Chapter 7 Tex #2
JD stood by the window looking out onto the yard outside. “Her daddy used to run with us. Well, with the men before us, anyhow.”
My stomach dropped. “What?”
Rowan stared at him. “That’s not possible.”
“Oh, but it is, kitten,” JD said. “He wasn’t patched. But he rode with the club for nearly five years. Did some work for us back in the day too.”
Rowan shook her head. “No, that’s not right. He’s got a bike, but I’ve never seen him ride it. Not once.”
JD gave her a long look. “Funny thing about men,” he said, “they ain’t always who they say they are. And they’re definitely not the men their kids think they are.”
My mind was already spinning. “What kind of work did he do?” I asked slowly, aware of Rowan’s stare on me.
“The kind we don’t talk about much anymore, brother,” he replied. “You know the club’s history. You know the past.”
My blood ran cold. I knew what he was talking about—transport routes.
The Hale’s ranch sat right between two highways. It was the perfect corridor. I’d been thinking it myself, and the attacks on her property had all but sealed it for me, but now there was no denying it. Not if JD said so.
JD continued. “Back in the late seventies, early eighties, the Kings ran freight.”
Rowan went pale. “Drugs?” she whispered.
He didn’t bother to sugarcoat it. “Yeah, kitten, drugs, and worse.”
“What could be worse than drugs?” she said, but her words cut off abruptly. “No, my father would never—”
“Well, he didn’t start it,” JD said, “but he sure helped finish it. The Kings were earning good money. Hell, everyone was earning good money, but you know what they say about the greed of man—it’s never fulfilled.”
I rubbed my hand over my jaw. “So what happened?” Because I could already see where this was going.
JD shook his head. “Well, that’s the problem.” His eyes darkened. “They wanted to stop. Dearest mommy and daddy had themselves a little kid and decided they wanted out of the life.”
“And?” I asked, leaning forward.
“The Kings let them walk away from it. You know family and the Kings—it’s everything.” JD shrugged and sat back down. JD’s gaze sharpened. “But apparently our business partner didn’t let them go.”
“Who was your business partner?” Rowan asked, her voice barely a whisper.
“A cartel out of Mexico,” JD said, his words landing like a grenade.
Rowan choked out her words, “You’re saying that my mom and dad worked for the Mexican cartel?”
His eyes met mine before flicking to Rowan. “Yes, and now your parents are dead we think they’re coming to collect—from you.”
My pulse pounded in my ears. I wasn’t sure what this meant for the club or for Rowan and her ranch, but it sure as shit wasn’t going to be anything good.
“But they must know she doesn’t have anything to do with this?” I said, pissed off at her parents for not only deceiving our club for so many years but also for putting Rowan in danger all these years. Why hadn’t they put a contingency in place?
JD gave a grim smile. “Well, this cartel just had a change of hands, brother.”
I thought back to the meeting I’d been to across the state.
The new cartel kingpin Mateo Vargas was there, discussing future plans with the Kings.
His father had recently had a sudden heart attack, and he was all but a vegetable, and so his son had taken over the family business.
It had been a quick takeover—it had to be before anyone else could try to take the business.
But the son had kept on most of the original security and staff his own father had used.
A heavy silence settled in the room.
Then another thought hit me.
“So we set up a meeting with the son. Let them know that Rowan knew nothin’ of the previous arrangement and that she wants out.”
“If only it was that easy, Tex.” JD’s expression hardened further, but his gaze swung back to Rowan. “Your dad died suddenly, right?”
She nodded, “Yes, a heart attack. My mom found him by the old well in the north field.”
“And your mom—”
“She had a heart attack a week later.” She took a deep, shaky breath before continuing. “In pretty much the same spot. We think she was going to leave flowers there, and then her heart just gave out. He was the love of her life—she died of a broken heart.”
I thought back to the cartel’s eldest son taking over the family business, his father suddenly dying from a heart attack, and the pieces began to fit together. I didn’t believe in coincidences, and this was too many heart attacks to be normal.
“Have you come across paperwork for the ranch since their passing?” JD sat back down.
“Yeah, it’s everywhere. I’ve been trying to go through it for months, but my parents were hoarders. They kept everything. Every receipt, every document, every deed. I’ve even thought about burning it all because it will take years to get through.”
I glanced behind her, hating how close Gods and Swampy were to her. Like she was a bomb that might go off at any moment and they were ready to defuse her if necessary. And going by the guns shoved in the back of their jeans, her answers might not end up being what everyone wanted to hear.
Rowan dragged a hand down her face, and I knew she was ready to cry. There was only so much one person could take. Even a woman as strong as her could only hold it together for so long.
Her voice was barely a whisper when she looked back up. “I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know what my father did or didn’t do, I don’t know anything about drug routes or cartels.” I watched as a single tear loosened from one of her eyes and trailed down her pale cheek.
My anger was simmering just below the surface, the urge to protect her to strong to ignore. These were my brothers, my family, but I wouldn’t sit by while they interrogated Rowan like she was in this life. Like she had any clue what had been going on when clearly she didn’t.
“Can we all stop talking in riddles?” I glared at JD. “Spit it the fuck out. Whatever it is.”
“Mateo’s takeover,” JD said, “we think he had your parents killed, making it look like they’d had heart attacks, thinking he could just buy up the land once it was all done. They had no idea about you.”
Rowan’s hand shot to her mouth as she gasped. “But the land went back to me when they died and I came home.”
“Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!” Swampy said.
“Exactly. You’ve been gone a long time, kitten, and they knew nothing about you until you turned up.” JD shrugged.
“So they were expecting the land to go up for sale intending on buying it up and then they’d have their perfect route running and be able to cut out the middleman.
But then Rowan comes back home to take care of everything and decides not to sell and instead run the ranch herself, messing up all of their plans.
” It was my turn to light a cigarette now, and I sucked down the nicotine like it was oxygen.
JD leaned back in his chair. “I think today they were trying to figure out how much you actually knew.”
“I know nothing,” Rowan said, her voice steel. “How many times do I have to say that.”
“Well, that may be the case, but the cartel don’t seem to agree.
Me? I’m still making up my mind.” JD cocked his head like a savage dog examining a potential threat.
“I can’t decide if your parents did a real good job of shielding you from their world—their real world, or if you’re fucking playing us. ”
Rowan stood up, stumbling backwards. Gods was there to grab her, and when she tried to shake him off he held her tighter. Her eyes went wild.
“I told you, I don’t know anything. This is all new to me! They were just my parents. They were just Mom and Dad. They worked a lot. Dad was always busy. He lived and died on that farm.” She’d gone paler as she spoke, a sheen of sweat beading on her brow. “Please, I don’t know anything.”
I swallowed, feeling angry and anxious all rolled into one. “Ease up, Gods,” I said, not looking at him. Instead my gaze was on JD.
“Ease up.” Gods laughed. “This bitch’s family screwed the club out of millions over the years, but I should ease up? Are you really that pussy whipped already?”
I snapped my gaze to him, my lip curling. “Ease. The. Fuck. Up. Whatever her parents did or didn’t do, it had nothing to do with her.”
“Do you know how much potential money we lost over the years? The shitstorm that motherfucker and his bitch wife caused. Just because it wasn’t cash from our pockets doesn’t mean we didn’t lose out.” Gods’s grip on Rowan tightened to the point where I could see the skin pinched under his grip.
I looked at JD but he shrugged. “He’s right, Tex, and you know it. Back in the day, the Kings had a good thing going with the cartel. When everything went down, that deal fell apart.”
“She was just my mom,” Rowan whimpered. “She was just Amy Hale, who liked the smell of flowers and horses and hated it when my dad would stay out drinking in the barn. She was just my mom, please.”
At that Rowan began to cry, and I saw the moment her world and everything she knew shattered. She had been living a lie all these years, and the walls had finally fallen down, crumbling at her feet.