Chapter 51
R iordan
Shade dumped Piers on the ground, and Mayor Makepeace’s mouth fell open. I almost shared his shock. The unconscious would-be rapist’s face was a mottled mess of bruises, with blood on his shirt and other suspicious stains elsewhere.
“What have you done to him? Don’t you know who this man is? He’s vital to Deadwater.”
Shade shrugged. “After what he did to Everly, it’s vital that he understands the consequences.”
The mayor scowled at his ex-stepson. “When I’m elected again, I’m cleaning up the gangs, starting with yours. Piers will bring investors to the city. You don’t know what you’re dealing with.”
“So it’s money, then,” I cut in.
His gaze shot back to me.
“And I dare because I’ve spent my life thinking about this moment. You asked a lot of questions but never waited for an answer. Abigail didn’t want me to know you, and now I know why.”
My father’s mouth opened. “Abigail?”
Down the street, police cars arrived, the sirens silencing but the blue lights swirling over the narrow houses. From several, residents spilled, flagging them down and getting in the way.
I pushed on with my half-rehearsed speech. “I’m glad to know I’m nothing like you. It’s been good having this talk because it’s filled in some gaps on the type of person you are.”
“You’re Abigail’s son?”
At last, the recognition I’d craved resolved in his eyes.
A kind of peace settled inside me. I’d missed out on having a father figure, but I’d found it in the men of the skeleton crew and in Cassie’s brothers. More, I was the son of a good woman. A woman who’d raised me to be just like her—kind, caring, willing to give everything for what she believed in. My mother had gifted me all the things Cassie loved and everything I intended to keep giving back.
It turned out, I hadn’t missed out on anything at all.
The mayor’s aim faltered. His hand came slowly down so the gun pointed at the cracked tarmac road. “I’ve thought about your mother every day for years.”
From my back pocket, I extracted her note and brandished it like it was a far more dangerous weapon than the one he held. “She hated you. She never thought about you, and I know that because it took a threat to her life for her to even tell me you existed. She wanted nothing to do with you after getting pregnant, and it says that right there in her own hand.”
In the letter he’d kept for all these years. I hoped my words hurt.
“My mother rejected being your mistress. She called you out on your shit and left you, and I am so fucking glad. What I need to know is why did you keep this?”
His gaze stuck to the paper. “I missed her. I couldn’t throw a piece of her away.”
“You wanted her back?”
“She would’ve stayed if not for falling pregnant. I already had one child. I couldn’t have another outside of my marriage. Her mistake ruined us.”
Her mistake? She’d been a teenager. As if he hadn’t done that to her. It all made sense. The money he’d offered her had been to get rid of me.
I’d heard enough. “Want to know what wasn’t a mistake? What I did to your painting. The family tree you left me off of burned beautifully in a fire that lit up the night. I wish you could have seen it.”
The moment of poignancy left the mayor’s face, and he snapped the gun back up. “You little bastard.”
The word rippled off me. I smiled. “Better a bastard than a man raised by you.”
He swore again, cursing me to the night, his weapon never leaving my direction.
I tilted my head. “My sister, Everly, told me a thing or two about you that made sense. You started deducting rent from her salary a few months ago. She didn’t mind, but why would a man in such a high-profile job need the cash? Then there was the missing watches in your collection, the lack of a decent security crew, and the cheapo cameras you installed. I overheard Piers talk shit about you needing his cash. You’re broke, aren’t you?”
From his slump on the ground, Piers lifted his head. “I’ll do whatever you ask if you let me go.”
His abrupt splutter pulled all of our attention his way.
Piers rasped out desperate words. “He wants my connections, and we had a sweet deal planned, with my people only interested in the clean-up of the gangs because we run a coke line to executives and the gangs undercut us at every turn. I’ll back out. You’ll never see me again.” He swung his bleary-eyed gaze to Shade. “I’ll apologise to Everly.”
He dealt cocaine as well as misery? This guy was a peach.
Footsteps drummed on the road. I tore my gaze to the cop Cassie called Detective Dickhead pushing through the crowd, the rest of his officers held back by a mob of residents.
“Shut the fuck up, Roache,” the mayor snapped. “You were privileged to get to work with someone like me.”
Piers choked on a pained laughed. “A man who can’t raise his election campaign money from his own investors after years of ripping them off?”
The mayor purpled and turned to the incomer. “Chief Constable Kenney. What are you standing there for? Arrest them. I’ve done your work for you and found the culprit of all the crimes against me. We have the evidence we need. My testimony. Eyewitnesses.” He gestured to the collection of people up the road. “Not only that. See what they’ve done to my business associate.”
Kenney regarded the slumped body on the ground. His gaze travelled from Piers to Arran then at last to me. I couldn’t read him. Tension strung me up tight.
Not for myself. I didn’t care what happened to me.
If Cassie panicked and ran in, she could get hurt, and I knew my wild, impulsive love was probably considering doing exactly that.
“Riordan Jones, after your recent arrest, I was hoping not to see you again,” the chief constable announced.
The mayor smiled, his eyes cold. “Previous arrest? This is the man you told me you’d found a knife on, isn’t it? Like I said, I own the police and this city. Not you, Daniels,” he spat at Arran. “Not your gang of thieves and murderers.”
Arran ignored him, his voice low and deadly. “Careful, Kenney. First, because if you go looking for that blade, you might not find it where you left it, and second, remember what I have on you. Choose well.”
For a beat, Kenney said nothing. Hope sprang in my heart. He was waiting to pick a side. Us or the mayor.
Cassie had told me about a dossier of evidence Arran had on the cop. I had to trust that invincibility would stand.
“Seems to me you have a choice, Chief Constable.” I gestured to the flashing blue lights of the police cars. “Take your people and leave. Report it in as a scuffle gone wrong, but with all the parties absent by the time you arrived.”
Kenney clucked his tongue. “Funny, that’s exactly what the residents are arguing.”
The mayor blustered, “Get your head out of your ass, man. He kidnapped me. Drugged me, too. Are you going to allow that in your city?”
I shrugged. “Walk away and leave me to this chat with my father. I’m pretty certain that after, he won’t be up for the election anyway. Being broke will do that.”
Kenney raised his eyebrows at me then peered at Arran. For a beat, the man hesitated then whistled a tune and strolled away.
The mayor’s eyes widened, then he bared his teeth. “Stop. How dare you turn your back on me?”
Kenney didn’t pause.
The mayor fumed. “Daniels, you think you’ve won but you’d better watch your back. You enabled your fucking enforcer to rob me of my daughter, all after I maintained a deal with you for years.”
“A woman you abused. You broke our agreement. The deal’s off,” Arran intoned.
I cocked my head. “You don’t seem to understand that you’ve lost. You’ve got no money, no daughter, you never had a son, and now, you’re nothing.”
The mayor gnashed his teeth then broke from his position and charged me.
I didn’t try to hold back a cold smile. I needed this. I needed him to break so I could.
He threw a punch that I dodged, backing me to the river.
“The years I wasted thinking about your fucking mother are over. I would’ve given her anything, and all she did was throw it in my face.”
Whatever cool I’d had was lost. I let my malice show. “Because you’re a worthless piece of shit. A bad person who deserves to be alone.”
His lip curled in cruel conviction. “If I deserve that, she deserves this. To lose her precious son.”
Shock hit me. How could he not know she was dead?
The mayor of Deadwater thrust the gun at my chest.
A howl of outrage broke through the night.
Then a small figure crashed into my father. He wheeled around, his hand with the gun flailing. My heart stopped when my brain registered exactly who. Cassie clung to his back, holding tight like she was on a rodeo bull.
There was nothing in her expression but rage.
I couldn’t let her risk her life. Not for revenge I’d needed and had taken. I rushed him, grasping for the weapon.
He swung around, trying to throw Cassie off, and then the mayor fell onto me and the three of us tumbled down the slope towards the water.
Everything that happened next went by in a split second. No slow motion. No time stopping so I could see it in freeze-frame details. No recognition of how this resembled my dream but deviated in key details.
All I knew was the hard hit. The desperation to protect the woman I loved.
And the explosion as the gun in the mayor’s hand went off.