Holy fuck.
I sat down. “Date rape drugs.”
“He was in possession. Unclear yet whether he was trafficking, or a user himself.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“Trafficking meth carries a maximum penalty of up to life imprisonment, depending on how much they can prove he actually possessed. Sounds like they’ve also got him on what they call Aggravating Factors. Those’ll add mandatory minimum penalties. Shit like selling to a youth, and using violence, weapons charges. The list goes on.”
“Youth?”
“He was luring underage girls online. That’s what I’m told. I don’t know how they know that or what the extent of it is. And they’ve definitely got him on the association with a criminal organization. That’s the shiny bow that ties the whole thing up into a pretty package.”
“Well, shit. That’s some good news.”
“Yeah. That’s all I’ve got so far. I’ll be following up on this throughout the day. I don’t know why all these charges are being laid now or exactly what evidence they’ve got against him. I couldn’t get more information yet. Just the list of charges.”
Which meant we didn’t know yet how the Kings fit into it.
“Do you think the Kings are working with the police?” I asked him, spinning it all in my head. “That they fed them evidence? Or maybe they set him up or something? Maybe the cops were already watching Sanchuk and wouldn’t tell us?”
“It’s possible. At this point, anything’s possible. The Kings definitely have a back door to the police. I don’t know who or how, but it’s pretty common knowledge that they’ve cooperated with the law when it benefits them. Most criminal organizations do. And from their point of view, it might not be worth sticking their necks out over a lowlife like Sanchuk unless they have to. Better to let the police deal with it, and the problem goes away anyway? I wouldn’t be surprised if they served him up on a platter last night with a fucking apple in his mouth.”
“Has he coughed up a lawyer yet?”
“I don’t know.”
“Piper seemed to think the Bastards would cut him loose at the first sign of trouble.”
“Then maybe he won’t be able to afford a decent lawyer.”
“One can hope.”
“I’m gonna say, though. No matter what lawyer he swings, these are serious offenses and it sounds like whatever VPD has on him is strong.”
I headed out to the living room; I could hear the distinctive roar of motorcycles coming up the road outside Summer’s house.
Fuck me.
“Ronan?” Naveen said, when I was silent.
“Gotta go,” I told him, opening the front door. “I’ve got company.” I couldn’t see the bikes approaching beyond the trees, but they were definitely coming this way. “I’ll touch base in a bit.”
“Sure. And I’ll get back to you when I know more.”
“Thanks, brother.”
I hung up and headed outside, where the sound was loud. They were close. I walked to the end of the driveway as the roar of engines died.
Piper had just parked his bike in front of the house next door. And with him, as usual, was Blazer.
I was almost relieved to see them. At least it wasn’t friends of Sanchuk’s. If he had any.
They got off their bikes and headed over as I walked out to meet them. I didn’t really care whatever they might’ve done last night to help me or Summer; still didn’t particularly want them on her property.
At least they seemed to know it. We stood in the street, blocked from Summer’s house by the trees. Even if she looked out a window, she wouldn’t see us.
“Morning, Ronan,” Piper said, just like we were neighbors, chatting across the fence over a morning coffee. “Nice day to be alive, wouldn’t you say?”
“Any day I wake up is a nice day to be alive.”
Especially when I wake up next to Summer.
He chuckled. “True enough, brother.”
Brother, was it?
What did he think, because he’d saved my ass last night, we were brothers now?
Or maybe that’s what he wanted me to think. More chance I might feel eager to do him a solid in return.
“Any chance you’re here to tell me why Blair Sanchuk was arrested last night?” I inquired.
“I can’t say why he was arrested. The inner workings of the Vancouver Police Department are a mystery to a man like me. But Blazer might have some idea.”
I looked at Blazer.
“Let’s just say that the first time our boys paid a visit to Sanchuk’s apartment,” Blazer informed me, “it wasn’t nearly as clean as it was when you saw it.”
I considered that.
First time…?
“You got evidence?” I ventured. “Something that could be used against him?”
“Oh, we got evidence,” Piper said.
“The man didn’t exactly cover his tracks,” Blazer said.
“He had product stashed all over the apartment,” Piper supplied. “Found it in about fourteen different places, was it?”
“Something like that,” Blazer said.
I didn’t bother bursting their bubble by mentioning they’d missed one stash. The one the caretaker found.
“You turned it all over to the cops?”
“Riiight,” Piper drawled. “Because I walked into a meetin’ with a cop and handed him a pile of meth, and he believed me that it wasn’t mine. I wore my Sunday best and gave him a pinky swear. We’re friends on Facebook now.”
Yeah, I really didn’t need the sarcasm.
“It wasn’t the product we found that’s gonna do him in,” Blazer informed me. “It’s the intel. Like his phones, and all the shit in them. And the product the cops found when they tore apart that motel room last night.”
I considered that. “You found phones at Sanchuk’s place?”
“Yup,” Piper said. “Two phones. Couple of SIM cards. A laptop. We got some real tech savvy guys in our crew. Bet you didn’t know that.”
I said nothing.
“Cracked into that shit,” he went on, “unearthed a whole trail of skeletons in Sanchuk’s closet. Somehow, that evidence made it into the hands of the police. Like I said, I don’t pretend to know how the police do their jobs. They do theirs, I do mine.”
“Right.”
“But I guess the boys down at the cop shop are all rock hard right now over the idea of takin’ down a member of an out-of-country criminal organization that’s been tryin’ to set up shop in our fine city.” He shrugged. “So I hear, anyway.”
I was still fucking curious how that whole arrangement came about. But however it happened, the fact was he’d somehow served up whatever evidence his club found to the police, and I was grateful.
He didn’t have to do that.
After I left the motel last night, Piper could’ve done whatever he wanted with Sanchuk. Dead, in prison, or driven out of the province, what did it matter to Piper? No matter where Sanchuk ended up, we’d all be rid of him. He didn’t have to turn him over to the police, let the authorities deal with the problem. That was hardly the Kings’ MO.
The Kings were outlaws, plain and simple. They didn’t do things by the rules.
Which meant there was a reason they did last night. A deeply calculated reason.
“We found somethin’ else in Sanchuk’s place,” he told me. “A bunch of women’s clothing. Dresses and lingerie and shit, really nice, stuffed in some plastic bags. Had ‘stolen goods’ written all over it, so to speak. My boys seized it along with everything else. Had no idea who it might belong to, and once they went through it, they dumped it. But they found this, too.” He dug in the pocket of the leather Kings cut he was wearing under his dark hoodie. He held something out to me, and I took it.
It was a woman’s delicate gold ring. It had three small diamonds in it, and when I turned it over, it was engraved inside.
Summer.
I’d never seen the ring before, but I knew what it was.
Sanchuk. He fucking stole that wardrobe case outside her show.
For no other reason, maybe, than he was a fucking creep, and he had the opportunity.
I looked at Piper. He said nothing, but he was waiting. Gauging my reaction.
He had to know that handling things this way—turning Sanchuk over to the police, and turning Summer’s ring over to me—would go a long way to winning my favor. Sanchuk would be put away behind bars, so I wouldn’t have to worry about him creeping on Summer, and at the same time, Piper earned himself some respect with the Players’ new head of security.
He probably knew about the position Jude had offered me this morning. And he was probably counting on the fact that I’d take the offer, because of my attachment to Summer.
I could practically hear them talking about me, planning it all out.
In my new position—if I accepted it—I’d be working closely with Jude and his crew, forevermore. And Piper would rather earn my trust and respect than be at odds with me.
More than that, he probably figured I’d hire his guys onto my crew, same way Jude did for Dirty—and the Kings needed that legit work outside their organization.
For him, winning favor with me was win-win.
If I were anyone else, he might’ve just taken that favor by force and expected me to fall in line. But because of my relationship with Jude, he’d chosen to work me as a willing ally.
Or at least try to, before he got forceful about it.
“Well… it sounds like Sanchuk is going away,” I said carefully. “So I thank you for that. And for this.” I tucked the ring in my pocket.
“I don’t want your thanks, Sterling,” Piper said.
“What do you want?” I asked him. Because I knew he’d want something for this.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll let you know.”
He turned to walk away. His gaze swept over the city below and he paused. “Nice view,” he said.
Then he looked up at Summer’s house. He looked at me again, and headed over to his bike.
Blazer smiled at me. He extended his hand, and I shook it.
“Be seeing you around, Ronan,” he said. Then he gave me that stone-cold serial killer look of his, while he smiled.
I watched as they got on their bikes, turned around, and ripped back down the road.
And as I stood there, listening to the roar of Harleys fading into the distance, I considered Jude’s offer. And his recommendation about Maddox or another club brother taking the role as Summer’s bodyguard.
I was pretty floored that Maddox had called Jude last night, looking out for me. He could’ve called Piper, and probably should’ve, from his club’s perspective. But he didn’t.
I definitely respected Jude’s efforts to protect the guys in the club, trying to get them legit work and a foot out of the club if they wanted it. But I was never, ever gonna be comfortable having one of the Kings on Summer’s security detail.
I decided to call Maddox, though. Because you had to give a man credit.
“Am I up shit’s creek here?” he asked me when he answered.
“Not yet,” I said. “Just don’t disappoint me.”
“You know, you did good last night,” he said.
“Then why did you all stop me?”
“Hey, no sense seeing a good man go to prison over a waste of life like that.”
“Right. So I called to say thanks for that. For looking out for me.”
“I look out for everyone on our team. That’s the job, right?”
I didn’t quite know what to say to that one. The fact was, the Kings—at least some of them—were, in a way, part of the team. I still didn’t love it.
“But hey,” Maddox said, “if you want to thank me, go right ahead.”
“Don’t make it awkward. I’ll let you know if we have work for you. Or let Jude know. That good with you?” I figured I’d maybe put him on some events, like Dirty had in the past. I could throw him a bone, for the good of the “team.”
Plus, I didn’t mind the idea of giving these guys legit work—if they’d earned it. At least it was one less biker out there causing trouble for a few hours.
Call it my civil duty.
“Yup,” he said. “Jude knows where to find me.”
“Cool. I’ve gotta run.”
I hung up and looked out over the hazy city. The mountains were all gray in the distance, their bases wrapped in wisps of cloud, the towers of downtown emerging from the fog like a cloud city.
It was a crisp, cool morning, the first of November. I could see Halloween decorations on the yards along the street. Next door, a skeleton dangled from a tree with a fake knife buried in its chest.
One of the university students who lived there was just walking to the end of her driveway to pick up a newspaper, in a bathrobe and UGGs, coffee mug in hand. She caught my eye. She looked disheveled and hungover, remnants of Halloween makeup still on her face. She gave me a little wave.
I waved back.
I watched her head back into the house.
I looked up at Summer’s house… and this deep, warm feeling stirred in my chest. I could feel my own heart beating, strong… the same way it did when I came home to her with bloody hands, and she kissed me.
She took me to her bed.
She took me into her body, and she told me she loved me.
And I wondered what I would’ve done last night, if I’d been left to do it. How far I might’ve gone.
If there was anything I wouldn’t do to protect her.
I didn’t really think there was.
I was pretty sure, if Blair Sanchuk ever got released from prison, I wouldn’t hesitate to call up Piper Grayson and ask him for one more favor.
No matter what the cost.
A little kid, maybe seven years old, rolled by on a scooter, a little pug wearing a dog sweater running after him, trailing its abandoned leash. A couple followed, the man pushing a baby stroller. He nodded at me and said, “Good morning.”
“Morning,” I said.
They strolled by, oblivious to the fact that a couple of hardcore bikers had just rolled down their street.
Yeah. It was a fucked-up world.
And it was a beautiful world, too.
I took a breath of the crisp morning air and picked up Summer’s newspaper. Then I headed back into the house and locked the door.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Summer
Seven weeks later…
Snow was falling in fat, lazy flakes, drifting down around the car as Ronan steered us into the driveway. Usually, I found snow annoying. But right now it felt like I was living in the middle of the most beautiful, sparkling snow globe.
Maybe because I was so ridiculously in love with the man seated next to me that everything felt magical.
He was driving and I wasn’t complaining, so if that didn’t say it all, I didn’t know what did.
He used the remote to open the garage door and parked his Camaro alongside his bike. He’d taken me for many rides on that motorcycle now, before the snow came. And as it turned out, a ride on a motorcycle at Ronan’s back was fabulous foreplay.
The bike fit just perfectly in-between his car and mine; it was like the garage was made for the two of us.
We got out of the car. There were still stacks of boxes lining the garage wall, some of his things that we’d moved in but hadn’t yet unpacked. He’d given up his apartment at the beginning of the month and moved into my house, which meant we were officially shacked up together.
I was loving every minute of it.
I held the door while Ronan unloaded the shopping bags from the backseat and the trunk. It took three trips. We’d gone out Christmas shopping, then for dinner. And now we had just enough time to get ready for the party tonight.
It was four days until Christmas, and tomorrow we were taking the ferry over to Victoria to spend the holidays with my parent
s. Justice and Mia were coming, too. Ronan would be meeting my biological mom and my grandparents for the first time.
Maybe we’d play some Blackball.
And I was gonna looove watching my family shower Ronan with gifts.
The Sorensens were gift giving people.
Ronan, apparently, was not. He’d seemed a little… overwhelmed… by the level of my gift shopping extravagance.
He put the last of the shopping bags on the living room floor as I shrugged off my coat. “I can hear you frowning!” I sang from the coat closet. “Who frowns like that at gifts?”
He made a grumpy noise, which eerily reminded me of my dad.
I was gonna have to file that away for a future therapy session.
Then he muttered something about, “Who needs this many gifts?”
“Christmas is the season of giving, Ronan Sterling. I thought you were a giver.”
I plucked his jacket from him as he slipped it off, and hung it up for him. Then I looked at him standing there in our living room, surrounded by Christmas themed shopping bags… like grouchy Santa.
I went and flicked on the Christmas lights that had been strung up all around the room and on the tree. A number of our friends had been by this week to help decorate and drink spiked eggnog. Now it looked gorgeous and festive, and so cozy—especially with my handsome man in the middle of it, wearing the sweater I’d bought for him as an early holiday gift.
“If you’re gonna be this over-the-top about it,” he grouched, “why wouldn’t you at least do it in advance? It’s crowded in the stores.”
“So? I don’t mind crowds.”
“I do,” he muttered. And I knew that was true.
Crowds put him on high alert. Especially when it was just the two of us, like it was today. I was glad to have Andre around, as my full-time bodyguard now, so that Ronan could relax and just be with me when we went out. And I absolutely loved telling my bodyguard, He’s precious to me. Protect him.
But sometimes I still preferred it when my man was the only one watching my ass.
“Well, when did you shop for my gift?” I asked him. I was digging, desperately wanting to know if he’d gotten me a gift yet.
Sweet Temptation: A Players Rockstar Romance (Players, Book 3) Page 46
