Chapter 27 #2
The three of them wince at the same time. “I would say you made a pretty powerful enemy,” Calder murmurs. The tightness in his jaw tells a different story from his calm, measured response. He’s imagining ripping my head off and shitting down my throat. At least.
“Don’t worry. I didn’t touch him. That’s the truth,” I add when all I get are skeptical stares.
“So what did happen?” Sawyer asks.
“How would I know? He could’ve wrecked his car somewhere.
Maybe he flashed his money around the wrong place and wound up in a ditch.
I couldn’t say.” I need to stop answering questions.
I don’t want to bring them into this. It’s bad enough I’m involved.
“All I know is, somebody tried to run Allie Porter off the road last night and could’ve killed her, and for what?
Because some rich rancher in Utah paid them to intimidate her? It’s bullshit, and you all know it.”
Levi squints and tips his head to the side. “So what is your part in this, then?”
“Am I in fucking court?” This is too fucking much. Trying to keep up with their questions while protecting Allie—I can’t keep it straight.
Maybe I shouldn’t bother trying. We’re stronger together. Here I am, pulling them into something without giving them the full story. It makes our position weaker.
I know what I need to do. I only hope she’ll forgive me when she finds out.
Dropping my attitude, I shrug, arms stretched to the sides. “This means a lot to me, personally. I need to know I can trust the three of you.”
“Here we fucking go.” Calder folds his arms. “Finally, we’ll get the truth.”
“Only I need to know it goes no further than here and now. I’m serious. I will tell you what happened, but I need your word.”
Slowly, they nod in turn.
“It was Allie. I went to the house looking for her after we had our little talk.” I glance at Calder, who scowls.
“When I got there, I heard her screaming. The door was unlocked. I ran in, and I found her sitting in a pool of blood on the floor with her fiancé’s body on top of her. He was already gone.”
Levi blinks hard. “What are you saying? Did he have, like, a heart attack or something?”
“She said he tried to rape her. There were bruises on her neck—she’s been covering them with scarves and makeup. She swears she doesn’t remember, but she must have hit him with a lamp that fell on the floor. Caved the side of his head in.”
“Jesus,” Sawyer whispers.
“I made a judgment call, and I cleaned it up.”
“Fucking hell,” Calder grits out. “That wasn’t your problem to clean up.”
“Were you planning to use this as leverage against Emma?” Levi asks.
I’m surprised he’s the one who cut to the heart of it so quickly. It would be simple if I could say no. I wish I could. I wish it more than almost anything. “At first. I’m not proud, but that was my knee-jerk response. It’s not anymore.”
“I don’t need to hear anything else about it.” Calder stares at me like he’s trying to see inside my head. “The less we know, the better, so long as this doesn’t blow back on the family.”
“I don’t see how it could.”
“He says this after leading a pair of hired men to our land,” Sawyer mutters. “Dammit, we don’t need this.”
“Then step away from it,” I tell him with a shrug. I should’ve known all I would get is a superior attitude, the way I always have. “Once again, Kade Bishop fucked up. You can wash your hands of me, pretend we never had this conversation, and walk away. I’ll handle this on my own if necessary.”
The thing is, Sawyer looks like he wants to take me up on that. But he heaves a sigh before shaking his head. “No. That’s not how we do it.”
“I guess you were trying to protect Allie now,” Levi murmurs.
Calder keeps his mouth shut, but there’s a whole verbal takedown going on behind his eyes. This isn’t the end of the conversation.
I’m right. “You go back to my place, let Allie know everything’s fine,” he tells our brothers, never taking his eyes off me. “I’ll be behind you.”
Here we go. I brace myself, chin lifted, waiting for the inevitable as my brothers walk away. They’re muttering to each other, glancing over their shoulders in case I could forget how they resent me right now.
Calder returns his rifle to his truck before turning to me with his hands jammed into his pockets. “So this is what you wanted me to back you up on? This is what you’ve been doing?”
“Yeah. It is.”
“You should’ve told me.”
“What would that have changed?”
“I would’ve known what to expect, for starters.” He blows out a breath and shrugs. “You’re talking about covering up the murder of a pretty powerful person. You brought this to our doorstep.”
“I didn’t do anything like that. Do you always have to be so fucking dramatic?”
“You might want to be a little more careful with the things you say, all things considered.”
“Look, I made a judgment call with the cover-up, and I can’t take it back now. But I saw her,” I tell him. The memory turns my stomach. “And I saw what he did to her. She was protecting herself.”
“This is about her, too, isn’t it? Don’t act like you don’t know what I mean,” he warns before I can lie and tell him he’s wrong. “Because I would’ve done the same thing for Saint.”
“This isn’t like you and Saint.”
“Whatever you say.” He looks over his shoulder like he’s making sure we’re alone. “But if we are going to war with Emma Porter over you and her daughter, then you’d better be sure this is what you want.”
I stare at him and take a deep breath. It is what I want, but Allie and I haven’t exactly settled on anything yet, so I don’t respond.
“I’m going back to the house now.” Calder goes to his truck. “Just do me a favor? Let me know before you make any other big moves. And for God’s sake, keep your head down. We don’t need any more complications right now.”
It isn’t easy to keep my mouth shut. He always knows just what to say to get under my skin. “I’ll try not to fuck anything up,” I promise.
“Don’t put words in my mouth.” He gets behind the wheel but pauses before closing the door. When he turns to me, he adds, “For what it’s worth, I would’ve done the same thing.” Then he shuts the door and pulls the truck around, steering it toward home.
I might have to write this down for posterity. It needs to be documented. Calder Bishop admitted he would’ve done the same thing I did.
Pulling out my burner from the passenger seat of the truck, I call Allie. “The boys there yet?”
“They just got here. They said everything’s okay.” Her voice is weak with relief. “Thank you. I didn’t know what to do.”
“Everything’s taken care of.” Do I know for sure that’s true? No. I’ll have to make it true. “You can go home whenever you’re ready. I’ll meet you there as soon as I grab a few things.”
“What? What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I’m staying with you. Your mom can deal with it.
” I turn around to look down the road in the direction the men drove.
They’ll be back. No fucking way they—or their boss—will make it this easy to shut them down.
Next time they show themselves, I’ll be there. “I’m not leaving you alone now.”