Page 165 of Their Wicked Secrets: Untouched, Vol 5 of 6

“They want to take down the guy who’s ruining their team.” Jack shakes his head. “If someone on our team was getting everyone else addicted to drugs or running drugs, we wouldn’t look the other way. We’d take them down.”

“We have. Tanner,” I say.

It wasn’t all for that reason, but it was convenient and effective to get him off the team.

“Yeah, but this shit is going to have ramifications. We need to take Zach out entirely and then get the rest of them sent to rehab.” Luke stands and paces the floor. “That and take out Tanner before he figures out another way to get to Harper.”

“At least not everyone is on that bastard’s side.” I rub my thumb over Harper’s knuckle. “This can’t all be about a girl.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Eli says. He leans his elbows on his knees. “The girl is probably the catalyst for Zach to come after ours and use her as a means of revenge. But the power is the real draw. Think about it. He’s popular, and in any other high school he’d be top dog. But with us here he flies mostly under the radar, which might work for the drug business so far, but not if he wants to rule the school and impress his boss.”

“Who we don’t know anything about, except she’s a woman.” Jack rests his hand on Harper’s back. He glances at Luke. “At least, the boss he knows. We all know every road leads back to William Foster. And I doubt the woman is someone in high school.”

“Not if she’s telling those punks to get a job. Though it could be a teacher.” Eli looks at the floor. His brows furrow, and he curses softly. “If William thinks my mom would get in trouble for whatever he has on her...”

He lets that hang out there. It’s not unreasonable. After all, almost everyone in this town is in William’s pocket one way or another. And the things they could go to jail for would be the human trafficking or the drugs.

“Fuck, man.” Nico lets out a breath. “You think your mom is the boss lady?”

Eli shrugs. “I don’t know. It would make sense, but so would Sidney’s mom. I mean, how many of our moms are tangled up with William Foster and the hospital?”

Even my mom has shit involved with the hospital. I grunt and say, “Maybe that’s how William kept our fathers in line. Involve their wives in whatever fucked up shit he had going on, especially when all the guys pulled out of their business dealings.”

“My mom’s not.” Nico raises his hand. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if she got roped into it. Fuck, my dad even talked about getting me an internship with him after we moved here. Something he’s never mentioned before. Fortunately, that’s been sidelined with my injury.”

That’s the one thing my dad hasn’t offered me. He wants me to go into business so I can work for him and eventually take over, but he’s never pushed very hard. Maybe that’s my mom’s influence.

I remember how stricken she was that I had Harper at the house. It wasn’t because she worried about who I was hanging out with, but she worried my dad would find her there. Maybe they’re as entangled in this as everyone else’s parents seem to be. I glance down at Harper.

Did my dad have a hand in Harper’s father’s disappearance? Potentially his death? My dad was still thick as thieves with William Foster at that time. They didn’t fall out until much later.

We haven’t stopped long enough to deal with that. To talk about it. At some point, we’ll need to. Because I promised her, we talk about anything. Even if it hurts.

CHAPTER 50

The Take

Caden

“What do we do?” Harper asks, her gaze falling on each of us in turn. “What do we need to focus on?”

“I need to check on Will Frank and find out his progress on the files.” Jack reaches into his pocket. “I didn’t know if you still need this, Luke. They sent over the files last night, and I copied everything to that drive. It’ll hopefully shift your father’s attention. Or get him to think you’re still under his thumb. Either way, it could be helpful.”

Shrugging, he holds out a flash drive. Luke smirks as he takes it. He looks it over like he can see the files written on it. Maybe looking for something his father will find fault in. His lips press together.

“I don’t want to play into my dad’s hands anymore.” Luke holds it out for Jack to take back. “I don’t want anything to do with him.”

Before Jack can take it, I push Luke’s hand back at him. “Keep it. We still have to go to your house tomorrow. It might be a good idea to butter up the old man if we run into him.”

Harper stands and wraps her arms around Luke’s waist, tucking in against him. Luke curls around her, like he can protect her from everything coming for us. Like him moving out will keep his father from her. But we know better. We’ve pushed down this whole mystery surrounding her father, at least as much as we can. Especially knowing our fathers might be the reason Sean Davidson is gone.

But that’s all in the past, and we just have to uncover what really happened that night in the quarry.

Right now, Zach is an immediate threat that has to be dealt with. We can deal with our fathers after we put him down.

And speaking of putting him down...

“We found a phone Zach ditched in the locker room.” I run a hand through my hair. “A burner that he ditched. We didn’t want it on us, so it’s stashed for now. We also found their camera in the girl’s shower like we suspected. He sent some dumbasses to collect them, but the locked door thwarted them. I sent you what info I could off the camera, Jack.”