Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
Bishop
“I looked up the security company you said was watching your grandmother’s property.” Levi swings around in the chair behind his desk to face me as I sit back in one of the low leather seats he positioned in front of it.
“And?” I ask, hopeful it’s someone we can work around, but when I see the look on his face, I realize I’m not getting my wish. “Bad news?”
“Worse than I imagined.”
“How so?”
“The security company is owned by a shell, but after we peeled back a couple of layers of paperwork, we were able to find that the owners are Jared and Josh Schaefer. Zephyrine’s half brothers,” Levi explains.
“Fuck.”
Our luck and our chances continue to sink.
Right along with my mood. I don’t know details, but I know enough to say the Schaefer family is corrupt to the core.
Zephyrine barely escaped with her life, her own father willing to kill her if it meant he got what he wanted.
I can only imagine what kind of sons he raised.
Spoiled brats or ruthless tyrants. Or some combination of the two.
“They’re probably already out there looking for it themselves after realizing who you are. Once they saw you, I’m sure the governor started trying to make connections. It’s possible they already have it.” Levi sketches out the worst-case scenario. I have a hard time believing it though.
“Don’t you think he’d be louder, even taunting us with it, if that was the case?
They hate us, and while he can’t exactly come after us while he’s standing trial for all his other crimes, he could make a point of letting us know he has it without much blowback.
It’s not like the courts understand the significance of all of this. ”
“True. I’d expect him to be more vindictive about it.
Especially if he could get under Zeph’s skin with it.
So maybe we still have a shot. But we’re out of time on alternative options.
We can’t let them get ahead of us on this, and if you don’t trust your half brother or your grandmother with any of this, then we’ve got to make our own way on it. ”
“Got a plan in mind?” I raise a brow.
“There’s really only one left.” Levi gives me a pointed look.
“If you want to go in at night and see what we can do, I’m willing.
We’ll need a team, though, drones, lookouts, and—” I start mentally planning what an operation like that would look like.
I was serious when I said I was quitting the mercenary business to be a cowboy again.
I want my daughter to have a father who’s present for her, but if I have to do one last job with my old team to keep this family safe, I’ll do it.
“No. We can’t risk not finding it and having to go in again and again. We’ll draw too much attention to it, and if they don’t have it, we’ll lead them there. We need them off the land.”
“How do you propose—” I start, and then see the look in his eyes and the lift of his brow.
“You propose in this scenario.” Levi gives me a pointed look.
This again. It was hopeless.
“She won’t.”
“She will if she understands the circumstances. Have you told her yet?” Levi’s far more confident than I am about his sister’s capacity for forgiveness under these circumstances.
“I didn’t get that far. I only had a chance to tell her about your uncle and your dad and my role in it. I explained why I left, and it went even worse than I imagined.”
“I’m sorry it went that way. It’s a lot for her.
Especially with everything else going on.
She’s got a lot on her shoulders, and now she’s got the past to reckon with too.
” Levi’s understandably defensive of her.
I am too, honestly. Rationally, I understand her reaction.
I couldn’t blame her if she never wanted anything to do with me again.
But personally, I desperately want her forgiveness.
“I wish I wasn’t adding to that weight. I’d do anything I could to help her if she’d let me.”
“I know. She’ll come around. I honestly believe that. She just needs time.”
“Did you tell Grant?”
“I did. He was also less than thrilled and said he was keeping his hands clean of any schemes involving Aspen.”
“Well, I can’t say I wasn’t expecting it.”
“You know how those two are.” Levi shrugs before he pulls his glasses off to clean the lenses, replacing them a moment later, and staring me down. “But I don’t see another way out of this.”
“I know, but she won’t even speak to me right now, and I promised to respect that.”
“I’ll talk to her if you want. Lay the groundwork at least. Maybe soften the blow.”
“I don’t know if that will help. She was also pretty pissed I told you before I told her.”
“I’ll tell her I twisted your arm.”
“I explained the situation already. It is what it is. It was easier to tell you than tell her everything, you know? There’s not all the other stuff wrapped in it. Still hurt like hell to do it though.”
“I know. I… Grant was shell-shocked by the revelation about Dad. In a way, it’s made everything clearer, but in another, it’s made me question whether we ever knew him as well as we thought we did. He hid so fucking much. And for what? He couldn’t trust his own sons with the truth?”
“As angry as I’ve been with him for making me keep that secret, I know he did it out of a desire to protect his family. He didn’t want you to have to hold that secret for the rest of your lives. He didn’t want me to have to worry about a trial or prison for my involvement in it.”
“And he didn’t want to have to worry about his own future. Let’s not pretend he didn’t have selfish ends in mind too. He wasn’t the perfect man we thought he was growing up.”
“We all put him on that pedestal. He might not have been perfect, but he was a good man. A great one, really. The good he did still outweighs the bad in my eyes. At least, assuming Aspen ever forgives me. But he got to where he did by being shrewd and cunning. Running this town with an iron will and malleable ethics that served his purposes. He’s not all that different from any of us. ”
“Maybe not. But I can’t imagine covering up my brother’s death.”
“Creighton wasn’t himself that night. I didn’t know him well, but he seemed panicked. He wasn’t seeing reason in anything Kip said—wasn’t backing down. I imagine there was something that made him think he needed the money.”
“Or the relic,” Levi states matter-of-factly. “I can only think of one person who can incite that kind of reaction that I know of.”
“The governor? You think? All those years ago?”
“Why not? It was an obsession for him.”
“I just would imagine if I were running for office, I’d have better things to do.”
“Not if you were superstitious and believed this was your only way up. Then you might do something to ensure it.”
“Maybe.” I consider the possibility. “Superstitious or desperate more like.”
“Speaking of…” Levi gives me half a smirk before it fades into something more serious. “I’ll talk to her and let you know how it goes. Maybe I can get her to talk to you again.”
“You can try.”
“If I do, you’d better have the best fucking speech in the world prepared for why she should marry you.”