2
Since the boys had gone to bed without a bath the night before, Demo and Paige spent most of the morning in the bathroom with them trying to contain the water to the limits of the porcelain tub. Demo didn’t have a spare change of clothes with him, so he removed his sweater—much to Paige’s appreciation.
It was very domestic, the act of giving two giggling and squirming boys a bath. It certainly hadn’t been on the list of things Demo expected to be doing with them that day. But there was a simplicity to it that brought joy to him.
Both Mikey and Nelly were big enough that they could sit up on their own and only needed assistance with the actual bathing part. Paige had a couple of water toys for them. Demo didn’t know much about kids or their needs, but he couldn’t help feeling like the number of toys was limited. It wouldn’t shock him in the slightest if he learned that Paige had to sell some, or most, of their toys. He’d picked up early on that they didn’t have electronics in the house other than Paige’s phone.
He wished he could do more. He wasn’t rich by any stretch of the imagination, but he lived comfortably. He didn’t pay rent or utilities living at the clubhouse. He owned his Bronco and hog outright. With limited expenses, he’d been able to save a good chunk of change.
He’d spend every last quarter on Paige and these wiggly, soaked boys if she’d let him. All he would ask for in return would be a kiss. He would never demand sex or even the promise of a life with him in exchange for helping her. That wouldn’t be right, nor would it be honorable. All he needed was her happiness.
Some Disney soundtrack was playing on his phone. He knew Paige had a cheaper, limited-data phone plan so he offered to stream the music from his account. Christ, it would be so simple to add her to his phone line if she would let him.
Richard Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries interrupted a song about not talking about some guy named Bruno.
Paige’s eyebrows flew up in confusion as Demo dried his hands off with the towel that had been covering his lap.
“Scotty likes to change our ringtones,” Demo said in way of explaining the song choice. “Lila’s been helping him to expand his song choices.”
“Is that why Bulldog’s ringtone was I’m Sexy and I Know It the other day?”
Demo laughed as he reached for his phone that was sitting up on the bathroom vanity, safely out of the splash zone. Unlike him. He’d had to move a towel to his lap to save his jeans or risk needing to take those off too.
Paige might be comfortable with him helping to bathe the boys, but he was pretty sure that would change if he started stripping down to his birthday suit too.
“No doubt,” he answered Paige as he slid his thumb across the screen. “Steel, what’s up?”
“Are you with Paige?” his President asked without preamble.
“Yes,” Demo answered honestly. Paige and he were sitting close enough on the tiled floor beside the tub that there was a chance she could hear Steel’s voice without Demo having to put his phone on speaker. To warn Steel that she was near without being obvious, Demo said, “We’re giving the boys a bath. What’s up?”
Steel got the message. “Are you able to come to the clubhouse when you’re done? There’s no rush. It’s not going to change what we discovered.”
Demo’s eyes flew to Paige. She stiffened, having heard. He raised an eyebrow at her. Steel hadn’t phrased his statement like a question for Demo’s benefit. “Did you hear him?”
Paige nodded rigidly. “Just tell me.” Even her voice sounded stilted. Demo tilted the phone more towards her. The boys were playing obliviously beside them. “Just tell me, Steel. Please.”
Steel didn’t say anything for a moment and then his gruff voice changed her life forever. “He’s dead, sweetheart. I’m sorry.”
Paige let out a mix between a sob and a whimper. She closed her eyes, turning her face into her right shoulder.
Demo transferred his phone to his left hand and brought it to his ear. “We’ll be there as soon as we can,” he told Steel as he placed his right hand on Paige’s shoulder.
“We’ll be waiting,” Steel said shortly before hanging up the phone.
Demo knew this was coming. It was the cleanest way to break Paige of her marriage without Keys having to fake a divorce. Paige might get suspicious if she never spoke directly to or saw Richard during the entire process. Richard was dead. Telling her was the right thing to do—even if the club fudged some of the details surrounding his death.
Demo didn’t know what Steel had planned. It was decided to keep him in the dark so his reactions were a bit more genuine. Another thing Demo hated about the entire situation. If it was only his fate in her hands, Demo would sit her down and tell her everything. From start to finish.
But it wasn’t just him.
It wasn’t a lack of faith in her either. Demo believed in the club and the good they were doing. There had to be a path where Demo could not betray his club but still be honest with Paige. This was the closest he could think of.
By telling her Richard was dead, not only would Paige get closure but so would Harper and her parents. Demo could care less about Ronald Hannigan’s feelings, but he liked Cindy. She deserved to be able to officially grieve her son. To know once and for all that he wasn’t coming back. Harper suspected, but like the Hannigans, she didn’t know Richard’s actual fate.
Perhaps in doing it this way, they could all move on. The Hannigans and the club. Richard had brought a blight to Mount Grove, but he’d also brought Harper, Paige, his sons, and Cindy. Demo couldn’t entirely fault the man. In a twisted way, he owed him.
Demo let Paige have a minute. He knew better than to ask her if she was okay. She’d openly told him that she didn’t love Richard anymore. That it had been years since she had and was only sticking out her marriage for the sake of her sons.
But Richard was a part of her life whether Demo liked it or not. It chafed, knowing the bastard had her first, but Demo couldn’t change the past. He could only move forward and help her do so too.
When Paige sat up again, Demo saw that there were no tears in her eyes or on her cheeks. She was shaking slightly, but there was almost a look of anger on her face where he expected to see grief.
“What do you need?” he asked softly. “Steel said to take our time. It won’t change anything he has to say whether it’s in an hour or in five hours. What do you need, Paige? The choice is yours.”
She shook her head. “I need a bottle of gin and a pillow I can scream into.”
“Done,” he said automatically. “What else?”
She gave him a side-eye. “Really? I have to go deal with even more sh—” Paige cut her word short with a glance down at her boys. “ Stuff ,” she amended. “All the stuff Richard now left behind. Can’t do all of that drunk.”
“Don’t care,” Demo shrugged. “If that’s what you need, then that’s what you need. I’ll call Steel back and tell him that we aren’t going to make it. Today, tomorrow, next week… It’s not going to change anything, Paige.”
“But it changes certain things,” she argued. “I need to figure out what it means for me, the boys… Oh God!” Her eyes went wide. “Cindy and Ronald! I need to call them. And Harper.”
“Stop!” Demo ordered. “You do what you need to do for you ,” he emphasized. “I am here to help you and take care of the boys. If you need to get drunk and shout or cry into a pillow, then that’s what you do.”
Paige shook her head, scoffing. “Bastard doesn’t deserve my tears.” She stood up, taking the towel that had been on her lap to dry off her hands and arms. “I just… I need a minute. Can you…?” She gestured to her sons.
He nodded. “Of course. Water’s getting cold anyway. I’ll get them cleaned up, dried off, and we’ll meet you in your room. Okay?”
Paige nodded solemnly. “Thank you.” She headed towards the door and then paused. Turning around, she said, “I’m not sad he’s gone. I’m angry. Confused. Maybe even hurt. But I’m not sad. Is that wrong of me? Shouldn’t I be sad?”
“You’re asking the wrong man,” Demo told her honestly. “You have a right to how you feel. After all he’s put you through, I’m not surprised anger is your first reaction. Maybe sadness will come later.”
She turned to go again. Only to pause. Over her shoulder, she said softly, “Thank you for being here.”
“Of course. We’ll be out in a few.”
The bastard was dead. Paige was a widow .
In a haze as if she was drunk, Paige wandered into her bedroom. The room she’d shared with Richard. Who was now dead. The bastard.
She stood for a long moment in the doorway. There was no trace of Richard left in this room. She’d sold all of his belongings for every scrap of money she could, including his large mahogany dresser. Hell, there wasn’t a trace of Richard left in this house after two years. Unless one counted the gaudiness of the actual house.
Christ, Paige hated this house. She hated everything about it. A family of four did not need a five bedroom monstrosity. It had a three car garage and so many electric ‘smart’ utilities that sometimes she wondered if it qualified as a robot more than it did a house.
Her eyes landed on her closed closet door where her camera equipment was. If Demo thought that it was strange the boys’ bathtub didn’t have a shower curtain on it, he hadn’t said anything. She hadn’t returned it after posting the donut video.
Shame washed through her—followed quickly by anger. The fucking bastard had left her and their two toddler children to fend for themselves with a mountain of debt, a house too big for them, and no resources. She’d starved herself, limited the heat in her home during the dead of winter, and had to sell her sons’ toys to help make ends meet. And the fucking bastard had been dead ? Had he been dead the entire time? Had the loan shark caught up to him before coming to Mount Grove and attacking Ronald and Cindy?
She didn’t know and wouldn’t know until she spoke with Steel’s PI.
That seemed like so much energy. Did she even have that in her?
Paige didn’t think so. It was too much. It was all too much.
She didn’t remember laying down on her bed. That hadn’t been a conscious decision. At some point, Demo came in with her boys. Their hair was wet but they were clean and dressed. From their milk mustaches, she knew Demo had taken them to the kitchen before joining her in her room. Her boys’ innocent laughter gave her the spark she needed to sit up.
Paige leaned her back against the headboard and pulled her sons onto her lap. Then she spluttered out a laugh when she saw Demo had a matching milk mustache.
He pursed his lips like a duck as if modeling a new fashion trend.
Paige shook her head at his ridiculousness but was also grateful for it. She crooked a finger at him around Mikey’s back to indicate for him to come closer. Demo bent over her. When she tried to kiss him though, he backed away.
“You’ll ruin my mustache!” he exclaimed with feigned protectiveness.
“Where’s my mustache?” she demanded. “I feel like the odd woman out here.”
Demo brought his hand out from behind his back and held out a glass of milk for her. The boyish expression of excitement on his face was exactly what Paige needed to snap the rest of the way out of her funk.
She might be a widow, but she wasn’t alone. That mattered more than she could express.
Cindy and Ronald sat on the couch next to Jenna, who was present for moral support. Lucky held his pregnant wife on his lap in one of the lounge chairs. Though morning sickness had passed after Harper entered her second trimester, she had woken up feeling extremely nauseous—and that was before she’d gotten the news that there was an update on her brother’s whereabouts. She was currently sucking on a honey lollipop while Lucky rubbed her round belly soothingly.
Demo had brought over two barstools for Paige and him to sit on. Paige had a death grip on his left hand that she held between her two on her lap.
Steel and Carlos stood in the background. Word had been spread for everyone to stay out of the clubhouse for the time being. The last thing Harper and Paige needed was spectators, even if they meant well. Mikey and Nelly Bean were playing with their cousins in the Pentagon backyard. There was a snowman building contest going on that should keep them entertained for a long while. Both were too young to understand what was happening. Though Richard was their father, neither remembered him.
Perhaps that was Paige’s fault. Nelly wouldn’t have remembered Richard regardless, but Mikey might have. While Paige made an effort never to say anything negative about Richard in front of them, she also did not make an effort to speak about Richard to them. She didn’t mention their father at all.
Standing front and center was a police detective from Atlanta, Georgia. Paige hadn’t been paying much attention when she’d introduced herself. She looked vaguely familiar, but Paige couldn’t place why.
“He’s been listed as a John Doe for nearly fourteen months. The city cremated him.” Her southern drawl accentuated her words. She had her dirty blonde hair pulled back in an intricate French braid that started at the front of her hairline and went all the way down to between her shoulder blades. “The City of Atlanta will be shipping the remains up to you as soon as I get some information from all of you. Now that they know who Mr. Hannigan is, they will continue the case.”
The detective turned towards Paige. “I understand you and Mr. Hannigan were married at the time of his disappearance. Were divorce proceedings started?”
Paige shook her head. “He just didn’t come home one day. Things were really crazy around town. I still wasn’t very familiar with everyone and the town itself.”
“Did you report his absence?”
“I called Rona—um, Sheriff Hannigan.” She looked towards her father-in-law.
“You were sheriff here at the time?” the detective inquired of Ronald.
“Interim, but yes.”
Carlos stepped forward. “I brought our file on Mr. Hannigan’s missing person’s case.”
The Atlanta detective took the offered manila file folder. Paige wasn’t sure why it surprised her it was so thin.
“Not much here,” the detective mussed. She looked at Ronald. “Your own son goes missing and this is all you have?”
Ronald shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “The first few days that he was missing, I…I didn’t know what to think. There was also an arson investigation that was happening at that same time. My son… He had his problems, Detective. I’d warned him prior to us moving to Mount Grove that I was no longer going to dig him out of any more financial holes he got himself into.”
“Are you referring to the financial troubles he had with one Mateo Castillo?”
Paige felt Demo stiffen beside her but was concentrating on Ronald’s reaction.
Her father-in-law flinched at the name and then nodded.
“This would be the same Mateo Castillo who attacked you and your wife in your own home the following August?”
“Yes,” Ronald answered gruffly.
Mateo Castillo must be the name of Richard’s loan shark then. Ronald’s reaction to the man was understandable. He’d tortured Ronald and threatened Cindy. Who knows what would have become of them if the club hadn’t stumbled upon them?
The detective turned back to Paige. “I understand you’ve had some financial troubles of late.” She indicated between Paige and Demo. “How long have you been involved with Mr. Snyder?”
Paige swallowed hard, not liking the implications behind the question. She’d been a widow for over fourteen months, but she hadn’t known that when she’d started sleeping with Demo. For all intents and purposes, she had been unfaithful to her marriage because she didn’t know she was no longer married.
“Less than a month,” Demo supplied honestly.
“And did you ever meet Mr. Hannigan?”
Demo shook his head, “Never.”
“It would be helpful to our investigation if you gave us access to both of your phone records,” the detective prompted.
“Whatever you need,” Demo told her. “Neither of us have anything to hide. Paige was not even aware of the extent of Mr. Hannigan’s debts until creditors started contacting her a few months ago.”
“Is this true, Mrs. Hannigan?”
Before Paige could answer, her phone rang from inside her purse. It was sitting on the bar across the way. Everyone looked in that direction. Paige sighed as she got up with a muttered, “Excuse me,” to the detective. The only reason she was going to answer it was in case it was Abby or Bulldog regarding her boys.
When she saw the caller ID was her mom, Paige hit ignore and threw the phone back inside her purse. She was not dealing with her mother right now. The woman had the worst timing ever and, frankly, Paige did not want to hear her mother bitch and complain about Paige taking a restraining order out on her husband.
There was enough drama going on in Paige’s life right now that she did not need to add her mother’s to it too.
“Sorry about that,” Paige said as she retook her seat. “What was your question?”
Before the detective could voice it, her phone rang again. Paige scowled at her purse. She stomped over to the bar, pulled her phone out, ignored the call, and then put her phone on silent. She would deal with her mom later. Like, in five years.
Paige retook her seat.
“Are you sure you don’t need to get that?” the detective asked with a raised eyebrow.
“No,” Paige said shortly. To Demo’s inquiring look, she whispered, “My mother.”
He nodded his understanding.
“Mrs. Hannigan, other than contacting the police,” the detective looked pointedly at Ronald and then Carlos, “what efforts did you make to find your husband?”
Paige wished she could correct her and claim Richard was her ex- husband. As morbid as the thought was, Paige was grateful that she didn’t have to fight her way through a messy divorce. At least Richard’s death would give her that.
But the fact that that thought even crossed her mind made her feel guilty, even after all he’d done to her and the mess he’d left in his wake.
“To be honest, not much. I inquired with the police often, but nothing beyond that. I had two small children at home that required my full attention and I needed to get my business up and running. Richard running off with his latest floozy wasn’t exactly a high priority.” Glancing at Cindy, Paige added, “Sorry.”
Cindy waved her harsh words off. “It’s taken me a long time, but I’ve come to terms with my son’s faults. I know he had many and I’m sorry you got involved in them at all.” She dabbed under her eyes with a tissue.
The detective gave them a moment before continuing, “So your husband was having an affair?”
Paige let out a long sigh. “I suspected for a long time that he was. I can’t give you a name or names. I never saw actual evidence of such. There was a time, just before we came here, that Richard came home crying. He said he’d had a hard day at work. He brought me flowers and this expensive jewelry set. It was diamond earrings, a bracelet, and a necklace. I never knew why he was so upset, but I suspected. I always got gifts after he was away on business trips and I found more than one piece of clothing with lipstick stains or missing buttons.”
Demo took her hand again. She squeezed it tightly. Her suspicions regarding Richard’s behavior was one of the reasons she had such a hard time accepting gifts from Demo.
With her eyes on the detective, Paige missed the exchanged looks between Demo, Steel, and Lucky. She did notice Ronald’s flinch, though, and suspected it was difficult for the man to add infidelity to his son’s long list of sins.
Harried footsteps came barreling down the stairs to the main room. Paige had never been upstairs in the clubhouse. She knew the club called the large conference room their Chapel and it was where they held their meetings they called Church. Demo attended an officers-only meeting there on Fridays and then a meeting for all patched members on Saturdays. Even Harper said she’d only been up there once and that was because she’d followed Jasmine inside after the other ol’ lady had barged into a meeting to tell them something she’d remembered.
Keys leaped down to the main floor, skipping over the last three or four stairs. He came running up to them, a frantic look in his eyes.
Lucky and Demo stood. There was a change in their posture and expressions that made Paige want to immediately find her boys and ensure their safety. Steel even moved closer to Jenna, though his attention was on Keys.
Both Carlos and the detective looked around as if for danger, their hands on the holsters guns at their hips.
“You need to see this,” Keys said through gasped breaths. He handed Steel a large tablet. From her seat, Paige could only see a paused newscaster standing outside of a gated lawn.
Carlos, Demo, and Lucky moved closer to also see the tablet as Steel pressed Play.
“…outside the home of Detroit Philanthropist and Entrepreneur, Thaddeus Barrington. At this time, the Barringtons are not making a statement regarding this latest blow to their, up until recently, flawless reputations.
“For those of you just tuning in, in the early hours this morning, a popular adult website, Fan Feet Fun, servicing clientele with a proclivity towards feet was hacked. The names, addresses, billing information, and fantasy requests of both the clients and the models have now been released to the public. On that list, is Thaddeus Barrington’s stepdaughter. Married to Barrington Holdings’ former CFO, Richard Hannigan, Paige Hannigan has been revealed as one of the models. She currently resides in Mount Grove, a small town in southern Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons.
“The Barringtons, who have always claimed to uphold Christian-American values and strong family ties, have chosen not to comment on this latest scandal, one that has not been seen on such a global scale since the Ashley Madison scandal in 2015. Politicians, city officials, and even members of the clergy are being named alongside average citizens. Unlike with Ashley Madison , no one is taking responsibility or laying out demands. Officials cannot confirm or deny if the once proclaimed Impact Team is involved again.
“Unlike other adult sites that will accept fake names, profiles, and email addresses, Fan Feet Fun requires all who subscribe to prove their identities before they can model or purchase products. They do this with a picture of themselves holding up their country’s driver’s license or passport with a codeword the site provides to prove the picture was not forged or AI generated. The Fan Feet Fun company claims this is for the safety of all involved. Their earlier statement regarding this hack did not show any remorse for what their site has to offer, but rather apologizing to those on the list whose lives will never be the same. Back to you, Norm…”