“Nine p.m.?” Rock lifted his brow further.
“Yeah.”
“Doesn’t sound right,” Roy said.
“I agree,” Rock said. “I’m definitely not liking this one bit. You two get packed up. I’ll call and get the jet ready to move.”Rock and I made it back to my apartment by late afternoon with the time change. I plunked down in my recliner.
Now what?
Rock’s gun—the same model, though not the same gun, that had killed his father—was missing.
Rock’s fingerprints were on the gun that did kill his father, despite the fact that Rock had been two thousand miles away when the murder occurred.
An unidentified woman had told her gynecologist that Rock had gone to New York.
Rock’s brother Roy was hiding something—something he flew across the country for.
I’d nearly been arrested in Montana, and now a new detective was sniffing around my assistant after hours.
What did it all mean? And why?
The limo driver dropped our bags on the floor.
“Thanks, man.” Rock handed him a few bills and then closed the door.
We were alone.
Now that I was back in my own home, reality abruptly sank in. I was being investigated for murder. This was no joke. It was truly happening.
Rock pulled out his cellphone. “Time for some damage control.”
“What can you possibly do?”
“Me? Not much. My money? That’s another story.”
I stood. “No, Rock. Don’t go bribing people. Please.”
“You were okay with me paying Hoss.”
“I wasn’t exactly okay with it. Besides, this is totally different. We’re talking police detectives here, not a Harley-riding attorney.”
“Doesn’t matter, babe. I didn’t learn much from the asshole prick who fathered me, but I did learn one thing. Everyone eventually has a price.”
I didn’t doubt his words. But I was an attorney. An officer of the court. I couldn’t let this happen.
“Please. Promise me you won’t do this.”
“This is on me, Lacey. These people are going after you to get to me. I have to put a stop to it. One way or the other, this won’t end well unless I nip it in the bud right now.”
“We’re both innocent. We have to trust the system, Rock.”
“The system?” He scoffed. “Do you know how many times my old man gamed the system? And those are just the things I knew about before I left home at fourteen. Even my warped mind can’t imagine what he did from that point until his death. And frankly, this shit has Derek Wolfe smeared all over it.”
“The man is dead.”
“So? He put something into play before he died.”
“He was murdered. He had no idea he was about to die, Rock.”
“Maybe he did. Maybe he knew he’d been marked, and he decided to fuck me over from the grave.”
“I doubt it. You said yourself his money could buy anything. If he knew he was marked, he’d have paid someone off, or taken care of whoever marked him first.”
Rock didn’t bother denying it. He knew I was right.
“What else could be going on?”
“Hell if I know.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “My dad made lots of enemies in his lifetime. I suppose there could be one he never knew about.”
“He was cocky,” I said. “Maybe he got too cocky.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning he overlooked people who might have a grudge against him.”
Rock raised one eyebrow. “That’s an interesting perspective. You might be on to something.”
“You never know. At this point, we can’t leave any stone unturned.”
Rock heaved a sigh. “That’s a lot of stones, baby.”
“How many enemies could one man have?”
“Lacey, the man was evil.”
“The man built a billion dollar company.”
“What? You think you can’t have one without the other? Derek Wolfe was not a good man.”
“I’m aware he was no saint, but was he really so horrible?”
He sighed again. “You’re going to have to take my word for it.”51RockMy head and eyes throbbed.
I’d taken a hell of a beating, but I’d kept the fucking bastards out of my ass.
Military school had turned out to be a playground for psychopaths. My father must have known the kind of place this was. He must have.
I’d always thought he hated me. Now I knew for sure.
Hazing, they called it. Most of the guys let it happen, told me it would be over soon. That we’d be doing it next year.
Never. I’d never participate in hazing.
Fucking never.
The cuts healed and the bruises faded.
School years blended into each other.
Then senior year.
Watching the guys in my class—guys who’d been raped years earlier—fuck the freshmen was a horror I would never unsee.
“Come on, Wolfe,” one said. “Take some ass. You’ve earned it. Do it. Do it.”
The words rang in my ears as if chanted by robotic demons.
Do it.
Do it.
Do it.
I grabbed one of them. A bigger one. I was never one to pick on someone smaller than I was. I’d seen my father do enough of that. I was no bully. I was no coward.
Do it.
Do it.
Do it.I leaped out of the daydream. The thoughts had plagued me since my discussion with Reid about his and Roy’s experiences at prep school. Had my brothers been raped?