by E. M. Moore
“Neither is stabbing me,” Wyatt interjects.
“I didn’t stab you,” Cole sneers like the idea of it is wholly beneath him. He scowls at Wyatt before continuing. “So, I got to the closest thing in your life, the treasure. I’m not immune to the treasure either, but I wanted it so badly for you. All the information I had said that’s everything you wanted. Then, when we finally met, I saw it in your eyes, and it clearly defined you for me.”
“Why did you have your guy stab me then?” Wyatt questions. “That part doesn’t connect for me.”
Cole turns to Wyatt. “Let’s make one thing clear. I don’t give a fuck about you. I came here for Dakota and Dakota only. The fact that you’re attached to her is the only reason you’re not dead right now. Any other time, there would’ve been a bullet in your head, Longhorn. Right under the brim of your stupid hat.”
I pat Cole’s leg, giving him a silent cue to move on. I don’t like the talk of putting a bullet in my cowboy.
Cole stretches his neck. “Plus, I was already playing my part as Jacobs’ partner. It was never about Lance. It was always about you. I told you to find the treasure, pushed you toward it, because I want you to find it, baby girl. More than anything, I want that for you. Acting that way also helped reinforce my business partnership with Lance. I wouldn’t have hurt you. I only ever tried to get close to you. The texts and bringing you to the Heights, those were my attempts to form the bond I knew would always be there because you’re Charlie’s sister. I would’ve died for him, and I’d die for you, too.”
Lucas, Wyatt, and Stone all peer at each other. Silent communication passes between them, and I get it. If I was Wyatt, I’d have my doubts too, but Cole had good intentions. He always does.
Stone catches my eye. The gray-blue in his are bright this morning. They’re absolutely captivating, and they sweep me off my feet in an instant. He licks his lips, nodding at me, and I nod back. “Tell us about Clark now. Dakota needs to put an end to that chapter in her life.”
Cole swings his gaze to me for confirmation, and I give him a smile. He leans forward, dropping his forearms to his thighs. “Clark was complicated. I couldn’t let the man live because of what he did to Charlie. That didn’t mean I wasn’t—a little—unsure. I never had any intention of keeping it a secret and didn’t want Dakota to hate me for it when she found out. Killing him ended up being fueled by what he did to her as a kid. He didn’t just take her away from a family who loved her, he kept her hidden; he didn’t give her proper care; he treated her like she was a business partner instead of a fucking kid.”
Cole’s angry voice matches the sinister glares on my guys’ faces. I’ve known that they didn’t care for Clark in the slightest. In fact, they’re the ones who started to reveal the layers of my childhood for me—to show me what life should be like. I thought my dad wasn’t sure how to bring me up because he lost his wife and then he was a recluse on top of that. It turns out it wasn’t that at all.
My hands turn to fists, but Cole continues. “I followed him to the trailhead that day. He didn’t make it very far. I confronted him about what he did and told him why he was going to be on the receiving end of my bullet.” Cole fuses his gaze to mine. “I don’t know if this helps or hurts, but Clark Wilder loved you—in his own way. He was...visibly upset about what he did to you. I’m not a psychologist, so I’m not going to attempt to break down what his thoughts were, but I can read people and Clark welcomed the death I promised him because of you. Of what he did to you,” he clarifies, pushing his tongue against his lips. “His last words were: ‘Tell Dakota she deserves to find the treasure.’”
I stare straight ahead, imagining my father on the very earth that intrigued him, that kept him living, telling this gangster that I deserved to find the treasure. Of all the things to say....
Tears rim my lids, threatening to spill over. But that’s it, it’s done. I wipe below my eyes, catching the wetness before it can fall.
“Where is he?” Stone asks.
“Buried in the back of the Wilder property.”
I snap my head toward Cole. “Yeah, by the way, you blew up my house.”
“It was a shitty house,” he explains. “I’ll build you a better one.”
“I’ll build her a better one,” Stone snaps.
Lucas grits his teeth and glares at his friend. “We will.”
I get to my feet, anger wrapping around every nerve. “How about I build it my fucking self?” I seethe.
“That’s right! Girl power.” Wyatt lifts his fist in solidarity, but I give him a glare that fizzles his sentiment right back to his lap.
Before I can tell them all off, Cole’s phone rings. He has it out of his pocket in no time at all, staring at the screen. “Shit.” He answers it and gets to his feet. “Fuck. Be right there.” He ends the call and lifts his gaze. “Your jeweler friend’s been shot.”
9
“What?” Stone exclaims, pushing to his feet.
Cole is already striding toward the front door. “Let’s go,” he calls back. “I’ll explain on the way.”
Lucas sprints to the bedrooms as Wyatt reaches for me, and I stare at his hand before taking it. No matter if I’m upset with what they did, I’m not going to withhold my love from them. Life’s too short for that shit.
“I know I fucked up, Tits,” Wyatt tells me, gripping my hand and leading me after Cole. “You can figure out how to punish me later.” When we emerge into the bright sun, Cole’s giving orders to the two guards while he waits next to the Audi in the driveway.
Stone gets in the front seat, and Cole slides in beside him. Wyatt opens the back door for me as Lucas emerges from the house with a handful of clothing. He squishes into the seat next to Wyatt and me, and Stone pulls out of the driveway behind the black car.
Lucas and I get dressed, and I prompt Cole to tell us what’s going on. “If the jeweler got shot—”
“You were watching him?” Stone interrupts. “You knew where we went?”
“Of course I did,” Cole sighs. “I knew everything you were up to. We’ve been watching the jeweler to make sure he didn’t go to Lance and that Lance didn’t get to him.”
“Obviously, you’re doing a shitty job of it,” Wyatt snarks.
Cole turns in his seat, eyes flashing. “I’m sorry, do you run a gang? Do you understand the ins and outs of surveillance? Some things happen in the blink of a fucking second. You get that, don’t you, cowboy?”
Wyatt scowls, and I’m getting a fucking headache from all this fighting. “Can we not bitch at each other?” I snap. “This is already too much without your dick measuring contest on top of it.”
“Anything for you, baby girl.” Cole winks before turning around in his seat, and Lucas and Wyatt stiffen next to me. I swear Cole did that to get a rise out of them, and it’s clearly working.
Tension fills the car and only increases the closer we get to our destination. I don’t know where that is until we reach a hospital—the same hospital Lucas was in. Lucas shifts next to me, clearly uncomfortable. My stomach squeezes as we pull around the emergency entrance.
Cole turns toward us. “Stone and Dakota, out. Wyatt, park the car.”
We all do as he instructs. The emergency room doors open as soon as we get close, bringing too many bad memories for me. “They’re not going to let us in.”
Cole laughs darkly, tendrils of shadows blacking out what’s supposed to be an expression of humor. We march right through the other automatic doors that say we need permission to be down this hallway, but no one stops us. No one utters a word, and I turn toward the nurse’s station to find Ninja in front of the window, a tight smile on his face.
These guys are scary. I’d be doing whatever the fuck they wanted, too.
It’s not hard to pick out the room that our friend the jeweler must be in. Two guards dressed in black are standing outside it. They avoid meeting Cole’s gaze, and he warns them they’ll be having a discussion later. Afterward, he stri
des into the room with authority.
The scent of blood tangs the air and settles on the tip of my tongue as I stride inside to find the jeweler we entrusted lying in a bed. He’s pale as fuck, eyes closed. I stop where I am, but Cole reaches back and drags me forward to the bedside of the middle-aged man that we brought into this. He’s only lying in this hospital bed because of us. Jesus. Every time shit hits the fan, I wonder what the hell we got ourselves into. Fuck Lance for doing this to an innocent person.
Cole grips the plastic barrier beside the bed, and it squeaks. The jeweler’s eyes flash open, clearly startled. He glances over everyone in the room. He calms when he finds Stone. Clarity moves in, and he relaxes though his pupils are blown wide. I can only imagine that they have him on some heavy pain killers. He’s shirtless, white bandages tinted in crimson wrap around his midsection.
Any one of us could be lying in this bed. Hell, not a week ago it was Lucas. Whoever Lance hired is dangerous. They don’t care who they hurt. They don’t care who gets in their way. Either Lance ordered this guy taken out, or he’s given free rein to the men he’s hired. However it went down, it’s not good for us.
Luckily, we have someone on our side who’s as dangerous as them.
“I’m friends with these two,” Cole begins as a rather rudimentary introduction. He smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “First off, how are you?”
“I got shot,” the jeweler croaks, grimacing when his voice breaks. He studies the rest of us apprehensively. “Right through my living room window. I didn’t know what hit me. I didn’t understand what was going on until a couple of guys I’ve never seen before broke into my house and called the ambulance.” He eyes the fire tattoo poking out the collar of Cole’s shirt.
“Those were my guys,” the leader confirms. “We were helping keep you safe due to the important information you were researching for my clients.”
“I think I’m alive because of them.” He tries to change positions and grimaces.
“I’m sorry this happened,” Stone shares. “So sorry. But I need to know what you found out about the artifact you studied.”
The jeweler’s shaky hands rise up to lie gingerly over his bandaged stomach. “It’s so strange. I was getting together my report when everything happened. I was going to call you later today to set up a meeting.”
Lance’s team must have been watching him, too. They knew everything we were doing, too, which means they might have the information we hired this guy to get us.
Fuck.
“Where is it?” Stone inquires. “The report?”
“At my place.” His eyes droop, fighting off sleep, and my heart goes out to him.
“What did you uncover?” Cole’s question makes the jeweler drag his eyes open again. I’m almost unnerved the big bad gang leader is being so nice to this man. He’s not even using his gun to get answers.
“You have a very special piece, Mr. Fleming. As suspected, it’s European, but I was also able to track down its origin. You have a ring that belonged to Spanish Queen Maria Luisa. It’s highly valuable, supposed to have been lost in her treasure horde to Mexico which was a Spanish territory in 1753.”
My heart beats faster at his words. Stone finds my hand and clasps it, giving my fingers a reassuring squeeze. We have answers about the ring. Not only that, we have the name of the person who owned it. Holy shit.
“Where is it?” Cole asks, glancing over at us as my chest heaves up and down.
“Safe,” Stone whispers the word with dual meaning. It is safe, and it’s in a safe.
Cole turns on his heel, and I linger only a second before I realize the jeweler’s now fallen asleep. We won’t be getting anything more from him right now, and we might not need to. The next step is to go to his house and get the report he was drawing up. We can’t let that fall into the wrong hands if it hasn’t already.
Stone and I walk slowly away from the bed and turn down the hall. I glance up to find the two guards Cole had posted outside the jeweler’s room following their leader down the corridor. I peek over my shoulder—no one is watching the room anymore. I drop Stone’s hand and walk quickly to catch up with Cole. “Hey, aren’t they going to stay with him?” I whisper.
We enter the waiting room where Wyatt and Lucas sit in chairs. They get to their feet when they spot us.
“Cole?” I urge.
“There’s nothing we can do for him now.”
“But what if they come back to finish the job?”
Cole spins toward me, his lips downturned, but with a firm jaw. “Baby girl, I can’t watch him forever. He’s no longer of use to us, so he’s on his own.”
He turns to walk away, but I grab the sleeve of his shirt, stopping him in his tracks. “I’m not asking you to guard him forever.” I keep my voice low. The guards next to us pretend they’re not listening to the conversation.
Cole puts his arm around my shoulders and leads me from the hospital, guiding me away from the front entrance where he stops me on the sidewalk. “Listen, Dakota, I don’t expect you to understand this....” His guards now stand several feet away to give us some space. Wyatt, Lucas, and Stone hang back, too, though they’re outright staring.
Cole rubs his chin fiercely, looking away before dark eyes return to me. “Okay, the thing is, this is what this life is like. Yeah, they might come for him again. They might kill him. I kept him alive until he gave us the information we needed. He might not die, though,” he offers as an afterthought. “If I had eyes on everyone who gave us information or anyone who I personally believed was worthy of my protection, I wouldn’t have any members left to do other things. You get that, right? I only have so many Dragons with me. I’m stretched thin. I can’t watch over your jeweler, but even if I did, when could I stop? A couple days from now? A year? The threat could come at any time. He was sitting in his living room and the shot came through his window. Who could have predicted that?”
My insides turn to a twisty mess. Logically, I understand his reasoning. But personally, there’s someone in that room that we brought into this fucked up scenario, and he’s now lying there without any guards whatsoever. “He got shot because of us. Because of me,” I grind out.
“Don’t ask me to do it,” Cole snarls. “Just don’t. I don’t want you disappointed in me.”
I nod, already knowing my answer if I were to. I’m not going to pretend to know how to run a gang, I’m just talking about human decency here.
Cole leaves me standing there without another word and approaches his men. “Tell me you searched the room for information.”
His tone is laced with disappointment and warning. His guys stand there with their shoulders back, but I can tell they’re worried by their stiff movements. I wonder what kind of leader Cole is? Does he react first, ask questions later?
One of the Dragons reaches into his back pocket and produces folded papers. Cole takes them from him and holds them out to me. “That’s all we found.” This gang member can’t be that much older than me. Neither can his partner, but the tattoos winding up their arms and the hard set of their features make them appear harder. Stronger. Older.
Looking at Cole, I wonder what he’s had to endure? Not just the death of his gang brother but probably a lot of other things. He told us he challenged the leader of the Dragons for his position. That sounds like it’s a story right there. I watch as he talks with his guys, wondering if I’ll get to hear any more of his past or be a part of his future.
Stone moves to my side, catching my eye then peering down at the papers in my hand. I unfold them as Wyatt and Lucas approach. Several different things are clutched in my fists: White computer paper in the form of a report, but also scraps of a notebook. It’s going to take a minute to go through this if it’s not written up nice and organized for us. As the jeweler said, he was literally in the middle of putting the report together.
Stone reaches out, takes my chin, and makes me look at him. “Hey.” His gray-blue eyes search mine. “
I’ve already called in a security team to watch him. Okay?”
I drag in a breath. “But the money.”
“I told you, Lance didn’t take everything from me. Plus, we got some major investments yesterday. We’re going to be fine for a while, babe.”
I throw my arms around Stone, squeezing him. He kisses the crown of my head, lips lingering as I listen to the beat of his heart. Thank God for Stone Jacobs.
After I pull away, I fold the papers and clench them in my fist, “We do have to talk about earlier still,” I tell him, then shift my gaze to Wyatt and Lucas, too.
“I plead jealousy,” Wyatt shrugs unapologetically.
I poke him in the chest. “Plead whatever you want, it won’t help you.”
I walk away, leaving the trio behind. I’m not really mad at them. It’s not the worst thing that could’ve happened, but I do need to remind them that walking around like Neanderthals is not a good look.
Oh, and that I’m a girl and I can handle my shit on my own.
10
Cole leaves with his two guards to do gang leader things while Lucas, Stone, Wyatt, and I go back home. I need a shower, stat. I feel like I could fall asleep, but I also want to learn more about this Queen Maria Luisa. I can’t believe that my family has had a piece of royal jewelry in our possession all these years. I always knew it was special. Just looking at the ring, I could imagine all sorts of different scenarios about princes and princesses. To know that wasn’t far from the truth sets the butterflies in my stomach flapping their wings.
“Tomorrow, I’m going to withdraw us from school,” Stone announces to no one in particular. “We’ll start back up again after this is over.”