“How would that work?” I ask, unsure what to make of his offer. I certainly don’t feel like doing a favour for these dickbags, but I’m painfully aware that, even if I did find out what my father was up to, I’m not in any position to do anything about it. Preston and Barrett have money, influence. Perhaps they would succeed in stopping my father if it came to that.
“For now, why don’t we just agree that we will all make an active effort to investigate both your father and Charles. We can meet up every so often to discuss any updates?”
I just shrug my shoulders, neither agreeing or disagreeing with his plan.
Preston is obviously as unsure about this as I am, given the fact he has scrunched his face up in disdain at Barrett’s idea, but he hasn’t had a temper tantrum over it yet so he must see the same benefits in the idea that Barrett and I see.
Before Preston can verbalise whatever decision he has landed on, both of their phones go off with some sort of alarm. Pulling it out of his pocket and staring at the screen, Preston then raises his head and fixes me with one of his characteristic cold glares. “Who the fuck do you have tailing you, Princess?”
Chapter 29
TYLER
Chilling on the sofa, in one of the adjoining rooms Aiden and I claimed as our own when we first arrived at the motel that would be our base of residence while we were in California, I lift the joint to my mouth and close my eyes, enjoying the mellow high I have.
Might as well make the most of our downtime. In this line of work, you never know when you could be needed at a moment's notice.
Aiden is sitting silently on the other side of the room, cleaning his gun. “Bossman wants me to phone him later with an update. I don’t know what happened at that fancy-ass party they had, but he’s been suspicious ever since. He thinks she’s dug up some information on him or something.”
Snorting, I respond, “Well yeah, ‘cause she has dug up information on him. Can’t say I wasn’t impressed,” and a little bit turned on, “that she knew who he really was. She’s clearly been sneaking around up in that mansion, playing little miss detective.”
“Yeah, I can only imagine what else she knows, or what she’s seen.” His voice is full of seriousness, the deadly undertone impossible to miss.
He’s totally right though. Thinking back to some of our meetings, or fuck, the night Kirk confronted one of our newest members who he discovered was a mole sent from one of our rivals. It was a fucking bloodbath. I can’t imagine what Sophie would have thought if she had seen any of that.
God, what would she think of us if she saw us involved in that? If she had any idea of the sorts of things we have done.
“The more she knows, the more danger she is in. Kirk won’t hesitate to kill even his own daughter if she becomes a problem,” Aiden goes on to say, verbalizing my own thoughts.
Just the thought of Kirk laying a hand on her has my blood boiling. I’m not sure when I became protective of her. Hell, I don’t even really know her. Stalking her every move outside of school and her house doesn’t mean I know anything about her. And yet, for some reason I can’t wrap my brain around, I’ve been protecting her. We have been protecting her. Giving Kirk false information for months to hide the fact that not only is she not getting close or making friends with those snobby shits, but she’s actively avoiding them. Not that I can blame her, they seem like a bunch of entitled fuckers.
Aiden seems to be of the same mindset as me. Initially, he just went along with my protectiveness to appease me. I got a good talking to when I first blurted out the lie to Kirk about how Sophie was spending her time, but he has slowly come round to my way of thinking now.
I have no idea what is going on anymore though. We have always been good soldiers, doing as we were told by our superiors in the club. Never in my life would I have thought to hold back information or lie to any of them, especially not for some girl.
If Kirk ever found out, the consequences for Aiden and I would be dire. Death at the least.
“I know man, but I have this bad fucking feeling that this is all going to blow up in our faces. We need to find out what Kirk is up to, and, fuck, we need to stop putting our necks on the line for some girl we don’t even know. She’s fucking with our heads and she doesn’t even know it,” Aiden all but growls out the last few words in his frustration.
I have no idea what happened the other night when he was on babysitting duty, while she went on her date with that wet blanket, but he’s been in a pissy mood since. He came home that night and drank himself stupid and has been storming around the place like a fucking bear ever since. It’s seriously getting on my last nerve now.
Regardless, his statement that we just leave Sophie to sink or swim in a pond she’s got no idea how to navigate, bothers me. Despite what he says, I know he cares more than he’s letting on. My hackles are up and I’m about to confront him about it when his phone goes off.
Pulling it out of his jeans pocket and looking at the screen, he scowls at what he reads and starts cursing.
“Shit, man, we gotta go. Her tracker has gone off saying she’s five miles outside the town limits.” Getting to his feet, he loads the gun he was just cleaning with fresh bullets and grabs the car keys, heading for the door.
“What the fuck? She’s supposed to be in school.” I’m right on his heels, suddenly thankful that we put tracking devices in all her shoes so we could keep an eye on her when we couldn’t be with her.
We quickly get into the beat-up Ford and gun it down the road, following the map on the phone that shows a blue dot representing her tracking device, as it shows her moving further and further out of town.
Where the fuck is she going? She’s never once skipped school since she arrived here. I’m more concerned than I should be that someone has done something to her. What if Kirk found out she knew his true identity?
Thirty minutes later, after driving double the speed limit the whole way, we turn left onto a gravel road that is so overgrown with shrubbery that you wouldn’t even know there was a turn-off if you weren’t looking for it.
We follow the narrow lane that winds its way between the trees until it opens up to show us a clearing with a medium-sized, steel warehouse. Already having armed ourselves with guns, we get out of the car and head towards the warehouse, on full alert for any signs of life. As we approach the steel door, I pull my gun out of the back of my jeans and flick off the safety, not caring what I’m about to come face-to-face with, I was raised to ‘shoot first, ask questions later’.
Looking up, I notice a security camera hidden in the corner of the roof, covering the area immediately in front of the door. Fuck, whoever owns this place knows we are here. I signal to Aiden who looks up, scowling as he immediately spots the camera. With no more time to waste, I back up and kick in the door, causing the lock to break and the door to fly inward. We rush in, guns raised and ready to shoot.
Quickly scanning the warehouse, there is a large open-plan kitchen and living room area with a gigantic TV mounted on one wall, and numerous gaming consoles and controllers stacked underneath it. At the far end of the room are two doors and in the far corner is a spiral staircase that leads up to a second floor. Damn this is impressive. I’m super fucking jealous right now.