Page 26 of When It Reins (Three Rivers Trevors Ranch #5)

mitch

Stakeouts were the worst.

They were even more horrible when you were forced to go with the VP of your club and the prez, meaning I was crammed into the back seat of Loki’s Honda.

“We’re trying to be discreet.” He waves his hand around the car. “How much more discreet can we get than in this hunk of junk?”

“Hey,” Loki snaps, relaxing into the front seat driver’s chair. “This car has gotten me through everything.”

“With the money we make, you could get a new car that could actually get you down the mountain.”

“I don’t want a new car,” Loki argues back. “I like this car. Too many memories to throw away.”

“Make a fucking scrapbook next time, will you? There’s no fucking room back here,” I say, trying to adjust my knees.

Loki looks at me through the rearview mirror. “I’ve managed to fit back there just fine, several times.”

The wiggle of his eyebrows tells me everything I don’t want to know. “Are you serious right now? Did you clean it?”

Loki just laughs loudly, and even Mick joins in on the laughter at the discomfort on my face. Excuse me if I don’t want to be sitting where my VP’s balls have been.

“What are we looking for, anyway?” I ask, trying to ignore the facts I just learned.

I’d gotten to the club earlier on the demands of an emergency meeting. When I entered the room, it was all the officers of the club and me.

Apparently, they are still trying to get to the bottom of the development business. Cheat found a corporation that is zoned for the area the neighborhood is in, but we know, for a fact, a lot of residents refuse to make the sale to get out of the way.

We don’t want some big super-mart to come in and wreck business, which is what I suspect David is up to. If he has some sort of backdoor deal with one of the chains, where he is getting a much larger cut of the funds from the build than the company he works for, this whole thing would make sense.

The lot next door looks like a simple distillery for our brewery. It was designed to look like a place we brew some of the beer that goes to the brewery in Fall Springs. It is also on top of something else.

“We found out where our little buddy has been hiding,” Mick mentions, giving me a look. “Seems like he’s moved to a motel down here and frequents this spot often.”

“The strip club? How original.” I note the neon sign above the door and the rundown building. This isn’t that close to Acton, and in fact is even close to the Wyoming border, which draws in some clientele from both states.

“Yeah, we knew he wasn’t smart, but apparently he makes his presence known here,” Loki says, eyeing the front door. “He was spotted by Clover, whose cousin works here, and they sent photos they weren’t supposed to even have.”

“One that has David in it, so we’re here to have a chat.”

Fuck. I don’t want to deal with this bullshit anymore. Now that I have the girl, which is a miracle and wish come true all on its own, I want to get her to move in with me, hide in my cabin for a few months, and only come out when it is necessary.

All things that would likely never happen, but a guy can dream.

I just want a little while where she and I can just coexist without the drama looming over us.

We sit a while longer, shooting the shit, before I get tired of it. “Why don’t we just go in there? Take him outside?”

“Well, this fucker here isn’t allowed in anymore.” Mick flicks Loki’s ear, and Loki punches him in the arm.

“Shit. What the hell do you have to do to get kicked out of a strip club?” The minute the question is out, I almost don’t want to know.

“Beat up the clientele.”

“You started some brawl with the guys in there?”

“It’s a look, don’t touch policy. Some of them weren’t following the rule.” He looks back at me over his shoulder and grins. “So I touched them too.”

Good hell. The guy is crazy. Yet, I find myself laughing at the thought of what he must have done. They must have some piss poor security if Loki was insistent on stepping in.

Finally, at around one in the morning—time I could have been spending in Juniper’s bed, or her in mine—out comes David.

We get out of the car, and I see him duck around the side of the building at the last second. Shit. “Did we get made?”

“I don’t know, but fucking grab him,” Mick yells at us as all three of us run down the guy we need.

I turn a corner just as I hear a scream, and my blood boils at the thought of what could be happening. I find shadows pressed against the building and see him looming over some poor girl.

“Help!” Her scream is all I need to hear before I grab the back of David’s shirt and yank as hard as I can.

He yells out, and the girl scrambles away. I see she’s wearing a T-shirt and leggings, probably a dancer who was heading home for the night.

Piece of shit.

“Hey, what the fuck!” he yells before his eyes finally land on mine. “Oh fuck.”

“Yeah, oh fuck is right, buddy.” I grab him and turn, pinning him to the wall in the same way he had that girl. Loki grabs an arm, and technically, interrogating isn’t my job, so I grab the other, holding him there so Mick can get to work.

“You okay, sweetheart?” Mick asks the girl, who nods her head shakily, but her tears streaming down her face aren’t convincing me that everything is A-OK.

“Go on and grab your boss for me, will you?”

“Okay.” She makes a wide berth around us and uses a door I didn’t even see to get back inside.

I turn my glare back on David and wait for Mick to start. He lights a cigarette and leans against the car that’s parked in front of where we’re holding him up. He takes a slow drag as David struggles, and before I can, Loki lands a fist into his stomach, making him grunt.

“David, buddy.” Mick shakes his head, disappointment written on his features. I would find it funny if I wasn’t so pissed off. “You can’t keep hiding out.”

“I’m not fucking hiding!” he yells, acting brave now that he realizes he’s in deep shit.

“Oh, but you are.” Mick takes another drag. “You are hiding.” His eyes turn dark as he nails David with a look. “What’s your company doing with that development?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He spits on the ground, and it’s my fucking turn. The angle is off, so I let go of his arm momentarily to throw a jab at his eye. It’s enough to bruise but not break.

It’s enough to keep him from acting out of line, though.

“Ooh.” Mick winces as if he really feels sorry for the guy. “That’s gonna bruise.”

“I don’t know anything. They’ve cut me out.”

I don’t believe his words for a second, but I let it go in case he’ll keep talking.

“They have been trying to buy up the houses with the tax liens or buy out the houses from the owners directly.”

“We know all of this, David. Tell me something else, something worth…Oh, I don’t know…” Mick shrugs casually, then lifts a brow at him. “Your life?”

“My life?” He scoffs, then spits on the ground, narrowly missing Loki’s boot. “You’re not going to kill me.”

Mick looks to Loki, who already looks like he wants to murder someone, and says, “I don’t know. We’re awfully close to that border. I’m sure there’s a ditch we could dump you in.”

“I’ve got a shovel in the car,” Loki supplies.

“Ground should be soft this time of year,” I add.

This makes David look at me and scoff. “Your girlfriend know who you really are? Huh? I bet Juniper has no idea what you get up to when you’re not home.”

“Oh, well, that sucks for you,” Loki says, and before David can see it coming, he punches him in the nose, making immediate spurts of blood spew from it. “Never talk about another man’s woman. Especially when you’re in a position to get your ass kicked.”

I’m grateful to Loki for his assistance and don’t let his words go to heart. Does Juniper know where I am? No. Does she know I’m on club business? Yes. Did she ask questions? Thankfully, no.

If she ever finds out, or I end up telling her, I can’t help but think she would probably be okay with it.

Especially if it means never having this waste of life in our lives again. I would do anything for her, including getting rid of her ex, so she doesn’t have to face him.

“David, this can go one of two ways for you. Either give us the information we want, or don’t wake up in the morning.

Your choice.” Mick’s blasé attitude has David crumbling.

It is something everyone loves about Mick.

Nothing ruffles the guy. He is as cool as a cucumber, even when he is threatening a man within an inch of his life.

“Fine! Fuck,” David says, eyeballing the fist Loki is clenching. “I’m about to be out my entire life savings. I invested all I had into the last six months because I was promised that it would come back to me tenfold.”

“What’d you invest it in?” Mick asks, looking more curious as the douche speaks.

“All sorts of ventures.” His evasive look makes me wonder what he’s not telling us.

“Yeah, you’re gonna have to do a little better than that, asshole,” Loki growls, reaching behind David and grabbing a handful of his hair, tilting his head back. “Fucking tell us what they’re doing.”

“I don’t know! They’re trying to push me out, even though I fucking found the loopholes in the first place.”

“What do they want to put there?”

“I don’t know. It’s some millionaire tech guy. He’s even got some stuff moving into Wyoming because it’s cheaper than California. He’s pushing here because he doesn’t want to fucking live in Wyoming.”

I scoff. “So what? He wants to build a mansion in place of a hundred families?”

“No,” he says, spitting again. Hell, does this guy do drugs or something? What is with the spitting? I watch in disgust, memories of my father’s own addictions haunting me and threatening to pull my attention.

But then I remember that this asshole touched Juniper when he knew better. He had to have. Had to have known that what he was doing was disgusting, pushing innocent people and families out of their homes to pursue some rich guy’s fantasies.

“What’s going on here?” A voice from behind us makes me look, then take a double take at the woman standing there, her expression furious but authoritative.

“Just having a friendly chat,” Mick answers, his gaze roaming over the woman. She was a looker, that is for sure. Her long, nearly black hair was swinging down near her butt, and her combat boots, leather pants, and black tank top left little to the imagination.

“Well, you can’t be doing that on this property, so take it somewhere else.” She flicks her hand at us, dismissing the whole thing, and if this situation wasn’t so serious, I probably would have laughed at Mick getting dismissed.

“Sweetheart, why don’t you just head back inside and grab that boss for me like I asked the other girl?” Mick shows a sweet smile, one that hid the truth of his feelings, and that was that he was getting incredibly annoyed with having to pause his interrogation.

“Sweetheart.” The woman scoffs, stepping close enough for her to touch Mick, but her eyes take him in, a smirk crossing her lips. “Iron Horses, huh?”

Mick lifts a brow. “That’s right, darlin’.”

The woman steps closer to us, looking at the man who’s hanging on us like we broke his legs. I have a feeling he’s doing that to try to trick us into letting him go. Not fucking happening.

“Aaron, what have you gotten yourself into?” She points a finger at all three of us, then looks down at David with pity. Wait. Aaron? “You know who these assholes are, right?”

“Assholes,” David replies.

“Dangerous ones, Aaron.” She tilts his chin up, and it’s then I notice the sharp black nails that grace the very tips of her fingers in the low light of the parking lot. She looks like she could use them to slice his head clean off.

“I’ve warned you too many times to not fuck around on my property. Now, what do I do with you?” she muses, her voice nearly a whisper. I glance up and Loki gives me a what the fuck look.

Yeah, she is kind of scary.

Mick stands then, moving closer. “Listen, I don’t know who you are, but this fucker owes us some answers.”

“Mary says she was being held by him when you showed up.”

Mick nods. “Sure was.”

She takes a sigh, not answering the question of who she is, but it is clear by the way she spoke and moved that she is the one in charge. I am positive that Mick is feeling all sorts of ways about that.

“Well, you were warned.” She turns, and he starts panicking, fighting against the hold we have. The problem is, both Loki and myself are big motherfuckers, and David is…not.

The struggle barely made me put tension in my muscles, and I watch over my shoulder as the woman saunters away. She glances over, giving the dumbstruck Mick a wink, and says, “He’s all yours, boys.”

The door slams behind her, and David stops struggling. “You can’t kill me! The police will find my body.”

“Ah, see, they really wouldn’t,” Mick assures him, making Loki laugh out loud. I let a subtle smirk cross my lips and shake my head.

For a moment, Mick doesn’t say anything, thinking through what he wants to do.

Then he surprises me by saying, “Let him go.”

My head snaps to Mick. “What?”

“Let him go,” Mick says, nodding as he does. I see that there’s something to his statement, something he’s planning, but I feel the way my arms nearly refuse to let him go before they finally obey. Loki seems to be fighting some demon about it too, but inevitably we listen to Prez.

He’s the boss.

David—or Aaron—scurries away without another look back, jumping into a slick Range Rover before peeling out of the parking lot.

I glance back at Mick, who raises a calming hand toward me.

“Just listen.” He gestures toward the taillights that are quickly fading.

“We wait, we watch, we find out who he’s talking to and where he’s going.

We weren’t going to get any answers out of him, which means whoever is threatening him on the other side has a bigger gun. ”

I grit my teeth, wanting to put this fucker behind me and move forward with my life once and for all. But I can’t deny that what Mick was saying is true.

The question is, who is going to pull the trigger first?