Chapter Nineteen
Daniel King looked like shit. We stood in his front hall, deep enough into it that the sunlight streaming through the open front door didn’t touch him.
His eyes were bloodshot, skin ashen. Every time anyone moved too fast or spoke too loud, he winced.
Jakob said there were no consequences for anyone’s actions last night.
Too bad for Daniel that didn’t apply to hangovers.
“Good morning!” I yelled at him, because yes, I was vindictive enough that I liked seeing him flinch.
“What do you want?” he asked, voice rasping like sandpaper.
“We need to talk,” Jakob said. Just then, a young kid in a Kings vest hustled past, carrying a box of empty beer bottles. Jakob waited until he was gone before saying anything else. “Somewhere quiet.”
Daniel nodded, looking relieved at this respite from the busy hall.
He turned and led us deeper into the house.
As we passed the picture of him and Redding, Jakob reached out and snagged it off the wall, so quiet that all I heard was the soft sigh of leather.
He shoved it inside his jacket before anyone else could see it, tucking his arm close to hold it there.
I thought Daniel and Eva would have to burn the house to the ground and start somewhere fresh after how trashed it was last night, but the new recruits took their cleaning duties seriously.
They’d all been in the military, and if their first few years in service were anything like mine, they knew how to keep their heads down and get a difficult job done with minimal complaint.
Daniel weaved between bustling people and showed us up a back staircase. It deposited us into an upstairs hallway that looked as if it had escaped the worst of the party’s perversions.
“In here,” Daniel said, pushing open a door and striding inside.
It was a large home office, painted a deep green.
It looked like something more suited to an English country manor than a southern Texas ranch home, complete with a heavy wooden desk, bookshelves, and a trio of leather chairs.
This must have been Eva’s doing. It didn’t fit Daniel.
For starters, it was too nice. He looked more suited to holding court in a dingy clubhouse with Army and biker paraphernalia plastered all over the walls.
Daniel paced over to a vintage drink cart and poured himself a glass of whiskey. He didn’t ask us if we wanted one. If it were anyone else, I’d assume they weren’t trying to be an impolite host but were just too hungover to function. With Daniel, I knew this for the subtle power move it was.
Asshole.
Jakob sat without waiting for an invite, so I took the chair beside him. Daniel folded himself down across from us, whiskey balanced on his knee. He scrubbed a hand over his face, and some of the fog cleared from his expression.
“What’s this about?” he asked.
“Who the fuck is Redding?” Jakob demanded.
I gripped the arms of my chair, muscles bunching, ready to spring free if I had to. Jesus, Jakob. So much for easing into this.
It was a testament to Daniel’s nerves that he didn’t so much as blink in response. “No idea.”
Jakob pulled the picture from inside his jacket and shoved it at Daniel.
The man was a good actor. He frowned as he took it, looking it over for several seconds before the light of recognition dawned on his face. “Oh, this kid.” He set the picture aside. “He’s just some guy I used to serve with.”
He lifted his glass and took another slow sip of whiskey like nothing was wrong, like this was just any casual conversation.
It reminded me of that first night in Jakob’s apartment.
But his free hand slipped down the side of his chair, and his eyes gave him away.
He must have a weapon strapped beneath the seat.
I was just about to shout a warning when Jakob spoke.
“Don’t even think about pulling a gun on me,” he said. “I’m not in on anything with my dad.”
Daniel’s hand stopped. A dark smile spread over his handsome face. “I don’t believe you.”
Jakob let out a harsh breath. “I don’t want to lead the club. I’m happy right where I am. I’m not going to tell you that again.”
Daniel leaned forward in his seat so fast that whiskey sloshed over the side of his glass. “So why are you staying with Liam?” he demanded. “Introducing him to your fake girlfriend?”
I leaned back in my chair, surprised. Damn, he was good.
He’d only pretended to fall for our ruse, had gone right along with it, had done everything in his power to splash it around town, and all along, he knew we were lying.
Jakob had tried to play him, and he’d played us right back. I wouldn’t underestimate him again.
“I’m staying with him because he forced my hand,” Jakob said. “And there’s nothing fake about Krista and me.”
I nearly choked.
Daniel’s gaze swiveled to me, eyes wild, the injured animal Jakob had warned me about a heartbeat away from snapping. “Are you in on it too?”
The door behind us opened with a click. “Enough,” a soft, feminine voice said.
I turned to see Eva King stroll into the room.
She had her dark hair twisted up into a top knot, leaving her striking features on full display.
Instead of the business attire I was used to seeing her in, she wore a pair of slouchy sweats and a form-hugging T-shirt.
Her cat eyes, a little less bloodshot than her husband’s, took in the three of us at a glance.
She shut the door behind her and came over to stand next to Daniel. “Stop being a paranoid bastard. If Jakob were in on it, he wouldn’t be here asking questions. Tell them.”
Daniel stared up at her, a mulish expression on his face.
Eva narrowed her eyes and poked him in the shoulder. “Tell them, or I will.”
Daniel heaved a sigh and leaned back in his chair.
“Redding’s a sociopathic little shit who was in my unit about a decade ago.
He assaulted a local Afghani girl during a deployment, and I tried to get him court-martialed.
His uncle was a senator or a state rep or some shit, and he pulled some strings and got him off on an honorable discharge.
I haven’t seen him since, but he made a parting comment all those years ago promising to get back at me, and here we are. ”
“What’s he doing at Magnolia?” Jakob asked.
“What do you think?” Daniel said, looking at Jakob like he was an idiot. “Your dad found him and brought him in to fuck me over.”
At that, Eva sank onto the arm of Daniel’s chair and started rubbing his back. “Liam needs to stop doing this,” she said to Jakob.
Jakob looked between her and Daniel. “You’re sure my father is behind it?”
Daniel nodded. “Mike.”
Jakob pulled his cell phone from his pocket and handed it over to Daniel. I caught a glimpse of the screen. Plastered across it was the picture of Redding and Mike.
Daniel just snorted, pulled out his own phone, and handed it to Jakob. I leaned over and watched Jakob thumb through a handful of photos of Redding and Mike that looked like they were taken over the course of several weeks. Jakob was right; Daniel knew about this longer than he did.
“I still think this is too messy for Dad,” Jakob said, handing it back.
“The doctor tip you off?” Eva asked.
I frowned. “You mean Dr. Perez?”
She nodded. “Ordering a hit on an innocent woman isn’t Liam’s style.”
“I think Redding got away from him,” Daniel said. “He’s an entitled little prick with a vendetta against me, and he has no discipline. There’s no way your father could keep him in line for long.”
I closed my eyes for a second and took a deep breath. What a fucking mess.
“I need to go talk to Dad,” Jakob said.
Eva crossed her arms. “You need to tell him to stop meddling. This isn’t good for the club, this isn’t good for Kearny, and it really isn’t good for my family.”
Jakob shook his head. “He’ll never stop meddling. It’s what Dad does. He has it in his head that I need to lead a club, and he’s going to keep trying to make it happen.” He looked at Daniel. “It helps that you’re an asshole and he doesn’t like you.”
Subtlety, thy name is Jakob.
I tensed against Daniel’s reaction, but he just grinned. It wasn’t a nice look.
“Convince him to lay off,” Eva said.
“No one can convince that man to do anything he doesn’t want to,” Jakob told her.
I leaned forward. “Not even after this? After shit went sideways on him, and he jeopardized the very person he was trying to help?”
Daniel let out a low laugh. “Not even then.”
Eva looked down at him. “What if Jakob leaves town? Heads up to Hill Country and transitions over to the Specters?”
Daniel shook his head. “Liam might try to oust me out of spite.”
Wow, Liam really didn’t like Daniel. It made me wonder how far back the grudge between them went and how much shit he had put Jakob through to make Liam hate him this much.
Eva stood. “Then I’m done.”
Daniel stared up at her. “What?”
“I’m done,” she said. “In case you forgot, we have three daughters. I’m tired of sending them away every time you want to trash our house. I’m tired of worrying about when they’ll get caught in Liam’s cross fire.” She turned and headed for the door. “I’ll be at my parents with them if you need me.”
“For how long?” he asked.
She whipped around, hand on the door handle, fire in her eyes. “For as long as it takes you to fix this shit.” And with that, she was gone.
Daniel turned back to us, looking murderous. He sat forward in his seat and stabbed the air between him and Jakob with an index finger. “You need to fix this,” he said. “It’s your father destabilizing this town and bringing drugs into Kearny. All because of his spoiled prick of a son.”
“I’ll fix it,” Jakob said.
“How?” Daniel demanded.
Jakob eyed him. “You’re not going to like it.”
“I don’t like anything involving you lately, so just spit it out.”
“The Specters have been eyeing a club in Georgia that they want to patch in,” Jakob said. “If I talk to my dad, I might be able to convince him to let you patch them in as a subchapter of the Kings instead.”