Hard to Handle (Caine Cousins #2)(68)

He wasn’t a fucking amateur and they were sorely underestimating him if they thought he was.

Plus, he was smart enough to know he was running out of time. At some point, everyone got lucky and it was high time Kelly made sure Amy was dealt with. One more visit to that stupid backwoods town would do the trick.

This time, he would make sure she was disposed of once and for all.

And he wouldn’t leave until he had hard evidence to back it up.





29


__________


For the first time in quite some time, things were starting to make sense.

At least where this whole fucked-up situation was concerned anyway.

Lynx liked that his cousins had arrived with the intention of doing something to stop this asshole. Having to sit back and wait wasn’t his strong suit and now it seemed that was in the past.

In fact, rather than remain on the defensive, waiting, it appeared everyone was on board with going on the offense. That was more Lynx’s pace, that was for damn sure.

“I guarantee he’s on his way here,” Travis repeated for probably the tenth time. “I don’t care what anyone says, he’s headin’ back here.”

“Why do you think that?” Rhys asked, leaning against the steel beam.

“Because he’s not givin’ y’all enough credit. Think about who he is, what he’s done,” Travis stated. “The guy’s arrogant and likely believes himself to be untouchable.”

“It’s true,” Amy chimed in. “He believes he’s above everyone else. And Travis is right. He’ll think he can get to me no matter who’s around.”

“He’s smart, too,” Sawyer added. “Damn smart. He’s gotten away with a lot of shit. Not to mention, no dumb ass is gonna make it to the top the way he has.”

“I still think he’s a dumb ass,” Wolfe muttered, making several people smile.

“Well, he is and he isn’t,” Travis said, his tone still somber. “But he knows what he’s doin’. Riggin’ that bar to blow took brains and patience.”

“Not to mention balls,” Lynx grumbled. His gut still churned when he thought about that shit.

“Not gonna argue with you there,” Sawyer agreed. “And because of that, I think we’ll need to be more vigilant. It’s evident this guy thinks he’s above authority. If I had to guess, he believes he is the authority.”

“And that’s exactly it,” Amy said. “He is the authority, according to him. But more importantly, he believes he’s smarter than everyone.”

Lynx would agree with that assessment as well, based on what he’d heard and seen. And thus far, Kelly Jackson had been. After all, he had managed to blow up the bar without anyone seeing what he was doing.

However, he hadn’t been up against the people who were in this room right now. If this asshole wanted to get close to Amy, he was going to have to go through every damn one of them.

“Good thing ’bout a small town,” Ethan said, “he’s gonna stand out. He can’t hide in plain sight. If people don’t recognize him, they’ll start talkin’.”

True again.

“However,” Travis interjected, his gaze darting to Rhys, “we do need to get the town on board.”

Before Rhys could argue, Travis held up a hand.

“And I get it, I do. You don’t wanna point fingers. And we won’t. However, we can tell everyone to be on the lookout.”

“On the lookout for what?” Rhys asked, obviously not liking where this was headed.

Travis held Rhys’s stare. “It doesn’t matter. Just that they need to pay attention. A stranger in town right now needs to be suspicious. I don’t care if they claim they’re just stoppin’ for gas. Someone needs to chat ’em up. Verify their story.”

Rhys nodded. “I don’t want anyone makin’ accusations. Not at this point.”

“Agreed,” Wolfe added. “So, no names. Just get the word out for people to pay attention.”

“I’ll take care of that,” Reagan offered.

Lynx glanced her way. “I’m with her.”

“Good,” Travis said, agreeably. “The sooner the better.”

Reagan nodded, then reached for Lynx’s hand.

“Looks like that’s my cue,” Lynx said with a grin before allowing Reagan to lead him out of the building.

“Where to?”

“I was thinkin’ the diner.”

Lynx nodded. “You drive, I’ll start callin’ around.”

Her smile was so damn sweet Lynx was tempted to kiss her. Since they seemed to be in a time crunch and he was not looking forward to stopping once he started, he refrained. Barely.

Less than five minutes later, Lynx was still on the phone, following Reagan inside the diner.

“That’s right,” he told Ed. “Round ’em up and head on over.”

“Will do,” Ed confirmed. “Give me ten minutes.”

“Sure thing.” Lynx cut the connection and dropped into his chair after pulling Reagan’s out for her. He started dialing almost instantly.

“What can I get you kids?” Donna asked, stopping at their table.