Whiskey Neat (The Uncertain Saints MC Book 1) (10 page)

“Motherfucker…” I said, shaking my head. “And Justin’s backing this bullshit?”

“Yep. After his assault in January, six months before Tanner’s death, he’d said in his statement to the police that a man had assaulted him because he refused to back the proposed law. Then two days later, he recanted the entire statement saying he was mistaken,” he said. “Which got me to thinking. What high profile court case would make a difference to this right now,” he said, tossing a file folder on the table. “And I found this.”

“So, let me get this straight, with the repeal of ‘in plain view,” I gathered from what I was reading, “This entire case would have to be dropped since without the law the search that was conducted and the evidence that was found was not done so legally,” I finished incredulously.

Wolf nodded.

“That should have never passed,” I seethed.

Wolf nodded his head in agreement. “It had a lot of backing, though, from democrats and republicans alike. It was expected to pass in the senate, and it did. It’s now in the house.”

My mouth dropped open.

“You are shittin’ me,” I seethed.

Wolf shook his head. “Not even a little bit,” he snipped back sarcastically.

“And how exactly does that fucker play into all of this?” I asked, my head starting to pound.

“When it was first proposed, Justin wasn’t going to back it. I’m thinking that, at least at first, it seems like he might have refused,” Wolf carefully explained. “Then from what I can gather, something changed, and he’s on record as a backer of it. I guess they found a way to force him to back it.”

I knew what he was getting at.

They forced him to back it by offing his stepson –
my son
.

And he had. He totally caved in to them.

“What are you doing?” Wolf asked.

“Going to visit my ex-wife,” I growled in frustration, pushing out the front door of our shared office and heading straight to my bike.

I felt my phone vibrate against my thigh, where it was tucked into my pocket, with an incoming text message.

I didn’t bother to look at it.

It was Lenore.

She’d asked if I was okay three times now.

I’d been too much of a coward to tell her that it hurt.

It hurt
every single day.

It hurt even worse at night when my mind wasn’t occupied and I had no distractions.

There was just no way I’d be able to talk about it, though, not when I knew she’d be her gentle and sympathetic self, she wouldn’t be able to hide the worry in her eyes, and she’d want to ask me what I was feeling.

I’d told her just about all that I was willing to tell her.

She didn’t need to know what position my son’s body was in when he’d died.

The way his backpack, the Iron Man one he’d been so proud of when we bought it together, had fallen to cover his face.

She didn’t need to know how he’d crawled about a foot and a half towards the teacher who’d also been shot and killed.

How when I arrived on scene, I’d promptly fallen to my knees at the sight of my little boy in a pool of his own blood right there in the school’s parking lot.

She definitely didn’t need to know that I’d gone home afterwards, held a gun in my hand, and contemplated my life. Contemplated what it would be without my boy in it. Contemplated whether or not I should use that gun on myself to go join him.

I’d been so weak that night.

And when I’d woken up the next morning, after drinking myself into a dreamless, passed out stupor, I realized that I had more life left in me, at least enough to make sure I took down all those involved in my son’s murder, anyway.

Lenore wasn’t a part of that plan.

But the moment she introduced herself as Lenore, and I’d looked into her innocent eyes, then learned that her middle name was Lane, I knew I couldn’t deny my feelings for her.

Not when she shared the same middle name with my boy.

Not when I couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Not when I couldn’t sleep without waking up, wishing she was next to me.

I just hoped she’d be able to get over the fact that I couldn’t talk about Tanner.

Not yet, anyway.

It was still too raw, the wound in my heart.

It felt like I’d been shot.

The pain was a dull ache that reminded me every single second that Tanner was no longer on this earth with me.

Would never grow up to go to college.

Would never see his wife walk down the aisle towards him.

Would never hold his child in his arms and realize that his whole life was in the palm of his hands.

The ride to my ex-wife’s place was uneventful, and I took the long way, which took me over two hours out of my way

The wind was freeing to me.

Three hours of uninterrupted therapy that I desperately needed.

It helped me clear my head enough to allow me to think about what would need to be done once I reached Noreen’s place.

Hopefully Justin was there.

It was the weekend, after all.

Noreen and Justin were quite frankly the busiest people in Texas, though.

She was so busy now that she was the wife of ‘Senator Hayes’ that it was unlikely they ever had time for him.

He was my boy, my mini me.

They only ever wanted him for the photo ops.

One good thing had come out of her marrying Hayes, though. That being that Tanner and I got even closer than we’d been before, he became more mine than hers.

I loved having him with me.

It was challenging with such a demanding job, sure, but I’d give my life to have that again.

To have him wake up in the morning and ask for candy instead of cereal.

To have him refuse to go to bed, begging me for just one more show.

Pestering me relentlessly to watch Shark Week.

I’d cried last week when I saw a Shark Week teaser on TV.

This would be the first time in four years that I wouldn’t watch it twenty-four seven for a solid week.

I arrived at Noreen’s gates at the front of their estate almost before I was ready.

I hadn’t seen her since Tanner’s funeral.

I couldn’t deal with her shit on a good day, and I really didn’t want to deal with it today.

But I needed answers.

Answers that would only come if I asked the questions.

Turning the bike off, I pressed the intercom button and waited for the butler, or whatever the hell he was, to answer.

It didn’t take long.

He was always prompt.

“May I help you?” Broderick asked coolly.

“Yo’ Brody. Can you let Noreen know I’m here and would like to speak with her?” I asked him.

Broderick’s tone audibly changed within moments of hearing my voice. “Certainly, please pull around.”

I did as told, starting my bike and pulling it into the visitor’s drive that led to the front steps of Noreen’s swanky home.

Broderick opened the door as I was getting off my bike.

I grinned at him and offered him my hand.

“Hey, man. How’s it going?” I asked.

Broderick smiled at me, but I could see the same grief in his eyes that I saw in mine.

Broderick and Tanner had been thick as thieves.

Broderick had been the one watching Tanner the majority of the time that he was here, and he loved Tanner like I did.

Like a son.

And he was grieving, just like I was.

One just didn’t wake up and get over this kind of pain.

It was the kind of pain that wrapped around your heart, squeezing it so hard that you could barely breathe whenever you thought about it.

And I could tell we were both thinking the same thing in that moment.

That we missed Tanner.

That we’d give anything to have him in between us like it used to be when I’d come over to pick him up or drop him off.

“Mr. and Mrs. Hayes are to be leaving shortly,” he looked over his shoulder. “They’re going to a social function.”

His voice held anger.

Anger was something I was used to.

I’d harbored my anger, weaving it around me like a web of protection in hopes that it would get me through the day.

Most of the time it worked…but sometimes it didn’t.

“I won’t be long,” I said, offering him my hand.

He took it, nodding.

“They’re in the front room,” he said, squeezing my hand in commiseration before I walked past him.

My heart ached when I stepped inside and didn’t’ see my boy barreling toward me.

Something that had happened every time I entered this house without him.

He’d run to me, a huge smile on his face, as he screamed that he’d missed me.

“What are you doing here, Griff?” Noreen asked.

I ran my hand through my hair, letting it settle on the back of my neck, while I contemplated my shoes and got my thoughts in order to reply to her question.

“I need to talk to you and your husband,” I said.

Her eyes narrowed. “We’re to be at a function in about an hour.”

I could tell.

She was wearing a black cocktail dress that made her look like an uppity bitch from New York instead of a senator’s wife.

“I don’t really care what you have to do,” I said, passing her to enter the sitting room where they always received their guests. “I need to talk to you today. Right now to be specific.”

Noreen huffed in annoyance as I dismissed her without another word.

Justin didn’t look any more pleased at seeing me.

“What are you doing here?” He asked.

I walked to the stuffy bar in the back of the room and poured myself a shot of whiskey and downing it before I turned back to Justin.

“Explain to me about the bill,” I ordered.

Justin’s face blanched, and he looked at Noreen with worry before turning back to me. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Both of my brows rose.

“Oh really? That’s the way you want to play it?” I asked carefully.

His eyes narrowed on mine.

“Noreen, give us a minute,” he ordered.

Noreen balked, as she always did.

She’d always been that way.

She hated to be told what to do, and especially when it came to her own safety.

She was always oblivious.

And this time was no different.

If she didn’t get out of here in the next two minutes, she was going to witness me beating the absolute crap out of her husband.

“Now, please,” Justin said again when she’d crossed her arms and started tapping her high heeled foot.

She turned around in a rush of annoyance.

“Fine,” she hissed. “Just be ready to go in half an hour.”

With that parting comment, she left, leaving me with a man that was partially responsible for having my son killed.

“Time for you to talk,” I ordered. “Or I’ll make you.”

He didn’t seem worried, but he should’ve been.

Because I was about to ruin him, and not just his face.

“I don’t know that I understand what you’re asking,” he evaded.

I turned and poured myself another drink before throwing it back. Then I put my hands on my hips, breathed in deeply a few times in an attempt to reign in my temper, before turning around to face him once again.

“Okay,” I said, walking towards him.

I popped my knuckles as I went, not stopping until I was directly in front of him.

“You’re sure?” I asked once again.

His eyes narrowed.

“I’m sure I don’t know what…”

I didn’t let him finish.

My fist met his stomach in the next second, and he doubled over in pain.

The breath from his lungs exploded in a deep exhalation, and he started to wheeze.

“I don’t know!” He insisted wheezily.

The next shot was against his foot when I stomped mine down on his instep before quickly following it up with a knee to the face.

He dropped down to the ground, and I saw that the tan tuxedo he was wearing now had the blood from his broken nose all over it.

“You’re sure about that?” I asked.

“Yes,” he was crying now.

I smiled then.

I used the bottom of my foot to force him onto his back, holding him in place with some of my weight on his chest as I looked down at him.

“Well then, let me tell you what I already know,” I said, looking down at his blood-covered face. “I know that you were asked to back a bill and when you said no, they retaliated by shooting
my
son. Then, when you realized how far they were willing to go, you suddenly changed your mind and backed the bill.”

His eyes closed, his shoulders slumped, and I could’ve sworn he started to cry harder, but it was hard to tell since he was already crying pretty hard from the broken nose.

It had to sting like a bitch.

“I can’t tell you!” He whined nasally.

I got down on one knee beside his head and bent slightly forward to stare directly into his eyes.

“I don’t care if you die. I don’t care if Noreen dies. Y’all chose y’all’s bed, now y’all gotta lie in it. The person who didn’t have a choice was Tanner, and he didn’t deserve what happened to him. Now, I know you probably never thought they’d really take it that far, but you did know there was a threat –
a possibility
– and you didn’t tell anyone. Specifically, me. So now I’m telling you that you
will
tell me. Your life as you know it is over. Now all you can do is tell me the entire truth before you go down for it. I’ll make sure it’s a padded fall if you do that. But if you don’t, I’m going to make you wish that it was you who laid there dying in that school parking lot. Do you understand?” I said slowly to him.

He nodded, swallowing thickly.

“Justin!” Noreen’s shriek sounded form the doorway.

I didn’t look up, keeping my eyes connected to Justin’s.

“Oh, my God, what have you done to him?” Noreen wailed. “Broder, call 911!”

Broderick didn’t come, as I knew he wouldn’t.

He saw the look in my eyes before I walked in. He knew what I was about to do, and I’m pretty sure it was relief and gratitude that I saw in his eyes.

So I wasn’t at all surprised when I heard his car pulling out once I got inside.

Noreen and Justin were alone.

“Tell me,” I insisted.