Page 56 of These Reckless Hearts

“Stay here,” my escort orders. “And you might as well save your breath. You won’t get any information from us.”

The four men in fatigues chuckle, and the two who turned to face me now turn back around. They’re all playing cards and drinking from solid blue mugs. The guard who brought me in here stops outside the entrance to the kitchen and turns, facing the opposite wall and standing completely still.

Out here, the hunger is worse. It overpowers me with the smell of coffee in the air. I don’t even like coffee, but I love the smell. I can’t hide the sound of my stomach growling—it has a mind of its own as it fills the room in angry spluttering.

For a moment, I think they’ve moved me out here as another form of torture. They act as if I don’t exist, carrying on conversations in a hushed tone that I can’t quite pick up, no matter how hard I try. They don’t give anything away, and eventually, I do stop asking questions and try to reserve my energy.

Right before the daylight almost completely filters out of the room, a car pulls to a stop outside, the tires crunching gravel. The engine shuts off, and I open my eyes, peering at the tan-clad guys for clues of what’s about to go down. Sure enough, they’ve expected this. They don’t flinch when footsteps stomp up a set of metallic stairs outside. The door opens, and a rush of fresh air enters along with the waning rays of light. Lance Jacobs moves into view.

My stomach tightens. I hate the sight of this man more than I’ve hated anything in my entire life.

“Dakota Wilder.” He smiles, but it’s more evil than anything I could’ve imagined. He chuckles to himself. “This is the Dakota I remember.” He sneers at my appearance. “A dirty, old street rat.”

“Fuck you.”

His grin widens as he lets the door shut behind him. “An uncharming, unwitty, degenerate. Not even hanging out with my Stone could change you.”

The mention of Stone has me snapping my mouth shut. Above all, I need to find out what happened to him—to all of them.

The camo-wearing soldiers disperse without Lance saying so. He moves into the kitchen to grab a chair, dragging it a few feet until he stops in front of me. He makes a show of sitting down and crossing his legs. “Now that I have your attention....”

25

The Lance Jacobs in front of me isn’t the usual Lance Jacobs.

He’s tried his best to hide the wrinkles in his suit and the shadows under his eyes, but you recognize the face of the person you hate as much as the one you love. He’s withered and beaten, and I bet I know why.

“You can call me as many names as you want,” I tell him, conjuring up a smile through all the hurt. What he thinks of me means nothing. I know who’s most important.

He tilts his head. “I have to say, I was surprised when you showed up at Stone’s wedding. Even more surprised when you shot that bastard. Can’t say I hadn’t thought of that myself over the years.”

“You’d rather make deals with devils instead?”

He unbuttons his cuffs and leans back in the chair. It protests under his weight, and he rolls his eyes as if the very thing itself aggravates him. “I make deals with anyone if I think it’s worthwhile. Kind of like your friend Cole.”

I can’t argue with that. I think it’s fairly accurate, but to me, there’s a vast difference between Lance Jacobs and Cole. For one, the Dragons look at Cole with respect, and I don’t think that’s the case with Lance at all. I haven’t been to any of his business meetings, but if his own son talks poorly of him, I think that explains it all. I don’t bite on his bringing up Cole, though I’m dying to know where he is and if he knows what’s happened. I half expect him to come running into the house with the Dragons at his side and dragging me away from here.

“Where’s Stone?” I ask instead. He has to be worried about his son. There was that incident with Stone getting shot but that can’t have been at the request of Lance. He wouldn’t. At least, I have to hope he wouldn’t.

“They said you were asking about him. All of them, actually.” He narrows his gaze. “Am I to understand that you’re in a relationship with all of them?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Don’t you care about my son’s reputation at all? He won’t be allowed back into the inner circle if he’s having relations with men, too.”

I snap my mouth shut. “That’s what you’re worried about? You think Stone is gay?”

My words alleviate his concerns. The deep creases in his forehead loosen, and I want so badly to tell him to go fuck himself. It’s not any of his business what Stone does, but I’m afraid by telling him the truth that I might hinder my chances of finding out anything. He takes a linen cloth out of his pocket and wipes his strained face. “I have to give my son credit. I didn’t think he’d go after me like he did. Not just through business, I taught him that, but the other part.”

“You mean him trying to take back what’s rightfully mine?”

His toothy grin tells me I walked right into what he wanted to talk about in the first place. Of course he wants to know about the ring and the gold nugget he found in the small canister. “I’m shocked that old Clark had it in him. He had a piece of the treasure this whole time and never let it out.” He shakes his head almost chastisingly so. “He could’ve made a lot of money on those pieces. He definitely could’ve moved you both into a better situation.”

“My dad did what his family wanted him to do. Show loyalty. Something you know nothing about.”

The sharp lines of his cheekbones pull back to reveal a scowl. “You think I don’t know about loyalty? That would be my son you’re talking about.”

“Then he learned it from you. You know he got shot, don’t you? That the men you hired didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger aimed at him.”

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