the words off. Zane kept one hand on his shoulder, keeping him in place, but now eyed the woman in pink.

“Wife?” Zane asked, his gaze turning hard.

Cyndee got to her feet, tucking more Kleenex into her pink purse. “I never said I was his wife. You know it hasn’t progressed that far, Spider.” She shot him a tragic look. “Thanks for reminding me that now I never will be.”

Stevie looked from the angry man to the petite woman. What is going on?

Cyndee made her way around the small table, heading for the door. “I know when I’m not wanted.” She cast wary glances at Spider, giving him a wide berth.

“You’re a stalker,” Spider ground out. “Get out of here. Chase didn’t want anything to do with you. You’re probably the one who killed him!”

Stalker?

Cyndee whirled on Spider. “I did not kill Chase! I loved him.” Her innocent blue eyes were wide. “How dare you say something like that to me.”

“You’re a f*cking nutcase. You’re . . . you’re a pyromaniac!”

Cyndee’s girlish manner evaporated, and a furious woman took over. It was a transformation that left Stevie speechless. “Don’t call me that! If it wasn’t for you and your idiot friends, Chase and I would be together.”

“In your dreams! Your psycho ward dreams!”

She met Stevie’s gaze one more time. “I loved him,” she stated quietly and then darted down the hall.

“What the hell are you doing?” Spider said. “Stop her!”

“She hasn’t done anything,” Zane said. He looked at Stevie. “Did you get her information?”

“Crap. No, I didn’t. We’d only been talking a few minutes, and I was trying to calm her down.” A thought occurred to her, and she picked up the note pad where she’d asked Josh to write down the contact information of people who’d known Chase’s location. Below Chase’s agent’s name, he’d written, Crazy stalker chick: Cyndee Sykes.

She snowed me.

“Shit.” She hadn’t looked at the list after Josh finished. She looked to Spider. “That was the woman who Josh told me set an LA apartment on fire?”

“Yep.” An accusing gaze met hers. “And you let her walk out of here.”

“Why is she here?” Zane asked.

“She follows Chase everywhere. He has a restraining order against her back home. She’s not supposed to come within fifty yards of him. I don’t know how she found out about this trip, but I’m never surprised when her head pops up. I think she gets clues from our social media posts. We keep most of our locations secret, but she seems to be a pretty good detective. She drives all over . . . she’s got a little crappy trailer she pulls with a big pickup. She shouldn’t be hard to spot.”

“I’ll ask Sheila to put the word out.” Zane strode down the hall.

Spider glared at Stevie. “She had me fooled,” she confessed. “I really thought she was his girlfriend.”

“She’s good,” he admitted. “She’s fooled hotel clerks and security staff to get close to Chase. Is Brandon still out front?”

“Toby and Josh took him to a park. He’d had enough of the waiting room.”

“He’s a good kid.” Spider rubbed at his chin, his gaze unfocused. “This is going to be hard for him. He really loved Chase.”

“Seems like he’s close to your friends too.”

“Yeah. We’re all family.” He met Stevie’s gaze. “Find who did this, okay?”

“We’re working on it. Do you think Cyndee is a legitimate suspect?”

He sucked in a breath. “My first instinct is to say no. That tiny woman? I can’t see it. But there’s a lot more to her than you can see on the surface, you know?”

“I definitely know.” Lesson learned.





“She’s a stalker?” Sheila huffed at Zane’s news. “I knew I didn’t like her. I didn’t trust her the second she stepped in the door, looking like an actress from a B movie.” He listened as she conveyed Zane’s request for an APB on Cyndee’s truck and trailer. “Just try to come back here, honey,” Sheila muttered as she rearranged the clutter on her desk, banging staplers and coffee mugs. “I’ll show you what we think of liars in this town.”