* * *
Cash sat at the bar of The Last Riders’ clubhouse, nursing his drink while watching Train play with Bliss’s nipple. Her lace vest left nothing to the imagination; you could see her daisy-chain tat on her bared breast.
“I need to go talk to Nickel for a minute. When I come back, you going to suck my dick for me?” Train questioned, pinching her nipple even tighter.
“I’ll be waiting.” Bliss ran her hand over Train’s dick before he slid from the stool. “Hurry back.”
“Give me five.” Train patted her butt before moving away.
When he left, Bliss leaned forward, running her tongue over Cash’s bottom lip. Her hands curled into his t-shirt, pulling him closer.
“What about you, Cash? Want me to suck your dick, or do you want to fuck me while I suck him off?” Her tongue laved his bottom lip suggestively.
Cash saw the greedy excitement in her eyes; Bliss loved doing two men at once.
“No, thanks. I’m good.” Cash tilted his head to the side, taking his mouth away from hers only to see Lily’s furious eyes as she came into the room from the kitchen, Shade hot on her tail.
Lily stormed up to him, ignoring Bliss. The fire shooting out of her purple eyes showed exactly why Shade had fallen for her.
“Beth told me you were over here when she came home. I can’t believe you took Rachel out then came back here to get… get…”
“Laid?” Shade said helpfully. His wife threw him a quelling look, which he responded to with a raised brow. Lily took a step away from Shade, giving him her back.
“After everything she did for you, I thought you were smarter.” Lily suddenly lost her fury, her expression changing to something Cash couldn’t explain. “Beth and I owe a debt of gratitude to you, Cash. If you hadn’t sent Shade’s father here to Treepoint, then we may never have met Razer and Shade. You showed compassion and concern for Beth when you saw she was being mistreated at church. I just don’t understand how the same man could treat Rachel the way you have.”
“Lily, I wasn’t—” Cash began.
“She sat beside your bedside from the moment she heard you were hurt. Did you even know that?”
“No.” Cash got to his feet, something telling him he needed to brace himself for what he was about to hear.
“Well, she did,” Lily said empathically. “The doctors didn’t think you were going to make it. She had already tried to help you the way she does her clients, but it hadn’t worked. She told Shade her gift wasn’t powerful enough to help you. I think whatever she does comes from inside her. I can’t explain it. The times she helped me, it’s like a part of her went inside of me to give me strength. When she touches you, you feel the strength of her love and caring. I think, when you and her brothers hurt her at the party, it damaged that part of her. After the doctor told us all that you weren’t going to make it, I went back to your room to talk to her because I could tell she was upset by what the doctor had told us.”
Lily paused, taking a shuddering breath. “She didn’t even know I was in the room. God, I don’t even know what I witnessed, Cash. What I saw was a man dying, but then she touched you. When she started touching your body, I could feel a presence in the room. I saw you gradually begin to move, and then she passed out.
“I ran to get a nurse, and when we came back, she was sitting in the chair and you were coming to. The nurse started helping you while I took her to Mag’s house. She was in bad shape; she was shaking and freezing. I stayed with her and saw what she suffered through for helping your ungrateful ass!”
Lily waved her hand at Bliss. “She certainly doesn’t deserve for you to be two-timing her. She was so nervous about going out with you tonight. She does everything for everyone and doesn’t ask for anything in return.”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me she had been in my hospital room?” Cash asked hoarsely, remembering the cold hand he had tried to hold, mistaking her nervousness as coldness. He was ashamed of himself for not seeing through her façade.
He was the one who had all the experience, thinking he was too old for her, while he had been the one to act immature when she didn’t fawn all over him like other women.
“Rachel asked us not to; that was her price for helping you,” Shade answered, pulling Lily back against his chest.
“Do you know where she was when she disappeared?” Cash’s suspicions were aroused. Lily had drawn closer to Rachel than he had realized.
Lily remained mutinously silent.
“I wasn’t going to touch Bliss or any of the other women. I was pissed off, but I cooled down before I got here.”
“I promised I wouldn’t tell.” Her bravado was wavering at his explanation.
“Please, Lily. I need to know.” Cash played on Lily’s soft heart.
“I can’t break my promise, but if you figure it out for yourself, that’s not my fault, is it?”
“No.” Cash’s lips twitched in amusement.
“Rachel was in high school, but wasn’t in high school,” she hinted.
“I don’t understand—” Cash began.
“I do,” Winter broke in. She laid down the cards she had been playing in the game against Viper and Crash. “Rachel took accelerated courses in high school. By her sophomore year, she was taking college classes. She stayed at the high school because Tate had worked it out with me so she could still stay with her own age group.
“By the time the students her age were graduating, she had a Bachelor’s in Biology. I believe, for the last four years, she’s gotten her Master’s and is now almost finished writing her thesis for her doctorate in Aquaculture. I’m willing to bet she was able to find housing in the dorms at the university.” She shrugged at Lily’s accusing look. “I didn’t promise her. I figured it out.”
“So, both you and Lily knew where she was?” Viper carefully laid his own cards down on the table.
“We talked about it. It wasn’t rocket science for anyone who knew her.” Winter’s snide tone had Viper, Cash, and Shade all turning red.
“Then why didn’t Tate know?”
“Because she didn’t tell him she was working on her doctorate. Seems that was why Greer had gotten busted selling weed to that undercover cop; they were trying to sell extra to pay for her tuition. She’d told them she had dropped out; she didn’t want them to go to jail to pay for her education,” Winter answered.
“So, how’s she been paying for it?” Viper questioned.
“Her parents left each of them a plot of land. She sold hers,” Diamond spoke up from Knox’s lap on the couch. “I handled the paperwork. After the clients left, she went to the restroom, and I heard her crying. She told me that property had been in her family for generations.”
“It has. Who bought it?” Cash asked.
“Drake Hall,” Diamond answered.
“So, let me get this straight. While we were all looking for her and her brothers were worried sick, none of you told?” Viper glared at his wife, then each of his men’s insubordinate wives.
“It took us a while to figure it out. We didn’t think they deserved to know,” Winter explained cautiously, seeing the furious look Viper was sending her. The women began to sense the undercurrent of their husbands’ angers.
“Do you have my tat on you?” Viper growled out through gritted teeth.
“Yes, but women should stick together.” Winter tried to soothe her husband with her explanation; she failed.
“So should Last Riders,” Viper snapped. “Did Beth know, too?”
Winter snapped her mouth shut.
“I’ll take that as a yes. All four of you will be pulling from the punishment bag next week.” The women wisely remained silent, staring at their husbands in trepidation.
“And I’ll deal with you upstairs.” His eyes on Winter were promising retribution.
Cash struggled to contain his emotions at what he had found out. He wanted to rush back to his grandmother’s house, but he knew Rachel needed time for her emotions to settle. Come tomorrow, she isn’t going to know what hit her, he promised himself.
“Thanks, Lily.” He reached out to cup her cheek. “I sent Shade’s dad here, not only because of Beth, but you, too. I lost every bit of faith I had because of Saul Cornett. He might have adopted you, but he was a sick son of a bitch. It was only a matter of time before he hurt you, and I couldn’t stomach watching Beth be hurt one more time.”
Lily grasped his wrist. “You changed our lives. Thank you.”
His eyes went over her shoulder to Shade’s closed expression.
“You’re welcome.” Bending down, he brushed his lips against her cheek. “Now, go on home. I promise Rachel won’t know you talked to me.”
“Okay,” Lily said happily.
“I’ll be there in a minute. Don’t go to sleep; we need to have a little chat before you do.” Shade’s deep voice wiped the smile from her face.