Chapter Twenty-Two
Hayes
“We got a problem,” Joey wheezed out the second I answered Margo’s door.
I looked over my shoulder, peering into her bedroom. My eyes landed on her ink-colored hair, her bare back in the afternoon sunlight. When I confirmed that she was still asleep, I turned to Joey, jerked my chin and stepped out into the cold.
“What is it?” I demanded to know, my eyes scanning the back alley and side parking lot.
“Gordon called me,” Joey said, running a hand over his thinning hair. “Not the fucking bar phone—my phone! This is a new number; I don’t know how he got this.”
Fuck.
I held out my hand. “Let me see that.”
He handed me the device and continued his rambling. “I don’t know why the fuck I answered. I never answer. But it was a local number, so I thought…fuck!”
I pulled up his call log, memorizing the phone number and noting the time. “You were on the phone with him for three minutes.”
He nodded. “He did most of the talking.”
“What did he say?”
“He asked about Margo. I told him exactly what you and your boys told me to say: that I didn’t know any Margo.”
A heavy sigh left me as I pulled my phone out of my jeans and muttered, “Give me a minute, Joey.”
He nodded rapidly; his eyes filled with panic as he stepped back and leaned against the railing.
It was just after two in the afternoon. After staying up all night while Jake searched everything he could find on Margo’s ex, Margo had invited me into her bed.
It was an invitation I’d accepted with greed, and when she gave herself to me, everything changed.
There was no going back now.
I was never letting her go again.
I pulled up Gray’s contact and put the phone to my ear as I stared out toward the water, watching the seagulls fly, searching for lunch as a few of the boats that left around five in the morning found their way back to their slips, the crews on them loud and tired.
I could hear the soft traffic of Main Street and the rumblings of the locals.
There was a sense of comfort that Astoria provided, a sense of home I’d never felt before.
Gray finally answered on the fifth ring. “Sorry, I was in a client meeting.”
“Joey is here. Gordon called him.”
Gray grunted. “Was he asking about Margo or demanding?”
My eyes flicked over to Margo’s second boss.
He was in a pair of dirty jeans and a stained bar tee.
It looked like he hadn’t had a wink of sleep.
I watched in silence as he brought the balls of his hands to his eyes, pressing in and dropping his head.
“I’m going to need Jake to pull the transcripts. ”
“Shoot the info over to him and he’ll get it done.”
I turned away from Joey, focusing on the ocean now as a cold breeze hit me. “Need Ash or Dom to come install security at Rossy’s and the Buoy. Margo has shifts to work, and I don’t need her life being interrupted anymore because of his bastard,” I said, voice firm.
“Rossy’s?”
“Yes, full specs,” I confirmed and lowered my voice.
“No offense, Gray. I’m not in the mood to let her or anyone she cares about get hurt on our watch.
Not again.” He knew what I was referring to, and I was glad I didn’t have to spell it out for him.
When Sarah, Margo, and Carrie were kidnapped at gunpoint last year, I had been gone, and Red Snake had been careless.
We’d all foolishly assumed that Carrie and her friends were safe because I had eyes on Carrie’s largest threat.
I couldn’t afford for things to go sideways.
Not again.
Not with Margo.
The image of her covered in dirt, sitting on a damp floor with her hands and feet bound flashed in my mind. My jaw tightened as a sense of unease settled on my shoulders. Margo may have had her money back in her account, but we weren’t done with this. Not by a long shot.
“I’ll set everything up at the Buoy in an hour. I’m on my way back from the office. I only have enough supplies here for the bar.”
“I’ll shoot the boys a text and see who is free.”
“Jake is chained to his desk. Says he isn’t stopping until he’s found Gordon.”
“He needs to expand his search. He could be in Astoria.”
“Yes, we know. He’s focusing on both states, just to be safe,” Grayson assured me.
“Joey says Gordon shouldn’t have his phone number,” I continued, looking at the bar owner.
His back was to me, his arms resting on the railing, his eyes on the pretty Black woman getting out of her car.
She shut the car door with her hip and walked toward the building, a box of files in her arms. I let out a sharp whistle, getting Joey’s attention. “What’s Rachel carrying?”
He turned to me and rolled his neck. “The Buoy’s tax records for the last six years and some before my father’s death. I asked Rach to bring them to me. I need to go through them.”
I nodded and held up his phone. “You good if I take this?”
“No.”
“I’ll give it back tomorrow morning.”
His nostrils flared. “Then what was the fucking point of asking me if you could fucking take it if you were just going to ignore me?” he clipped.
“I was trying to be polite,” I returned. Grayson chuckled on the other end of the line as I said, “We need to find out how Gordon got this number, Joey. The only way to do that is to give it to my tech guy. He can see where and when it was pinged.”
“Pinged?”
“Until then, if anyone suspicious comes into the bar, call me,” I said, turning and opening the door quietly.
I gestured for him to stay outside and went to my duffel on the couch.
I pulled out a brand-new burner and came back outside, shutting the door behind me quietly.
I tossed the flip-phone to him. “Red Snake Investigations’ contact information is already programmed into it. Press two to call me. Got it?”
He looked up from the phone to me and then back. “Am I in danger?”
“No,” Grayson said in my ear.
“No,” I said, “but as a precaution and for everyone’s protection, we’re installing a security system in the Buoy.”
Joey looked like he wanted to protest, but when a sweet voice called his name from the bottom of the stairs, his priority shifted.
Rachel was standing with her hip out, arms crossed, and a scowl painted across her features.
Her eyes, gold and bright, were hard and cold.
“You told me you were going to bring me a coffee.”
Joey gestured to me. “Rach, babe, the only barista worth a damn in this town is currently under the watch of this Reacher-looking motherfucker. Which means I would have to go through him to get your caramel cinnamon soy latte with extra foam.”
“I’ll call you back,” I told Gray, pocketing my cell.
Rachel started climbing the steps, giving me the same once-over she had last night. Then she looked back at Joey, something flashing in her eyes. “You saying you wouldn’t?” she challenged him .
Margo had mentioned something to me last night about the history between these two. Then, I didn’t give a fuck, but now, considering this connection could help me get Joey on my side, I gave half of a fuck.
Joey looked conflicted, almost pained, as he stared down at her.
That’s when I saw it.
He was a man in love, and he was utterly tormented by it. I felt a muscle in my cheek tick as he said, “You know I’d do anything for you if you truly wanted it, Rachel.”
Margo’s coworker froze mid-step and then jerked back slightly when the weight of his words landed on her shoulders.
She cleared her throat. “The tax forms will be on the bar when you’re ready,” she murmured, giving me a small smile.
I returned it, and as she walked down the stairs, I hit him where it would hurt.
“Gordon is the kind of man who gets what he wants,” I started, leaning back against Margo’s door. I folded my arms over my chest and waited for him to give me his full attention.
“You don’t think I know that?” he bit off, scoffing at the end. “Trust me, I know what kind of man that asshole is.”
“Then you know in order to get what he wants, which you and I both know is Margo, he’ll do anything, hurt anyone. Including Rachel.”
He flinched and paled. “You don’t think…?”
I nodded. “I know, Adams. I’ve been dealing with these kinds of men for over a decade. They are vile monsters who will stop at nothing to get something they think they deserve.” When he didn’t answer, I lowered my voice. “Rachel is pretty.”
He nodded. “I know.”
“The kind of pretty he’d turn into profit.”
The man looked like he was going to be sick, but I held his eyes, not allowing him to break our gaze.
I pushed off the door. I had a few inches on him, and he had to tip his head back slightly.
“With a security system in place, we can monitor all of your employees, not just Margo. It would be temporary. We can have a contract drawn up for you, if that makes you more comfortable, but Red Snake needs your cooperation on this, Joey.”
He didn’t have to think about it before he nodded.
I clapped him on the shoulder. “One of my guys will be here in a bit. It will be installed before you open tonight,” I said as I headed back inside.
“Thank you,” he called. The gratitude in his voice forced me to freeze and look over my shoulder. I gave him a chin lift, and then he was gone, trotting down the steps, heading to his Rachel.
I closed the door and shot a text to the group chat, giving them information.
Dom: I’ll be there shortly.
“Superman?”
My head snapped up and my dick hardened.
Jesus fucking Christ.
Margo stood at the mouth of the hall, her lilac sheet wrapped around her naked body, her hair hanging around her face, eyes shining with hope.
Before I could get a word out, she rubbed her left eye, yawned, and then stretched.
I watched in awe as she leaned back, groaning and lifting herself onto her toes, deepening the stretch.
“What are you doing?” she asked, sleep coating her voice.