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He smiled. “You will tell me exactly what I want to hear, or else.”
I turned to shut the trunk and quickly stuffed the phone inside my bra, hoping Sara had already heard enough to call the cops or the Steel Demons. At this point I wasn’t feeling particularly picky. “So much like your brother,” I taunted him unwisely. “Maybe you already have all the answers you need, and this is just an elaborate ruse to get the cops off your back.”
“Funny,” he muttered and shoved me towards his dark green sedan.
“Not really. I know about the million-dollar insurance policy that goes straight to you. Sounds like motive to me.”
“Shut up,” he growled and hit me on the back of the head with the gun. He stuffed me in the back seat and the last thing I heard before I passed out was my daughter’s cries.
Chapter 35
Slate
It was amazing just how quickly life could change for the better. For most of my life I always expected for shit to go to shit because that had been my experience. My parents couldn’t stay sober for more than a few days at a time and from them I learned to always expect that the worst would happen.
In that way, Emma and I weren’t all that different from one another. The main difference was that when her life went to shit, she had our daughter to worry about and she’d consistently put herself in harm’s way just to keep her safe. I wasn’t sure if or how I could ever make that up to her, but I was damned determined to try.
The first step to making that happen was to get rid of Mark Edwards. He’d been quiet for a few days now but with the charges against Emma dropped, I fully expected him to pop up again. And when he did, I would be ready.
“Slate, you got a visitor!”
I paused in my current task and let out a heavy sigh. “Are you fucking with me?” Rebel loved making a nuisance of himself at the most inopportune times, like when I was busy trying to figure out how to ruin a former dirty cop who had a hard-on for my woman.
“Nope.” That was all he said, giving me no indication who the fuck was there to see me.
I hoped it wasn’t Sheriff Cross again. After the way Emma said she was treated, I couldn’t even look at the man without wanting to bash his face in. “Who is it?”
The next thing I heard was the sound of a woman’s stilettos on the hard floor of the clubhouse. The noise grew closer and closer until it stopped at the doorway to my office. “You’ve hardly changed at all.”
The voice wasn’t familiar even though her words were, and I looked up to find the slightly familiar figure that was Emma’s best friend. “Sara?”
She nodded but the smile I expected to see wasn’t there. “Good, you remember me. We don’t have to waste time with pleasantries.”
My brows pulled down. “Are you here to threaten me or warn me off Emma?”
She stopped abruptly and shook her head. “Fuck that. She’s in love with you and she believes that you love her too, which is all I want for her. This is more serious than that.” She thrust her arm out and handed me her phone.
“What is this?”
Tears brimmed in her eyes as she inhaled deeply. “I was on the phone with Emma while she was grocery shopping and when she was loading the groceries into the car, Mark approached her. Alex’s brother, Mark.”
That had me on my feet in an instant. Panic coursed through my veins. “What did he say?”
“Something about getting answers. Emma said something about him having a gun aimed at Ash and then he forced themto get into his car. He hit Emma and the only thing I’ve heard for the last ten minutes is Ash crying, I would have called the cops, but I didn’t want to end the call,” she said and nodded at the phone she still held out for me.
I snatched the phone from her hand and listened on speakerphone while I tracked the location. The phone was still in town, and it was headed in the direction of Mark’s house, which was a small comfort.
“You’ll go after her right? And get her back?” Sara’s eyes welled with tears, and she wrapped her arms around her body, so at odds with the power suit and sky-high stilettos she wore.
Emma had made her sound so tough but right now she was a woman terrified for her best friend and goddaughter. “Yeah, Sara. I’m going to get my girls back. You stay here.”
She shook her head. “I can’t.”
“You will. Emma will need to see you when she gets back.” I wrapped an arm around her and steered her back into the clubhouse where Grace and Laura sat chatting with a few other girls and some club whores. “Grace. Laura. This is Sara, Emma’s best friend. Keep her comfortable and here,” I said in a pointed tone before my gaze swung to Maverick and Rocky. “We need to talk.”
Without a word, Maverick and Rocky, along with all the other brothers in the room followed me to my office. “What’s up?” Diesel stood behind everyone with his arms folded, a deadly serious expression on his face.
“Sara was on the phone with Emma when Mark took her. And Ash.” My hands balled into fists and anger pulsed through me. “I know what the right thing to do is and I know what thefuck I want to do.” I wanted to empty my clip into that asshole for daring to scare my girls, but I also knew that this was an opportunity to get suspicion off Emma and onto Mark once and for all. “Talk me off the ledge or back me up.”
