Chapter Seven
Gracie
I WATCHED AS THE SHERIFF spoke into his phone before I turned away from the sight of one of the men who supposedly ran Creswell Springs, sickened just looking at him. The trouble with this town wasn’t the MC, but the corrupt SOBs who were in the mayor’s pocket. Ever since I had started working with Jenkins, I’d seen firsthand just how slimy the DA and sheriff were, but neither was nearly as bad as the mayor himself.
That he had it out for the MC had me wondering if it could have been him who’d caused the tragedy that the fire department was still cleaning up.
My eyes lifted to what was left of Matt’s truck. The paramedics had already extracted Tanner’s and Warden’s bodies, something Hawk hadn’t wanted me to see. But I needed to be there to make sure their bodies had been treated respectfully. When Jenkins finally retired, the MC would be my clients, and I wasn’t about to let my mentor down by not giving them the full extent of legal protection I possibly could.
Now there was nothing left of the truck but a steel frame, the seat inside only a pile of warped springs. The smell of burning flesh still lingered in the air, making my already churning stomach protest every time I dared to breathe too deeply.
“Darlin’, you should be inside away from all of this.”
My gaze snapped away from the ghost of a truck and straight to my grandfather. Jack’s face, like those of most of the other MC brothers who were still spread out around the parking lot, was streaked with ash. His gray hair had soot darkening it, and his clothes were filthy.
“I already told Hawk I need to be here for this. I’m not leaving until Bates and his men are gone.”
Jack’s eyes went across the parking lot to where my boyfriend was talking to one of the firefighters. This guy was one of the few whom the MC trusted, which meant I trusted him too. But while Hawk was talking to the guy, his eyes kept coming back to me, making sure I was still there. That I was safe.
“The boys have been taken to the hospital’s morgue, Gracie girl. All these jackasses are doing now is looking for something they can hype up and arrest someone over.”
I pressed the back of my hand to my nose as the wind began to blow a little harder, stirring up all those godawful smells that had been screwing with my gag reflex for the past few hours. “I know, Jack. That’s why I’m not going anywhere until Sheriff Bates gets his idiot men off the property.”
“You’re looking green, Gracie.” My head swiveled around to find my father coming up behind me. It was still a little crazy to think that Trigger was my father, and not the evil man I had grown up thinking I shared DNA with. But every time I saw Trigger, my heart leaped a little. In relief that I didn’t share a single gene with the man who was responsible for my mother’s death. With love for the man who had helped create me and had spent the last few months trying to make up for not having been a part of my childhood. I was just thankful that he was a part of my life now, that I got to have family who cared enough about me to worry about me. Lord knew no one in the Morgan clan ever had. “You gonna be sick?”
“No, I’m fine…” But even as the words left my throat, I felt the bile coming up to follow them out. I bent in half, retching up the meager breakfast I had forced down so Hawk wouldn’t hound me about not eating for the third day this week.
Trigger grabbed my hair and held it back, keeping it from getting any of the revolting smelling vomit in it. Not that it would have mattered. All the smoke had soaked into every pore—along with every other smell that had been in the air—and it was going to take more than one shower to get them out.
“Baby!” I heard Hawk’s running feet before I saw them stop right beside me. I felt his strong, warm hand touch my back, grounding me when I needed it the most.
When I trusted the now scant contents of my stomach to stay there, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and straightened before stepping back from the mess I’d made.
“You okay, darlin’?” Jack asked concernedly. “You’re pale as death, girl. Your lips are bloodless.”
“I’m fine,” I muttered. “My stomach is just in knots from everything that’s happened today.”
My grief over losing Tanner and Warden, one who had become like a brother to me, the other just as much family as any other MC brother, was staggering. I wanted to cry, but I knew if I started, I wasn’t likely to stop. That, on top of having to watch the cops and listening to them joke about the death of two good men, was fraying my nerves.
Tires crunching over gravel and asphalt filled my ears, and I glanced over at the gate to the MC’s clubhouse. Jenkins’s car rolled into the parking lot. Once he was parked, he came over to me. He was scanning his eyes over my face just as the other three men in my life were doing. But whereas the other three were trying to urge me to go inside, my mentor knew better than to try to coddle me. I might be sweet little Gracie at home, but at the office, my boss had started comparing me to a barracuda.
“Bash available?”
“He’s inside, dealing with Matt,” Hawk informed him, keeping his hand on my back.
“A few things have come up. We should talk.”
“Not yet,” I cautioned, and all our eyes went to where the sheriff was still on his phone, probably still talking to the mayor, whose daughter was now somewhere inside the clubhouse. “Let’s let the place clear out first.”
“No, Gracie. It has to be now.”
“But…”
Hawk turned to Trigger. “You cover the front door. No one comes or goes.”
“On it, VP.”
Hawk took my hand, but I locked my knees, refusing to be moved. They could have this meeting without me and catch me up later. I needed to make sure nothing else happened. Looking down at my stubborn face, Hawk growled something under his breath and turned to my grandfather. “Uncle Jack, eyes on that motherfucker Bates.”
“I’ve got this, boy. You just go deal with Jenks.”
“Hawk—” I began, ready to argue my point further, but he shot me a look that told me I could walk or be carried.
Clenching my jaw, I pulled my hand free of his and walked into the clubhouse behind Jenkins. I followed him up to Bash’s office, while Hawk went to get the MC’s president. Closing the door behind us, I turned to my boss. “What’s this about?”
“I don’t want to have to tell it twice, Gracie. Let’s wait for the other two, okay?”
My brows lifted toward the ceiling. Jenkins never hesitated to tell me anything. He knew I would need to know eventually anyway, so there was no use in keeping it from me. But now that we were alone, I saw just how stressed my boss was. His face was drawn and pale, his eyes full of exhaustion. He wasn’t just the MC’s lawyer, but also a private investigator when needed. When he retired, I was really going to have my work cut out for me where they were concerned.
The office door opened, and Hawk and Bash entered a minute later. On a good day, Bash looked intimidating and scary. Today, after having just lost his cousin and MC brother, after having his kids screaming because they were frightened, Bash Reid looked absolutely terrifying. His electric-blue eyes were full of dark energy that could have easily lit up the entire building.
Hawk closed and leaned back against the door while Bash crossed to his desk and leaned back against the front of it. “What’s going on, Jenks?”
“A few things, actually.” Jenkins motioned for me to sit down, and begrudgingly, I sat in one of the chairs in front of the desk. “One, Bubbles was spotted outside Creswell Springs last night.”
“Fucking cunt,” Bash snarled. “Where is she? I want her brought to me, right the fuck now.”
The old lawyer lifted his hands, urging Bash to calm down. “I know your reasons for wanting to get your hands on her. Just shut up now, so I don’t know what you plan to do with her. I can’t defend you if I know your part in it.”
“Where is she, Jenks?” Bash roared.
But the old man didn’t even flinch, too used to the mood swings of his best clients. “Last night, she was at the motel just off the interstate. But when I went to follow up on the lead I’d been given, she had already bailed again.”
“That fucking bitch could be working with Santino,” Hawk growled, shifting with agitation. Heck, even I wanted to take a few swings at Bubbles. She had nearly made Raven miscarry Max, dang it. “She didn’t have any qualms about teaming up with Samson to burn down my bar and hurt Raven. Those goddamn Italians have a bigger bank account. The greedy cunt wouldn’t think twice about getting involved in their vendetta against us.”
“That’s one possibility,” Jenkins said with a nod. “But I have another theory. One substantiated by something else that has come to my attention this morning.”
“Spill it, old man,” Bash commanded.
“How well do you know Kelli Murdock?”
That had us all blinking at him in confusion. I didn’t know much about Colt’s girlfriend other than she worked at Paradise City and was Quinn’s roommate. The other woman tended to keep to herself, but I’d liked what I did know about her. While she was closed off, she didn’t seem fake to me.
“What does she have to do with any of this?” I asked, because I seriously couldn’t fit her into any of the crap that had taken place today.
“I recently did a background check on her. Don’t ask me why, I can’t really explain it to myself, let alone you. But I saw her going into the DA’s office last week, and something just didn’t feel right. When I got the report back on her, I realized my instincts are still pretty spot-on. She’s the daughter of one of Senator Samson’s mistresses.”
“Are you telling me that Samson had a hand in the bombing?” Bash questioned, his voice deceptively soft, which had all the fine hairs on my body standing on end. Bash shouting was scary, but when he got quiet like this, even Raven took notice. Hawk took a few cautious steps in my direction, putting himself between his brother-in-law and me.
“No, boy. I’m fairly sure that was solely a hit from the Italians, as you’ve said. What I’m saying is, Bubbles worked with the son, so why not the father? When I asked around this morning, I was told Bubbles only had one visitor.”
“Kelli,” I guessed, my stomach churning all over again.
“Kelli,” Jenkins confirmed.
Bash’s gaze shot to Hawk. “Is she here?”
“I haven’t seen her, but I wasn’t exactly looking.” He tilted his head back, glaring at the ceiling as he gritted his teeth for a moment. “Fuck!”
“Just pause for a minute,” I urged Hawk, getting to my feet and crossing to him. I touched both hands to his crossed arms, effortlessly pulling his gaze down to me. “We don’t know what’s going on here. Kelli has worked for Paradise City since before the bar was burned down. She was assaulted by Kevin Samson while at work one night, remember? Just because she’s the daughter of the senator’s mistress doesn’t mean she’s involved with anything.”
“She’s right,” Bash surprised me by saying. “We don’t know shit about this girl, and until we do know one way or the other about her motives, we aren’t going to do anything to her. But I want her watched. I want someone’s eyes on her at all times. She doesn’t leave our sight.”
“What the hell do I tell my little brother?” Hawk demanded. “She’s sleeping in his bed every damn night. If she’s working against us, that means she’s working against him.”
“Who the fuck do you think I want to keep an eye on her?” Bash twisted his neck, popping it and making me shudder at the sound. “Get him up here. I want to know everything he’s found out about her.”
Hawk muttered something under his breath but nodded. Pressing a kiss to the middle of my forehead, he opened the door and stomped down the stairs. “Anyone seen Colt?”
I shut the door to the sound of people telling him to look out back, and I turned to face the other two men. “I’d like to read the background report you have on her, Jenkins.”
“It’s at my office. I’ll give it to you when you come into work in the morning.” His gaze went to Bash. “Want to hear the rest of my theory, boy?”
Bash clenched his jaw but gave a single nod, silently telling him to go on.
“Samson tried to get the ATF in here after you boys. But that backfired, and the Feds told the senator to go home and stop making a stink. My theory is that maybe Samson found out just how big a hard-on Michaels and Campbell have for you, and he wanted to cash in on that. Maybe he’s got this girl spying on the MC through Colt, and she’s reporting everything she sees back to the mayor and the DA.”
“Colt is too smart to let anything club-related slip past his lips.”
“But she’s now staying here in the clubhouse. You and your boys are vulnerable right now, Bash. Some of those hotheads down there aren’t exactly as close-lipped as you and he are. She could find out all kinds of juicy information she could take back to Michaels. All they need is confirmation of one incident to invoke RICO and charge every last one of you.”
“Fuck,” Bash groaned and popped his neck again.
“I’m just saying that maybe you want to do more than just keep an eye on her, son.”
“Noted,” the big man growled. “Now, is there anything else you need to tell me?” Jenkins shook his head. “Then I need you two to get the fuck out. As you said before, Jenks, you can’t defend me if you know what part I have in something.”