Chapter Twelve
Skye drained her wineglass and reached for the bottle. She hesitated for only a second before refilling her glass. She gestured at Finn’s empty glass, but he put his hand over the top and shook his head.
The jovial flirting was over, had been since they’d left the diner. She’d seen it in his eyes, the way he moved to open the door for her.
Something was up.
They’d eaten in silence, but she refused to deny herself the wine she’d been dreaming of all shift. When she’d offered him a glass, Finn had hesitated for a second before nodding, taking short sips to accompany her.
She put the bottle to the side. “Right. So, what do we have to talk about?”
Finn scraped his plate off and put it in the sink before pulling a container out of the refrigerator. She grinned, recognizing the familiar box.
He opened it and offered her a chocolate chip cookie. “If they taste as good as they look, we’re going to be fighting over crumbs.”
“They are. And we will be. Takes all my self-control to not collect my paycheck in pies and cookies.” She took one and began to nibble on the edges, savoring the rich, buttery taste. “You got these at the station?”
“Yes. You work there, right?” Finn helped himself to a cookie.
“I do.” She frowned, wondering where this conversation was going. “I’m going to be watching their place for four hours tomorrow, from eight in the morning until noon, when Edward comes back to take over. They only stay open until five on Sunday.” She kept talking, the fear creeping up her spine. “They run that place all by themselves with only me coming in for a few hours to let them go to church. Why?”
“Because I need your help to set up surveillance at the store and spy on the Wolf’s Teeth.”
If Finn had announced he was Lucifer and offered to show her his horns and tail, she couldn’t have been more surprised.
“Wait. What?” Skye grabbed her wineglass and drained it.
“Believe me, if I didn’t need your help with this I wouldn’t ask.” Finn shook his head. “You know the Watleys, and I don’t want to spook them by showing up at the front door with a wild request.”
“I’m listening,” she said. “I’m going to say yes, but I need this explained to me first.”
“I found the Rest ‘n’ Relax on the highway sign while I was trying to backtrack Robby’s route, figure out where he met the gang. There are motorcycle skid marks in the parking lot, it’s isolated and empty at night—a good spot for the bikers to meet and deal with their drug mules.”
“I had no idea. Damn it.” She shook her head. “The Watleys. They’re in danger.”
“Yes. Yes, they are.” Finn wasn’t in a mood to mince words. “But we’re going to take care of that. We’re going to take care of them.”
“How?”
“By using the station to trap the Wolf.”
…
She was burning up from the inside out, her mind exploding with the emotions raging inside her, the terror and the anger battling to see which would break first. Everyone she cared about was being put in danger.
Robby.
The Watleys.
Finn.
Skye closed her eyes, wishing she could go back in time and tell Robby to never take the job, tell him to pack up because they were leaving Whispering Willows forever.
Her world was shattering around her, and she didn’t know what to do.
“Hey.” Finn’s familiar voice soothed her. “It’s going to be okay. Between the two of us, we’ll handle it.”
She sighed, opening her eyes. “What do you need me to do?”
“I need you to come with me to the Watleys. We’re going to explain the situation before sending them on a vacation. Get them out of the line of fire.”
Skye nodded. “When do you want to do this?”
“Tomorrow. You need to go to work tonight, and I need to do some more recon. We’ll talk to them together, after your shift. I’d rather do this in daylight.”
“It better be one hell of a vacation,” she said. “Edward’s pretty attached to his business.”
“It is.” Finn smiled. “Dylan’s willing to put them up at the Golden Drifter for a month’s stay. Give them some spending money, a second honeymoon.”
“Wow.” Skye gasped. “That’s an expensive hotel, and it’s going to run up a hell of a tab. Can you afford it?”
“Not on my salary. This is on Dylan and the Brotherhood. Point is, we’re going to take over the Rest ‘n’ Relax and run it for as long as we need to.”
“But the gang’s going to suspect something,” Skye said.
“Maybe, maybe not. They usually come around at night. You haven’t seen them on your shift on Sundays, right?”
She nodded. “I’ve only seen them driving around town. They don’t come into the diner. Julius wouldn’t put up with it.”
“Probably too early in the morning for them to be at the truck stop. But on the off chance they do come into the store, we’ve got an explanation.” Finn rolled his shoulders back. “The truth. The Watleys are on their second honeymoon, and all’s good. We’re running the store for them and don’t know anything other than to lock the doors at midnight and walk away. They won’t think anything of it as long as we play dumb. There still won’t be a tape in the old VCR, so it’ll look like nothing’s changed. Hell, if they’ve got connections in Vegas, they can check if the Watleys are registered at the hotel. We’ll keep the same routine, but we’ll be doing surveillance on them, sending the feed from the security cameras to Trey and collecting the evidence so the Feds can lock them up for a good, long time.”
“But…” Skye frowned. “That could take days. Weeks. We have no idea what their schedule is. They could be running drugs once a week or once a month. We don’t know when we’ll be able to get the footage of the drug deals.”
“That’s why the Watleys are going for a month. If need be, we’ll stretch it to two. They might be sick of Las Vegas by the time they come back, but I won’t put them in danger.”
“Is a recording of the drug deal going to be enough?”
“Not by itself. What we need for a solid case is solid evidence. And that’s only going to happen if I get my feet dirty.” Finn drew a deep breath. “I’ll have to infiltrate the gang. Get them to hire me on as a driver and run a mission for them. Then we’ll have enough evidence and testimony to put all of them away.”
“It’s too dangerous.” She shook her head.
“Skye.” He moved into her personal space, leaning forward. “Dylan might have forgotten to tell you the small print about coming to the Brotherhood. We don’t stop once we’ve started.” He was close enough to kiss, the temptation driving her mad. “We’ve come too far to stop now, Skye.”
“You’re crazy.” She blinked, trying to wrap her mind around what he was saying. “You’re totally insane.”
“I’ve been told that before.” Finn laughed. “To get the job done, sometimes you have to go where no one else dares.” He reached out and took her hand, the simple gesture raising goose bumps on her skin. “There’s a long line of dead bodies and destroyed lives in Smith’s wake, and they deserve justice.”
She knew he was right.
She still didn’t like it.
Finn continued. “I wouldn’t pull you into this if I didn’t need your help. If I had my way, I’d send you to Vegas with the Watleys and transfer Robby to another hospital.”
“But you can’t. And you won’t. Because if you do it will warn the gang something’s going on. I’m not going to leave Robby. And I won’t leave you.”
The charged words hung in the air between them.
After a moment, Finn stood up. “I’ve got some planning to do, and you’ve got a night shift to prepare for.”
Skye mentally slapped herself and glanced at the clock. She didn’t have much time left before she was due at the real estate office.
Finn smiled. “We’ve both got a long day ahead of us tomorrow. Go to work—I’m going to make sure my suspicions are right about the Rest ‘n’ Relax, and then hit the bar. I’ll see you in the morning.”
He turned and walked into the living room, picking up his leather jacket before heading for the door.
She grabbed the bottle and poured the last of the wine into her glass before draining it.