He smiled, so it seemed pushing away my hatred for King had been worth it. I left them there in the kitchen and went back to my bedroom, grabbing a set of clothes. As much as I hated the idea of them talking—probably about how Brickton really died—I wanted to trust my Lamb. He was a smart man, and if I had my way he was going to be in my life for a long time. I just needed to deal with King.
Sighing, I went into the bathroom and closed the door firmly behind myself in order to stop the chance of overhearing anything I’d have to try to do something about.
20
River
The sight of King leaning against the passenger door of my black Maserati, with the afternoon sunlight making her gleam and his sunglasses reflecting the same glow, brought me up short in shock for a few seconds as I walked down the stone steps of the courthouse with Madden at my side. King tucked his hands into the pockets of his jacket and smirked our direction, and that was enough to get me moving again. Madden, attuned as ever to my moods, matched my step without missing a beat. What the hell was King doing here? Not that I minded, but I’d already seen him this morning, and he didn’t usually make it a habit to track me down twice in one day.
“Hey!” Madden called with a cheerful grin as we hit the sidewalk and quickly made our way toward my car. Madden’s grin was so sweet that he coaxed one out of King. I hadn’t known very many people to find themselves on King’s good side quite the way he did, and it was nice to see that he’d managed.
“Hey there,” I said and stepped in for a quick hug from King. We weren’t very emotional as a rule, but after all the shit I’d been through lately, I appreciated how he held open his arms for me and patted my shoulder in a friendly way before I stepped back.
“Want to come on a cockroach hunt?” King said to me with a slow leer that was almost sexual but sent a shiver of fear up my spine.
“Uh… that isn’t a euphemism for your cock, is it?” I tried to make it sound like I was kidding, but I wasn’t sure ifhewas or not, and that made all the difference. “Because I’m sort of committed in a relationship at the moment, one I don’t want to fuck up more than I already have, and I thought with Dallas and all….”
He barked out a laugh and kicked at the ground with his scuffed riding boot. That gave me a second to pause. I almost never saw him in shitty boots like that. He enjoyed nice bike boots, and the change made me wonder if he was planning on ruining these ones.
“You didn’t break up with Dallas, did you? Because I thought he was good for you.”
“No.” He took off his sunglasses and put them into an inside pocket of his jacket. “We found where we think that little shit Jason Bolton, or Xander, or whatever the fuck he wants to call himself, is hiding. Pierre got in touch with me because one of Sapphira’s girls put the fear of God into him. He also figured we’d pay to know where the cockroach went.”
“And did we?”
“Yes, we did.” King rested his hands on his belt and managed to look even more superior than usual.
“King… I… I owe you.” The world felt like it was crashing in on itself. I’d thought hearing about Brickton’s death would end the fucked-up anxiety that was still slithering through my veins and making me wake up in a cold sweat at night, but this? Relief pounded into me and it almost felt bad. I’d been living for so long under the danger that all the aces in the card house I’d built might catch on fire, that finally seeing the end of this shitty situation was almost painful.
“Nah, don’t worry about it at all. This is… fuck. River. You’re family. You may not be a full club member, but you’ve pulled so many asses out of the fire you might as well be. And I’m willing to accept a lot of things people choose to do with their lives, but not things they’re forced to do. Those people that Jason fucker were tricking into going with him didn’t do anything to get their asses in a sling with this trafficking place. They didn’t fuck anyone over or owe anyone a pile of money or make any promises, at least not most of them I’d guess.”
“No, they didn’t.”
“So, are you coming? I thought you deserved to go get your pound of flesh. And you told me how worried you were for that guy, Dan was it?”
“Dima,” I said, and then guilt sank its fangs into me. I’d thought about him a lot at the beginning of this mess, but had been starting to forget about him, and that was terrible.
“Dima.” King frowned and nodded. “We’ll help him. I promise. This roach will talk, and we’ll go get him, okay? Come on.” He started to walk to his bike parked a few spots ahead of the Mas.
“Can I go too?” Madden asked. He’d been so quiet I’d nearly forgotten he was there. It was funny to actually see King’s brows furrow in surprise, and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing.
“I don’t know. Your boyfriend is the big cop who likes to wrestle, right?” King’s expression cleared, and he almost looked excited at the prospect. “He’ll be mad as hell we dragged you out there.”
Madden beamed at King, the sneaky lowball trick he frequently used to get his way. It was almost impossible to resist that much excitement and joy rolled into one, especially when it was because Madden was up to no good. “Evan’s a private investigator now, and he was part of all this. I have been too! I helped chase someone in the airport!”
“No, you didn’t,” I was quick to remind him, but he didn’t correct himself, only bounced on his heels.
King chuckled, and it was clear any resolve he might have had to tell Madden “no” vanished. “I only have one seat on my bike. Maybe if you drive us, River?”
I nodded and unlocked the Maserati, and King immediately opened the passenger door with a small whistle.
“I know, I love this car,” Madden said with more enthusiasm than I would have expected. They both had their doors shut before I even thought to walk around the car. I took my time because the cloud of catastrophe that had been hovering over me didn’t want to leave. I sucked in a deep breath and then forced myself to get inside. I rested my hands lightly on the steering wheel and gave myself a tiny pep talk before I started the car.
“Madden, call Slater and tell him to call Jayce, too. Let them know what’s going on. They’ll want to be involved in this after all the work they did.” I met his gaze in the rearview mirror. His boyish face stared back at me, and I had a moment of panic. What if we went to find Jason and Madden got hurt? I almost opened my mouth to tell him to get out, but he looked down and pulled out his phone, dutifully doing as I’d asked. There was no reason for the way he idolized and listened to me—I wasn’t anyone that great, even though I had a fantastic win record. King smiled at me and that same feeling of being a fraud wriggled through my gut.
“Where are we going?”
King tilted the map on his phone screen toward me. Quickly, I memorized the route he scrolled through, and then he showed Madden. He did the same thing before we went on a ride, and woe to the man who couldn’t keep up.
