Blank Slate

Chapter 137 - Ethan Carter

What a fucking mess.

I wasn't thrilled when I learned that Payton had gone after Noland Becker by herself. Okay, so maybe that was an understatement. My blood had run cold with fear when I heard the shot from across the street and I damn near had a panic attack when a body crashed into the sidewalk in clear view of where I was standing inside of Bride Song. For a split second, I had thought it was Payton that had fell and damn near had a heart attack. Maybe I was getting too old for the security business.

But now, standing in Noland Becker's seedy motel room where the walls were plastered with photos of Lacey and after having read his journal slash manifesto, I can't tell you that I regret what happened earlier today. I was thanking my lucky stars this fucker was dead because, as it turns out, he had already racked up a body count in his obsession with Lacey and it was only a matter of time before he killed more people. And considering that I was the biggest threat in his mind, I knew that Payton's actions might have saved both me and Lacey. Most definitely saved us some fear and heartache.

The blood that the flowers were dipped in wasn't cow's blood like I had originally thought. No, it was the blood of Lacey's latest fling, Henry Felman, and we found his decomposing body in the tub of the motel room. Noland had a whole bloody scavenger hunt planned for Lacey that included killing half a dozen men that she had slept with and most definitely included me. In the end, Noland had planned on killing both her and himself, believing that they would be internally bound and enjoy the afterlife together.

The whole affair was sick and twisted and not something that the Helena Police Department was used to dealing with. Cole stepped up by lending them both men and resources to help solidify their case against Noland. Not that it mattered. The fucker was dead. And that fall hadn't killed him. No, he had sliced his own throat with a hunting knife on the way down. Mostly we were connecting all of the dots for Felman's family and to prove without a shadow of a doubt that Payton's version of events was what really happened.

At first, the chief of police wanted to take Payton down to the station for questioning, not believing that a man would simply jump off a building. But when the medical examiner had shown the chief the clear evidence that Noland's throat had been slit and that he had been the one to do it, he was willing to release her. When we discovered where he was staying from a room key in his pocket and found the dead body, all suggestions about charging Payton were never mentioned again.

Lacey was oddly quiet about the whole ordeal, telling me that she was actually shaken up over it. I knew that Noland's was the first dead body she had seen other than her mother's open casket at the funeral. I debated what to tell her but in the end, I decided to tell her everything. This guy had targeted her and she deserved to know what he was planning. I wasn't trying to scare her exactly, but I did want her to be more careful about who she invited home.

Lacey wanted me to stay with her and I was tempted. I didn't like seeing all of those photos of her and knowing what that fucker had planned for her was going to haunt me for a good long while. I knew it would do me some good to spend some time with her. Hold her in my arms and reassure myself that she was whole and safe. But I also know that opening that door could be dangerous for both of us. Tonight felt like simple comfort, but what would tomorrow morning bring?

Not to mention that today was Payton's birthday. We had been in the middle of planning the whole thing when Liam had called about the breach in security, so we weren't completely ready for it but I didn't want to cancel. Oliver had been right about Payton needing something like this. In the months since she joined the team, we have had very little time to just be ourselves. We needed to put the time in to relax and be a team again. This barbeque was a team thing and my team always came first.