I let my head fall back against the brick. “You’re a douche. Why string us along at all? Why not leave and never come back?”
I opened my eyes to find him clenching and unclenching his jaw. “I didn’t have a choice.”
I sneered. “You always have a choice.”
“Not this time I didn’t. Not if I valued yours or Rowen’s life at all,” he said cryptically.
“How about you both tell us what you’re talking about,” Luke’s dry voice said from behind us.
I looked over at him, feeling nothing. I was numb.
For Rowen’s whole life, the man in front of me had been lying about who he was.
All this time.
“Tell us what the fuck is going on, and let’s do it quick. I’m on a deadline,” Luke snapped when Weston continued his silence.
They looked at each other, at a loss for words, apparently.
My eyes went down to the ground as I worked my teeth, clenching and unclenching them.
My eyes lit on the shovel that was leaned up against the wall of Luke’s garage, and I thought, I wonder if I smack them upside the head with that if they’d suddenly find their tongues.
“Anita’s gone a little cuckoo since she found out that Weston was seeing somebody around town,” Lydia blurted, her face going red in agitation.
“So what are you doing here?” Luke asked, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.
When neither one of them spoke, Luke looked up and pinned his glare on Lydia.
“Anita thinks that Weston’s seeing Reese behind her back,” Lydia said when Weston continued keeping his mouth shut.
Lydia apparently couldn’t withstand the glare. I was proud to say that I could. Most of the time.
It was intimidating to have the full force of Luke’s anger directed at you. He wasn’t a small man, and he had a huge personality to fit his body. He had the power to pin anyone with his stare.
He’d be a good bouncer. Nobody would try to fuck around with him nearby.
“In the beginning? It was because my mom spoke of this ‘majestic,’ small, Texas town like it was the best place on earth. She spoke about how life was slower down here, more peaceful. And I needed to get out of there. My father was smothering me. So I moved here. It was never because of you. It was for me,” she said softly.
“And how did you two end up together?” Luke wondered.
“Rowen asked to go to her shop one day. She said they had really good cookies. That’s how we met.” He pointed at Lydia.
That would be my fault. I’d brought Rowen cookies from there on multiple occasions before I realized it was Luke’s ex’s place. That stopped, at least from my end.
“Why are we even in this at all?” Luke questioned.
I had that same exact question.
Why? What were we to all this?
Then a thought struck me, and I got a tad hysterical.
“So you took our child around a known criminal?” I clarified.
Weston’s head snapped around, looking at me warily. “She’s not dangerous. Fuck, I’m more responsible than that. She only had a suspected connection with the mafia.”
“The mafia?” I shrieked. “The motherfucking mafia?”
Weston winced, rethinking on what he’d said. “She was never proven to have a connection. In fact, we were only sitting on her because her father was arrested for money laundering. They could never prove that it was the mafia’s money they were laundering. I’ve been ‘married’ to her for a year now and haven’t found a thing on her.”
I launched myself at him, my hands reaching forward to claw out his eyes.
Luke caught me just as my hands were inches away from the stupid man’s face.
“Shhh,” Luke soothed. “That won’t help right now.”
“Maybe not,” I said, kicking out with my foot. “But it’d make me feel a fuck of a lot better.”
I connected with Weston’s hip, and he glared at me. “Crazy bitch.”
“I’ll show you fucking crazy, you goddamned piece of shit. I cannot fucking believe you’d put our baby in harm’s way,” I snarled, curling up on Luke’s forearm to kick at Weston again.
Weston, however, did the only smart thing he’d done all day, and that was to step back.
“She’s never even said a mean word to me until she found out about the affair. Don’t you think I’d know better than to put our daughter into that kind of situation?” He fumed.
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“You’re stupid if you think Anita wasn’t a threat to Rowen. You’re wrong. Rowen told me she said your wife was threatening me. Why would she do that if she wasn’t a ‘threat?’” I asked testily. “And you just fucking said she was the one who shot Radar!”
He sighed. “The whole thing got to be a mess. We have what you would call an ‘open’ relationship. She did her own thing, and I did mine. We stayed together because of the kid, though. The operation was shelved six months ago, but then I found out she was pregnant, so I stayed with her.” His look at me told me somehow it was my fault that he’d decided to stay, but I couldn’t figure out why. “I used seeing you and Rowen as an excuse to leave and do other operations during that time. It was only about two weeks before you moved here that she got suspicious. I would’ve left her then, but we started to get more chatter through a couple of sources saying that the accountant was still on the job and using a go between to do it. The only person I ever saw was my daughter, so there was no option of leaving her at that point. We moved here, and I kept doing what I had been doing.”
I wanted to pull my hair out. That stupid, stupid man.
“I don’t see how we’re any part of that situation. Why did you pursue a relationship with your child if you didn’t have to?” Luke rumbled.
I nodded, wanting to know the answer to that one, too.
“She thought I had a really good relationship with Rowen. I had to keep up the act,” he explained.
“Why the whole ‘filing for custody’ hoopla, then?” Luke asked.
“Same. She wanted me to, and I was being accommodating because my bosses felt there was a need to,” he answered.
My hands clenched on Luke’s muscular forearm and Luke stepped back, knowing that my control was slipping again.
I wanted to kill him.
“So let me get this straight, you getting the goods on the mafia people you speak of is more important than our child’s safety?” I clarified.
He shook his head. “She was never in danger.”
“That’s not good enough. I want you to get her out of this. Now. Leave and don’t come back.”
“It’s not that simple. Anita saw us out to eat. Saw Lydia and Luke at the same time. We have to play the game a little bit longer,” Weston sighed.
“Why?” Luke barked.
“Because I asked them to,” a new voice sounded from behind us.
Chapter 26
Once upon a time, fuck you. The end.
-T-shirt
Luke
My gun was aimed at the newest arrival’s head.
The man was old. Like eighties old. Tall and lanky, barely filling out the suit that hung off the old man’s bones.
His eyes, though, were sharp. They took it all in with one glance, settling on me as the biggest threat.
What the fuck was he doing on my property?
“Who are you?” I snapped, my aim sighting in on his heart.
Perfect kill shot.
“Special Agent Nathan Lawrence,” he told me, never taking his eyes away from me and my gun.
“Why can’t any of you handle this like professionals? Why all the secrecy and lies? Somebody better start talking,” I growled.
The threat was there, and special agent Nathan Lawrence knew it.
He nodded, acknowledging it.
Weston started to move from the corner of my vision, but before I could mo
ve, Reese pulled up her purse and aimed it in Weston’s direction.
I’d felt her move her hand to her purse the moment I raised my gun.
I hadn’t told her not to, either.
I’d learned that Reese was full of surprises. One of those being the time I went looking in her purse for her keys and found a gun concealed in it.
I’d asked her about it, and she admitted that she’d been a concealed carrier for going on four years now, citing the need for protection since she lived alone with Rowen all these years.
So the minute I’d felt her slip her hand into her purse, I’d known where her mind was going.
She would have my back.
Weston froze, “You wouldn’t.”
“Just stay right there and we’ll never have to find out,” she snapped.
“All this isn’t necessary. If you’ll lower your weapons, I’ll be more than happy to explain.” Agent Lawrence said soothingly.
I glared at him. “How about you call someone to verify your identity, and we’ll go from there.”
***
Three hours later found us all down at the station with my team surrounding us.
I had Reese in my lap because she’d decided to go after Weston no less than three times already.
“One more time, from the top,” the Chief demanded curtly.
Agent Lawrence sighed. “Eighteen months ago we got a tip that Alexei Artem was laundering money for the Russian mob. We hoped that when we pinned him down for some racketeering charges that he’d turn in exchange for a lighter sentence, but the man hasn’t said a word his entire time inside. In fact, he’s been the model prisoner. The only one who went to visit him was the daughter. And up until about three months ago, we never had cause to suspect the daughter as a mediator between the two factions.”
The Chief nodded and rolled his hand for Agent Lawrence to continue.
“Weston was never supposed to be on the job that long, but it served our purposes to continue the lie, so we did. Lucky for us he stayed in place, otherwise we would’ve never gotten him back inside where we needed him to be.” Agent Lawrence pinned Weston with a glare that was incredibly telling. “It would’ve been great, too, if he’d kept it in his pants.”
Weston shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and the Chief chose that moment to sigh. “So what do you need KPD to do?”
“Nothing, really. Just be aware that we’re in the process of getting enough evidence on Anita to bring her in,” Lawrence hedged.
“And us…what do you want with us?” I asked, knowing he had something in mind.
“Nothing…just stay away from each other. Now that you know the story, we just need to keep up the lie. Mostly, Weston just needs to keep his head in the game, and not Ms. Murphy’s pants,” Lawrence said.
Weston’s head dropped.
“No,” I said instantly.
Everyone’s eyes went to mine, but I wasn’t giving into this.
“Someone’s going to have to watch over Reese and Rowen. I’m not leaving them alone and defenseless,” I said fiercely.
Reese’s hand came up to rest on my cheek, patting it soothingly. “It’s okay, honey.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s not. Not even a little bit.”
She leaned her head against the side of my neck, and I moved my glare to Lawrence whom I could tell was bursting with the desire to hurl out orders.
Which he did moments later.
“If you don’t do it, I can’t promise you anything. In fact, the entire debacle works out in our favor. Anita’s upset, rightfully so, that Weston’s been with his ‘ex’ all this time. She’s mad enough, in fact, to make stupid decisions. Kind of like the shooting that took the life of that K-9 officer,” Agent Lawrence said, knowing it’d elicit a reaction out of us all.
It did.
Spectacularly.
The room exploded with angry indignation.
It took long moments to get the room under control again before the Chief’s question was heard.
“Why isn’t she here right now, then? Nearly twelve of my officers could have died. Two of which are still in the hospital for gunshot wounds. Why is this woman not here?”
The answer, though, was what chilled my blood.
“She’s missing. She has been since the night she killed Reese’s neighbor.”
***
It broke my heart to see Reese crying.
I pulled her into my arms later that night as she and I were saying goodbye.
Her sister still had our kids, and I was grateful for that. There was no better place for them, especially surrounded by a bunch of protective bikers.
Protective, pissed off bikers.
Rightfully so, too.
I’d told Torren and my brother in law, about what had happened, then personally called Trance to let him know about the latest events. All of them had been extremely upset.
Then there was Reese’s father.
Let’s just say that that talk had been fun. Not.
Out of all the men I’d spoken with today, he’d been the most upset.
In fact, he was on the verge of something that I was very close to myself.
Rage.
“Don’t cry, Reesey. We’ll figure it out,” I said softly, pressing my lips against her forehead.
She nodded, looking up at me before she leaned in and kissed me softly on the mouth.
“I had plans for you today. I’m just upset that we couldn’t do any of them,” she whispered softly.
I moved to pin her against the wall of my garage with my body, staring deep into her eyes.
“What kind of plans?” I asked, curling the hair around her ears so I could see her face.
“It was kind of stupid,” she said softly. “But I wanted to take you to my favorite place in the world.”
I looked into her eyes, knowing that this place meant a lot to her and said, “So take me.”
She looked hopeful, so very hopeful.
“You don’t think that we’ll be seen?” she asked hopefully.
I shrugged. “I have a car that’s not quite…done. Nobody will recognize it. We can take it as long as you’re all right with a rough ride.”
She beamed at me. “Aces.”
I shook my head and stepped back, grabbing her hand and leading her to the back of my garage, uncovering the next side project I planned to work on. It was old and rusted. But the motor…the motor was a piece of artwork.
It ran like a top, which was the first thing I’d fixed in it two years ago when I’d bought it.
The rest though, left much to be desired.
“Wow,” she breathed. “Is this what I think it is?”
I grinned. “Yes. It’s a 1967 GTO. The man I bought it from kept it in good condition. One owner. He gave it to me for a song after I asked about it during a traffic stop. Pulled him over because he didn’t have a license plate.”
She ran her hand over the rusted brown paint as if she could envision it in its prime, overlooking the large splotches of paint less body, and the worn-out interior.
That wasn’t what made this car what it was, though. Its soul lied in its motor. The pure, raw potential of this car was staggering, and my girl could tell.
“Want to go for a ride?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
She nodded, yanked the door open after a couple of sharp, jerky pulls, and slid across the seat.
When she had herself buckled in, I opened the third most bay door.
“You’re gonna want to lay down. At least until we make it to the highway,” I said as the door started to roll up.
She grinned and stretched out across the seat, her head laying on my lap.
With shaking hands, I started the GTO up.
I could feel the moan Reese let out when the sound of the 400 cubic foot engine filled the airwaves around us.
I revved it, making the car rock, and she laughed, looking up at me with s
uch joy that I couldn’t help but do it again.
Pressing the clutch in, I let it creep forward until we were out of the garage.
The garage door closed, and I crept slowly down the driveway until we were on the dirt road that led to the highway.
“So,” I said. “You wanna see what it can do?”
She grinned. “Please, God, yes!”
I waited until we were on the highway before I let her loose.
I shifted from first, to second, to third rapidly. It threw us back into the seat, but my hands worked just fine as I finally got up to speed, settling right at sixty-five miles an hour.
I’d always wanted to take this beast to the tracks.
“What do you think?” I yelled, watching the road.
Her hand lifted until it rested on the top of my hardening cock. “I think you need to get me to our destination fast, otherwise we’ll be breaking in this hood, too.”
Forty-five minutes later had me pulling into a long driveway that led to a lake. “Where are we?”
She smiled and pointed to a carport. “This is my parent’s lake house.”
I nodded, remembering Reese mentioning the place to me quite a few times before.
“It’s nice,” I said as we pulled underneath the carport.
When I shut the engine off and unbuckled my seatbelt, I suddenly found myself with a lap full of hot, horny woman.
She slammed her mouth down on mine, wrapping her arms around my head.
“Do you have any idea,” she gasped against my lips. “How hot it is to see you driving this car? Your muscles move in sync with each shift of the motor. And the way you’re so passionate about it turns me on beyond belief.”
My hands moved, one going down to the gap between Reese’s flesh and her jeans, while the other curled into her hair.
The one in her pants traveled down the crack of her ass and buried straight into her sopping wet channel, effectively making my dick harder than it’d ever been before.
“So you’re telling me muscle cars turn you on?” I clarified, lips hovering over hers.
She nodded, eyes expressing everything she felt with that one look.
Code 11- KPD SWAT Box Set Page 18