His lips twitched. “Wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t.”
I gulped. “Why isn’t Sin here?”
“Because he wouldn’t want me talking to you about this, he wouldn’t want me scaring you. Shit, I don’t want to scare you, but I need to know what you know before I let him do something fucking stupid.”
My hands tightened around the armrests, clenching down to the point of pain. “Stupid?” I whispered, more nervous than I had been at any point during this conversation.
“Yeah. Stupid. Like wifing you.”
“Wifing me?” I squeaked, rocking back into my chair. Why did marriage sound like such a terrifying prospect when he phrased it like that?
“Yeah. Propose, the whole white dress and tuxedo shit.” He rubbed his scruff again. “I know that’s what he’s got planned. Can see it in his eyes. The bastard’s fallen hard for you, and despite it all, I’m glad.
“He deserves to be happy. Fuck knows he had a shit enough time of it growing up.”
“He told me about some of it.” Some wasn’t enough though.
I felt like a broken record, but crap, the information he was dropping on me was both fascinating but torturous because, like Steel, I knew he wouldn’t tell me more, wouldn’t give me the details I needed, and Sin? Though I trusted him, I knew he was quiet by nature. The life and soul of the party when he had a couple of tequilas in him, but on the regular? He wasn’t a talker.
He wouldn’t share things easily.
It would take time and patience, a lot of it, for him to open up. Or maybe it wouldn’t. Not now. Things were different. We were openly together. No secrets. Him and me against the world… Perhaps he’d changed to reflect that?
If I thought telling Rex that Sin had shared something of his past with me would get him to open up, I’d been dead wrong about that.
“I just don’t want him getting hurt. Long story short.”
“And you think I have the power to do that?”
“The man left his post for you, Tiffany. He lost his place here, he lost his brothers’ respect, and all without saying shit to them about why and how. I don’t know why he did that. I don’t know why he wanted to keep it quiet.”
My jaw tensed. “I asked him to.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Why?”
“Because, in the end, it didn’t matter.”
“Sin wouldn’t go to the cops over it, even though Giulia was dragged through the mud…and Luke’s intent would have proven that he went there premeditatively to hurt her.” He pursed his lips. “Protecting you over her. Over Nyx. Why would he do that, do you think? Why would you put Giulia through that?”
Guilt wanted to spear its way into my belly, but this wasn’t on me. It was on Luke. My tone was hard as I told him, “I had no proof that Luke drugged me. No proof that he’d even been the one to send the texts. My screen was cleaned so there weren’t even any prints—Sin checked. He didn’t rape me. Didn’t hurt me aside from groping me hard enough to make me aware it was him who’d drugged me. It wasn’t like I was covered in bruises to show the cops. How do you think that would have stood up in court? How do you think the cops would have taken that? Any member of staff at the Lancaster’s could tell them I drank too much.
“I was driving intoxicated, Rex, without the drugs.” I stared him down. “You tell me what me coming forward would have done.”
“Oh, I don’t know, a little thing like reasonable doubt on Luke’s character?”
Despite myself, I snorted. “Reasonable doubt? In the face of a man like Donavan Lancaster’s propaganda campaign to make him look like Jesus reborn?” I hooted, even though nothing about this situation was funny. “He’d have dragged me through the mud too, and while I could have dealt with that, I know how cops treat assault victims.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You’ve been assaulted in the past?”
“Almost. I keep having near misses.” My smile was false. “Aren’t I the lucky one?”
“Explain.”
“One of Daddy’s business associates decided to come onto me.” I turned my face away from him. “I was reminded that women shouldn’t wear such short skirts if they don’t want to inspire that kind of reaction in a man.” I tightened my lips. “Then, back in college, I-I—”
“You what?”
I tipped my chin up, refusing to be ashamed of what I’d done. Refusing to feel badly when my intention had been pure. “A professor attacked a student. She wouldn’t come forward, so I did it for her. I didn’t drop out of school because I was flighty.”
“The authorities found out?”
Shrugging, I answered, “Yeah. Obviously, I did it after the fact. But the girl, a friend…” My voice turned choked as I thought about Octavia. Beautiful Octavia with a laugh like a song and a smile that made anyone smile in return. So fucking smart. Such a fucking waste. “She killed herself soon after, and she’d told me everything when she was drunk one night. I used it against him and it backfired.” I sniffed. “That’s why I didn’t come forward. I’d put myself on the line for any woman who needed me, but do you really think the police were going to listen to anything I had to say? With my reputation?” I scoffed. “I’m not an idiot. Neither am I scared to come forward when I think I need to, but there was nothing I could do in that situation. Nothing that wouldn’t cause more shit to fly, and none of it in Lancaster’s direction. If I could have, I would have. You bet your ass I would have nailed Luke to the cross, but this is 2020, not 3020.”
Rex’s top lip curled, but he didn’t say anything on that subject, not whether he agreed or didn’t, whether he was disgusted by my silence or not, then, I realized, he already knew. He’d known all of that because he’d looked into me, just like he said he had. He’d been waiting to see if I’d speak out about the situation.
“Sin protected you, Tiffany. All without knowing you’re pregnant too, I guess, because I know he’d have said something to me before I shipped him over to Ohio.”
I gnawed on the inside of my cheek, even as I let my hands dig into the armrests of the seat I’d taken. The office wasn’t as grody as I’d have feared, but it was old-fashioned. More like this was his dad’s domain or something rather than his.
But whether or not the decor screamed nineties, he didn’t. He screamed power.
It flooded the room in a way that made the hair on the back of my neck tingle.
Danger.
I felt it.
Knew to be wary of it.
Jesus, I’d never felt the likes of it before.
Not even around Donavan and Luke Lancaster, and holy fuck, look at what they’d done.
My tongue felt like it was superglued to the roof of my mouth before I whispered, “I told him recently. Just before he came home.”
Rex dipped his chin. “So he went to bat for you without knowing you were carrying his baby?” He arched a brow. “That seem like something you’d do for a woman you didn’t give a fuck about?”
“No.”
“Exactly. So I know he’s in way over his head, and I get that. I’m glad for the fucker, like I already told you, but I need to protect him, no matter what the cost.”
My eyes flared wide at that, and though my instinct was to leap to my feet and run for the hills, I didn’t.
I stood my ground.
Because even though I never imagined myself being married to a biker, being his Old Lady, and having babies that wore ‘My daddy’s a Sinner’ onesies, that was my life.
My choice.
And I wanted it.
I wanted that life so fucking much, I’d fight this bastard for it. I wouldn’t let him scare me into running from something I actually knew I wanted.
Yeah.
Me.
I knew what I wanted.
And sure, it’d be nice to finish college and to be able to do something that helped people like the girls, but I wanted to be Sin’s.
Yeah.
I did.
I really fucking di
d.
I wanted to be in bed with him every morning when, before he woke up, his feet started rubbing against each other as his body began to prepare for the day ahead. I wanted to see him stare at my coconut milk-laced coffee with distaste, even though he’d been the one to make it for me. I wanted to watch him laugh over some stupid YouTube video that he strong-armed me into watching—Mr. Beast. I had no idea why I loved watching those vids, but I totally did now that Sin had dragged me into the mix. I wanted to watch him with our kid, wanted to see his eyes darken when he realized we’d made this person together.
The only aspect of being a parent that didn’t terrify me was knowing Sin would be at my side.
He was competent at life. I wasn’t. I was spoiled and restless, aimless for years, used to being cosseted, even if that cosseting fell short of the mark sometimes. Sin had graduated from the school of hard knocks, and I figured that would help our child in ways I’d never be able to.
But yes, I wanted all that. And more. So much more.
Because with Sin?
I was Tiff.
Not a Farquar—be that a Farquar broke or rich. I was me. And he seemed to like me. In fact, he loved me, and I loved him for that.
I loved this world where a man would bring me in to make sure that I wasn’t fucking Sin around. I loved that, if a man tried to hurt me, Sin would go to war for me—he’d have killed Luke if Giulia hadn’t already done the deed for him. He’d told me that himself one night when he was still in Coshocton. I loved that I could hurt someone back if they tried to hurt me.
Our world was filled with violence, but we were in denial about it. We were held back by laws that protected no one. This world was a different one. I could dole out what was reaped upon me twofold in the form of a biker who’d shed blood in my name.
Sin was all I wanted and more.
So I grabbed a tight hold of the armrests and ground out, “Okay, what do you want to know?”
He arched a brow at me. “What do you have to tell me?”
I squinted at him, wondering what he wanted me to divulge. “I don’t know. Daddy shared next to nothing with us about his business. He wanted us in the dark.”
He pursed his lips. “You never heard any conversations on the phone, or snuck up on any business meetings?”
“Never. Even when he was talking with Donavan, they always tended to do it with no one around, and, also, his office was a safe room.”
Rex’s left brow arched up at that. “It was? Why?”
“We were rich. He was paranoid. And that was where the safe was, I guess.”
The chair started squeaking again as he recommenced rocking. “Carry on.”
“So, when he shut the door, you couldn’t hear anything. That was how his meetings went down.”
He studied me, and I could sense he was trying to discern whether I was bullshitting him or not, but I actually wasn’t. I knew very little about my father’s business, because he’d liked it that way.
When I was around twelve, I could still remember him joking about how I’d be taking his place on the board of directors when I’d graduated college, then something had happened. Something had changed. He’d gone from saying I could do anything I could set my mind to, to saying I was a woman and a woman’s place wasn’t in the boardroom.
Fuck, that still had the power to irritate the ever-loving crap out of me. Dad had been flawed. Didn’t mean I didn’t love him and miss him.
“Have you heard of Fuoco Corp?”
I frowned as I shook my head. “No. Should I have?”
“They’re the front for the Fieri family. You have to have heard of them. I know for a fact the Fieri family and Donavan were in business together, and that your dad went to school with them.”
Though I understood what he was saying, only two words registered. “The front?”
“Yeah. The. Front.”
I gulped. “But I don’t understand. Yeah, I know the Fieris. I know Gianni. He’s a creep. I only met him like—” I shrugged. “A year ago or something. He was at one of Donavan’s parties.”
“Well, whether you know him or not, your father certainly did.” He rubbed his chin. “And I wasn’t only talking about Gianni. He’s the son. Benito—Gianni’s father—he’s the one your dad went to school with.”
My brow furrowed as I processed where he was going with this. “When you say ‘front,’” I rasped, “you mean like…organized crime, don’t you?”
Rex nodded. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean.”
“You’re saying my dad was involved with the…” I blew out a breath. “Mafia?”
“Exactly.”
My throat felt like someone’s hands were around it. “And the IRS wasn’t involved?”
“No. Not at all. It was the mafia,” Rex told me dispassionately. “They pulled the lines of credit on your father, and because they are who they are? It’s no wonder your father took the easy way out. You think we’re bad people? I can see it in your eyes when you look around the place, but you can guess again when you think about the Fieris. They’re scumbags, and coming from me, that means more than you know.”
My world had crashed around my feet when Daddy had died, so there was nothing left to crash, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t astonished.
I slumped back in my chair, grief and confusion warring with fear as I stared at the Prez.
This place wasn’t my place yet. It was Sin’s though, and with time, I knew it would become mine too. I wanted that. I did. But at the moment, I was still an outsider, and Rex was reminding me of that.
Painfully.
I could feel my body seizing up with tension as I rasped, “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I wanted to know if you knew how your father’s business was funded.”
My brow puckered. “No. I didn’t.”
“I can see that for myself now.” He hummed under his breath. “Was your father close to Donavan?”
“I-I guess. I’d never have said…well, I didn’t know they went to school together. They played golf once a week. I thought they were on friendly terms because of how close Lily and I were.”
“That’s interesting, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, I do. But he really didn’t share anything with us on that score, very little about his past or anything like that.”
“Why didn’t you question that? You don’t seem like the sort of woman who wouldn’t ask questions. You evidently aren’t afraid to make waves.”
That had me scowling at him, but I guessed I wasn’t, and he was right. But also, neither was I the kind who questioned my entire childhood.
Parents were how they were. Kids didn’t change their personalities that dramatically—Dad had always been closed off to a certain extent, and what hadn’t been closed off was his love for me.
“Did you stop to wonder why your dad didn’t regale you with tales about his time in college?”
Rex snorted at my question. “Pop didn’t go to college, but I figure you’re right.” He huffed out a little laugh. “Okay, I believe you.”
Even though I knew how important his judgment was, I still muttered, “King Solomon has spoken.”
“You should be grateful I have.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “If I find out you’re lying—”
“I’m not! I have no reason to lie!” I snapped. “Frankly, I’m pretty pissed that I’m getting the third degree when I haven’t done anything wrong.” And I hadn’t.
No, I hadn’t come forward after Luke had died, but with little to tell the authorities that wasn’t going to have me laughed out of the police station, it wasn’t like there was much I could do.
“Did you trap Sin?”
I gaped at Rex. “Are you kidding me?”
“Do I look like I’m having a ball here?”
My nostrils flared in hurt anger. “No. I didn’t trap him. I had no need to trap him.”
“Good, that’s all I needed to know. Got a special hatred for women who trap
men with kids, and I know Sin feels the exact same way, seeing as he was one of ’em and it didn’t work out.” He pursed his lips. “You should talk to your baby daddy before the sprout appears, because there’s shit he should tell you.”
Why did that statement feel like an olive branch? I released a soft breath as I calmly stated, “I remember—Grizzly.”
He nodded. “Grizzly. You can go now.”
I glared at his dismissal, which made me feel like I was back in school, but I got to my feet and strode out without a backwards glance. I hated that my heart was pounding in my ears, and that I felt all hot and flustered.
His interrogation had been unexpected. I hadn’t known his reason for wanting to speak with me, but I figured it had to do with the girls, so to get blindsided that way?
I rounded the corner and went to the only place I knew where very little sex went down—the kitchen.
Hiding myself in the pantry, which was stocked full to the brim, I rested my back against the wall and closed my eyes.
Since his death, things had been a nightmare. A walking nightmare. But now? It was a thousand times worse.
My dad had been up to his neck with the mafia.
The motherfucking mafia.
And he’d been friends with Gianni Fieri’s father—Gianni was the creep I remembered from the Lancaster’s party a while back. Dad had made us all go to a fuck ton of parties, but that one had been particularly drab.
The way Fieri had looked at Lily?
Just the memory sent chills down my spine, and I knew Lily had felt it too.
Something had happened, some kind of insider trading I thought that had put Fieri away, but in all honesty, I couldn’t remember. Just knew he was in jail, because Dad had happened to mention it to Mom over dinner a while back, and I was glad about that now, even if I hadn’t thought all that much about it at the time.
I was, all of a sudden, happy that Lily sported that tattoo of Link’s on her wrist. I knew what it meant—she was his, and the MC? They’d go to war for her.
If Fieri was mafia and Donavan Lancaster had been in business with him…
God.
Maybe ‘war’ wasn’t selling the kind of shit we were in short.
“What did you get us involved in, Daddy?” I whispered to the stacked shelves, racking my brain for anything that might have clued me in… Then, I thought about the day when everything had changed before Dad’s death.
Forgotten & Found: A Dark & Dirty Sinners' MC Boxset Page 80