Page 21 of Courting the Consequences

“Alright, what do we know?” Johnny got right to business.

“Not much,” Hotrod answered immediately. “Feds tossed this warrant,” Hotrod slid a piece of paper at Johnny, “at the bar and said King was under arrest for racketeering, embezzlement, money laundering, and fraud.”

“Jesus,” Johnny cursed, reading over the arrest warrant, a single piece of paper from the Mourningside FBI branch. It didn’t say much. He passed the paper to Kevin when he was finished with it. “And what did they say when they were here? My dad?”

“Your dad denied the accusations, but he didn’t say much. Neither did the feds,” Mammoth, a behemoth of a man, answered with a gruff sort of growl.

“These are some pretty serious charges.” Kevin sighed from Johnny’s right. “Has anyone reached out to Danvers?”

“I called him after I called you,” Hotrod answered, tipping his head toward Johnny. “He said he would head toward the FBI offices downtown and see what he could find out.”

“So we know nothing and have nothing,” Johnny snapped.

Kevin sighed and ran a hand through his short black hair. “The warrant mentions Case Holdings LLC. Does your dad have another business we don’t know about?”

Johnny snatched the warrant back and reread it. Case Holdings LLC was listed as his father’s company. Johnny had no idea what that even was. Mac had started Taylor Construction and Mechanical fresh out of the Marines. He had handed over the reins of the company about five years ago, stating he was ready for retirement from the business and had his hands full being president of the MC.

Any other business was news to Johnny. “I don’t know anything about this.” Johnny sighed and ran a hand over his spiky blond hair. He scratched at his jaw, fingers sliding through the blond beard that was due for a trim. He tossed the warrant back on the table and leaned back. “There’s nothing we can do until we hear back from Danvers. In the meantime, keep the gates closed. I’m not calling a lockdown, but let’s stay close to home and no unnecessary outings,” he declared, slamming down the gavel signaling the end of church.

Karadidn’tseeJohnny,Kevin, or Derrick in the days that followed the tire change incident. The foreman was missing several workers as well. Kara assumed the missing employees were members of the Ravager Knights. It made sense from a business standpoint. You can’t run a company if your whole crew is also involved in illegal activities.

Something had clearly happened with the club that had drawn Johnny, Kevin, and Derrick away so quickly that day; the phone call had obviously been bad news.

She shook her head for the hundredth time, trying to clear her thoughts. This was exactly why getting into a relationship with Kevin was a bad idea. She hadn’t seen him since Tuesday in the parking lot. They spoke on the phone in the evenings, but he didn’t say much about what was happening. It was club business, and he didn’t want to drag her into it.

She had agreed. They were too new to go all in. She wasn’t sure if she ever wanted the whole truth of what the club did. Not with her job as a lawyer. So they spent their evenings on the phone, talking about everything and nothing. He told her about his family. His dad had been in the Marines with Johnny’s dad, followed him home after discharge, and never left. He had been the VP until he passed away three years ago from lung cancer.

Kevin’s mom was still alive and still very much a part of his life. He usually stopped by her house every once in a while for a Sunday dinner with his brothers, Jack and Logan. Logan was married with two boys ages three and four. Jack was single and living it up in Chicago as some big tech guru. He owned his own company and developed tech for the military.

In return, Kara told him about growing up with a single mother in Creekton, a neighboring community on the southside of Mourningside. Often just referred to as the southside, as it had once been apart of Mourningside before it became its own town—it was a rough neighborhood. Marcos, her older brother, came and went. He was ten years older than Kara and had lived on his own since he was eighteen. He helped out their mom when he could with bills and paid for Kara’s private school education.

He had been the only father figure she’d had growing up, and she’d idolized him as a young girl. She had been devastated when he moved out at eighteen. But he’d just been another mouth to feed for their momma, and it made sense for him to go out on his own. Their bond stayed strong, though, and he was never far when she or Momma needed him.

When their mother was killed in a car accident when Kara was in her second year of college, Marcos had swooped in and organized her funeral. They’d kept it small, mostly close friends as they hadn’t had a lot of family. Her mother thankfully had a small life insurance policy to cover funeral expenses, but there wasn’t much left after. Kara’s housing had been taken care of thanks to the school dorms and all the scholarships and grants she had earned in high school.

In the summers, she stayed with her brother until she met her father her junior year in college. She’d already declared a prelaw major and had been accepted to a state law program when her father had called her out of the blue. He said he got her number from the university. Kara and Kevin hadn’t gotten much deeper into that subject, though. Her father was a touchy subject for her.

Another thing they hadn’t talked about was Johnny’s kiss. Kevin never mentioned it, so Kara didn’t either, and now it was like an elephant in the room whenever she spoke to him. Or at least, that’s how it felt to her. She was hoping she would run into Kevin before she ran into Johnny…or Derrick. She felt like she at least needed to clear the air with Kevin. She felt uneasy about it; everything was still so new, and Johnny wasn’t exactly an easygoing guy.

It was Friday when she finally saw Kevin again. She was on her way back from the cafeteria in the lower-level atrium, headed for the elevators, when he stepped out of his usual alcove of a conference room. She looked up to find him smiling down at her.

His bright grin took her breath away. Butterflies started in her belly, and she felt herself blushing despite talking to him regularly. He looked amazing. His black hair was styled in a messy bedhead fashion. He had a red plaid, short-sleeved button-up shirt on over a white T-shirt. He clearly hadn’t planned on working much that day. “Good afternoon, Miss Carmichael.” He grinned as he fell into step with her.

“Good afternoon, Kevin.” She beamed, happy to see him.

His dark eyes shone as he smiled down at her. “You have some free time this afternoon?” he asked, slowing to a stop where the hallway came to a T, glancing around. They could either follow the hallway further underground toward the loading dock near the back of the building or they could take the T to the elevator bank.

“Yeah, my afternoon is clear. I was thinking of taking off early today.” She smiled. It was past two p.m. and she had been thinking of cutting out early.

His smile turned tight. “I, uh, I was hoping for some legal advice actually,” he hedged and glanced around again.

Kara frowned slightly. He was acting cagey and she didn’t like it.

“Johnny’s dad was arrested. We were hoping you could give us some advice, maybe point us in the right direction. We have a lawyer, I just think this might be above his pay grade a bit,” Kevin explained.

Kara’s frown deepened. “How about this,” she started and glanced around just as Johnny and Derrick rounded the corner from the loading docks, “come up to my office and I’ll listen, and we’ll go from there,” she said, speaking mostly to Johnny at that point.

She took in his slightly haggard appearance. He wore a basic black Taylor Construction T-shirt and blue jeans with brown boots, but his blond beard was longer and more unkempt than usual. He had a black ball cap pulled down low, like he was trying to cover his baby-blue eyes, but she could see the dark circles under them.

---