At All Costs (Whiskey Bend MC Series)

by KJ Dahlen

  Sam scanned the names on the paper. “I’ll call Kelly and get her tracking these names and possible bank accounts.”

  “What are we going to do about Cooper?” Molly asked. “Are we going to clue in his Captain?”

  Sam shrugged. “I don’t know what to do about that. I don’t think we have enough evidence to lay the blame on anyone right now. I would hate to ruin a man’s career on a two point fingerprint match. If we tell Kyle, he might let it slip to Cooper and then Cooper would disappear. I think we need solid proof against him before we let Kyle know anything.”

  “It’s too bad we can’t look over the crime scenes from yesterday. We might be able to find the proof we need,” Molly commented.

  “Maybe we can,” Sam suggested. “We can go to Whiskey Bend and talk to the police there.”

  “If we do that, we may lose our perp here.” Molly reminded him. “If Lester Kratz escapes town while we’re gone, we may never find him again. He’ll get away with his cybercrime.”

  “I can get another agent down there to cover the crime scene and he can look around. If he can find the cigar band that would prove Cooper was there.”

  “That might be a possibility. Who would you call?” she asked.

  “I have a friend who would do it. His name is Freddie Vance. In fact, he might already be there.” Sam nodded.

  “Can you trust him to keep this information to himself? I mean I don’t want anyone else to know about this until we have the proof we need to identify Cooper as our killer. Then what if Luna’s boss gets wind of an FBI agent looking into the double murder in their town?” Molly pointed out. “He may not hold the story and that might tip off Cooper. We can’t allow that. If this Cooper is a mastermind killer and if he finds out his gig may be uncovered, he’s going to go after Luna and anyone else standing in his way.”

  “We need to find a way to neutralize Lester and get to Whiskey Bend to protect Luna before anything happens to her,” Sam urged.

  “We would need more solid proof of his guilt and even I know the SEC has already froze his accounts,” Molly said. “We got the warrants we need to move on all we have to do is confirm where the money originated from. I don’t think he would be stupid enough to keep that information anywhere it could be traced back to. But we have to be careful about how we move on Cooper. If we tip him off, he’ll fly before we can even think about getting a warrant. We have to do this on the QT and hope he doesn’t find out.”

  Sam nodded. “He might if he thought his identity would never be found out. He might think because he’s been successful all this time that the police would never be able to pin anything on him.”

  “I wonder if we could get a warrant to search his house.” Molly suggested.

  “Unfortunately, we don’t have probable cause. All we have is speculation at this point. I gave Kelly the list of names Luna gathered. If anyone can find a hidden account she can.” Sam sighed deeply. “Now all we can do is wait until Kelly calls us back.”

  Chapter Seven

  A knock on the door startled Luna and Aries awake.

  Aries jumped and whirled to take a stand against whatever was there. He was bent in a fighting position with his fists curled and a wild look in his eyes.

  The sun was shining in through the window and Luna was staring at him in puzzlement.

  Another knock sounded and they both realized what woke them.

  Aries looked at her sheepishly then shaking his head, he walked to the door and pulled it open.

  Hades stood there and with curious eyes as he looked beyond Aries to find Luna still sitting on the bed. He raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. “Lucifer is waiting for you both in the main room.”

  Aries nodded then slammed the door in the other man’s face. Sighing hard, he turned to look at Luna. Running his hands down his face, he groaned. “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?” Luna asked.

  “I may have compromised your position here. Everyone is going to think you’re my woman now.”

  “I don’t mind.”

  “You might when everything comes down,” he warned.

  Luna stood up and walked over to him. She met his eyes and smiled. “I doubt that.” She cupped both sides of his face and tugged him down to her. She moved in and pressed her lips on his. When their lips met, it was electric.

  Aries growled as his arms wrapped around her and he pulled her off her feet. Backing her against the wall, he deepened the kiss. His mouth pressed deeply and she opened her mouth to his invasion. He groaned and thrust his tongue in deeper. He couldn’t get enough of her sweetness although he tried hard enough. His hands went to her chest and he reveled in the plump mounds under her shirt.

  Luna felt her blood racing through her veins and as her back hit the wall, she moaned. Lust like she’d never known before streaked through her body like quicksilver and every pore in her body felt alive. Her belly felt his body pushing into hers and she was astounded by the hardness pushing against her softness.

  Finally, he broke the kiss and his lips nibbled their way over to her ear. “If we don’t leave right now, I may not be able to stop,” he murmured into her ear.

  “Oh god, do we have to stop?” she whispered. “I don’t want to.”

  “I know but Lucifer and the guys are waiting for us.” He reminded her.

  “Oh...” she cried out as she pushed him away from her.

  Aries allowed her some room and when he looked at her, he frowned. Her face was red and she was shaking. “What’s wrong?” he demanded. “Are you ashamed of being with me?”

  Luna looked up at him stunned. “Ashamed of you?” she asked. “Are you freaking kidding me? No I’m not ashamed of being with you. I’m ashamed of you being with me. I’m a nobody, someone lower than the lowest. That’s what I’ve been told all my life. You, you and these men are freaking heroes. You could have any woman you wanted, and I just sort of forced my way in here.” Shaking her head, she took a step away or at least tried to.

  Aries stepped forward and blocked her escape. “I’m nobody’s hero sweetheart. I’m a complete hot mess and you are somebody. You’re a survivor. You took all the shit everyone kept throwing at you and you survived it all. You’re stronger than you think and I’d be proud to call you mine.” He leaned down and kissed her again. He pulled her up and smothered her mouth with his.

  Finally, he pulled his lips from hers. “If I had that right, I’d be damn proud to call you mine.” Stepping back, he motioned her toward the door. “But right now, we got to talk to my brothers.”

  “I have to use the bathroom first,” she reminded him.

  Aries smiled and nodded toward another door. “You got two minutes and if we don’t leave this room, then we may never leave here.”

  A few minutes later, they found their way into the main room and the whole MC was there waiting for them along with Charlie Boone.

  Charlie looked up at her and frowned. “Are you all right Luna?” He stared at her disheveled appearance and the bandages on her shoulder. Her torn shirt and the fact she was still in her pajamas.

  “I’m ok.” She took a seat at his table.

  Aries sat down beside her and laid his arm across the back of her chair.

  Hades raised a brow at his old friend and then smirked a little.

  Aries glared at him.

  Hades just grinned back at him.

  “What the hell is going on here?” Charlie asked. “Demon called me at daybreak to report you were with them in case I was looking for you. When I asked him why I would be looking for you he said you were attacked last night in your own home.”

  Luna nodded. “I went to report the phone call yesterday in La Donna like you suggested and I ran into an old friend, Sam Reed. He’s with the FBI now and he was there with a colleague Molly Bentz, an SEC agent.” She paused and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “They were there on another matter altogether but when I told them about the double murder in Whiskey Bend, they got very intere
sted.”

  Charlie cleared his throat. “I’m sorry to burst your bubble girl, but it wasn’t just two murders the other night. We found three more people in town dead and right now we have no clue who the intended target was.”

  Luna gasped and her hand went up to cover her mouth.

  “What the fuck is going on here Charlie?” Demon and Lucifer asked at the same time.

  Charlie shook his head. “That I have no clue of.” Looking over at Luna he did say, “The only thing I knew we were waiting for the sentencing phase of Joel Grant’s trial. He was due in court, today actually. But with Alec’s death that has to be postponed. We have to move on that as the delays in the trial have caused a bit of a time crunch.”

  “A time crunch?” Aries asked.

  “Everyone has the right to a speedy trial and although Joel got his day in court, he still expects to have a speedy sentencing before he goes to prison for his crimes against Luna. It’s already been pushed off twice now due to faulty paperwork. If this stage is delayed again, he could bring up lack of a speedy trial and either get the charges dismissed or have a mistrial declared. Then it would be up to the DA to either file again or dismiss the charges altogether. Neither of which we want. Luna’s been through enough and if Joel gets out of jail, he’ll come after her again and this time she might be as lucky.”

  Aries looked angry then enraged with each word Charlie told them.

  She didn’t know why he was so concerned about her, he didn’t even really know her, but it felt good to her. She reached out and covered his hand with hers.

  He calmed down immediately and everyone in the room noticed it.

  “So this might have everything to do with Joel?” she asked.

  Charlie shrugged. “There’s nothing but speculation at the moment. But this has nothing to do with what happened last night or how you got hooked up with these guys.”

  Luna swallowed hard. “You know about the phone call the night before right?”

  Charlie nodded.

  Before she could go on Lucifer asked, “Is this the same call you told us about in the middle of the night?

  Luna nodded. “Anyway when I got back from LaDonna yesterday, I was doing more research before I went to bed. A sound woke me up and it sounded like someone was outside my window. I waited until he walked around the corner and then I got the hell out of there. I got as far as the woods behind my house before I looked back. When I did, I saw someone in my house. I could see a flashlight moving around and he stood at the window in my bedroom. He called out my name and I turned to run. He followed me through the woods and when I came to a cabin in the woods, I just went in there to hide. I didn’t know if anyone was there or not. All I cared about was hiding from whoever was following me.”

  Then she looked over at Aries. “He discovered me hiding in his living room.”

  Charlie looked at her shoulder and winced. “Is that how you got hurt?”

  Luna frowned and shook her head. “No, he didn’t hurt me. He called his brothers in when he saw someone in the woods and they thought they had chased him off. Aries was going to walk me home when a shot rang out. It hit the doorframe and ricocheted off the door then hit me. In fact, I didn’t even realized I was hit until it was all over. His brothers came back and chased the man off and then we came here. I didn’t want to be alone last night.”

  Charlie snorted. “I can see why.” He looked around the room then back to her, “Do you have any idea who might have shot at you?”

  Luna shook her head. “If this has anything to do with Joel you might want to talk to Ben or Danny. As his brothers they would do anything to stop him from going to prison.”

  Charlie nodded. “You might be interested in knowing the old man is back home and he isn’t exactly happy about his grandson being locked up.”

  “Who is the old man?” Aries asked.

  “That would be Jesse Grant. He thinks he owns this town and he feels whatever his family does should be swept under the run.” Charlie shrugged. “It always has been in the past but not one of his grandsons ever tried to kill a person before. Joel thought he’d get away with this and was stunned when I arrested him for assault. His fancy lawyer couldn’t talk the judge out of raising the charges to first degree assault either. Jesse wasn’t happy about that either.”

  “Poor Jesse.” Lucifer scowled. “If he wanted to keep his grandson’s in line, he should have stayed home and pounded on them a little bit more.”

  Charlie barked out a laugh. “Yeah, maybe he should have done that when they were little but he was too busy building his empire.” Then he looked over at Luna again. “I got a call from your friend Sam Reed this morning. He had some interesting things to say about this case and you.”

  “What kind of things?” Aries demanded.

  “He’s coming up here this afternoon and he wouldn’t tell me much over the phone,” Charlie admitted. “But he did want to know if someone was looking out for you.”

  Luna trembled.

  Aries turned to search her face. “What? What’s wrong baby?”

  Luna shook her head. She didn’t want to tell them what she’d found out the last few days. It was too horrible to think about. She pushed back her chair but Aries wouldn’t let her go anywhere.

  ~*~

  Charlie felt very concerned about this entire thing. “You have to tell them girl,” he urged. “They may be the only thing standing between you and this killer right now.”

  Lucifer glared at Charlie. “What fucking killer?”

  Luna sat down again and cleared her throat. “Less than a week ago, I received a call from an attorney of a man in prison. This man was on death row but he had some info he wanted the world to know. I went to see him not expecting much but what he gave me scared the crap out of me. He told me a story about a man he met fifteen years ago. He’d kept this info to himself all this time because he never knew what this man would do to him. But Mike, the guy in prison is dying and he wanted this guy caught. He called him Bruce at one time and that’s what I’ll call him. Mike said Bruce was able to pose as anyone he wanted to be. He was nothing more than a thug though, a ruthless one-man army and he let nothing or no one stand in his way. He began with robberies and ended up murdering people. Mike said he used a computer to set up his next identity and he could fit into any job he wanted with fake credentials.”

  “He never got caught?” Demon asked.

  Luna shook her head. “But there was one thing, yesterday when I was at the police station I met someone that that weirded me out. I didn’t know him, had never met him but when he spoke to his captain I got a shiver. Like I heard his voice before.”

  Aries sat up and stared at her. He looked around at his brothers and then at Charlie before he turned his gaze back to Luna. “Was he the caller from the night before?”

  Luna started to shake her head, then she stopped. “Maybe, I don’t recall. I was half asleep when he called. The caller didn’t stick around long enough to tell me who he was.”

  “Who is this joker?” Lucifer asked.

  “His name is Cooper Connors. And he’s a cop,” she told them. “ Then when I researched what Mike told me in prison. All the towns this Bruce killer was in. There were things in the captain’s office on the wall. Souvenirs? Like shot glasses and such and many of them were from the towns this killer had murdered people in. I don’t know if this Cooper may have given them to his Captain or what? I do think that maybe this killer and the one Mike spoke about is the same one. Yet, I know it might be a longshot.”

  “Well fuck,” Lucifer swore and glanced around. “That’s all we need is a crocked cop.”

  “Well, what if Cooper isn’t a cop? If he has a fake identity, like Mike’s killer does.”

  Lucifer shook his head. “I don’t know. I do think reporters take leaps all the time.”

  Charlie nodded. “Yes, it could be true but we need hard evidence. Oh, I brought you some things from your house, Luna. I’m sorry but I just grabbed
what I could find.” He passed over a bag to her.

  Luna opened the bag to find some clothes and her purse along with her phone. She smiled. “Thank you.”

  “You’d better check your phone. Nathan has called you five times already.” Charlie chuckled.

  “Yeah, he called me yesterday when I didn’t show up for our weekly meeting. I couldn’t exactly tell him about where I was but Sam assured him I was working on something bigger. He wanted details this morning but I can’t give him any, can I?” She looked at Charlie then at Aries. “I can’t put anyone here in the limelight and I can’t say anything about the murders possibly being connected to Cooper Connors either.”

  Charlie shook his head. “Not unless your friend Sam found a connection.”

  A few minutes later Luna’s phone rang. When she answered, the call didn’t take long. When she hung up, she glanced at the others. “That was Sam. They might have found a connection that would tie in the murders to this serial killer.”

  Charlie and the others sat up intently. “And just what would that be?” Charlie asked.

  “A cigar band from an Arturo Fuentes cigar. He said the police reports list it as trash found near the crime scene but it’s been found in too many scenes not to be related to the crimes.”

  “If I remember correctly, we found a cigar band from around Alec’s murder,” Charlie stated. Shrugging he added, “Like everyone else we thought it might be trash as well but my deputy bagged it. Let me call him and find out the brand name, if it’s the same we might be able to connect the cases.”

  Everyone watched as Charlie made the call. A few minutes later, he looked over at her and nodded. “It was the same as all the others.” Running his fingers over the top of his short hair Charlie shook his head. “Now all we have to do in connect this killer with the Grants. Maybe your friends can help.”

  Luna nodded. “Sam said he would be here this afternoon. He wants to secure his case in LaDonna first but he said he would see me later.”

  “What we need is a computer person that can hack into banking account,” Lucifer said.