Billionaire Ransom (7 page)

“The only place it’s going to fall is on the ground with a bullet through it.”

Craig shot him a half-smile. “I could say the same thing to you. I don’t see you running.”

Morgan shook his head. “I can’t. I don’t have a choice. I have to get my crew out of this mess.” Morgan waited for Craig to say something before he left. The silence spun out, and he turned to go.

Craig finally said, “You know, we had one hell of a ride, bro.”

Morgan turned and put his fist out. Craig bumped it. “All to the end, right?”

“Yeah,” Craig sighed. “Man, I’m so fuckin’ sorry. I don’t even know what the fuck I was doing for a long time. Now I do and I can’t take it back. I messed this shit up and I can’t fix it.”

Morgan had no response. He loved Craig like he was his blood, but what he’d done was unforgivable.

He walked out of the bar, taking long breaths of the almost-clean air outside. He got on his bike and started it, thinking hard.

Wilkes was scared, that was obvious. He’d sent a car and men Katie had recognized; their failure to kill her would send him into a tizzy.

Those men would come back, again and again.

Until she was dead.

The thought chilled him to the bone. The idea of Katie being killed was horrific, and utterly unbearable. He couldn’t stand the thought of a world without her in it.

He had to figure a way out the mess that he, and the whole crew, and Katie was in. The whole thing hinged on him finding a way to get the guys who might be picked up out of town before they got locked down. Once they were in jail, hitting them with murder charges would be all too easy.

He also had to find a way to make sure there was evidence to prove he and his crew hadn’t killed that other crew, and he had to find a way to prove it soon. They hadn’t done it, but evidence could be placed, witnesses coerced.

Not to mention that if Katie ended up dead, it would not only kill his heart, it might be a charge he found hung on himself too. Blake Wilkes was worse than street scum.

He rode through town, trying to figure out his next move. He wanted to go right into Blake Wilkes’ office and strangle him with his bare hands. He wanted to bring as much pain to Blake as that piece of shit had brought to him.

He sped down the road; his anger pushed into the roar of the engine. There was a way to stop Wilkes. It would involve the one person he didn’t want mangled in this mess.

But he had no choice.

He had to enlist Katie’s help to really take down her father.

At the bar, Katie got talked into a game of pool. She demurred at first. She kept saying no, but eventually a couple of the crew members bugged her until she agreed. She wasn’t going anywhere until Morgan came back, and after a few more drinks, she grew restless.

“Let’s play,” she said to Clive when she walked over the pool table. She set her glass down on the table beside it, and began looking for a pool cue that seemed about her height.

Clive grinned. “Don’t worry, honey, we won’t be mean when you mess up.”

She flipped him the bird and smiled broadly. “Why, thank you.” Her amusement level was at an all-time high, and she knew that was odd since just an hour before she’d been ducking behind a row of cars, praying she wouldn’t get her face shot off. But she was safe now, and she knew it.

The men in that bar, the Orphans, would die to protect her because she was Morgan’s.

That thought was both unsettling and comforting.

She was Morgan’s.

She belonged to him, and every man in the crew would do whatever it took to protect her in his absence. So she’d bloody play pool with them and kick all their asses. She smiled again as Clive racked the balls.

She glanced around, comforted by the fact that she was surrounded by people who cared. The realization was a little frightening, but welcoming too. The Orphans were a family. An odd, criminal family, but a family nonetheless.

Her biological family was no less odd or criminal, she reminded herself as she picked out a cue stick and then looked over at Clive, “Is this the right one?”

Clive chuckled. “That one has a bad tip. Try the one to the right there.”

She took down the one she’d chosen, letting its weight fill her palm. It was decently balanced and she saw that the tip was in good shape, but she held it out to him anyway. “I like this one. The tip looks fine.”

He shook his head. “Do you ever lose a fight?”

She grinned. “Can’t tell you. I’ve never fought.” She pretended to grip the stick like she was going to fight. “Do you want to try me?”

He burst out laughing. “I’m good. Chalk the cue and let’s play.”

She put a confused expression on her face. “Chalk it?”

“Yeah, like this.” He grabbed a little block of blue chalk and rubbed it on the tip for her. He sauntered to the table and said, “Now we got to break the balls.”

She waited while he did, taking another sip of her drink.

He broke and she watched the balls spin, when the nine-ball fell into a pocket, Clive said, “Okay, so you got solids.”

She managed to blink a few times and hold back her laughter, “Um…”

He pointed to the balls. “Any ball with a stripe is mine. The solid-colored balls are yours. Mine went in, so I go again.” He neatly shot the thirteen off a rail, but it spun away from the pocket. “Knock in any ball but the eight; that black one there. You got to put that one in last. We both got to get all our balls in before aiming at the eight, that’s the only solid ball I can play. You hit it in before the others, and you lose automatically. Got it?”

“Yeah, I got it.” She ducked her head over the table, lined up a shot, and sank two balls in opposite corners.

A loud laugh resounded, and she looked back to see Billy and Jack staring at her and Clive, both of them chortling. “Oh, look,” she said, managing to keep her face serious. “I got two.”

“I got ten on the girl,” Jack hollered.

Immediately money appeared and was sorted. Katie bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. She hooked one hip up on the table, put the stick behind her back, and made a tricky off-the-rail shot that sent her four-ball into a pocket before moving further down the table.

“Now, don’t worry,” she said to Clive as she made her next shot. “I won’t be mean to you if you mess up.”

Clive looked dumbfounded.

She made all her shots and then neatly sank the eight ball before handing Clive her cue and curtseying. “You do know when a woman says she doesn’t want to do something that it doesn’t mean she doesn’t know how, right?”

Clive mouth hung open. So did those of some of the crew. “Yeah, guess I know that now.” He grumbled under his breath. “You could’ve said you knew how to play.”

“And not watch you get ‘played’?” She burst out laughing. “I grew up in a house with a pool table. People with money play pool too.” She winked at Clive. “Hustled a few cocky dumb-asses in university too.”

Jack burst out laughing behind the bar. “Next drink’s on me, sweetheart.”

The door opened and everyone tensed, Katie included. Clive stepped in front of her and so did another Orphan. A pang went through her heart. They really did have her back, in every way. That these men who barely knew her were willing to fight for her because she was part of their family and for no other reason, made her realize just how little love and care she’d had in her life.

The men moved to the side, and Katie burst into a smile when she saw Morgan looking for her, his eyes immediately zooming in when the men moved aside. He grabbed two beers Jack set on the bar as he headed toward her. “Katie, I need to talk to you. Let’s go in my office.”

She reached for her drink. She had a feeling she was going to need it from the serious look on his face. His hand took hers and he led her into the office and closed the door. She took a chair and leaned forward as Morgan sat on top of the desk. “What is it?”

He sighed. “I talked to Craig. He’s not responsible for the attack.”

She nodded, not surprised by the information.

“We both know your father’s behind it… and what happened to that crew. We know it, but there’s not a lot we can do to prove it. The DEA is here and collecting evidence and, well, nobody’s safe at the moment, you included.”

“I figured. After the shooting today, my father’s really ticked at you.”

“I believe your father has a hit on you.”

Her face paled. “What?” The words didn’t seem to make it to her ears. They sounded so far away. She repeated them in her head a few times before they sank in. “Did you just say my father has a hit on me?”

Morgan didn’t look like he wanted to have this conversation. “You know he does, Katie,” he said quietly.

She did know it. She didn’t want to know it, but she did. She’d seen the car and the guy in the backseat. She had assumed it was for Morgan, not her. She reached for her drink and finished it in one go. “Okay, so what do we do now?”

Morgan blinked at her in surprise. “W-We have to get you somewhere safe. Let’s be realistic here, Katie. Your father has a long reach, and he’s going to make sure I’m dead. If he can’t do that, I’m probably going to land in prison. You deserve way better than a man you’ll only be able to visit every other Saturday.”

She jumped from her seat. “I don’t want better! Shit, that’s not what I meant. What I meant was I want you. Only you.”

“Katie, please listen. Craig worked with your dad. Your dad’s to blame for the DEA being able to worm its way into our operations. Craig threatened to take the whole crew if I didn’t give you up. That’s not him speaking, that’s your dad. Craig knew something was going down and I think Blake Wilkes offered him the crew in exchange for you. Or me. Or you and me.”

“My dad hired Craig? To kidnap me?” She needed another drink.

Morgan rubbed his temples. “Your father paid him to take you. It was supposed to be for the day, and that’s exactly what it was. That’s why he didn’t put up much of a fight. He was just holding you until your father’s goons could search your old place. I’m not sure your dad knows you’ve moved out yet.”

Her brow wrinkled. “Why would they do that?”

“They wanted to know if you had a copy of a file.”

“What file?” Comprehension dawned. “The file! The one that showed the plans for the land that house was on! Holy shit!” She began to pace. “Morgan, they think we have a copy! Damn it! I wish we had a copy! I should’ve taken one the day in the office when I left. If I had, we could clear that whole mess up and fast.”

“You do know if you had an actual copy, it could put your father in prison for a very long time, right?”

He was testing her. She could tell. He wanted to see where her loyalties lied, how far she was willing to go for him. “He put a hit out on me!” She sighed. “All we could do before was talk to the cops and suggest they look into him. He’s best friends with the police commissioner. They take hunting and fishing trips together. Ditto with half the judges in town. There was no way they were going to look harder into anything on my father. I didn’t tell them it was me when I left the anonymous tip. Even if they knew it was me, they wouldn’t have looked. My wonderful father’s managed to buy half this town, and the other half is terrified of him.”

Morgan’s lips pressed together in a tight, thin line. “Katie, they’re going to bring down charges on us. The whole crew. Not just drugs, but first-degree murder. For every dead person in that house. I counted seven.”

Katie gasped. Would her father try to kill her and bury Morgan so deep in lies that there was no chance of coming up for breath? All because of a stupid plot of land? It was surreal.

Morgan continued, “These people working for your dad, they aren’t good people. They will continue with a price on your head. Your father wants you back beside him, and pretending I didn’t exist. That’s your only chance.” He shook his head. He’d obviously come to this conclusion just now. Katie could see it in his eyes. “I’m fucked no matter what I do. You stay with me and you’re either dead, or in jail for murder.”

“I’m not going back to my father. I’d rather die.” She glared at Morgan, not mad at him, but furious her father believed he had the right to pull strings like he was controlling puppets.

“Then you have leave. You have money. Take your passport and go somewhere he can’t touch you.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Only if you come with me.”

Morgan sighed and ran his hands over his thighs. “You know I can’t. I won’t leave my crew swinging in the wind. I can’t run.”

“Neither can I.”

He leaned back. “What the hell are you talking about? There’s nothing here to hold you back. I’m telling you to go. Save yourself.”

“You’re my crew, Morgan. I’m sticking it out. What is it you guys say? Riding to the end of the road. That’s what I’m doing. I’m riding to the end of the road with you.”

He shook his head. “The only thing at the end of this road is a prison sentence or death. I won’t let either of those things happen to you.”

“Then let’s figure out a way to stop this from happening.” She laced her fingers together. “If we had a copy of the drawings and plans, it would force them to hesitate. We could threaten that, if anything happens to us, the media would be notified. It could scare them. Or even stop them.”

Morgan frowned. “You don’t know there even is a file anymore. Your father might have destroyed it. And it’s not like you could just waltz right up to him and ask for a copy or something.”

She grinned. That recklessness he always brought out in her reared its head. “Then let’s steal it.”

His jaw sagged open. “What?”

“You heard me. Those guys out there are all criminals. Surely one of your crew knows a little something about breaking and entering.” She grinned again, enjoying the exhilaration and not sure if it was from the drinks, or her sudden bad-ass-bad-girl coming out.

He whistled. “Are you nuts?”

“Crazy situations force you to do unthinkable things.”

Morgan shook his head. “You’re talking major larceny, not to mention that, to get a copy of that file, we’d have to break into…where would he keep it, at the office or at home?”

“And Dad hiring people to kill you or me isn’t illegal? Bribing judges, police, and who the hell knows who else? I get a lawyer from another city. A big-wig who billionaire Blake Wilkes hasn’t sunk his claws into, and bam! He’s fucked.” She began pacing again. All they needed was evidence. He said/she said wouldn’t hold up in court. He’d have fake proof against Morgan. She would die before she let her father take Morgan down. “Dad wouldn’t keep it at home. Too easy to find there. I know all the safes and secret rooms. He would have made sure it’s somewhere I wouldn’t think to look.” She spun around, her pace quickening. “The office building is a possibility. It’s notoriously hard to get to the top floors of the building, and anything he needed to destroy could be long gone before anyone could even get in the elevator or run up the stairs; even a marathon runner couldn’t do it in time.” She nodded confidently. “He’s got it in the office. Close to him. He loves that damn place more than his family. He’d keep it there.”

“Good point. So, yeah, do you see why that won’t work?”

“It would work, if we just had a plan.” She twisted her hands. “There has to be a way in. Maybe we could pretend to be part of the housekeeping or maintenance crews or something.”

“Too obvious. That won’t work.” He shook his head. “I can’t even believe we’re even discussing this.”

“Well, we fuckin’ are, so get used to it and get it through your head that we’re doing it.” She marched up to him and pressed her body between his legs as he sat against the desk. “I’m doing this with or without you.”