“Kay, you can’t fix all the evil out in the world. You’ve seen, first hand, what horrible men are capable of. It’s not your place to put yourself in the middle of this.”
“It is my place. It’s my place because I choose to do it. Bradley, they know who I really am. They know about our fake marriage. They could expose everything if we don’t cooperate. That is why I chose to go along with them, to protect you. It makes no difference to me if I get outed. No one from my old clan is looking for me. Cullen was the only one that wanted me to suffer, and he’s gone.”
“I don’t need you to protect me. You could have told them no.”
“I don’t believe that. You’re a good man, but if they knew what you had done to ensure your place as alpha, it wouldn’t be perceived that way. Plus, you’re bound to have enemies within now.”
“Why would I have enemies?”
“You burned down quite a few cannabis fields, did you not? Do you think the people who put them there are happy with you for that?”
“I don’t care if they are happy. They know it is against the rules of the clan to do something like that. It opens the clan up to problems and wasn’t approve by a majority. It is them that is wrong, not me.”
“They are out a lot of money because of you, Bradley. Do you really think that people are going to overlook being out of pocket like that? Alpha or not, they will find a way to retaliate and if that is merely using the knowledge of how you secured inheriting this ranch, then do you think the clan council is going to protect you? They’ll get rid of you and then go back to doing what they were doing.”
Bradley considered this for a moment. It was risky. To expose the clan to prosecution from the authorities was to expose its secrets. How were they going to get around that? They needed someone on the inside that would understand.
“I think I have an idea. I have to meet with one of the agents tomorrow. Her name is Agent Pilosa.”
“Where and when are you meeting her?”
“Back at the massage parlor again,” she replied.
“I want to go.”
“What? No. They can’t know that you know.”
“They won’t. At least, they won’t know that I knew prior to me showing up there. I’ll say I was following you, that you were acting suspicious. I’ll barge into the room like I’m some jealous husband and we’ll take it from there. You’ll confess that they are FBI. They’ll be forced to figure it out with me on board.”
“I don’t know....”
“I do. You’re just going to have to trust me on this.”
Kay glanced at her watch. She was running out of time.
“Okay. If you think that will work, then.... I’ve got to get back upstairs and get the necklace on for regular conversation.”
“We’ll talk some more after dinner. I have to go out for a while. We’ve got some ideas we want to check out before it gets dark.”
Kay nodded and rushed back upstairs before her loop shut down and revealed her deception. She slipped the necklace back on and waited for the appropriate spot to turn off the recording as it faded into neutral background.
This will have to work, she thought. On one hand, she was relieved to think that, with Bradley in the know, she wouldn’t have to keep working around not being able to converse normally with him about most things. Obviously, the true secret of the clan must be hidden, but at least he would be treated less like a suspect if he was in the know and helping.
Of course, even someone like Kay knew that the FBI and DEA wasn’t going to just trust him suddenly. In their view, this was coming from his ranch and he was therefore involved. The only way to end this was to cooperate with them. If they were willing to tell Bradley what they knew, he might be able to put some of the puzzle pieces in place a lot better than she would be able to.
The more she thought about it, the more she believed it would work. How could they possibly believe Bradley had any hand in this if he was actively trying to help them discover the truth? Then again, if they believed there were drugs on the ranch, why not just come in and search?CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE“We can’t get a warrant to search the property without probable cause. We don’t have enough evidence to prove that, which is why we need you. Even if you can’t get us a smoking gun, we’re hoping you can at least come up with enough to get us on the property,” Agent Pilosa told her the following morning.