I shook my head slowly. “No.” But I remembered something else. “He said he didn’t know who to tell because no one listened to him the last time when he tried to warn them.”
No one spoke for several seconds.
Then Tex said quietly, “When was this?”
I swallowed. “Two Christmases ago.”
I might not know much about the Kings, but I knew enough to know that their word was their bond, and you didn’t betray each other for anything.
JD crushed his cigarette into the ashtray. “All right,” he said, and his voice had turned ice cold. “New fucking rule.”
Everyone looked at him.
“Until we figure out who’s talking,” he continued, “no one says a damn word about Rowan’s father to anyone else unless I give the go ahead.”
“Agreed,” Tex said. He was still gripping me tightly, but not in an aggressive way—in a way that was meant to shield me. Normally I would have hated that, but right then, I needed it.
JD’s eyes moved to me. “And you’re not going back to that ranch.”
My spine stiffened instantly. “Yes I am.”
“No,” he said flatly, “you’re staying here.”
My anger flared through the fear. “Like hell I am.”
JD smiled faintly. “You don’t get a vote, kitten.”
Before I could argue again, Tex spoke. “If the cartel wants her land, they’ll have to come through us to get it. Through me. And it doesn’t matter where she is, they’ll be coming for her regardless, because she’s the only thing standing in the way of millions.”
“I’m not staying here. I have a life. I have responsibilities. I have animals to care for at the ranch,” I said, my voice stronger now. Now that the shock had settled, I was growing angrier. “What if the cartel—” Was I really talking about the cartel? “—go back to the ranch and hurt my animals? No, I’m not leaving them to destroy everything my family worked for.”
“I don’t think you understand how this works—” JD began, but I twisted out of Tex’s grip and stared down JD.
“I might not understand the cartel, or the Kings, or drug routes, but I understand betrayal just fine. Right now I feel betrayed—by my own parents, no less. But that being said, I still have animals to care for and I’m not leaving them to fend for themselves. I’m going home to look after them. Because I am loyal to those I care about.”
“Even if it means putting you in danger?” JD said, leaning forwards.
“Even then,” I replied.
My heart hammered in my chest, the blood pumping so hard and fast that I felt dizzy with it.
“I’ll stay with her,” Tex said.
“No, you don’t have to?—”
“Fine,” JD agreed, though he didn’t look happy about it. “But take two of the prospects with you. And before you argue about it, Rowan, this is the only way you get to go back home. At least for now, because other than that I have no qualms about tying you up and keeping you in the basement until we sort this shit out. Right now, it looks like you’re the only thing standing in the way of the cartel fucking with my club.”
“Fine,” I mimicked him, even though it was not fine.
“Tonight, though, you’re staying here. I want your property searched before you go back there. I don’t trust the cartel not to have planted something else.”
I jerked back. “Something else?”
Then I remembered what they had said earlier about a fire at the ranch, and I felt like I had been punched in the gut.
It all felt surreal. My parents weren’t who I thought they were, who they had led me to believe my entire life. The land I’d grown up on had been used for trafficking drugs.
As the men in the room started talking again, one thought kept pounding in my head louder than the rest: someone in theirclub was talking to the cartel behind their backs. Not everyone here could be trusted.
And if my father had been right all those years ago, then the man who destroyed my family might be standing somewhere in this building, watching and waiting.
And maybe even smiling while my entire life fell apart.
