Chapter 21
LEO
“How are you doing?” Emmett asked.
I took a long look at Cass as she walked the length of the living room with our daughter in her arms. “She’s okay.”
It sounded more like a question than a statement.
“She’s okay,” he echoed.
“My truck isn’t.”
“Good thing we know how to fix those.”
I rubbed a hand over my face and checked the clock. “Where are they?”
Emmett didn’t have to answer. The rumble of motorcycles echoed down the block. Dash and Isaiah raced our way. Behind them was Luke in his police truck.
Shaw had volunteered to stay at home with Presley and Scarlett and their babies. Genevieve was at Bryce and Dash’s place, where Bryce’s father was coming over to stay.
“I’ll get the door,” Emmett said.
I walked over to Cass and put my arm around her. “You can sit this out.”
“Never.” There was a fire in her eyes. Ferocity. She’d been scared earlier. Now she was simmering rage.
When she’d told me about the kidnapping, there’d been regret in her voice for not fighting back. Cass wasn’t the type to regret and stay unchanged. She’d fight anyone who came after her again. We all would.
“Let me take her.” I reached for Seraphina but Cass shook her head.
“I’ve got her.”
“Okay.” I sighed. That baby girl was keeping her mama together. Though I was glad for Cass’s anger, it would fade, sooner rather than later. And she’d have a well-deserved meltdown. The accident had scared her to the core.
It had scared me too.
My ride to meet her on the highway had been fast and frenzied.
When my truck had been hauled away to the garage, I’d brought Cass home so we could exchange the bike for her car.
Then we’d gone straight to Claudia and Dale’s place to pick up Seraphina—the fuel light on the entire way.
They’d asked us to stay for lunch, but we’d declined, getting out of there as quickly as possible without alerting them that anything was wrong.
Cass hadn’t wanted to tell them yet. There was another pressing priority today.
A meeting.
Christ, I was sick of these fucking meetings. We’d been having them periodically for years. Whenever trouble came, we’d get together, much like we used to as a club. We’d plan. We’d strategize. We’d act.
Except it wasn’t Dash or Isaiah or Shaw or Luke whose woman was in danger this time. Though I loved the women in their lives, the danger to them wasn’t the same as the accident with Cass. Until today, I’d been able to stay detached. Until today, I hadn’t known true fear.
I understood now why they’d do anything for their wives.
Better to save Cass’s life.
And sacrifice my own.
God, what if today had ended differently? What if she hadn’t made it to the ditch? What if she’d had Seraphina in the truck? What if . . .
The what ifs would make me insane, so I shoved them away. I nursed my own black fury.
The guys walked into the living room and Luke walked straight to Cass for a hug. “That’s from Scarlett.”
“Thanks.” She leaned into his side.
He squeezed her again. “That’s from me. Glad you’re okay.”
“Me too.” She gave him a sad smile and looked at Seraphina. “I’m just glad she wasn’t with me.”
Dash put his hand on my shoulder. “How are you?”
“Fucking pissed.”
“Good.” He nodded and took a seat on the couch.
“Come and sit, babe.” I walked to Cass and took her hand, leading her to the middle seat beside Dash. Then we all gave her our attention as she went through what had happened earlier. Again.
“Damn it.” Luke shook his head.
As a cop, he’d seen the fallout from accidents. How many people died on Montana highways every year? Cass could have been included in that number. Today could have been my own personal nightmare.
“You didn’t notice anything about the driver,” Dash said.
Cass shook her head. “Nothing. I was trying to keep my eyes on the road and mostly just looked at the car.”
“That was the right thing to do.” He patted her knee, then looked at Luke. “Can you see if he rolled into town and got picked up on any traffic cameras?”
“I’m sure the officers who responded to the wreck will, but I’ll call once we leave here and make sure it’s a priority.”
“This could have just been an accident,” Isaiah said. “An asshole with road rage.”
“He could have killed her.” I shook my head, my throat clogging at those words. “That’s some extreme rage.”
“I know.” Isaiah sighed. “I don’t think so either but . . .”
“Wishful thinking,” I finished for him.
We all knew that if it wasn’t an accident, there was only one other explanation.
“The Warriors,” Cass said, her voice low. “The accidents weren’t really accidents.”
“Let’s walk through them,” Emmett said. “First there were your brakes this winter.”
“I shouldn’t have trashed that truck,” I said. “Fuck.”
“Why?” Cass asked.
“Because I didn’t check to see if the brake line had been sliced or tampered with. I assumed it was age and corrosion. I was pissed off, so I just let them junk it.”
“Let’s call the yard,” Dash said. “See if they haven’t crushed it yet.”
“Yeah. I’ll do it now.”
“I got it.” He stood, taking his phone from his pocket and going to the kitchen to make the call to the local junkyard outside of town.
It wasn’t a big yard but they’d take cars that had been in accidents.
At times, they’d take spare parts and iron scraps from the shop after we were done with a remodel because they’d sell the metal or crush it.
As we waited, I put my arm around Cass’s shoulder and kissed her temple. “You’re okay.”
“I’m okay.” She leaned into me with a sleeping Seraphina in her arms. While Cass had been talking, the baby had dozed off. Content. Unburdened. Oblivious to the dangers of real life.
Exactly how a child should be.
“Want me to take her to her crib?”
Cass shook her head. “I just need to hold her.”
“’Kay.”
“That’s a beautiful ring,” Emmett said, gesturing to Cass’s left hand. “Congratulations.”
She smiled, the first one that had reached her eyes since we’d come home. “Thank you.”
Isaiah and Luke offered their congratulations too, right before Dash came back into the room.
“He’s going to go check and text me. We might have gotten lucky. He hasn’t scrapped it yet.”
Then we’d know. If my brakes had been tampered with by any tool, we’d know.
“I think that brunette might have been telling the truth after all,” Emmett said. “About a man paying her to drug you.”
“I think you’re right, but why? What does drugging me do other than cause me to pass out at the bar?”
“Maybe he was hoping to take you somewhere,” Cass suggested. “And the brunette beat him to it. I bet he didn’t expect her to follow you after you brushed her off.”
“That’s a definite possibility.”
“Or . . . maybe he thought you’d drive home,” Dash said. “When you told me about it, you said the brunette caught you in your truck, right?”
“Yeah,” I said. “She drove.”
“But would you have driven if she hadn’t been there?”
“No.” I didn’t drive drunk. Even smashed, I didn’t drive. But I’d also never had anyone to come home to before. Cass had been here and I might have been stupid enough to drive so I could see her. That, and I’d been out of my mind. “Hell, I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Unless we find the mystery man behind it, we’ll never know,” Emmett said. “And he’s a ghost. I went over the footage from The Betsy three times. It’s anyone’s guess.”
“That whole thing sits funny with me,” I said.
“Same.” Dash nodded. “Has since it happened. You might not wear the cut, but people in this town know not to fuck with the Kings unless they want a beatdown.”
Even without the club, we weren’t afraid to throw punches. “For argument’s sake, let’s say I was drugged and whoever did it was hoping I’d wrap myself around a tree.”
Cass flinched.
“Shit. Sorry.”
“I don’t want to even think about you getting hurt like that,” she said.
Then she wouldn’t like where this conversation was headed next. “Whatever the reason for drugging me, when that didn’t work, he came to the garage.”
“You think that jack was tampered with?” she asked.
I shrugged. “It looked fine to me. We’d been using it. There was no indication of a leak.”
“Same here,” Emmett said. “But I didn’t exactly check it over thoroughly.”
Dash sighed. “We shipped it to the manufacturer.”
“Damn,” I muttered. “Wish we had put this together sooner.”
“There’s not much to put together,” Luke said. “If someone walked into the station and told me all of this, I’d have a hard time connecting the pieces. But . . . add in Cass’s accident and it’s suspicious.”
“Knowing what we know about the Warriors and Tucker Talbot, it has to be them,” I said.
Yeah, we had made enemies over the years, but the club days had been a long time ago.
For some random person to come after us now made no sense.
Especially given how hard Dash and Emmett—and Draven, before his murder—had worked to become upstanding citizens.
Of the former Tin Kings, I was the only one who hadn’t really changed.
Or hadn’t, until Cass.
“Tucker’s not going to spend his life in a prison cell without an attempt at revenge,” Dash said. “It’s why we’ve been so careful all these months.”
“But accidents?” Emmett shook his head. “That’s the only thing these incidents have in common.
Minus Cass’s crash today and the drugging, the other incidents were accidents.
And accidents are not Tucker’s style. He’s not subtle.
When he takes his revenge, he’s going to want us to know exactly who’s behind it. ”
Exactly the way he’d killed Stone, Emmett’s father.
A bullet between the eyes wasn’t subtle.
“He’s in prison.” Cass shifted Seraphina, sitting up straighter as she followed the conversation. “Could he orchestrate this?”
“It’s possible.” Dash nodded. “Getting information in and out of prison isn’t hard. If he’s got someone loyal outside, then yeah, he could do this.”