Chapter 28
“T hat was fuckin’ insane.” Dalton slams his palm at the steering wheel full of energy as he drives us toward the line camp.
It’s a bumpy ride and Dalton ain’t the best of drivers, I can’t count how many times my head’s hit the truck roof since we left.
“Where did ya learn those moves?” his hand whacks me in the chest.
“I've been to a lotta parties.” I shrug it off. I need to focus on what's about to happen. What Joe Mason told me earlier is big fuckin’ news, and me and Garrett have called a meeting so we can bring it to the others and figure what to do about it.
“Is everyone comin’?” I check.
“Sure thing, Tate and Finn left half an hour ago, and Mitch is already there on lookout,” he informs me as I take the blunt Zayne passes me from the back seat and toke it.
“Noah and Sawyer are there too.” He slides his phone back in his pocket and I have to wonder if the River Boys have any idea about Mayor Walker’s past with Ronnie Mason. If they do it makes Noah a fuckin’ liar.
The closer we get to the line camp, the more I start to worry about how Cole’s gonna react.
Garrett was with me when I got the call, and he’s been real quiet since I told him what Joe told me.
At least with Garrett, he has the ability to think things over and be logical.
Cole is a hot mess right now and this is just the kinda fuel he needs, to stoke the flames.
At first, it felt like a relief to know what Mason was holding over Walker.
Being the threat makes the situation a lot more simple to fix.
But I saw the look in Garrett's eye when I told him, and I know there will be no forgiveness from him.
When we arrive everyone is waiting around the fire, and I can still taste Leia’s lip-gloss as I take a seat on the log, beside Noah.
The stare Garrett gives me over the flames proves he hasn’t simmered down, and with the wood cracking on the fire and a whole lotta tension building, everyone looks to him to kick this meeting off.
“We got a name outta Snakebite,” Garrett starts, and Sawyer leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees and paying attention.
He wanted to come with us today, but Garrett didn’t trust him not to blow the guy’s head off before we got our answers.
The River Boys ain’t exactly known for their tolerance.
“The developer's name is Dennis Knowles, he’s based in Billings and, as it turns out, he has a few companies set up like the ones that have been harassing Shelby. He’s done this plenty of times before.” Garrett looks to Sawyer, who's now breathing like a bull.
“I had no idea they were hounding her, she never told me,” he admits, sounding disappointed in himself.
“She’s stubborn, we all know that, and assholes like this don’t understand failure. If you want to keep your grandmother’s ranch, ya gotta play this fucker at his own game. I won’t have that bastard turn our town into a fuckin’ vacation resort,” Garrett promises him.
“Then we act, let’s go to Billings, drag Dennis-fuckin’-Knowles outta his office and teach him a lesson,” Noah suggests.
“No!” Garrett cuts him short. “We handle this the same way we’re handlin’ Mason.
We play the long game, build up knowledge before we strike.
Zayne, I want you to do your thing. Tate and Finn, I want surveillance on this asshole.
I wanna know everythin’ relevant about this guy before we go to war with him. ”
“Don’tcha think we’re all a little sick of playin’ the long game?” Cole points out.
“Yeah, Cole, it sucks. Ya think I don’t wanna make this cunt pay?
Ya think I don’t wanna kill him? This guy’s a big fuckin’ deal.
He can’t just go missin’ like the Seths and the Lances of this world.
We're gonna make him pay for what he did, but we’re gonna be smart about it. ” My brother makes a promise.
“I know this aint what you wanna hear, but I’m askin’ ya to trust me on this.” Garrett looks at Sawyer, who surprises us all when he eventually nods his head.
“And in the meantime, I think you can rest assured that Shelby won’t be gettin’ any more trouble,” he assures him.
“How ya figure that?” Sawyer tips his chin and asks.
“Because, tomorrow mornin’ he’s gonna receive a package with three of Snakebite’s fingers inside,” Garrett explains. “He’ll know who they belong to from the tattoos.”
Zayne and Noah snigger at each other and eventually a smile lifts on Sawyer’s face too.
“Now we got that sorted and we’re all in agreement, there’s something else we need to discuss here tonight.”
Garrett nods his head at me, handing me the floor, and when I flick my eyes to Cole and see the confusion on his face, I feel real bad for what I’m about to ask of him.
“I got a call from Joe Mason earlier.” I watch as all Cole’s confusion turns to anger.
“Turns out he wasn’t completely honest with me at the auction, he knows what his dad’s holdin’ over the mayor, and what it is, involves us.
” I’m looking directly at him now, knowing that he’s just looking for another reason to act out and skin Ronnie Mason alive.
“How?” He stands up with his wild, fierce eyes staring back at me.
“You remember that land our grandpa sold to Mason all them years ago?”
“I’m hardly gonna fuckin’ forget it,” he snaps back at me, getting impatient.
“We never understood why our grandpa sold it. No Carson ever sold a square inch of Copper Ridge. It never made any sense,” I explain to the others when I realize they’re all looking lost. “Before Walker was anyone in this town, he came to our grandfather and he asked to buy that land so he could build a homestead.”
“A homestead?” Noah scoffs a laugh, “Hell, Mayor Walker’s a lot of things, but he ain’t no homesteader.”
“No, he ain’t. He bought that land and then sold it straight to Ronnie Mason.
It was all part of the plan they cooked up together.
” Noah doesn’t look quite so amused now.
Not now that it’s sinking in that the River Boys are gonna have to make a decision here.
They ain’t the only ones. What I’m about to ask of my brothers is gonna go against all their instincts.
“He must’ve been persuasive, Grandpa was a good man, but he hated outsiders. And, like you said, no Carson ever sold land.” Cole is still looking unconvinced.
“Well, from what Joe told me, Walker had an edge. He knew something about our grandpa, and he used that something to blackmail him into getting what he wanted.”
“Son of a bitch!” Cole’s face turns furious, and now I see the River Boys really starting to twitch.
“You gonna protect that asshole from me?” Cole stares at Noah, who’s already rubbing his hand across his mouth and looking all out of fuckin ideas.
“No, I am.” I take a breath and stand up, watching Cole stare me over like I’m making some kinda joke.
“What the fuck you talkin’ about? Did ya not just hear yourself? He blackmailed our grandad, and I don’t know if you remember it, Wade, but he hated himself so much for giving up that land, that he fuckin’ hung himself. Ask Garrett here, he’s the one who found him swingin’.”
“Cole, calm down.” Garrett stands up and when he places his hand on Cole’s shoulder, Cole quickly shoves him away.
“No, I won’t calm down. You know how Mason gets off on ownin’ that land. He holds it over us like a fuckin’ grenade with the pin pulled. Walker helped him do that, and now he’s sittin’ in that big house of his, actin’ like some kinda fuckin’ God.”
“Cole, ya gotta listen to me.” I try and reason with him.
“This is the thing that Mason’s got over Walker.
He’s scared of us. He knows what we could do to him, and that’s why he’s makin’ Leia marry Caleb.
We can take that threat away, and then he’s got nothin’,” I point out the relevance to all of this, and as Cole takes it in, he slumps his ass back on the log he was sitting on.
“So, what do we do, just let him get away with it?” Dalton speaks up, and the glare Garrett gives him tells him now's not the time.
“You know about this?” Garrett looks over to Noah with a hint of threat in his tone
“No. We protect Walker, and I swear he’s never asked us to protect him from you.
” He looks sincere, and Garrett doesn’t question him.
He just looks back to me, closing his eyes and blowing out a breath.
None of us want to be in this situation but we have to make a decision here tonight, and it has to be a united one.
Cole remains silent, staring at the flames with a snarl on his face and his fists tensed tight.
“Do ya know what the thing Walker had on him was?” He eventually looks up to Garrett.
“This is the first I’ve heard about Walker ever being involved.
I always thought Grandpa sold directly to Mason.
Pops told me his head wasn’t right in those last few days and I believed him.
It explained why he hung himself a few days later.
” I watch Cole nod his head as he accepts what he’s saying.
“Cole, ya really need to think about this…” Garrett grips our brother’s shoulder.
“I don’t need to think about nothin’,” Cole interrupts him and then looks back across the flames at me.
“Ronnie Mason ain’t takin’ anything from this family. You get your girl, Wade. Whatever it takes.” He nods and my chest sags with relief as he turns his attention to the River Boys.
“You boys have had a lucky escape here tonight,” he tells ‘em, getting up from the log and heading to his truck. I go to follow after him, but Garrett shakes his head at me. Cole’s made his decision and now he needs to come to terms with it in his own way.
“What the fuck did he mean by that?” Sawyer asks defensively.
“He means you never had to make the choice.” Mitch pipes up, and knowing how close he was to Grandpa has me wondering if he knows more about this.
“I don’t know much about the arrangement you have with this town’s wholesome mayor, but you might wanna rethink it.
Come on, boys.” Mitch nods his head toward the truck, and Tate, Finn and Dalton follow after him.
“Garrett, I swear we had no idea. I don’t even think the—” Noah stops himself. “This all before Walker got elected?”
“It was before he even came to town,” Garrett explains.
“This happened twenty years ago. So I don’t doubt ya, but Cole was right, you’re lucky Wade here got it bad for that man’s daughter.
Not one of us would see our brother go unhappy.
But things could’ve been very different here tonight. You know that, right?”
Noah nods his head before getting up, slamming his palm into mine and squeezing it tight.
“We’ll catch ya later, brother,” he tells me before doing the same to Garrett and leading the others toward Sawyer’s truck. I wait until they’ve driven away, leaving me and my brother alone before I speak up again.
“So, what now?” I ask, knowing this ain’t gonna be easy.
“We gotta let Walker get away with it, but we’re taking Mason down.”
“Nothing would please me more, but ya said it yourself, we can’t. There’s too much heat on us right now.”
“He’s just on borrowed time, there ain’t nothin’ to say we can’t make that time hell for him.
That fucker is gonna have some skeletons in his closet.
We are gonna find them and give him a little taste of his own medicine.
I’m getting that land back, Wade.” Garrett stares into the fire with determination.
“I’ll get Zayne to start digging, he can get access to all kindsa shit on that computer of his.”
“No, not on this one. We let the River Boys be distracted with that developer. I’ll speak to Uncle Jimmer, get his V.P’s girl to look into Mason.”
“Ya don’t trust the River Boys?” I don’t know if I’m asking a question or making a statement. Either way, I don’t like it. What we have here is built on trust and loyalty, I don’t wanna imagine what’ll go down if that becomes broken.
“We need to find out more about the people they work for.” Garrett lights himself a smoke. “They’re the ones who put Walker in power. They’re the ones who make sure he stays protected. I wanna know why.”
Suddenly, something occurs to me and when it does, it makes my blood turn cold.
“You remember when we found out Caleb was the one supplying that shit to Tyler?”
“Yeah,” Garrett looks back at me, like he’s trying to figure out why it’s relevant.
“Mason didn’t need us to keep that a secret from Walker, not if he had all this on him. We both saw the way he looked, he didn’t want that to get out.”
“Of course, he didn’t, he thinks Caleb is this town’s golden boy.” Garrett shakes his head.
“I don’t know, Garrett, he offered us Bree’s autopsy report as a goodwill gesture. He was worried about more than his son’s reputation. He really didn’t want Walker to know what Caleb did.”
“What are ya sayin’?”
“I’m sayin’, we may have found out what Mason was holding over Walker, but we still don’t know why he’s using it to make sure this weddin’ happens. With Aubrey, it was a cover-up for Joe. But this…”
“Power, Wade, ain’t that obvious?”
“He already has power,” I point out.
“Then you need to speak to Walker. You tell him on behalf of us all, that he has no reason to fear us. You tell him his daughter is your responsibility from now on, and you find out why Ronnie was so eager to have her become a Mason. That, right there, may be the skeleton we need.” Garrett stands up and dusts off his jeans.
“There’s nothin’ that can be done here tonight.
Let’s get back to our girls.” He half smiles at me.
“Don’t it all just feel like a never-ending battle?” I follow him to the truck and get in the passenger seat.
“Yet we keep on fightin’ it.” He sniggers.