Page 75 of The Kings of Kearny

“It’s fine,” I said. “Why did your dad want you home so badly? To keep you away from Magnolia?”

“Most likely.”

“But you don’t think he’d have me or Dr. Perez attacked.”

He shook his head.

“What about Daniel? Do you think he’s involved at all?”

“No,” he said. “If this shit implodes, Daniel will be fucked.”

“How so?”

“He’ll lose the loyalty of the club. You don’t work with the Jokers. Ever. They’re the enemy. If anyone else in the Kings knew what we did, he’d already be out.”

I thought about his words for a few minutes and realized that he hadn’t spoken to anyone but Liam about Redding. At least not in my company.

“You only told your dad about Redding to see his reaction, didn’t you?” I asked.

Jakob nodded.

“Did he give anything away?”

“No,” he said. “But then he usually doesn’t.”

“And you haven’t told anyone else?”

Jakob shook his head.

“What about the bikers that came with you to Magnolia?” I asked.

“They think the Jokers are behind everything.”

“And the woman you have tailing Redding?”

“She has no idea who he is,” he said. “Only that we want him watched.”

“No one else knows about Redding but us and your dad?” I asked, just to clarify.

“I haven’t told anyone else about him.”

I watched him shift through the gears, his large, muscular upper body on full display, his movements quick and sure, almost graceful. It sounded like he’d chosen those words carefully. Jakob might not have told anyone else, but clearly he thought other people knew about Redding.

When I first met Jakob, I thought he was just a large, violent man with irresistible sex appeal. Turned out there was a brain beneath all that. I’d suspected it since our first night together, but now I was beginning to wonder just how sharp his mind was. He wanted to know my suspicions, see if I picked up on anything he’d missed, but I was willing to bet that Jakob Larson was a man who missed nothing.

“Who’s Mike?” I prodded, switching tactics. I remembered the name from that first run-in between Jakob and Daniel. It had been lingering in the back of my mind, bugging me, like a mosquito hovering just on the edge of hearing.

This time Jakob’s grin was warm when he glanced over at me, softened by the approval in his expression. He picked up his phone, unlocked it, and passed it to me. On the screen was a picture of Redding and another man, a big white guy with sandy hair and Slavic features.

“That’s Mike,” Jakob said.

“He works for your father, doesn’t he?”

He cocked a brow and looked over at me. “What makes you say that?”

I shrugged and handed the phone back. “Just a gut feeling.”

“Your gut is good,” he said, setting the phone in a cup holder between us. “He works for my dad. Not many people know who he is. Dad sends him in when he needs something handled and doesn’t want it traced back to the club.”

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