Rich just means the stakes are higher when you screw up.
I’m double-checking the hay delivery in the ledger app when footsteps crunch on gravel behind me.
James.
Of course.
He strolls up wearing that smug, perpetually unimpressed younger brother look above his designer suit.He’s got a mug of coffee in one hand and judgment in the other.
“Well look at that,” he drawls.“Princess of Paradise Falls actually slept at home for once.”
“I always sleep at home,” I mutter.Legend swears the Lockup is my home now, too.
“Sure,” he says, taking a sip.“Except when you’re playing house in Hell with the devil...I mean at the clubhouse with that biker fiancé of yours.”
My spine stiffens.“I wasn’t at the clubhouse.”
“Should’ve been.”He shrugs.“Thought that’s where wives stay.At home with their husbands.”
“We’re not married yet.”
“And how’s that gonna work, Soph?You here running a multimillion-dollar operation while he’s out there running a bunch of outlaws?”James raises a brow.“Who moves?You or him?”
I grit my teeth.“Legend’s a good man.”
“He’s a dangerous man.”
“And Daddy’s alive because of him.”
James flinches, caught.He can’t argue with that one.
“I didn’t say I don’t appreciate what he did,” he mutters.“But he’s tied up with that Pearly Gates mess.Those crazies had pitch forks and torches on our front lawn.Too close for comfort.The whole town is buzzing.How long until it gets out?”
I open my mouth to argue, tell him Legend made a bargain to call them off, but a soft voice interrupts us.
Annie, our housekeeper, hurries toward me with the morning paper folded under her arm.“Miss Sophie,” she says, voice trembling just slightly.“You should see this.”
She hands it over.
James leans in as I unfold the front page.
The headline punches the air out of my lungs.
PARADISE GIRL FOUND IN LOUISVILLE AUTHORITIES INVESTIGATING “ANIMAL-LIKE” MUTILATION
My fingers go cold, as the memory of disfigured horses cross my mind.
The article mentions a young woman missing from Hell.Last seen near the Kings’ clubhouse.Body discovered on the outskirts of Louisville.No suspects.No answers.No peace for her family.
James whistles low.“Christ.”
I swallow hard.“They identified her.”
He nods grimly.“Yeah.Says the family confirmed it this morning.”
Something inside me fractures, quiet, sharp.A girl from our town.A girl whose mama probably prayed Pearly Gates would save her.A girl who vanished into thin air, turned up torn apart like something hunted her.
I fold the paper slowly and hand it back to Annie, my hands shaking.Legend is tangled in this.Hell, too.Becki especially.And now.Another girl dead.
