Page 30 of Unmasked Rivalry
Then I lay down and go to sleep, knowing I need to get out of this place before I do something I can’t take back.
8
Igo home the next morning because when I wake, Knox is gone. I can’t stand to be here for a second longer, so Mera takes me back to the farmhouse. She has barely been gone five minutes when I hear the front door open. I know who it is long before I see his face appear in the kitchen.
Ralston fucking Cupp.
“Good morning, Callie. I see you’ve cleaned up the kitchen, good for you. I was worried for a minute you might die of a rare disease before we could get to know each other better.”
The sly smirk on his face makes me want to slap him.
“Do you break into all your women’s houses, or am I just special?” I cross my arms, squinting at him over the kitchen island. The man is a walking billboard for slick southern evil, all white teeth and tailored denim, not a speck of dust on him despite the weather.
Ralston sets a crisp envelope on the counter. “Not all of them. Just the ones who are too interesting to stay away from.”
“Well, trust me, there is nothing interesting about me. I’m not the kind of person you want working for you. I’m not Harper.”
He opens the envelope, fans out three photos onto the counter. “That’s a delightfully naive stance, but I think we both know you’ll do whatever I want. For example—” He slides the photos toward me. They’re of Ruger, hunched over in his cell. I can’t see his face, but his hands are bloody, and I just know he’s messed up.
My heart breaks.
I reach for the top photo but flinch at the sight of my own hand, shaking. I ball it up and stuff it into the front pocket of my jeans. “What’s your fucking game, Ralston?”
He lifts his chin, eyes me like he’s already bored. “I built a trust in that dead girl’s name, and I need you to keep the lights on, so to speak. You’re going to help me, too, or your brother will have a lot more to worry about than bloodied knuckles. I wonder if they’ll at least give him a nice meal before they drive a shiv into his guts.”
I want to kill him.
I stare at him, hoping he can see the pure hatred in my expression. “I don’t know how to do any of this shit. What do you want from me? Clean money? Illegal sales?”
He leans closer, drops his voice to a silken whisper. “Don’t panic now, sweetheart. We will ensure you know exactly how it operates. Your name is on this farm now, and that means everything that goes with it.”
My lips go numb. I want to punch him, or vomit, or scream. Instead, I grit out, “And if I say no?”
He grins, teeth still perfect. “Sweetie, you already know the answer to that.”
He saunters around the island, grabs a glass from the dish rack, and helps himself to the bottle of whiskey by the microwave. “One last thing. You spent the night with Knox, didn’t you?”
I force myself to look unmoved. “You have someone tailing me?”
He tips the glass at me in salute. “I like to know where my employees are. He’s got beef in the game, and the last thing I need is that club sticking their noses in where it doesn’t belong.”
I open my mouth, close it. Be careful, Callie. I need the club to help me out of this, and the only way I can do that is to make Ralston believe I’m not there for good reasons. “I can’t standKnox, and I can’t stand that Harper was in love with him. He is the reason all of this happened. If she never got involved with a biker, she might have never met you. Either way, the club has ties, and those ties can help me get my brother out of prison. I am getting information I can use against them to make them do what I want, which is help me get my brother out. So, if I have to fuck Knox a few times to get it, I will.”
It’s a believable lie.
I keep my face blank, like I’m unbothered by his scrutiny.
Ralston’s gaze slides over my face, reading every twitch of muscle. He leans close—close enough I can count the flecks of gold in his eyes. “If you’re lying to me, Callie, you’re going to discover a new and exciting world of pain. And more than that, you’ll have to live with what happens to the people you love. You understand me?”
“What would I gain from lying to you? I see how it ended for Harper, I’m not an idiot.”
He looks somewhat taken aback by my words, but quickly straightens out.
“Do whatever you want with that biker scum, but you keep the club out of our business. If I find out you’re talking to anyone about this, that’ll be the end of your brother. There’s only one way out for him, you get me?”
Maybe he’s expecting me to cry. I won’t. “I get you.”
He straightens and nods. “Well, have a wonderful day, Callie. Someone will be around soon to show you the ropes.”
