Chapter 26 Rachel
RACHEL
“The mayoral election is wide open this year—” A groan went up around the table, and I ignored it, voice growing louder to carry over their noise. “—and after the farce with the Laceys, I think we’re perfectly placed to install Joseph Ferrero in the township.”
Their groans fell silent at that.
“Joseph Ferrero? José?” Link queried, his tone dubious. “The sheriff?”
“The sheriff,” I concurred. “I know Miles Monroe and James Kinnock are casting their lots for donors.”
Rex shot me a sharp glance at the mention of Wynter’s adoptive grandfather.
Life could be ironic sometimes.
“Kinnock’s into politics?”
“It isn’t his first attempt, but die-hard conservatives are looking for an in, and he’s that.”
“Why doesn’t that come as a surprise?” Rex grumbled.
“Kinnock,” Maverick mused before he blinked. “Your kid’s adoptive grandfather?”
“Yes.”
The club knew what had gone down after the FAST gala between the Triads and the Kinnocks. I hadn’t said anything, but when I’d shown up for this meeting, the council had been in session for a few hours if the state of the table was anything to go by. As well as the exhaustion in Rex’s face.
He looked as tired as I felt.
I imagined the entire situation had been discussed, as well as the many open enterprises the MC was dealing with right now.
That was why I was here.
The mayoral election wasn’t high on their list of priorities today, but someone needed to raise the topic.
“Can’t we just pitch to some reporter that Kinnock couldn’t raise a son who didn’t try to sell his daughter off to pay his debts, so why should he be able to look after a town?”
I arched a brow at Sin. “You know that’s our daughter you’re talking about?”
He just grunted. “Take emotions aside, that’s gonna cast immediate doubts on Kinnock’s worthiness as a candidate.”
“While putting Wynter in the crosshairs of a media shitstorm she’ll never escape and humiliating my baby girl in public,” Rex growled, fire sparking in his eyes. “What about that sounds like a good idea, Sin?”
That fire and that growl had no business whatsoever in making me wet.
Daddy Rex was fucking hot.
“He’s not a strong candidate,” I tried to assure them. “He’s in his seventies—”
“Like that’ll stop Americans from voting for him,” Maverick mocked. “We like ‘em old in our government. The older the better.”
“It’s almost like we have a fetish for ancient politicians,” Link agreed before he shuddered. “One fetish I ain’t into.”
I rolled my eyes. “You like butt play, Link. That’s the limit of your fetishes. Don’t go around making out like you’re into adult diapers or FemDom.”
He whistled under his breath. “Can you imagine Lily as a Domme? Fuck, I could get into that.”
My nose crinkled. “She has the disposition for it.”
“Started bleating on about her fundraising ideas to you, has she?” he asked commiseratively. “I’ve heard all about them, and I tried to tell her that we’re working at top speed but she’s insisting she can control it.”
I hid my grimace behind my coffee cup. “I don’t like to dampen enthusiasm.”
“Lily’s definitely enthusiastic,” he joked. “If you sit still long enough, she’ll drive you to a hotel one day, give you a dress, and say, ‘Here. Host the party.’”
My lips twitched because I could easily imagine that too.
“Not to disturb your chitchat,” Nyx mocked, “but why the fuck would we want to lose our hold on the sheriff? He can’t be both?”
“Because you own him?” The ‘dumbass’ was unspoken.
“José is good where he is. It’d be easier, surely, to get a new mayor than a new sheriff?” Link pointed out.
“Because there aren’t many mayoral candidates, but I know you could maneuver Ferrero into the role. He’s a great sheriff, aside from him being corrupt as fuck where the Sinners are concerned.
“He’s pleasant, personable, and even the racist assholes who’d prefer to forget his heritage like him.
He’s that kind of guy. He visits the country clubs, blends in there, plays golf with the rich folk and dances with their daughters at the galas…
He’s perfectly placed in your pocket to make a great mayor who’ll be proactive where the MC needs him to be. ”
“You’ve clearly been thinking about this,” Rex mused.
I shrugged. “I’m surprised that you haven’t, to be honest. The primaries are in June. He won the sheriff’s elections so it’s a good time to get him to make the shift.”
“Who’d we get as the new sheriff? We need both in our pocket. It’d be helpful to have the mayor on our side for the new fronts we’ve inaugurated these past eighteen months, but it’s not as if we’re choir boys,” Nyx countered.
“His Chief Deputy,” I reasoned. “Farrow is as crooked as a fishhook. He and Ferrero deal well together. He’d be running practically unopposed, too, seeing as he’d have Ferrero’s backing.”
“You really have thought about this,” Sin said.
“It’s my job to.”
“Who’s Miles Monroe?” Steel questioned, shuffling those ever-present cards of his.
How Stone didn’t toss them out when he wasn’t looking, I’d never know.
“He’s a deacon with the Evangelical church over by the town hall.”
“He’d be a popular choice,” Rex pointed out.
“He’s a weirdo,” I disregarded. “He gives off a creepy vibe. His congregation is probably hypnotized into going every Sunday.”
“That bad?” Sin joked.
“Yeah, that bad. Makes my skin crawl.”
“I think I know the guy you mean,” Rex muttered. His eyes turned distant a second before he clicked his fingers. “Maverick, isn’t he the one who goes to that brothel over in Hanover?”
“How the hell would you know that?” I demanded.
“He protested the construction of the strip club. We had to get him under our thumb or we might not have been able to get our licenses.”
“Shit,” I hissed under my breath. “He did. He was a major pain in the ass. How did I forget about that?”
“Plenty of other crap to be dealing with,” Nyx dismissed, which, for Nyx, was borderline kind.
Especially when they could have told me I had pregnancy brain.
And I’d have had to kill them.
Maverick pulled up something on his phone just as a noisy howl sounded from outside. “Jax was the one you sent in for the photos, Nyx.”
No one blinked an eye at the howl. No one other than Rex and me.
Nyx, oblivious to the howl, sighed. “Shit, I miss him.”
“Me too,” Steel ground out. “We lost too many in the blast.”
“We did, and Jax was good people. Would have made an excellent brother,” Nyx said bitterly, even as he was reaching for Mav’s cell.
“What’s with the howl?” I queried.
“Quin,” was all Sin said.
Link chuckled. “It’s that Newfoundlander that’s got a crush on—”
“Shut up, Link,” Nyx muttered as he swiped through the photos on Mav’s phone. “I remember now."
Mav clicked his tongue. “Monroe gets off on beating his rent boys.”
“The fuck are rent boys?”
Mav peered owlishly at Link. “Isn’t it self-explanatory?”
“What? Have you been binge-watching Bridgerton with Alessa or something?”
“I don’t know if they have male prostitutes in historical period dramas—”
Sensing this would start an argument, I jibed, “Can we get back to the matter at hand, please?”
“Not sure his congregation would appreciate knowing he’s gay,” Sin mocked. “The beating they’d probably be okay with.”
I snorted but didn’t deny that he was probably right.
I knew for a fact that under Monroe’s leadership, marital abuse wasn’t even a thing… It was, if anything, considered ‘spousal discipline.’
I’d helped one of his parishioners escape an abusive home eight years ago when she’d come to me, begging for help to escape her father.
Parker had been loyal to me ever since.
“You remember Parker Henshaw?” I asked, trying to ignore the second howl from outside.
Jesus, were we in a doggy daycare and I just didn’t know it?
Rex scratched his jaw. “Your executive assistant?”
“She was in Monroe’s flock. If need be, I can prod her for info on him.”
He nodded. “Thanks, babe.”
I smirked, but deep inside, I couldn’t deny that I liked hearing that term of endearment spilling from his lips. Especially as public as this was. “My pleasure.”
What made it even better?
No one hooted or even batted an eyelash.
In this crowd, i.e., Link, that was a tough win, but I figured it spoke of the battle it’d taken to reach this high ground.
“As for Kinnock, I can lean on him,” Sin muttered as he peered at Mav’s phone, swiping through each photo with a glower. “We don’t have to make it public what Jeremy did, but it can still be used as leverage.”
“Maverick, dig up some other dirt on him, okay?” Rex ordered. “I don’t want to use Wynter’s situation for our gain.”
Daddy Rex was beyond hot.
“Will do.” He rubbed his forehead. “I have some treatments coming up, but Star will help out if I need her.”
“Speaking of the witch, I’m not sure I like the idea of Lodestar working with the Italians,” Steel grumbled.
“In the interest of full disclosure, I work with the Sicilians, and word to the wise, don’t call the family Italians if you’re ever dealing with Valentini.
He won’t appreciate it,” I informed them.
“An old friend was doing IT work for them, and he approached me regarding Lodestar being hired by the Italians. I agreed that he should pass on her name because I liked the idea of having her linked to both of you. It makes the flow of information easier.”
“You should have talked to us about that,” Steel argued.
“Why? It isn’t like I have a say in what Lodestar does. My friend asked me if I’d heard of her, if she was good people—”
“And you lied and said she was?” Link teased, making my lips twitch.
“She’s decent. In her own way.”
His nose crinkled. “If you say so. She could definitely start a fight in a monastery.”
I didn’t wholly disagree with that.
“You should have told us, Rach, but I also like the idea of the flow of information being widespread. These last couple of months have shown us the importance of cooperation.” Rex eyed Nyx. “Speaking of, we need to deal with the O’Donnelly situation.”
Sin winced. “I don’t know what the fuck Aidan Sr.’s game is.”
I arched a brow, surprised that Nyx’s arrest had clearly been under discussion prior to my arrival. They’d definitely been busy this morning.
“I can tell you what his game is,” I drawled. “He’s a desperate old man trying to wipe out some pieces of shit from the earth before he leaves it.”
“Desperate?” Sin shook his head. “Nothing’s desperate about that lunatic.”
“I’m the one who spoke with him at the precinct when I got Nyx out. I’d know. I’m telling you, he was desperate.”
“What makes you think that?” Rex asked quietly.
I tried to assimilate my impressions from that night and slowly verbalized, “This is personal for him.”
“I agree,” Nyx rumbled. “It is.”
“You’re not allowed to weigh in on this conversation,” Sin sniped. “You were a moron for walking into that trap.”
“It wasn’t a trap.”
Nyx’s calm retort had me rolling my eyes. “Your freedom and incarceration were brokered by the same man. That doesn’t mean he’s friendly; it means he wants you beholden to him.”
“He likes to have leverage over people,” Sin concurred.
“In this instance, he wants certain people to die and, for whatever reason, he wants to control who does the killing.”
Rex pondered my words then asked, “Did he ever mention a name?”
Nyx nodded, reached for his phone, and groused, “Am I allowed to speak, Sin?” He didn’t wait for permission. “A couple. Mikhail Korolev, but the one that interested me the most was Francis Merriweather.”
“You’ve heard from him since you were arrested?” Sin questioned.
Nyx just shrugged.
Steel shuffled his deck of cards at double speed. “Jesus, man, you should have told us.”
“What was there to tell? He was being his usual asswipe self.”
“Francis Merriweather,” I blurted out. “How do I know that name?”
Maverick scowled. “I know it too. My fucking memory’s shot though.”
“Isn’t he in Congress?” Rex asked slowly. “Jesus. He’s a pedophile?”
For a second, we all let that sink in, then I rasped, “I think it’s safe to assume O’Donnelly’s targets will all be high profile.
That’s why he wants you beholden to him.
” Nyx’s hands balled into fists on the desk, and at the sight, I murmured, “You need to tell Giulia about what happened. Kendra went AWOL that night, and she thinks you were with her.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Nyx snapped. “What is it with her and Kendra?”
“I spoke with Peach yesterday,” Rex replied, which came as news to me. “She said Kendra’s been going out of her way to make Giulia miserable.”
Nyx clenched his jaw. “I want her gone—”
“She is. I tossed her out yesterday. She won’t be coming back.”
My eyes widened—that was also news to me.
Rex shot me an apologetic look. “You were asleep when I got in last night.”
I had been.
Dammit to hell.
Pregnancy was really messing with my mojo.
Link scratched his chin. “Maybe you should meet up with O’Donnelly? Figure out what his deal is?”
Rex nodded. “I’ve been thinking about that. Sin, I’ll need you to arrange a meeting.”
And there was the hope I’d never have to see O’Donnelly again going up in smoke. No way in hell would I let them do this on their own. With how volatile they all were, they’d trigger a war with our so-called allies.
“Will do.”
“Last thing on the agenda—Bear’s funeral,” Rex murmured.
“It’s under control,” Link replied, grief shadowing his expression. “Lily has everything in place. She just needs a date.”
“She arranged the funeral?”
Link shrugged. “Before she was working with Rach, she had a lot of time on her hands, and she has the money to get things organized with a lot of flexibility.”
Rex swallowed. “I’ll have to thank her for that.”
“She just needs a date,” Link said softly.
His mouth tightened. “Within the next two weeks?”
“Okay. I’ll let you know the available dates.”
“Storm will want to attend. I’ll key him in once everything’s confirmed.” Rex rubbed his forehead. Before I could remind him that Bear had been no ordinary brother, he said, “The other chapters need to come as well. Damn. It’ll need to be a show of strength.”
Link nodded. “I’ll coordinate that. Don’t worry about it, Rex.”
“Thanks, brother,” was his tired reply.
“I promised Giulia that Grizzly and Dog’s bodies would be removed from the cemetery.” Nyx’s tone was flat—I could tell he was still pissed at the thought of having to tell her where he’d been on the night of his arrest.
Rex cracked his knuckles. “Is the ground still frozen?”
“Thaw’s in,” Maverick confirmed.
“I want them out before Dad’s burial.”
“Rex!” I sputtered. “You can’t seriously agree with this!”
His mouth was taut as he looked at me. “Sweetheart, one day, we’ll be in that graveyard, and there’s no way in fuck I’m having you share space with those pieces of shit—even in death. No,” he growled, casting a look at his brothers. “I want them out. ASAP.”
I guessed it was a testament to how I’d been raised that, as disturbing as his words were, they were also, I feared, some of the most romantic he’d ever uttered to me.