Conrad (Savage Kings MC - South Carolina Book Series 4) - Lane Hart Page 0,1

the Savage Kings are not on your payroll or anyone else’s. We can’t help you.”

Grumbling under his breath, he shoves his hands into his pockets, fumbling around until he finally finds what he’s looking for – his cell phone. His sausage fingers jab at the device, and then he spins it around to show me the screen.

All I can do is stare at the thankfully silent video for several long seconds as my lungs squeeze painfully in my chest. I quickly glance over my shoulder nervously to make sure no customers or staff, especially Cannon, are seeing the violent images.

“There’s plenty more where that came from,” the chief says cheerfully with a smirk as he slides the phone into his pants pocket. “I’ve got hours of you and your…extracurricular activities.”

When I can take a deep breath again, I quietly grit out, “How the fuck did you get that?”

“Contrary to what you all may believe, this is my town, not Roman McNamara’s or the Savage Kings MC. I decide what businesses are allowed to operate within the city limits. Sam Brown and I have an agreement. He provides me with some of the footage from his…establishment, and in exchange, I don’t shut him down.”

I stab my fingers through the front of my hair as I try and figure out what the hell I’m going to do.

“What do you think your brother and the MC will say when they watch these videos?” the son of a bitch asks.

“It was all consensual!”

“Maybe so. But will they actually believe you after they see it for themselves, especially after how bent out of shape Roman got about what happened to that girl? What was her name? Teresa?”

“Tessa,” I whisper.

“Tessa. Right!” he says with a snap of his fingers.

“I haven’t been back there in months, since way before the night she was taken,” I assure him. “I’m never going back again!”

“Whatever you say,” Chief Bailey replies. “I don’t give a shit what you do in your free time. It’s your life. As a father, though, well, I would hate it, but I’ll have to send a copy to your parents too.”

All the blood drains from my face so fast that I get dizzy and have to grab on to one of the Harleys on display to keep from hitting the floor. Cannon and I couldn’t have gone into a lab and created a better mother and father than the ones we were given. Right now, they have enough on their plate with my dad having to quit his job to take care of my mom as her multiple sclerosis worsens. They don’t need any extra stress on them, especially something like this that would break their hearts.

“Don’t…” I mutter.

“You don’t want me to send the video to anyone?” he asks snidely.

“No.”

“So does that mean you’re going to enlist the MC to help me with my favor?”

“Fine. We’ll do it!”

“That’s what I thought,” he remarks. “Give me your number so I can text you the details about my daughter.”

I rattle off the numbers to him absently, still unable to wrap my head around all this shit. How can this be happening? It’s like my worst nightmare, having my dark secrets not only thrown back in my face, but risking everyone else in my life finding out and hating me. Cannon’s my best friend. And while he may be wild and crazy, even he has his limits – limits that I’ve crossed more than once.

“I’ll send you her address and details later today,” Chief Bailey says as he types into his phone like he didn’t just threaten to ruin my life. “She’s supposed to be in college at Saint Mary near San Francisco, but I haven’t heard from her in weeks, not since she was arrested for public intoxication.”

My first thought is good – he deserves to have a delinquent daughter. No wonder the girl is a train wreck if he’s the man who raised her.

And now she’s going to be my problem. Mine and the MC’s.

“Why can’t you just go and pick her up yourself?” I grumble while scrubbing my hands down my face.

“You think I haven’t tried?” he snaps at me. “She refuses to even see me!”

“But you think she’ll be more than willing to leave with men she’s never met before?”

“Yes,” he answers way too fast. “I mean, she’ll probably leave with you, but if not, remind her…remind her that she has a little sister who misses her too. You just do whatever it takes