Page 34 of Talon
Madison watched them go, then stood still for a moment, letting the last few minutes process before turning back to Talon, who still stood beside her, one arm hooked around her waist holding her against him.
“What’s the plan?”she asked, looking up at him.
“First, I thought I’d give you a tour of the place.Or at least the house.It will be dark before too much longer so the rest of the ranch can wait until tomorrow.How does that sound?”
“Fine by me.Lead the way.”She shrugged and continued to watch him for a moment.Something told her there was more, something he wasn’t telling her, at least not yet.She wondered if it had to do with her, Billy, or something else entirely.Not sure she was ready to know yet, she let him take her hand and lead her from the bedroom.
25
TalonshowedMadisonthroughthe house, pointing out what he felt were the important things, the living room, complete with gaming system and satellite tv and the hot tub on the back porch.
“Tuck said to use the place as we see fit.I’m not sure when he’ll be back.As far as I know, neither does he.At least right now.There is talk of building us a real club house, but there’s a lot that goes into a project like that, even before we break ground.”He kept talking with stuff he knew didn’t matter much, at least not to her.He knew he needed to tell her at least part of what he’d learned after she’d left the bunkhouse, but he wasn’t yet sure how much he would tell her or how to bring it up.
“It’s a nice place.”Madison looked around.“I can’t imagine leaving a place like this to go hundreds of miles away.”
“Tuck had been in Tucson for years.He probably never would have come back but the attorney contacted him about the will.That’s when he found out that he’d inherited this place.The catch was that he had to live here for a year, or it would go to his high school rival.”
Madison frowned.“Why would his parents do that?Why would they tell him to live here for a year or it all goes to his rival?”
“It was just his mom, but from what I’ve heard from others and seen since I got here, she had her reasons.Not the least of which was to bring Tuck home.Another was to get him to see that the rift between him and his rival, who was also once his best friend, was kind of a misunderstanding.Not entirely, but at least partly.I will say the rival has been a lot of help to us here while Tuck did his best to remember all the ins and outs of ranching.But in reality, I don’t think Tuck ever had any intention of staying here permanently.If he had, he wouldn’t have pushed for Lurch to be the president of this chapter of the Souls.”
“I’ve heard you call yourselves the Souls several times,” Madison said with narrowed eyes.“But your vest says Demented Souls.Why the difference?”
“Demented Souls every time is a bit if a mouthful.We generally just use the term the Souls.That’s who we are.That probably won’t change unless we encounter another club with Souls in the name.”
“What about that group from Tucson?That’s where you said the owner is right?”
“Yep.And they’re Souls too, just a different chapter.The men there, even though there from a different chapter are still my brothers, just like the ones here are.”
“Which is why you wear the vest.”
“They’re called kuttes, but yes.”They settled on the sofa in the living room.“Want to watch something?”He reached for the remote, knowing there were plenty of streaming services on the TV to keep them entertained, if that was what they wanted to do.
“I’d rather you tell me what you found out after I left.”
Talon stared at her for the span of several seconds, wondering how she’d known that Jake and the others had waited until she was gone to tell him what they’d found out.
“There’s a bit to unpack there.Are you sure you want to hear it tonight?Maybe tomorrow, after a good night’s rest would be better.”
Madison shook her head.“I won’t be able to sleep knowing that there’s some thing I don’t know yet.Just tell me.We’ll deal with it after.”
Talon’s chest ached, knowing she needed to know, but not wanting to be the one to have to tell her.He rolled his lips inward and bit them as he rolled his gaze up to the ceiling.He didn’t want to tell her that Morgan wasn’t where they thought he was, at least not tonight.That part could wait till morning, especially since he planned to be with her the entire time.There would be no chance for the fucker to get close enough to hurt her.Through this, she remained quiet but watched him expectantly.
“Jake and Gizmo were looking into Morgan.They found that his wife disappeared, and the body of a Jane Doe that matches her description, we’re waiting for confirmation but for now, we’re assuming it’s Sally.They were looking into her cause of death and found things that they thought were suspicious.They say there is no doubt that her death was not the accident it was officially ruled.There’s also evidence of long-term physical abuse.But we have nothing yet proving that Morgan was involved, but there’s no proof he wasn’t either.”
Madison remained quiet for a few seconds.He assumed she was trying to make sense of it.“Anything else?”she asked after a bit.
Talon nodded.“When Maybe-Sally’s death looked suspicious, they took a second look into your dad’s too.”He paused, wanting to be sure she wanted to know before he told her what Jake had found.His chest ached and a knot settled in his stomach as he worried about how she would react to what he needed to tell her.
“I’ve suspected something wasn’t right.I just didn’t believe that he was healthy and fine one day and even that morning, then mid day, no signs, no clues, he just dropped dead.It’s part of what’s made the whole thing so hard for me.Did they find anything?”
“You know it was ruled as natural causes from cardiac arrest.But what we can’t figure out is why they ran bloodwork, but no one seemed to notice that there was a massive amount of potassium in his blood.”
“That’s odd,” she said with a frown, but not enough reaction to know what that meant.
“Babe, too much potassium can make your heart stop.”
Her gaze flew to his face, her eyes wide as the implications sank in.
