Unforgiven--Includes a bonus novella Page 11

  I took a deep breath as I considered that and gave Hill a small nod. Then I walked to my Jeep without a word.

  Hill always seemed to know the right thing to say. He had a way of putting even the most convoluted situations into perspective. Which was why I’d felt so lost and alone when he stopped taking my calls. Sure, I mostly asked him how I should handle Aaron, but during those talks I ended up seeking his guidance on pretty much everything. He was the first person I mentioned the idea of buying the bar to. He was the one I asked for advice when Case and his ex started having problems, and he was the one I went to with concerns when Crew started acting secretive and hiding things from the family. He really had been my security blanket, and when he yanked the comfort away, I’d never recovered.

  When Aaron told me Hill probably didn’t want to be burdened by the things going on back home, I’d believed him. I’d let the hurt at being one of those things override my instincts, which were screaming that something was wrong not only with the boy I loved, but with his older brother as well. I was mad at myself that I cared one way or another about what Hill was doing while he was away. I was pissed that, even though I loved Aaron with my whole heart, I couldn’t quite deny that Hill was the one I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about.

  After our kiss I drove back to my bar in a daze. I couldn’t forget that kiss…would never forget it. But my heart hurt. It hurt because while I’d always wondered what it would be like to kiss Hill Gamble, that desire was never fair to Aaron. I felt dishonest and guilty. I felt like, even though I’d gotten what I’d wanted, it had still been wrong to wish for it. I wondered if there would ever be a time in my life when I wasn’t going to be a conflicted mess when it came to how I felt about the Gamble brothers. God, I hoped so. I’d like to be able to think clearly at least once.

  When I walked inside the bar, I was surprised to see several butts already in the seats, and I realized it was getting close to happy hour. Lorenzo was behind the bar, head bent as he spoke to a customer, and Shelby was running around taking orders and flirting with the customers. It was nice to see a crowd. There had been a solid year or two after I’d opened the doors when I’d wondered if I was going to be able to keep the place afloat. The worry was less now, but there were still months when I had to get creative when it came to keeping the lights on and the liquor stocked.

  Grateful for the distraction, I immediately jumped into work mode and started to help Shelby on the floor, since Lorenzo seemed to have the bar under control. I sold a pitcher of beer and some nachos to a table of tourists passing through, poppers and a whiskey sour to a rancher on his way back to his property, and sliders and sweet tea to a couple who were obviously on their first date, and I forced water and some artichoke dip on a group of young college kids who’d obviously overdone it on the two-for-one well shots deal. Shelby was getting ready to switch out with the night shift crew when Lorenzo suddenly called my name.

  I looked over at the bar and noticed a man dressed like a soccer dad staring at me as he nervously tapped his fingers on the bar.

  I didn’t recognize him, but the nervous, anxious energy he was putting out I was all too familiar with. He looked like a man who was doing something wrong, knew it, and was desperate not to get caught.

  Sighing, I asked one of the night cocktail servers to keep an eye on the potentially problematic frat boys and made my way to the bar. The suburban father looked me over nervously and spun his wedding ring around his finger multiple times. I walked around so I was on the other side of the bar and stopped in front of him. Arching an eyebrow, I asked, “What can I do for you today?”

  The man in the wrinkled polo continued to play with his ring as he gazed down at the bar.

  “I…uh…came in to try one of your specialty drinks.” He lifted his head and muttered, “Barney sent me in.”

  I sighed and pushed some of my hair back from my face. Barney was the current name Shot and I used when someone wanted to come in and place a bet. The name changed every week or so. Shot and I were the only ones who ever knew what it was, to minimize the risk of getting busted by any lurking law enforcement agents. I’d had people come in and tell me they were sent by so-and-so, but if they got the name wrong, I knew what was up. So far no one had been able to trip me up.

  I leaned on the bar and asked, “What did Barney suggest you get?”

  The dad nearly fell off his stool. This was obviously new to him, and I could practically feel how anxious he was.

  “He said I should get a double of the special reserve whiskey, and…uh…one for my friend when he gets here.”

  I sighed again and rapped my knuckles on the wooden bar. “The special reserve is pricey. You sure you don’t want to start out with top shelf and work your way up?”

  When I started acting as the middleman for people who wanted to place bets with the Sons of Sorrow, I’d told Shot the most money I would take from any one customer was five grand. I made him float me the cash to purchase the most expensive booze I could find, so if I ever got inspected by the health department, or the feds, the money in the register matched the product I had on hand. It was a pretty slick system that worked well and kept my conscience semiclean. If I wasn’t taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from people, I still managed to sleep okay at night. And I always, always tried to talk the newbies out of getting in over their heads.

  The dad sat up straighter on the bar stool and raked his hands through his thinning hair. “No. I need to try the special reserve.”

  Okay then. Folks needed to make their own mistakes in order to learn from them.

  “All righty. What do you want me to pour you?” If Shot had sent him, he would know which special reserve to ask for. Since it was baseball season it was high-end tequila, and depending on which one he ordered I would know which team or teams he wanted to bet on. Whiskey was for football. Cognac for boxing and MMA. Rum for auto racing. Bourbon for the horses, and gin for basketball.

  The nervous dad ordered the Clase Azul Ultra and the Patrón en Lalique. Two bets it was, one for each drink. It was amateurish to spread his bets like that, but when I mentioned it, he waved me off and simply asked for his shots chilled.

  I set the very, very expensive shots in front of him after getting the fancy bottles out of the special locked and temperature-controlled room in the back.

  I clinked the edge of my water bottle to the rim of his glass and muttered, “Bottoms up. Nothing is the same after you try the special reserve.”

  The guy nodded solemnly and left right after gulping down thousands of dollars of tequila in seconds.

  I watched him go, realizing just how wrong letting myself kiss Hill had been. Not only because I felt guilty for kissing my first love’s brother but because Hill was a good man, honest to a fault, with an unshakable sense of right and wrong.

  He would never understand how I’d ended up selling outrageously expensive shots and taking money for a bunch of outlaw bikers. I doubted he would ever forgive me if he found out. He was the last man I should be kissing, for so many reasons.

  But I felt even worse now that I could truthfully say he was the only man I wanted to kiss…

  Chapter 10

  Hill

  Do you think she had something to do with my dad’s murder?”

  I looked up from the text I was reading from Hearst. At this point I should put a welcome mat in front of my motel room for the Lawtons. It seemed like they were going to be visiting me on the regular until someone was behind bars and charged with Conrad’s murder. It could be worse, I guessed. At least it was Case and not my mother knocking on my door.

  “I think Baskin’s hiding something and that she’s scared. I’m guessing she found out Conrad was her father and latched on to the thought she was no longer alone after her mother passed away. I don’t think she got what she bargained for when she sought him out.” I tapped out a quick reply to Hearst and turned all my attention to Case.

  My friend didn’t look good. He appeared
tired and worn out. The silver in his sideburns and temples seemed to be spreading throughout the rest of his dark hair, and his strong features were set in a ferocious scowl. I wanted to have better answers for him, but there simply weren’t any. My gut said Dr. Baskin was somehow connected to what had happened to Conrad. But I didn’t have any evidence.

  “None of us got what we bargained for when she entered the picture. Kody came unglued in the estate lawyer’s office. I thought she was going to rip his head off. Both Crew and I tried to keep her from tearing out of the office, but when she’s determined…” He shook his head and sighed. “I’m worried she’s going to do something really stupid before all of this is over. I want you to find who’s responsible before my sister gets herself in the kind of trouble we can’t get her out of.”

  I agreed with him. The texts from Hearst were ordering me to be in our makeshift office at the crack of dawn so we could have a video conference with our boss. No doubt we were going to get an earful about Kody crashing our interview the other day. Possibly even worse if Dr. Baskin had filed a formal complaint. Kody had made us look like amateurs. Made us look like fools in front of the only witness we had.

  She had also turned me inside out with that kiss.

  It had felt like it’d been a long time coming. Something I’d been waiting for without consciously knowing it. And now that I knew what it felt like to kiss her, to taste her, to hear the sounds she made when she was lost in the moment, there was no going back. The kiss was all I could think about, even though Kody had been doing her best to avoid me in the aftermath. She hadn’t answered any of my calls over the last few days, and there had been no more ambush visits at my motel. I was planning on going to the bar to track her down and hash things out, but I’d been caught up in the case and hadn’t found a free minute. I was used to chasing after her when she pushed me away, but this time, when I caught her, I wasn’t letting go. I had a feeling Kody could feel the way the foundation of our relationship was shifting, which was why she’d been so harsh after the kiss. She was scared, and she was mean when she was afraid.

  “I’m doing the best I can, Case. You, better than anyone, know how cases like this go.” I felt like a broken record. I kept telling the Lawtons they could count on me, but had yet to prove it. Words carried only so much weight if there were no actions to back them up.

  Case swore and started pacing in the small space in front of the bed. Really, I needed to upgrade my current accommodations if I was going to have so much company. My condo in Dallas had plenty of room, but oddly didn’t feel any more like home than this motel room.

  “I know, I know. I just feel…helpless. And I hate it. I’m used to having all the answers. Used to being the one in charge. It’s been hard to take a backseat on something that’s affecting my family so deeply.”

  “I know the feeling.” I remembered feeling so confused and ineffective when Aaron had started to decline. Wanting to help but being too far away, and unsure how to do anything or even what the right thing was. I was sure Case was drowning in those feelings too.

  Case stopped midstep and suddenly pinned me with a look that made me want to squirm.

  “Why don’t you step up and keep an eye on Kody? She trusts you, and she’s more likely to listen to you than she is to me or Crew.” He crossed his arms over his chest, gaze unwavering. “It’s never been a secret you have a soft spot for her.”

  “You trying to push me and your sister together, Case?” He was always subtle when it came to letting me know he would have preferred me as the Gamble brother Kody had picked to give her heart to. This was the first time he’d outright given his stamp of approval to the idea of me being with his little sister in any kind of romantic way.

  “I don’t know. Maybe. Probably. There’s always been a connection between the two of you, and anyone is better than that biker.” He made a face and gave an exaggerated shudder. “What I wouldn’t give for him to be out of the picture. You know, I’m about seventy-five percent sure Shot’s the one who took out Jethro Coleman.”

  Back when Aspen was being threatened, Jethro Coleman was the former police officer her mother had hired to kill her. The man had gone on a shooting spree, hitting first the hospital, then the local high school. It’d been a dicey, scary situation for all, until a single bullet fired with a sniper’s precision took Jethro out. There were only a few men within a thousand-mile radius who could’ve made a shot like that, and the biker was one of them.

  “Oh, I agree.” Only I was 100 percent sure Caldwell had been the one who took the killer out. Too bad there wasn’t a single scrap of evidence to prove it. “How did the two of them get so close anyways?”

  Case shrugged and resumed his pacing. “Not really sure. The club showed up out of the blue. Kody being Kody, she was suddenly thick as thieves with Shot. The guys hang out in her bar a lot on the weekends. I think they help bring business in. I don’t like it, but I do have to admit Shot’s always been good to her.” He lifted his eyebrows in my direction and gave me a smirk. “But I think you would be better. You understand her. You accept her for who she is. You guys have history.”

  I sighed and scrubbed a hand down my face. “A history that includes my brother. I know it’s been a long time, but you can’t forget him, Case. He’s there, right between us.” Just like he always was.

  Case grumbled something under his breath and pointed a finger in my direction. “Aaron loved both of you. I think he would want you and my sister to be happy. Even if the only way to get there is by the two of you being together. Aaron couldn’t control his emotions, but he was never a bad or vindictive guy.”

  It was a struggle to think back to a time when Aaron had been happy. I could barely recall what he’d looked like when he smiled. The depression had taken over so much of who my younger brother was, it was nearly impossible to remember what he had been like when he wasn’t shrouded in either sadness or anger.

  “Well, he’s not around to ask for his opinion, and Kody’s made hers pretty clear. So while I appreciate the ringing endorsement, I don’t think your sister is ever going to see me as more than an annoyance.” Even if she had kissed the life out of me and reminded me what it felt like to get lost in the moment, to let go of reality and touch a dream.

  Case looked like he was going to argue when his phone suddenly went off. I figured it was Aspen calling to check up on him. I was about to help myself to a beer from the minibar but stopped short when Case suddenly swore loud enough for the folks in the room next door to hear.

  “How many people are involved?” He waited for a second, eyes catching mine. “Any injuries reported yet?” He shook his head, swearing again. “No. I’m headed out there now. Send a couple of patrol cars, but tell the officers I’ll be on the scene along with a Texas Ranger and we’ll both be armed.”

  I moved toward where I’d left my weapon and my hat. “What’s going on?” Case was still barking orders into his cell phone as he headed toward the door, motioning for me to follow.

  It wasn’t until we were at his marked sheriff’s SUV that he put his phone down and growled, “Bar fight out at Kody’s place. It happens occasionally, but the Sons of Sorrow are there, which means it can turn into a bloodbath in a second. Shot and his boys don’t play nice, and they don’t mind spending the night in jail. We need to go bust it up before someone gets hurt.”

  “Absolutely.” Like I was going to miss my chance to toss that biker in the slammer for a night or two. Anything to keep him away from Kody.

  Case drove like a madman through the mostly sleepy town. He had the sirens blaring, and he didn’t stop the steady stream of swear words under his breath until we reached the parking lot. The SUV screeched to a halt in a cloud of dust, the blue and red lights illuminating the crowd in front of the bar.

  It looked as if everyone had spilled out into the parking lot. A circle of people surrounded a smaller group of men who appeared to be trying to put each other on the ground. Even from this distance I co
uld see bloody noses, swollen eyes, and split lips. Two distinct groups of men seemed to be involved in the brawl. One side was dressed in leather and had the SoS logo on the backs of their jackets and vests. The other group looked like a handful of cowboys. They would probably have no trouble holding their own under typical circumstances, but they didn’t stand a chance against a bunch of pissed-off bikers.

  “How do you want to handle this?” While it’d been some time since I’d had to wade into a bar fight, I remembered how to avoid a broken nose.

  Case sighed and reached for the radio attached to the dash of his SUV. A second later his voice boomed out of a speaker.

  “Sheriff’s department! Break it up or you’re all going to jail!”

  The announcement was enough to send those on the outskirts of the circle scattering, some to their cars, most back toward the bar. The bikers and the cowboys barely flinched. In fact it seemed like the announcement ramped up their efforts to do as much damage to one another as possible.

  “I guess we’re going in.” I took my hat off and set it on the hood of the SUV.

  Case grunted and gave a nod. “Watch your weapon. I wouldn’t put it past either side to go for it in the heat of the moment.”

  It sounded like he was speaking from experience, which made me wonder exactly who watched out for Kody when her customers got out of control. If situations like this were common, someone should be doing something to keep her and her employees safe.

  I swore under my breath and followed Case toward the mayhem. He was grumbling about getting too old to keep breaking up bar fights, which made me roll my eyes at his back. He was younger than me, and I could still hold my own. There was no easing into the bedlam. Both of us were immediately drawn into the fray.

  I caught a wild punch before it connected with my cheek. I pulled a skinny biker with a green mohawk off a much heavier cowboy and told him to knock it off. I sidestepped a cowboy boot someone had removed and sent flying at my head, slowly and methodically making my way to the center of the dogpile.