Whisky State of Mind (21 page)

“Why would you do that?”

“This club means everything to your father. I saw what he sacrificed to turn this club around.”

He looked at her pointedly and she knew he was talking about when he’d sent her away.

“It would have killed him to have to go back into that world…after fighting so hard to get out of it. There was no way I was going to stand by and let them do that to him.

“That was a big risk.”

It was huge risk, but one he had little choice in. He’d meant it when he said it would kill Johnny to have gone back to that world.
Literally.
If anyone had found out what Johnny had done—set up a rival gang, working for the feds—he’d be a dead man. Johnny thought the feds had gone sniffing around to look for someone else to use as bait.

Sawyer was under no illusions this whole deal could have blown up in his face at any time, but it was a sacrifice he’d been willing to make. This club meant everything to him. It was his family and he’d do whatever it took to protect it.

Then Whisky came back into his life and complicated everything.

For the first time since making the decision to cut a deal with the feds, he regretted it. He didn’t regret the reasons behind doing it, just the fact that if things went wrong he’d lose this chance with her. Then again, it may have helped him. He worked harder—played smarter and
made sure nothing went wrong. He had a lot to live for.

“How long have you been doing it? Working with them?”

“About six months.” Six long months leading a double life and working behind the back of his club and friends. Looking over his shoulder.

He’d thought his cover had been blown the night
Razor had stumbled into the bar and started making trouble—but it turned out to be dumb, bad luck. The moron had a plan of his own to muscle in on Black Mustang territory—without his club’s endorsement. It had taken at least ten years off Sawyer’s life that night. Razor had sealed his fate the minute he decided to use Whisky to get to Johnny. It didn’t hurt that it also tied up any loose threads that may have unraveled if Razor somehow made the connection with Sawyer and the feds.

“So
you’re done with the feds now? It’s over?”

“Yep. I’m done.”

Sky looked at him for a while and he could almost see the cogs in her brain turning as she debated whether or not to believe him.

“I swear, it’s finished.”

They turned as a voice called out to them, and Sawyer saw Brick heading across the grounds toward them. “The Doc wants to see you.”

Sawyer walked beside
Whisky, down the long corridor and back into her father’s room. The white-coated doctor stood by the bed writing on his chart, but looked up when they came into the room.

“We’ve medicated him as much as possible for the pain, and he’s lost consciousness now. I’m afraid it won’t be much longer.”

Sawyer tore his gaze from the middle aged doctor and looked down at the man he loved like a father. It seemed wrong to see the big man now look so frail. It didn’t seem real. He reached down and took Whisky’s cold hand in his and held it tightly. The touch offered him some small measure of comfort and he hoped she felt it, too, but as they sat there side by side, listening to the last of her father’s labored breaths, he wasn’t sure exactly who was comforting who.

****

Sky stared out across the now-empty graveyard and realized the bleak gray of the sky reflected her mood exactly. A storm was coming over, and soon it would rain, but for now there was just a gloomy, darkness that hung over her.

The turnout had been nothing short of amazing, what she’d actually registered. Bike clubs from all over the country had turned up to pay their respects
, as well as a huge turnout of the local community. Her father had touched people from all walks of life…and now he was gone.

Part of her still felt robbed. She hated that they’d wasted so many years—years she could never get back, but Johnny had been right
.
A short life lived to its fullest is worth a hundred long lives filled with mediocre
…they may have only had  a short time together but they’d crammed a lot into those last few weeks, and she at least had the comfort of knowing she’d gotten to say goodbye. Not everyone got that peace of mind.

Behind her, she knew the rest of her family waited. They were gathered around the car park, giving her some time alone but never far away. Since her father passed, they’d made sure she knew she always had a family and their gruff affection touched her.

Closer behind her, Sawyer waited. He’d become her shadow—never more than a step away and she wasn’t sure what she would have done without him. He’d been a rock, handling the funeral arrangements as well as running the bar. She felt a little bad; he had to be hurting just as much, if not more than she, after all, he had Johnny in his life a lot longer than she had. She could think that now and not feel the bitter sting of rejection.

She heard the faint creak of Sawyer’
s
old leather jacket as he straightened and then felt him move closer behind her. Sky turned and saw he was looking at someone approaching them across the lawn.

“Riley,” Caleb nodded curtly at Sawyer.

Sawyer’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. There was a definite undercurrent of something volatile in the air and something told her these two men had done this before, which made her a little uneasy.

He turned his gaze onto Sky and she saw his expression soften slightly. “Sky. I’m sorry about your father.”

Sky managed a nod, but was aware that Caleb’s presence was causing a ripple of unrest amongst the other members, who were all watching the exchange intently.  “Thanks, Caleb. It was nice of you to come all the way out here to pay your respects.”

“I need to speak to you, Riley. Alone,” he said, sending Sawyer a hard glare.

“Is this a police matter, Detective?”

“It could be.”

“Anything you have to say, you can say in front of Whisky. I don’t have any secrets,” Sawyer shrugged.

Caleb gave a disdainful kind of chuckle. “Yeah, right. You’re an open book. Okay,” he said, looking at Sky. “Fine by me, maybe you’ll see the kind of hero your boyfriend really is.”

He still looked like the same Caleb she knew, but there was a different edge to him now—something harder…colder. She didn’t really like Caleb in detective mode.

“Razor and two other members of the Switchblades have been reported missing. No one’s seen them in over a week. Do you know anything about this?” Caleb demanded.

“Nope,” Sawyer said, holding the younger detective’s stare unflinchingly.

“
You know there was a report of some kind of brawl in an alleyway right next door to your apartment building the other day? Witnesses say it looked like a group of bikers.”

Witnesses? She thought with a snort, the same witnesses who’d rushed to help her when she’d needed it? “I don’t know anything about that.”

“Dude, we’ve just buried her father. If you want to interrogate us, why don’t you set up a time to do it down at the police station?”

“I’m not interrogating anyone
; I’m just asking a few questions.” He switched his gaze back to Sky expectantly. “This man and two others are missing. We know the Black Mustangs are somehow involved in this. It’s just a matter of time before the guys on this case come knocking on your door.”

“I thought you worked in fraud, not missing persons? Why are you so interested in all this?”

“I told you something like this would happen. It’s only a matter of time before they connect the Mustangs to this and then go digging around and figure out I’ve been associating with the daughter of a suspect.”

“So you’re worried about your future career prospects,” she surmised dryly.

“I’m worried about what they’re going to find you mixed up in. Did you agree to this? Are you okay with them kidnapping and murdering three men, Sky?”

Sky stared at Sawyer in disbelief.
Murder?
“Of course not.”

“Look, Santiago, she has nothing to do with any of this. Back off.”

“You and I both know he killed those men,” he said.

She knew nothing of the kind. She was happy not knowing actually, and would prefer to keep it that way.

“This had something to do with why you wanted me to keep an eye on her. You knew something was going to happen,” he said, glaring at Sawyer, before turning back to Sky once more. “What did those guys do to you? Why were they near your apartment?”

Sky shook her head. What the hell was he talking about? Why had Sawyer asked Caleb to keep an eye on her?

“Did they hurt you? Is that what the brawl was all about? It had to be something pretty bad to kill them for…Does that sit okay with you, Sky? Instead of turning them over to let the law deal with them—you were happy to let these guys play judge and executioner?”

“Do you really think I’d ever put that on her?” Sawyer growled. “You think I’d even
consider
allowing her to make a decision like that?”

“You don’t think anything you do isn’t going to eventually lead back to her?”

“I’d never let anything blow back on her.”

“I don’t put anything past you.”

“Then you don’t know shit. I don’t know what happened to those assholes and I don’t care.”

“Is this what you want? Is this the life you dreamed of, getting mixed up with a bunch of criminals?” Caleb asked, looking back at Sky with a look of disgust on his face.

“They’re not criminals. They’re my family,” she said, standing straighter.

Caleb shook his head as he stared at her silently. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

Looking over at the cluster of men hovering around their motor bikes nearby, ready to come to her defense at the drop of a hat, it didn’t seem like a very hard decision to make.

Chapter
22

Sawyer watched Santiago walk back to his car. He looked down at Whisky and smothered a sigh. Thanks to Detective Dick, he now had some serious crap to deal with.

“Are they dead?”

“Let’s not do this right now, okay? It’s been a long day.”

“It’s a simple question.”

“No. It’s not. Nothing’s simple about any of this.”

“Are they going to find them?”

“Whisky,” he sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. “I meant what I said. There’s no way I’d ever let anything come back on you. You have to trust me on this.”

“I tried to trust you, and look what happened
.”

He stared at her quietly for a minute
; seeing the tired sadness in her eyes made him feel bad. It was his job to protect her from all this shit. Johnny would be kickin’ his ass if he knew that less than an hour after burying him his daughter had already been harassed by a God damn cop…over his grave, no less.

“Let’s get out of here. We’ll talk about all this later.”

He knew she must be exhausted when she didn’t bother arguing with him, and was silently grateful. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold his own shit together. He just wanted this day to be over. 

****

Johnny’s wake was even bigger than his funeral. The bar had been closed for the private function and the place was filled to capacity.

So much for the no
colors rule, she thought as she looked around and saw cuts of every shape, color, and club.

Sky didn’t stay long. She wasn’t in the mood to celebrate. These people had their own way of doing things and there was still a lot of it she didn’t understand.

She’d spent the last few days in a spare room at the club house, behind the bar. She had a feeling the offer to stay there had been more to keep an eye on her than simply for convenience sake. Her father had offered her a room after she’d started work in the bar, but she’d politely refused. She loved her little apartment and she hadn’t been ready to accept any helping hands at that stage. She still wasn’t, but lately she’d been too tired and emotionally fragile to bother refusing. She sat down on the edge of her bed and stared at the floor between her feet. It was hard to believe he was gone. It shouldn’t have felt any different—he’d be out of her life for over ten years, but it did. She felt an emptiness that hadn’t been there before. It hurt. A lot.

A soft knock sounded at her door and she called out to come in. Sawyer stood in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe. “You okay?”

She managed an offhand shrug, but couldn’t talk. She knew if she opened her mouth somehow that would release a tidal wave of emotions she wasn’t ready to deal with, at least not in front of anyone else.

He pushed away from where he’d been leaning and closed the door behind him. “It’s going to be okay,” he said quietly, hunkering down in front of her to look into her downturned face.

He placed a finger beneath her chin and lifted her face so that she looked him in the eye. The gentleness she saw there brought a sting to her eyes. He was such a contradiction. One minute the hard-ass biker, capable of God only knew what kind of violence, and then he could turn around and look at her…like this.