Page 31 of Wild Card (Royal Bastards MC: Cody, Wyoming #1)
TWENTY-SIX
Ash
“ H oly fuck!” I stand up and start pacing the floor once Hack’s finished explaining. “I knew it! I knew there was something odd about Brett killin’ that boy.” I shake my head.
“Ash, being right doesn't eliminate the problem. We have to take this information to Jameson; we don’t know who else is involved in this.”
“Son of a bitch! All this time, Byron was behind it. No wonder he was so pissed off that Jameson sent me here. You think the mayor’s in on this, too?”
“I got no idea, probably. But you have to come with me to Louisiana, I’ve never met Jameson before, and I don’t know how he’s gonna take this. You think we should take the boy, too? Right now, he’s the only evidence we got.” Hawk looks nervous as hell.
“How the hell did you find me?” It suddenly dawns on me that I never told this guy where I was; he just showed up here ten minutes ago, landing all this shit on me.
“I’ve known where ya are since ya left town, and I’ll leave it for another day for you to explain why you're only three miles outta town.” He looks around the dingy motel room I’ve made my home these past few weeks.
“Not that it needs much explaining.” He rolls his eyes, judgingly.
“I was gonna move on after the wedding. I just wanted to be close in case she needed me.” I shrug, trying not to show how much it hurts that she hasn’t.
I should be miles from here by now. I chose the nomad life for a reason.
After coming outta jail, I wanted freedom.
I wanted to see the world. Yet I seem to have invisible fuckin’ chains keeping me here, bound to her.
“Well, it seems to me your girl needs you now, more than ever. You gotta stop that wedding, Wild Card.”
“She ain’t my girl, and I can’t stop that wedding. She doesn't want me to, Hack. I practically begged her to come with me, but she told me herself, she wants all the shit Brett can give her. I can’t offer her that.”
“You really believe that? Come on, I thought you were smart.” Hack laughs at me, and it pisses me off. How dare he come here and start acting like he knows me?
“Brett is gonna be ruined when this comes out; he’s not gonna have much to offer her either.” He makes a valid point, but it changes nothing. I put myself on the line, and she made it clear I wasn’t what she wanted.
“Listen, Ash, I’ve known Ruby a lot longer than you have.
We arrived in this town at around the same time, and in all those years, I ain’t ever seen her look as happy as she is when she’s around you.
The fact you're still here, just hanging out and waiting for her to need you, proves everything. You need to go back and get your girl, stick around at the club your father used to run, and put down some roots.”
“Yeah, because everyone at the club would want that.” I hit back at him sarcastically.
“ I sure as hell do.” He stands up from the vanity stool he’s been sitting on.
“What we’ve learned is gonna rock the club.
Split it right down the fuckin’ middle. I don’t know who Byron’s got in on this.
But I do know your dad wouldn't have stood for it. Come back with me and show the brothers, who he cared about, that you wanna be one of ’em. ”
“And what if I don’t wanna be one of ’em?” I stare back at him.
“Don’t kid ya self. I’ll bet you’ve wanted to come back here since you got outta jail; you just couldn’t face up to your dad. You felt like you let him down, and you left it too late…Don’t make that same mistake again cause of your fuckin’ pride.”
I could punch the guy in his pretty-boy face for being so damn accurate.
“You seem to think you know a lot.” I curl my lip at him, and he laughs at me.
“I can read people, Ash. I know you like it here. Whether you're ready to admit it or not, you were meant to end up in this town.”
“Is this supposed to be some kinda fuckin’ pep talk? Cause if it is, it’s a lame one.” I show him how unimpressed I am.
“You don’t need a pep talk, you know what the right thing to do is; the fact you're still here proves that. Now, are you gonna let that girl you're in love with marry that prick or ya gonna do somethin’ to stop her?” he asks.
“Everyone in town is gonna be at the vigil tonight, Prez too, right?” I check.
“Seems that way.” Hack nods back at me.
“Come on. We’re heading to the club; we’re gonna raid Byron’s office and look for some evidence to take to Jameson.”
“I like that plan.” Hack shakes his finger at me, looking excited.
“We need to find that kid, make sure he’s clear on what he saw; we’re gonna need all the information we can get. You weren’t wrong when you said this was big.”
“And the weddin’?” Hack folds his arms and waits for me to respond to what I’m trying my best to avoid.
“We got time, let's just deal with one problem at a time.” I lift my cut off the bed and slide it on so we can get outta here and get to work.
“All this time that cunt had us runnin’ around in circles.
” Hack stands guard at the door while I root around Byron’s office.
I have to use my lockpicking skills to open a few drawers in his desk, but I’m still coming up with nothing.
Byron is well respected, and we’re gonna have to have some good, hard evidence if we’re gonna take this to Jameson.
Time is ticking; pretty soon, everyone will be back from the vigil, and I’m starting to feel the fuckin’ pressure.
“How's it going back there?” he calls back to me, starting to look as anxious as I am.
“I got nothin’.” I stand up and shrug. “ Fuck! ” Slamming my hand into the wall, I start to feel my rage take over.
“Dude, calm down, we’ll find somethin’; we still got the kid. We’ll head to the lake and look for him.”
“Look for him where? He won’t be stayin’ at the Kingston place anymore, and if that kid’s got any sense, he will have skipped town the second he told you all this. If Byron knows there's a witness, that kid's dead. Come on, there's gotta be somethin’.” I rack my brains thinking where to look next
“If Byron had a computer, I’d do my thing, but the man’s a technophobe.” Hack presses his head back against the doorframe while he tries to come up with something. “ Shit … someone's comin’,” he calls back to me.
“Who?” I quickly scramble to put everything back in place. “It’s…It’s… Esmé ?” He sounds surprised, and when I move outta Byron's office and shut the door behind me, I watch through the door as she gets out her car and rushes toward him.
“What's up, darlin’?” Hack grabs hold of her when he sees how distressed she looks.
“You need to find Ash; you have to tell him to come and stop that wedding from happening. He’s the only one who’s gonna get through to her.” She’s so panicked and flustered she can hardly get her words out, and when she looks past his shoulder and sees me, she sighs with relief.
“You came back.” She races toward me, flinging her arms around my neck and almost knocking me off balance. “Thank God.”
“Esmé, you wanna tell us what happened?” Hack asks her, his face full of concern.
“Nothing’s happened, it’s what's gonna happen that's the problem. Ruby is really gonna marry my brother tomorrow.” She shakes her head and fights back tears. “You can’t let it happen, you have to stop her.”
Hack says nothing, just gets that clever-assed look on his face that has me wanting to punch him again.
“Esmé, we’re kinda in the middle of somethin’ import?—”
“What could be more important than her?” she cuts me off. “Ash, my brother is a bully. He’s dangerous, and he’s only marrying her so he can win a fucking election.”
“What election?” Hack looks confused.
“That doesn’t matter, right now. What we need to do is stop our friends from making the biggest mistake of their lives.” She looks up to him for support, and he stands united with her as they both wait for my response.
“Ruby wants to marry Brett, she told me that herself,” I remind them. I've already made a big enough fool of myself.
“No, she doesn’t. She has to because he and my dad are…” This time, Esmé cuts herself off. “You know how they can be.” Her shoulders shrug guiltily. “Please, Ash, don’t let this happen,” she pleads with me desperately.
“I can’t deal with this, right now.” I start marching out the door.
“Wait, Ash, where are you goin’?” Hack calls out.
“I’m gonna find the kid,” I yell back, hating them for interfering, and hating myself for knowing they’re right and feeling too weak to do anything about it.