A cold, damp cloth was pressed to the back of my neck, jerking me out of my mental tantrum. I lifted soaked eyes to find Mr. Jenkins standing beside where Gracie was still crouched in front of me. Embarrassment made my cheeks turn scarlet, and I averted my eyes, not wanting either of them to know just how weak my father could make me—how much of a victim he had turned me into.
“Your mother and I were friends about a hundred or so years ago,” Mr. Jenkins informed me with a concerned smile. “Or at least, it feels like it was that long ago. When she moved here with your father, I was one of the first people to welcome her into the community. She was a good woman. Strong, determined, maybe a little naïve at first, but smart.”
A frown made my brow pucker, and I wiped my snotty nose with the tissue Gracie offered. “She was the b-best woman I ever knew.”
“I agree,” he said, dropping casually down into the chair beside me. “Which was why she came to me to handle her will. She wanted to make sure that the most important person in her life was taken care of. That your father couldn’t trap you like he trapped her.”
“T-too late,” I whispered brokenly.
“Only death can make something too late, sweetie,” Gracie assured me with a kind smile.
“He’s making me leave Matt,” I confessed, letting the words spill out of me as easily as the tears were falling from my eyes. “He… He said if I didn’t give Matt up, he would charge him with the rape of Stephanie Campbell and her friend Casandra.”
They both went quiet, and when I glanced at Gracie, I could see how tense her shoulders had become. “Matt would never do that,” she bit out.
“I-I know,” I agreed. “But how many people in this town would believe Matt over my father? Campbell even said he had pictures of Steph and her friend beaten bloody.”
“What’s his agenda?” Mr. Jenkins asked, his eyes unreadable, his voice neutral.
“He hates Matt and every other member of the MC,” I said with a shrug. “Without them here, he can finally run Creswell Springs the way he has always envisioned.”
“You mean by tearing down Hannigans’ and the strip club and the clubhouse. Building hundred-dollar-a-plate restaurants and five-star resorts. He wants to run off anyone who doesn’t earn more than half a million a year and make Creswell Springs into a country club town,” the old lawyer spat out.
“Basically,” I mumbled.
“Did you know about the bank account he wanted me to have your mother’s money transferred into?” he demanded, but his tone was less harsh now, kinder. I shook my head. “He tried to steal from you.”
“Nothing unusual about that, Mr. Jenkins. He’s been keeping the monthly allowance my mother provided for me for himself, and all I’ve had to live on is the limited credit cards he gave me.”
“I’m sorry, Rory, but your father is nothing but a greedy bastard,” Gracie said as she straightened.
“Agreed.”
“I don’t want you to worry,” Mr. Jenkins told me as he shifted in his chair. “I’m not going to let him get his filthy hands on your money.”
I slouched down in my chair, feeling both physically and emotionally drained. “I honestly don’t care if he takes every last dime. I would happily give it all to him if…”
I broke off and jerked upright in the chair, my eyes widening as I realized the answer was so easy. Fuck, why hadn’t I thought of it before?
I knew he wanted that money, but just how badly?
“Mr. Jenkins, how much money did my mother leave for me?” I’d never questioned it, never cared enough to want to know before.
“Somewhere around two hundred and fifty million,” he said with a casual shrug.
I just sat there blinking at the man. My mom had come from old money, and I knew without her ever having to tell me that the majority of the reason my father had married her was because of that. Sure, he’d had his own money, but it had never come close to what my mother was used to.
With the money just sitting in my trust waiting for me to turn twenty-one, Derrick Michaels could surely buy himself the governor’s seat if he wanted it bad enough.
“If…” I paused and licked my lips. My eyes were red-rimmed but dry now. “If my father resigned as mayor, who would take over in his place?” Creswell Springs didn’t have a deputy mayor, thank God. I had little doubt if there were a second-in-command, he would have been just as corrupt as my father.
Jenkins scratched his chin, thinking about my question. “I guess if your father resigned early, there would be a special election to appoint someone in his place.”
“Such as?”
“That I couldn’t tell you.”
“Wh-what about you?” I threw out there.
He snorted, but Gracie was giving him a considering once-over. “No one would vote for me, Rory. They know me too well.”
“Which is exactly why they would vote for you,” his protégé assured him. “I don’t know what Rory is thinking right now. But I have to tell you, Jenkins, if that idiot was out of office and you were up for the position, you would get my vote.”
“That’s not likely to happen, Gracie.”
“Maybe.” A devilish smile started to lift at my lips, and my earlier feelings of being weak and powerless transformed in my chest. Maybe this crazy idea I had wasn’t what my mother had intended when she had left me everything, but she had told me she was giving it to me so that I wouldn’t ever have to worry about being under my father’s thumb again. And that was exactly what that money was going to accomplish. “Maybe not.”
“That smile is kind of terrifying,” Gracie muttered, but her own smile was shining out of her eyes. “Tell me more.”
Chapter Fourteen
RAIDER
I PULLED ON MY JEANS and leaned over to kiss Quinn’s lips. She was sound asleep, and I hated to wake her, but there was no fucking way I was leaving this room without a kiss. Her lashes fluttered and her lids lifted to half-mast, a smile teasing at her lips.
“Come back soon,” she said in a soft, sleepy voice. She caught the edges of my cut and tugged. “I miss you already.”
I kissed her again, lingering to savor her taste. At the sound of her small gasps, my dick hardened, demanding I take off my jeans and climb back into bed with her. But Bash had already pounded on my door twice, calling for church up in his office. If I didn’t go now, he was liable to come drag my ass out. “Love you, sweetheart.”
She sleepily mumbled she loved me too, and I took a second to eat up the sight of her in my bed. The sheet was covering most of her front, but it was only draped over half of her sexy ass. There was a red and purple love bite on her left hip that I had put there the night before, mocking and taunting me to come back to bed. Leaning over, I pulled the sheet up to her shoulders to cover the temptation and backed toward the door.
After closing the door, I had barely walked a few yards when Whitney appeared at the end of the hall. I mentally groaned, not in the mood to have to deal with one of Quinn’s bitchy sisters, especially not this particular bitch. Since Quinn and I had gotten together, Whitney had turned into a raging cunt, and I was down to my last nerve where she was concerned.
“Leave me alone, Whitney.”
As she came closer, I could sense something was up. Her face was tight, her clothes the same I had seen her wearing the day before, and her hair was windblown and tangled. She was usually meticulous about her appearance, so seeing her like this had my eyes narrowing. Twice in the past week, she had tried to force my attention on her, only to get pissed when I’d refused to fall for her bullshit. I was with Quinn now, and I wasn’t about to let Whitney—or anyone else—fuck that up.
Whitney glanced around nervously, her eyes darting into every dark corner along the hall, and as she reached me, I could see she was shaking.
“I have to talk to you,” she whispered. “It’s important.”
I rolled my eyes, figuring she was just trying to play me to cause trouble with Quinn yet again. I didn??
?t need my girl to spell it out that she didn’t completely trust me. Lord knew I had given her plenty of reasons not to with how I had treated her in the past, but I wasn’t about to give her more.
Seeing that I wasn’t going to play games with her, Whitney grabbed my arm as I started to walk around her. “Please,” she whispered fiercely. “I think I know how the bomb was planted.”
I froze in the process of shaking her off. “What do you know?” I growled in a tone that was menacing, deadly.
Whitney shrank back in fear. “I-I can’t talk h-here.”
“The fuck you can’t.” I grabbed her elbow and twisted her arm behind her. If she knew something about what or who had helped cause the death of two of my brothers, then she was going to fucking talk.
“You’re hurting me,” she whined in a voice that grated down my spine like nails on a chalkboard.
I only tightened my grip on her, letting her know without words that it was only the beginning if she didn’t shut the fuck up. But not by my hand. Even as pissed as I was right then, I wouldn’t have hit her.
If she didn’t talk, however, someone would make her. Raven would beat every last secret Whitney had from her.
As I pushed her in front of me, still holding on to her arm, women turned to watch us. “Raider,” Heather said in an admonishing tone. “What are you doing with my sister? Let her go.”
“Shut the fuck up, sheep,” I snarled at her and marched Whitney upstairs to Bash’s office.
The door was already ajar, my MC brothers already spread out around the room. Everyone was there except for Spider and Colt, I noticed as I kicked the door shut behind me. I released Whitney before pushing her into the middle of the room as all eyes turned to me.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Bash demanded, his blue gaze going from me to Whitney. But it was the fact that I had brought a sheep into church that had him pissed. Not even Raven would have been allowed in during church. “Have you lost your damn mind?”
“Tell them what you just told me,” I commanded, my tone ice-cold.
Whitney usually ate up the amount of attention she was suddenly getting. Every brother in the room had his eyes trained on her now. But she looked small, meek, and scared. Definitely not the Whitney any of us knew.
She swallowed nervously, her arms going around herself as she began to shake with fear. “I-I think I know how the bomb was planted in Matt’s truck.” The tension in the room skyrocketed, but no one spoke. Our gazes alone were enough to make Whitney start talking in a rush. “The prospect, Boomer. I’ve been showing him more attention lately. He’s fun, and I like to have fun.”
There were only a handful in the room who didn’t know just how much fun she liked to have. She was kinky as fuck, and there wasn’t much she wasn’t willing to do. I regretted ever getting between her legs, but I couldn’t change the past.
“Boomer,” I repeated the name like a curse. When the prospect had first shown up, I hadn’t had a problem with him. He was from our Texas charter and was top of the list to get patched in once his probation period was over. Then I’d caught him with Quinn one night, and I’d had nothing but hate for him ever since.
Whitney nodded as she lifted her gaze to me. “He’s been acting weird the last few days. Sketchy, nervous, and in a piss-poor mood. Then yesterday, it took me a while to realize that he wasn’t around after the explosion. I h-haven’t seen him since the night before last. When I realized he wasn’t around, I went to his place last night to check on him. He wasn’t there…” She shuddered.
“But?” Bash barked, making her jump in fright.
“B-but there were things in his living room that looked like they might have been used to make a bomb.”
“I’ll fucking kill him,” Matt roared as he shot to his feet.
Jet and two other brothers grabbed his arms before he could get to the door, and I moved to block the only exit. “Easy, bro,” Jet growled, struggling to keep his hold on the man. “You go out there half-cocked right now, and you’re going to get yourself killed. Think about your woman. She doesn’t need you going off to the morgue in a body bag, man.”
Bash stepped in front of his cousin and lowered his voice. “We will deal with Boomer, but we have to know more. We need answers before we do anything stupid. I want no mistakes when we take care of this. I’m not willing to lose you—or anyone else.”
Turning to the others, he started throwing out orders. “Uncle Jack, take a few guys and check out Boomer’s apartment. Find out what he’s been up to lately. Ask his neighbors about him and any visitors he may have had recently. Trigger, I want you to call the Texas charter and find out anything and everything you can about that motherfucker from the brothers you trust. We accepted his transfer papers after only a phone call to Snake. I should have vetted him better instead of taking that slimy bastard’s word.”
Snake was the Texas charter’s president, but rumors had reached us that he had gotten the position nefariously. Before this war had kicked up, we had been talking about sending Spider down to check out how things were running, to make sure we could trust Snake and his men. But that had been months ago, and with this shitstorm blowing up, it had been put on the back burner.
“I’m going with Uncle Jack.” Matt struggled against the men holding him again as Uncle Jack and three other men left the room, but one look from Bash had Jet tightening his hold on Matt. “Fuck you, Bash. I’m going!”
“Sit your ass down,” Bash ordered.
Matt struggled against Jet and the other two brothers’ holds. “I want to see what that motherfucker’s place looks like. I want to see what the fuck he’s been planning. He took my brother’s life, but that bomb was meant for me.”
“And you will have your revenge,” Bash assured him, his jaw tense and his eyes stormy. “But for now, keep your ass steady, cousin. This shit’s not over. It could just be the calm before the storm. Those bastards could be watching and waiting for us to fuck up, but we’re not going to give them what they want. You hear me?”
That shut Matt up, and Bash turned back to Whitney. “You should have come to one of us yesterday when you suspected something. If Boomer’s on the run, he now has more than a twenty-four-hour head start.”
“I-I didn’t want to cause trouble if it was nothin’,” she started, but whatever she saw on Bash’s face had her cowering back. “I-I’m sorry.”
“You don’t leave the clubhouse. For anything. You step outside this building, and you’re out on your ass. Now get the fuck out of my sight.”
She moved hastily to the door, and I stepped aside to let her through. But as she started to walk out, Bash called after her. “We’ll all be watching you, Whitney. You’ve already been on thin ice, trying to fuck around with Raider’s ol’ lady. One more fuckup and you won’t ever be welcome in my MC again.”
Chapter Fifteen
Gracie
AFTER THE EXCITEMENT OF THE afternoon, I wasn’t ready to go when Hawk showed up to take me for my appointment with Doc. I was still putting the final touches on the contract Rory had asked for, making sure every possible loophole was closed. I was always meticulous when it came to anything I drew up, but this time, there was more at risk. It wasn’t just about Rory and Matt and that dickhead mayor. Hawk and the rest of the MC were at risk too. I wanted Derrick Michaels out of Creswell Springs just as much as his daughter did.
At two minutes after four, Hawk walked in, a glower on his handsome face. “Woman,” he growled as he slammed my office door. “I told you, you’re going to the doctor. Now, grab your things.”
I held up a finger as I turned my attention back to the contract. I reread what I had just corrected, making sure it was completely airtight. Once Rory got her bastard of a father to sign on the dotted line, Creswell Springs was going to be a better place. And given Rory’s plan, I doubted the honorable mayor would be able to walk away. Two hundred and forty-nine million dollars was a lot of money for even a saint to walk away from, and Mayor Mic
haels was far too greedy to be the exception.
“Gracie,” Hawk bit out impatiently, and I smiled to myself as I printed out the last page of the contract and put it into the envelope with the rest of the document.
“Almost done. Promise.” Jumping to my feet, feeling like I had more energy than I’d had in a long time, I skipped out of my office and down to where Jenkins had moved his stuff. His old office was still under renovation after Santino’s men had broken down a wall with their van to take me. But not even the memory of that crazy day—and everything that had followed—could dampen my good mood right then.
I knocked once on his door then opened it. Still smiling happily, I handed over the envelope. “How did the meeting go?”
His face was full of amusement, but his eyes were dark. “It started out rough, but by the time I left with Rory, we were all on the same page.”
“Great. So…have you given any more thought to what Rory suggested? That you run for mayor?”
“That’s not a good idea. I’m not the best guy to run this town, and it’s not like anyone would actually vote for me.” But even as he was making up excuses not to run, I could tell the idea held some appeal for him.
I rolled my eyes at him, figuring he just wanted me to stroke his ego. “I know about three hundred people just off the top of my head who would vote for you. You would do a pretty good job cleaning up Michaels’s messes, and I already know what your first order as mayor should be.”
Eyes sparkling with laughter, he snorted. “What’s that?”
“Fire Campbell and Bates.”
“Campbell’s position is an elected one,” he reminded me.
“Then Bates. Fire that lazy sonofabitch.”
“Gracie—”
I held up a hand, stopping whatever new protest he was going to come up with. “Just think about it, okay? And just know, you would have my vote in a heartbeat.”