Chapter Nine
“I don’t think it was the generator going out.” Cameron Briggs looked down at the laptop on Wyatt’s desk.
Wyatt was starting to get a nasty feeling in his gut. Something wasn’t right. He could feel it.
“But it did go out.” Sawyer stood in the doorway. He’d been on edge ever since the sheriff and Deputy Briggs had driven up, but he was more chill around the deputy. The sheriff was currently talking to Joe and Lark about what they’d seen when they’d gotten to the bar this afternoon.
Briggs had checked out the security system. “Yes. Someone fucked with it. It’s got some wires cut.”
Sawyer waved him off with a sigh. “Nah, it’s freaking raccoons. They love to chew on anything they can find, and given how cold it’s been, it’s not surprising they found a way in.”
“Did they grow opposable thumbs and learn how to use wire cutters?” Briggs asked.
“I assume not,” Wyatt said, ignoring Sawyer’s perfectly normal explanations.
“What?” Sawyer strode away, obviously going to check on the generator.
“Joe must have missed it.” Wyatt pulled up the security records. Briggs was excellent with a computer, from what he’d heard. The deputy had been a white hat hacker for most of his adult life.
“It would be easy to do since the wires they snipped were interior.” Briggs stepped in front of Wyatt’s desk. “Do you have any footage from yesterday? Anything right before the cams went out?”
Wyatt pulled up the security system. He was good with a laptop, too. It was the one thing his father had been willing to let him study when he’d shown some talent. He’d been allowed to take some classes, and they’d brought in a hacker to teach Wyatt how to do various jobs that would help the club. He knew how to change records and steal money. How to launder money.
Sabrina knew all of those things in an academic fashion.
How would she handle it if she had to really face what he’d done in the past?
“I looked through it, but I couldn’t find anything.” Going through the footage they did have was how he’d occupied himself most of the afternoon.
“They had to be inside to take out the generator,” Briggs pointed out. “Sawyer was smart. He brought it inside a couple of years back because Maurice kept knocking into it. He doesn’t like the sounds it makes when it’s running.”
Wyatt wasn’t certain they should give a moose so much power, but here he was. He found the footage he was looking for. “Are you going to try to figure out who broke in? I thought we needed a police report for insurance purposes. Joe thinks it’s probably some kids.”
“I’m not so sure about it,” Briggs said. “Kids wouldn’t be so thorough about covering their tracks. If it was someone who got stuck, they wouldn’t want the cameras off. They would want the security system to trigger because it would mean someone would come looking and rescue them. They would also likely be around. You know I had a thought.” He pulled his radio out. “Hey, Gemma. Could you pull up the highway cams from yesterday around four p.m.? The cams going from Bliss toward Hell on Wheels. Sure thing. Thanks.”
“That will be helpful.” Wyatt was impressed with how thorough they were being. “We can see who was in the area at the time. But I still think this is kids. Or assholes who realized no one was watching the place. They did steal the money from the cash register.”
“What if the point wasn’t robbery?” Briggs asked.
“If it wasn’t robbery and it wasn’t because of the storm, why would anyone break into a bar? I suppose there are people out there who break shit for fun, but they didn’t vandalize the whole place.” He’d been surprised at how little damage was done. It had been somewhat halfhearted. They’d taken the money in the till and a couple of bottles of cheap whiskey, and for what? “Why would they go out of their way to make sure the cameras were off if they weren’t going to rob the place?”
“Assholes.” Sawyer walked in, a fierce frown on his face. “Do they have any idea how much cutting that wire is going to cost me? If I can even get a damn electrician out here. I might have to buy a whole new generator.”
“Or you can get one of the Farley brothers to do it,” the sheriff said, walking in behind him. “Will rewired the bread oven at Trio for us a couple of weeks back. Kid hadn’t done anything like it before. Just looked it up on the Internet and had it working in hours. Give a genius a YouTube video and you’ll be surprised what he can accomplish.”
“Sure. His mother’s going to let him come hang out at Hell on Wheels for a couple of hours,” Sawyer muttered.
“Those boys tend to do whatever they want since their dad told them they could have a car if they could build one from Long-Haired Roger’s unused parts,” Briggs commented with a grin. “Looks like hell but the engine runs. I’ll be sad when those boys go off to college. The schoolteacher says she thinks she can get them into an Ivy League school.”
Sabrina. The mere mention of her name made him sit up straighter. “I bet Sab…the schoolteacher would give them extra credit for helping out. Like an engineering project.”
The sheriff snorted. “Is that how you’re playing this?”
“Playing?” Briggs asked.
“Oh, yeah. You weren’t around. Sabrina Leal got caught on the mountain and had to spend three whole days with these two,” the sheriff said.
“Two and a half,” Sawyer corrected and then seemed to realize he’d said something out loud he’d probably meant to say only in his head. “Her dad came and got her.”
And Sawyer had been pissed he’d missed his last night with her.
He had to convince Sabrina that leaving Sawyer out was a mistake. He knew if they had more time together, Sawyer would fall into place. Oh, he wouldn’t make an announcement or anything, but one day it would simply be normal for the three of them to be together, and there would be no going back.
She was worried he would break her heart, but Wyatt was going to make sure she understood it would be worth it. He would take care of her no matter what.
They were a team.
It was so fucking good to have a team.
Briggs’s brows rose and he nodded. “Ah, so we think…”
“Sabrina is my girlfriend,” Wyatt announced. He wasn’t sure why he’d hesitated. It wasn’t like they weren’t going out together in a public place this evening. “I’ve been crazy about her for a while now, and I used our time together to convince her to give me a shot. So I will absolutely ask her if one of the twins wouldn’t mind trying to fix the wiring on the generator.”
“She’s not mine.” Sawyer spat the words out like he had to get them on record or the world would explode.
Wyatt didn’t bother to hide his eye roll this time.
“I mean, she’s Wyatt’s.” Sawyer nodded, obviously trying to get his proverbial feet under him again. “I wanted to make it clear to everyone since no one in this town seems to be able to handle a woman on their own. Wyatt can. He is.”
Now the sheriff was the one rolling his eyes. “Sure, Sawyer. You would never do the threesome thing. Never.”
“No,” Sawyer argued. “I wouldn’t do the relationship thing. I’m not a relationship guy. Teach is a nice lady. She should be in a good relationship.”
The sheriff whistled. “Well, I’m glad to know you care.”
“But I don’t…” Sawyer began and then grunted, a frustrated sound. “Look. She’s a nice lady and she’s dating my friend, and good for them, and the town should be happy for them and leave it be.”
Briggs huffed out a chuckle. “Well, that’ll be a first.”
Wyatt wasn’t sure what he meant, but he needed to get them back to the subject at hand. The afternoon was moving toward evening, and he needed time to get ready for his date. He looked down at his laptop where he’d managed to pull up the footage he needed. “It’s here, but all I’m getting is a gloved hand turning the camera down.”
The sheriff frowned Sawyer’s way. “The camera is movable?”
Sawyer sighed. “It’s old. I know I should have upgraded, but I’m not good at installation, and you know how hard it is to get anyone out here. The system my granddad put in worked so I didn’t replace it.”
“It’s over twenty years old?” Briggs asked, a look of horror on his face.
Sawyer shrugged. “If it ain’t broke.”
“Well, it’s broke now.” The sheriff’s head shook. “I’ll send over a couple of options and either Cam or I will help you install it. I think we can get way better coverage for you. I wish the back of the place had more than one camera on it. You’re up against national forest land. Anything could come out of there.”
“Why would you help me?” Sawyer asked.
“Because I don’t want to be the one to have to clean up bodies if something goes wrong out here,” the sheriff shot back. “Is that a good reason? Is it better than telling you I’m the sheriff of this town and I worry about you and your employees being so isolated here?”
“The bodies’ thing works for me,” Sawyer replied. “Sure. Let me know what my options are, and I will be grateful for the help.”
Brigg’s brows rose. “What happened to him?”
The sheriff shook his head. “We’ll talk about that later.”
“Or we could not,” Sawyer insisted. “I don’t want anyone to talk about me.”
The radio buzzed, and the deputy picked it up. “Hey, Gemma. You got what I need?”
He stepped away as Gemma started to speak.
“Look, I’ll take the help with the security system,” Sawyer was saying. “But only because I’ve got Lark and Sid working here, and sometimes Sid brings her kid in because that worthless piece of crap baby daddy of hers won’t pay for babysitting so she can work.”
“Stef, Rye, and I helped Bill at Mountain and Valley upgrade the security out there,” the sheriff admitted. “We’re here for this community. I know you’re not in town, but your employees mostly live in Bliss.”
Wyatt backed up the camera footage. There wasn’t much to see, just a gloved hand, but something about it caught his eye, made some instinct deep in his gut flare to life.
“I know I’ve been an asshole to you at times, but I hope we’re past that now,” the sheriff continued. “I appreciate everything you do for the people around you.”
Not the way to handle Sawyer, but Wyatt didn’t pause to correct the man. He did pause the video. It was grainy and slightly out of focus. They definitely needed better cameras. It was a miracle he’d gotten this good a feed from the sucker.
“I don’t do anything, Sheriff. Look, if the help comes with an obligatory hug and singing ‘Kumbaya,’ I’ll let the darkness take us all,” Sawyer replied in his Sawyer way.
Something about the glove. It was black leather, but there was stitching on the edge. It was barely in camera range, nothing more than a line of red, a curl of it.
Like the end of an “e.” Like the end of the word Horde.
There were a couple of pieces his brother considered part of the “uniform.” The vest with patches, steel-toed boots, and gloves his wife made with the words Horde on one and Forever on the other. Wyatt had worn them every time he hopped on a bike since he was eighteen.
He burned them along with his vest the night he left.
An icy tendril flicked down his spine.
“No hugs, I promise,” the sheriff said, sounding defeated. “It’s really because I think you’re a fuckup and I don’t want to have to clean up after you.”
Sawyer actually smiled. “I can handle that.”
He was overreacting. Wyatt forced himself to take a deep breath because the truth of the matter was he couldn’t tell from so little evidence. There were surely other people who wore gloves with red embroidery on them. It might not actually be red. It was so close to the camera it was hard to tell.
What if this wasn’t about robbery? What if it was about revenge?
“So Gemma found some footage we’ll look into.” The deputy rejoined them, slipped his radio back onto his belt. “We’ve got some bikers coming up this way about twenty minutes before the cams went down.”
“Bikers?” Sawyer’s body was suddenly straight, his shoulders going back. “What were they riding?”
“Harleys. Custom from what Gemma said, and she actually knows her stuff. Her husbands build custom bikes,” the deputy explained. “She said they were expensive.”
“And?” Wyatt knew there was an “and” in there somewhere. He trusted Gemma’s husbands. Jesse and Cade had built the bike he’d bought a couple of months ago. They would know.
“She said they didn’t look like tourists,” Briggs admitted.
“Fuck,” Sawyer cursed under his breath.
“Any reason you can think of for your brother to come bother you?” the sheriff asked. “You left on decent terms.”
“If you call them burning his tat off decent terms,” Sawyer muttered, his eyes coming up, gaze finding Wyatt’s.
The sheriff whistled. “So they weren’t happy about you going, but you paid the price they demanded. Why would they bug you now?”
“He is the guy’s brother,” the deputy pointed out. “Some brothers are assholes who play practical jokes on each other. Maybe he came in thinking he would see you and catch up on stuff and when you weren’t here, he decided to mess around.”
“When I left, I was told I was out forever. I believe the words my brother used were cast off. I’m not to be acknowledged by anyone in the family.” Wyatt had been cool with it. He’d never wanted to see any of them again. “I don’t know why he would do it, and I’m not sure I’m sold on it being my brother. There are plenty of MCs out there and even more dudes who ride bikes around for fun. Some of them cause trouble.”
But not many who wore those particular gloves.
Not many who could have a real reason to fuck with him.
He couldn’t know. His brother couldn’t possibly know what he’d done the night he’d performed his final act for the club. No one could know.
“You’re right,” the sheriff agreed. “We’ll take a look at the traffic cam footage and see what we can come up with. In the meantime, I’ll get this report finished so you can have insurance come out and start a claim.” He tipped his hat. “Sawyer, I’ll get you the info on the new systems.”
Sawyer nodded. “Thanks, Sheriff. Deputy Briggs.”
They walked out, leaving him alone with Sawyer.
“It’s not my brother.” Wyatt refused to believe it. There was no reason for his brother to come after him. They’d made their deal. He’d paid the price.
Oh, but you didn’t. Did you? You made him think you paid that price in sin and blood, but you tricked the devil, and you’ve always known if he ever finds out…
If his brother ever learned what he’d done, everyone Wyatt cared about would be in trouble.
He was being paranoid.
“Okay,” Sawyer said, sitting down across from him. “But if it was, why would he be here?”
He couldn’t tell Sawyer, couldn’t tell anyone.
“I’m not sure,” Wyatt said quickly. “What would even be the point in coming into the bar and throwing around a couple of chairs? It’s not how my brother does things. If he wanted a meeting, he would demand a meeting. He would have left something.”
“Did you check your desk?”
“How would he know?” But he was already opening the top drawer.
Bile rose in his throat because there was a card. It was red, the color the Horde used.
Wyatt pulled it out and slid the card from the envelope. It was a birthday card. The kind you would buy for a kid. There was a puppy with a hat on decorating the cover.
Wyatt opened the card.
Happy belated birthday, brother. Need you to figure out some of the accounting stuff you left behind. Turns out the new guy can’t get into a couple of the accounts. I tried to see you last night but you weren’t home, and my bike won’t take me up the mountain you’re living on. So I’ll send someone by tonight. Make sure you’re available. We can do this the hard way or the easy way. Tell Sawyer I said hi.
Wayne
He was screwed, and he wasn’t about to take Sabrina down with him.
* * * *
Sawyer looked at the card and managed to stifle the growl he felt in the back of his throat.
Those fuckers had come into his bar? They’d thrown his chairs around and helped themselves to the emergency cash? They were threatening his friend?
“You do something with the accounts?” Sawyer knew Wyatt had been trained to take care of the club money. It would be an excellent—if dangerous—way to fuck with them.
“No,” Wyatt said quickly. “I would never touch a dime of it. It’s all coated in blood. I didn’t take any money from the club, and I did nothing to hinder their use of the accounts. When I left I didn’t want any excuse for my brother to come after me.”
“But you did something.”
“Nothing he could know about,” Wyatt replied, and his jaw firmed stubbornly. “Please don’t ask me about it. I made promises.”
So this had something to do with his conscience. Likely he’d helped someone his brother would have a problem with. Sawyer could understand. “What do you want to do?”
“I want to wake up and it’s two days ago and it’s still snowing,” Wyatt said.
Sabrina would still be in bed, and he could curl himself around her. They would make love to her and then tease her about all the sexy sounds she made, and Sawyer would lay his head on her chest and listen to her heartbeat while she ran her fingers through his hair.
He wouldn’t touch her again. She’d made herself plain. Once the weekend was done, she would be with the man who wanted a relationship with her. Not with Sawyer.
And now he had proof right in front of him. Proof he’d been right all along. The Horde wasn’t finished with Wyatt. “I’m afraid time travel isn’t in the cards today. So we have to figure out what our options are.”
“I call my brother and tell him I’ll come home,” Wyatt offered. “I’ll do the job and then we’ll be done.”
“I don’t think it’s going to work. Do you even know his cell now?” If Wayne Kemp hadn’t changed his habits, he would discard his personal phone every couple of weeks.”
“I can call the clubhouse. The number never changes,” Wyatt said resolutely.
“Okay. You can, but I think your brother came into town for a reason.” Wyatt wasn’t thinking straight. He was panicking, and Sawyer needed to bring him back to reality if they were going to get through this without any of the cleaning problems the sheriff had mentioned. “He wants to let you know he can still get to you. Can still get to me.”
“Then I’ll leave,” Wyatt offered.
Sawyer sighed. “And he’ll send in his boys to beat the shit out of me until I tell them where you’ve gone.”
“You won’t know,” Wyatt promised.
“Look, dude, I love a good time as much as the next guy, and while it’s been a while since I got the shit kicked out of me, I’m older now and I don’t think I’ll heal up as well as I used to. So how about we don’t.” He’d hoped to never be touched by this life again, but here he was. Wyatt needed to be reasonable. Unless he was willing to go off the grid and hide, his brother could find him.
Wyatt’s hands came down on the desktop, disrupting the normally orderly desk. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
Sawyer felt for him. Wyatt had done everything he could. He was enjoying the simple life. He should be able to, but fate could fuck a guy over, and this was precisely why he couldn’t have a relationship with Sabrina. She might be mean, but once she saw what their lives could be like at times, she would run the other way. And she would be right to. She should be safe, and she would never be safe with either of them.
Although it wasn’t like he himself had been sticking his fingers into the MC pie recently. He’d gotten out, and Wyatt was his only connection. He’d managed to get a reputation for not allowing criminal shit to happen in his bar. He got a lot of bikers in, but there was a reason outlaw MCs called themselves one percenters. Most motorcycle clubs consisted of dudes who liked riding around with their friends and seeing the country in a way you couldn’t from a car. They were dads and brothers, and lately moms and sisters and businesspeople who thought riding a Harley was a walk on the wild side.
He probably should think about adding champagne to the menu. He’d had a group of women come through a couple of weeks before who’d asked for mimosas.
His clientele was changing.
Sabrina liked mimosas.
“He’s threatening you.” Wyatt was staring at the card. “It’s why he mentioned your name. He wants me to know he can get to the people I care about. It’s how my brother works. He wants more than a couple of accounts.”
“He needs to be taught the meaning of the word no.” Sawyer wasn’t about to let Wyatt get pulled back in because Wyatt was worried he could get hurt. He was a big guy. He could handle himself. “Look, I don’t think we should panic. Very likely the reason he came in person is he doesn’t want anyone listening in. You know how paranoid they are about money.”
It was precisely why Wayne had wanted Wyatt handling everything. He wanted someone he trusted implicitly, and that had been his own brother. The brother he could scare. The brother who’d been raised to be obedient.
It had to bother Wayne he couldn’t handle his own brother. Sawyer wondered if it had caused some questions about his leadership. It would rankle.
“If I do this thing for him, do you think he’ll leave me alone?” Wyatt asked, though it seemed like he knew the answer.
“It depends on whether he decides you’re an easy target or a hard one.” Sawyer was a practical man.
“Sabrina makes me an easy target,” Wyatt said softly.
“She does, but your brother doesn’t know about her.” He seriously doubted Wayne Kemp was in on the Bliss gossip grapevine. His men would be holed up somewhere waiting to show up tonight. “Yet.”
“He knows I’m living with you. He knows where I work. If I start dating Sabrina, he’ll figure it out, and the next time he wants something from me, he’ll use her to get it.” Wyatt finally said the truth.
“We don’t know for certain.” It was weird. He knew he should be nodding his head and agreeing because Wyatt was finally getting a grasp on reality. He found himself reluctant to kill all his dreams.
Because they were normal, ordinary dreams. Dreams that should have been his right. The right to live the way he wanted, to love the woman he wanted to love. To be himself. It felt wrong to give it up because his bully of a brother wanted to get his way. Again.
“I do.” Wyatt glanced at the clock. “I know exactly what my brother can do to a woman, and I won’t let it happen to her.”
He picked up his cell, and Sawyer worried whatever he was about to do would wreck Wyatt for a long time. “How about we think this through?” He was the voice of reason, why? “Call Sabrina and let her know something came up and you can’t make it tonight. Tell her about the break-in. Explain you need a couple of days. She’ll understand.”
“And what happens when Wayne shows back up in a month or two?” Wyatt asked, a dark look coming into his eyes. Sawyer remembered that look. He hadn’t seen the tight expression on Wyatt’s face since he left the MC. “If he figures out how I feel about her, he’ll threaten her any time he needs something from me.”
“So you go through life alone because you’re worried your brother will hurt anyone you care about?” Sawyer understood the idea on a base level. People were trouble. Stay away from people. But it bugged him now.
He was kind of tired of being alone. It wasn’t like he was going to start joining social groups, but he liked having Wyatt around.
He liked having Sabrina around, and if Wyatt was with Sabrina, then Sawyer got to be Sabrina adjacent. He wanted to be Sabrina adjacent.
“I don’t know.” Wyatt shook his head and took a long breath. “I didn’t expect I would have to deal with him again. I’m a little shaken.”
“Of course you are, but you’re not thinking straight. You’re panicking, and I don’t think you have a reason to panic. Sabrina isn’t some random chick you met in the clubhouse. I’m not saying those women don’t deserve protection, too, merely pointing out they don’t usually have it. Sabrina does. She’s got an entire sheriff’s department who will look out for her. She might be your weakness, but she’s not a soft target. And she’s also not a shrinking violet. You need to talk to her and explain the situation.”
Wyatt nodded. “Yeah, I should talk to her. We’re supposed to meet in an hour and a half. I can figure out what to say by then. I get what you mean about her sister being a deputy, but Elisa can’t be around all the time.”
“Dude, Sabrina lives in the valley. People in the valley look out for each other.” He wasn’t sure why he was pushing this. A couple of days before he would have done almost anything to keep Sabrina out of his life. He’d known he wasn’t good for her, and Wyatt wasn’t either. Now he was sitting here with actual proof he was right slapping him in the face and he was arguing.
Because he’d figured out she might be able to handle him, might be the person who could draw him out and make him comfortable with her so he didn’t have to be alone.
“And they’ll get hurt, too,” Wyatt replied. “My brother can be ruthless when he wants something. I’m trying to imagine what he could do to someone trying to defend Sabrina. Elisa might know how to handle herself, but what if Nell or someone like her is there and tries to intervene?”
Sawyer chuckled at the idea. “Then they’ll get to know Henry’s serial killer side real fast.”
Wyatt snorted. “Yeah, sure. Henry Flanders is a killer.”
How little he knew. “Henry Flanders is ex-CIA, and you seriously shouldn’t fuck with his wife. He’s the most patient dude in the world about anything but his wife and daughter and the protection of the town he loves. If you’re worried about Callie, she’s got two former DEA agents who would take apart anyone who tried to touch her. And Rachel… Well, Rachel scares me all on her own. She’s always trying to get another notch on her I Shot a Son of a Bitch club membership. The women of this town are fierce, and they won’t take well to some asshole bikers threatening people. If Wayne wants a fight, Bliss will give him one.”
“Which is why I should think about leaving.” Wyatt sat back, a defeated look on his face.
Overdramatic bastard. “Can we get through tonight and see what he wants? I’ll send Lark home early. It shouldn’t be crowded. I can handle the bar, and we’ll have Joe and Gil. Can you get the cameras back online? I want records of what happens.”
In case he needed to call in Nate. He wouldn’t involve the sheriff if this was a case of Wayne needing a password.
But he didn’t think it would end there.
Wyatt moved his fingers over the keys of the laptop. “Yeah, I’ll get it done, and I’ll make sure my brother has no reason to pull anything shady. I’ll give him what he wants and then we’ll figure out what to do from there.”
Sawyer had a couple of things he needed to do, too. He stood and moved to the door. At least Wyatt wasn’t talking about dumping Sabrina and going on the run anymore. Giving him something to do—that was the key. “So you’ll call Sabrina?”
Wyatt was right about leaving her out of the meeting tonight. There was zero reason to put her on Wayne’s radar at this point. But Sawyer didn’t want Wyatt to get lost in the planning and forget to let her know. He wouldn’t want her sitting there looking all pretty and having to deal with the slow recognition she’d been stood up.
Wyatt didn’t raise his eyes from the laptop. “I will definitely let her know how things are going.”
There was a piece of Sawyer that thought those words sounded ominous. An instinct whispering something was going on in Wyatt’s head and he wouldn’t like the outcome.
But he was real good at ignoring it. What would Wyatt do? He might be way overly dramatic and scare her, but then they would all sit down and figure this out.
He would only be there because it was his bar. So he should definitely be involved in the discussion because it was his bar and Wyatt lived at his house. Cool. That made sense.
Yeah, it was easy to shove aside the voice telling him to talk to Wyatt some more. What was hard was not getting excited at the prospect of Sabrina needing him. Of them both needing him.
He might not have to give her up. Not yet.
Sawyer walked out feeling oddly hopeful for once.