CHAPTER Fourteen
When the story broke, the entire lake area was both horrified and abuzz with the news concerning the red truck.
Everyone was now on the lookout for a red king cab, and Shane Simpson was panicked.
The only thing he knew to do was pay Nolan Mosser a visit.
When Shane walked into the law office, Mosser nearly came unglued. “What in the hell are you doing here?”
“I need a lawyer, Nolan,” Shane replied rather sarcastically.
Pulling Shane into his private office, Nolan was thinking of all the ways this meeting could go wrong.
“Have you not read the fucking paper, Shane?” Nolan barked.
“Of course I have, you idiot. That’s why I’m here.”
“Well, I hope you plan on selling that truck soon. The fact that it’s in my parking lot makes me more than a little worried.”
But Shane was not that worried. He had a plan, and as soon as he got Nolan’s help, he would be scot free. When he pulled out the plastic bag containing Marny Weathers’s clothes, Nolan almost passed out, hoping what he saw was not what he thought he saw.
“What the fuck is that?”
“My ticket to freedom, but you have to help me.”
“Oh no! I did my duty for you in the Meyer case. I’m not getting involved, so just get out of here,” Mosser ordered.
Shane gave Nolan a chilling glare and then stood up rather suddenly from his seat and grabbed Nolan by the shirt and tie. Shane damn near pulled him across the desk, holding his face only inches from his own.
“You don’t have a fucking choice, Nolan. I saved your scrawny ass numerous times in prison. You don’t just do one little thing for me on the outside and get to call it even. You’re still my bitch, and you’ll do what I say. Understand?”
With no options, Nolan reluctantly replied, “Yes.”
And with that, Shane let go of Nolan and gave him a little shove that sent him backward, almost falling into his chair.
“You’re going to find a way to get these in Ross Paine’s possession.
And if you don’t, your pretty, young daughter, Nicole, who goes to St. Michael’s High School and drives a silver Nissan, will become the next hot, little thing I grab.
And you better believe I’ll be ruthless, so I suggest you do as you’re told.
” And because he could, Shane added, “Bitch.”
And with that, Shane was gone, leaving Nolan an emotional wreck, not knowing how to end this madness with the most heartless human he’d ever known.
Even if he went to the police, Shane had contacts who would be more than happy to do a job.
Nolan didn’t care about himself, but he had always feared for his family.
Nolan knew all too well that Shane was smart and ruthless.
He would have no problems following through on any of his threats, so Nolan was stuck, and he knew it.
Several years ago, when Nolan Mosser was in law school, he got caught up in a situation where he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Mosser ended up being sentenced to the Missouri State Penitentiary for driving the getaway car in an armed robbery that he had no idea was going down.
To make matters worse, the robbery resulted in the death of a convenience store owner in Bowling Green.
Even though Nolan had no idea what was about to transpire that night, he was found guilty after a lengthy trial, and the twenty-four-year-old law student was sent to prison instead of attending his second year of law school.
Being quite young, handsome, and innocent, Nolan attracted the wrong element inside.
That’s when he met Shane Simpson, who took Nolan under his wing after hearing he was going to be a lawyer.
“Someday, on the outside, you’ll owe me,” Shane always said. At the time, Nolan believed his path as a free man would never cross with Shane Simpson, but as fate would have it, there they were at the lake, and Shane was calling in his favors.
Prison had already fucked up his life, and his law degree was a miracle.
Not many felons have become lawyers. Nolan was allowed to continue his studies while locked up, and when he was released, he completed the requirements for his law degree, making it official.
And there was one other big reason Nolan Mosser had a law degree hanging on his wall—his dad had money coming out of his ass.
But here he was fucking his life up again, still tethered to Shane Simpson. Nonetheless, he prepared to make the trek out to Lochlan’s Point to see Ross and somehow find a way to plant Marny Weathers’s clothes to sway public opinion once again away from the real perpetrator and toward Ross Paine.