Chapter Twenty-Two
Keller
He leaned over and kissed his mate’s neck. She sounded so adorable asking if they took notes during their pack meetings. He really didn’t want to be here at all. He wanted to be in his bed with Molly writhing underneath him. There would be no pain tonight, only pleasure. From here to eternity, only pleasure.
Baze laughed. “Uh, no. It’s an extremely informal meeting full of cussing and insults. Usually ending in everyone drinking and talking about baseball or murder.” He picked up his beer bottle and took a pull, case in point. “But we do have some things we need to go over tonight. Everyone except for Corey has met with the Feds, correct?” He waited until everyone nodded yes then continued. “I know my questioning went well, easy and short. And the same with Linc and Dom, right?”
Linc leaned back in his seat, rubbing his stomach. “Yeah, mine took like five minutes. They asked me what I knew, I told them not much. And that was that.”
“Same here. Just a couple questions and I was free to go.” Dom pulled Corey’s chair closer to him and put his arm around her shoulders, already protecting her from what Keller had to say. They all knew that the Feds’ accusations against her were going to piss her the hell off.
Baze sighed. “So that leaves Keller and Riley. Keller, we’ll let you go first.”
Keller took a swig of his beer before clearing his throat to start. “Mine didn’t go so well. It started out okay but then Brooks walked in and made some comments about Molly.”
She turned her head to look at him, a confused expression on her face. “Uh, what? What kind of comments?” Keller had wanted to leave Molly out of the investigation drama, but he couldn’t. It was clear that Brooks was trying to use Molly against him for some reason.
“He made some remark about how he had spent the morning with you and how amazing you were. I knew he must have gone to yoga, and that he was trying to get a rise out of me. I did my best to not react and eventually he let it go. But, he asked me some pretty intense questions after that. Questions about the history of violence with the baseball team, Henderson’s allegations, and about our player’s tempers. It seems like Brooks is digging. He, uh, also made some comments about you, Coop.” This was the part they were all dreading.
She sat up straighter in her chair. “What did he say?”
Keller glanced over her head at Dom before he continued. “He mentioned that maybe you cleared the team to play because you were engaged to Dom. That maybe you faked the evaluations.”
Coop scoffed. “That’s ridiculous. I wasn’t engaged to Dom when I did those interviews. No one even knew we were dating. He’s reaching.”
Keller shook his head, draping his arm over the back of Molly’s chair. “Not so much of a reach. He knew you were three months pregnant with Dom’s baby. That proves y’all have been together almost from the start.”
“Whatever. I’ll set him straight when it’s time for my interview. No big deal. I can show him all the notes I made on the players. He can’t accuse me after I prove up. I have documented evidence.” She tilted her head. “But why the hell did he ask you about me and not anyone else?”
“I was wondering that myself. I have no idea where that guy is coming from with me. Or why he would bring you into it.” Keller was honestly baffled about what Brooks’s hang-up was when it came to him. Could it be jealousy? He barely knew Molly.
Baze spoke up. “Brooks wasn’t there for my questioning. Was he like that with anyone else?”
Linc shook his head. “He wasn’t there during mine.”
Dom pulled his arm from around Coop and put his hands flat on the table. “Wait. What? He wasn’t there during mine either. What the hell is going on? Riley, was he there for yours?”
“Oh yeah. He was there.” Riley looked over at Keller and he gave a slight nod of his head, letting him know it was okay to continue. “I told them all about Franklin. All the things Jace and Jasper have said about their father. They’ll have no choice but to go looking for him now. The twins met with them too and corroborated my story. It’s all set. But, uh, Brooks asked me a lot of questions about Corey. He even asked me about Molly and Keller’s relationship. His questions got so off topic that Agent Grimes basically had to shut him down. And I already asked Jasper and Jace—he didn’t do that with them.”
Baze ran his hands through his hair, agitated. “Keller went with you this morning, right? Maybe Brooks saw you and Keller together and decided to see what he could pull out of you?”
Keller held his hand out, palms up. “I’m at a loss. I have no idea what that guy’s problem is. He has rubbed me wrong from the moment I met him. It’s almost like the two of them are conducting two separate investigations. Grimes is all about this shifter bullshit, but Brooks? His beef seems to be all personal.”
Molly spoke up. “He’s come to sunrise yoga a few times since he’s been here and he asked for my number that first morning in the coffee shop. He came up to Corey and me at the baseball game. He’s been to Moon Bar. We’ve been around him several times. I can usually spot a creeper from a mile away, but he’s never made me feel uncomfortable.”
Coop nodded in agreement. “Me neither. I’m with Molly. I can usually get a pretty good read on a guy. But he seemed fine. Polite, respectful.”
Baze took a deep breath and rubbed at his temples, a sure sign that he was getting stressed out. “Well, he is up to something. I absolutely hate to say this, especially now that there are two bonded males here, but I think it’s going to be up to the girls to help us figure this out.”
Keller tensed up, his body going rigid at the thought of Molly being around Brooks again. Baze held his hands out, placating. “Just hear me out before you two go postal. Corey has to meet with the Feds. There is no avoiding it. We’ll do what we did with Riley, and one of us—not you, Dom—will sit outside the door and listen. Corey, let those pregnancy hormones fly. Don’t take any shit. Call him out. Try to push his buttons. Maybe if he gets angry enough he’ll let something slip.”
Corey giggled. “That actually sounds like a lot of fun.” She turned to Dom and kissed his cheek to try and stop the bitch-fit they all knew was coming.
Didn’t work. “Nope. Not gonna happen. She’s fucking pregnant, Baze. I’m not about to let her go piss off some man who may or may not be after us. You’ve lost your mind.”
Riley raised his hand, his cosmic baby bond rearing its head. “I second that.” Keller couldn’t blame either of them.
Corey put one hand on her belly and one hand on Dom’s arm. “Babe, I promise you that I would never do anything to put our daughter in danger. I’ll have one of the guys right outside the door the whole time.”
Dom took her hand off his arm and put it on his heart. “What about after that, huh? What about when you are walking to the cafeteria or when you get home five minutes before Riley does? You two are my heart. I don’t want you in jeopardy.”
Corey smiled sadly. “We might already be. Who knows what Franklin has up his sleeve or why Brooks is targeting me? At least this way we have a shot at figuring out why.”
Baze leaned across the table, addressing Dom. “One of us will be with her the whole time, man. I promise. We won’t let her out of our sight. I won’t let anything happened to your girls.” When Dom didn’t protest any further, Baze continued, “All right, next we have Miss Molly. Chat him up after class. Find out more about his personal life. Where he lives, how long he’s been part of the bureau, why he hates Keller. Ask him for coffee and keep him talking. Can you do that?”
“Yup. Easy-peasy.”
Keller shook his head, tightening his grip on Molly’s chair, fighting the urge to overturn the whole damn dining room table. “Yeah, I’m not super pumped about that idea.” Keller glared across the table at Baze, gritting his teeth at the understatement he’d just spewed. “I just convinced her to stop being so damn nice to the asshole. And now she needs to ask him to coffee? Great, he’ll love rubbing that in my face. Which will cause me to go off on him, which will cause him to punch me, then I’ll shift and kill him.” He shook his head. “Bad idea, Baze.”
Molly snorted. “Keller, calm down. Let me help you guys. And that wasn’t a question. It was a statement. Who cares what Brooks says to you? You know the truth. You’re the one I’ll be with at the end of the day. Have some self-control.”
This time it was Corey’s turn to snort. “Yeah, they don’t have that. Any of them. They are all male whores who drink too much, cuss too much, and growl too much. Not a lick of self-control in this room. Welcome to the family.”