Owned & Untamed (Back Down Devil MC #11)(42)

“Mr. Smith?” I asked. “How convenient.”

“What? It’s a f*cking name. I met him, showed him the land. He offered to help me. Said he’d charge me nothing because of my military experience. A week later he had everything lined up. Some environmental company wanted the land. They were going to preserve it. I figured that would be best for Belle, too. They wanted to test the air, trees, water. I don’t know. Whatever. They offered asking price and things were almost too good to be true. Then Mr. Smith told me there was a small issue and to be patient. Something with a down payment issue. Again, look at me, Duke. Fucking look at me. I wake up half drunk. I drink for the entire day. Half the time I’m spaced out, waiting to die. The other half of the time I’m over there, right in the convoy before it all happened.”

Then there was silence.

Jim killed off his quarter-full beer and went right for the next.

“Okay,” I said. “So you only dealt with this Mr. Smith guy?”

“Yes,” Jim said. “Probably stupid, I know. But things were moving fast. I talked to my lawyer and everything seemed legit to me. I could only think about the cash. Getting that money to pay off some stuff. I don’t want to let Belle down anymore.”

“Jesus Christ,” I said. “The two of us… we really f*cked things up. And here I thought blowing up frogs and playing pranks on the neighbors was the worst we’d ever do.”

Jim chuckled. “Hey. You remember old Mr. Anderson?”

“He owned that little corner shop.”

“Yeah.”

“We drove him nuts. Remember the time we filled his garbage cans with water and then waited for him to try and drag them to the curb?”

“He f*cking poured water all over himself,” Jim said and smacked the table.

“Then he lifted his fist and muttered something in another language.”

“Yes,” Jim said. “Fuck, yes. That was good.”

“What happened to him?”

“Cancer,” Jim said. “Right after Dad went.”

“Shit. You know, getting older is tough once people start dying.”

Jim reached across the table and grabbed my arm. “We weren’t that old when people started dying, brother.”

We both swallowed hard. We then lifted our beer bottles and nodded to each other.

Silence again.

Then Jim asked, “So how do you feel about my sister?”

I grinned. “Yeah? That’s where you want to go?”

“I owe you a punch to the f*cking head for what you did to her. Taking off like that. She ended up with this f*cking fake guy, man. He was too good.”

“Too good?”

“All proper and shit. I could never relate to him. He talked to me like I was mentally messed up. Always over the top. But she fell for him hard. He was the distraction from you. I thought for a long time they were going to get married.”

My hand tightened around the beer bottle.

Belle? Married? To anyone but me?

“I don’t want to hear this,” I said.

“Yes you do,” Jim said. “You love the jealousy right now. I know you, man. This guy was good. Great job. Could buy any house he wanted. He encouraged her in nursing school and their first real problem started when she dropped out to be here. I thought about calling you then but I was too messed up. Worse than now, if you can believe it.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“So you understand what’s at stake here.”

I pointed to the folder. “Do you understand what’s at stake here, Jim? My club wants to kill you. And there’s other people out there that want you dead, too. Your little decision has some big impacts.”

“So does yours,” Jim said.

“What’s that?”

“Your little decision to come up here and save the day. You spent the night already. You think I don’t know what’s going on? I hope whatever you’re doing, you know which way the path goes. She deserves more than what she’s been given.”

“Maybe she should hear that from her brother,” I said.

Jim shook his head. “I’ve bitched and whined enough to her. She’s done enough for me. I thought by unloading a piece of the land I was going to do something for her for once. Pay off my debts. Try to move out and on. She doesn’t need to live up here for the rest of her life. Stuck in a giant memory. She’s living as though Mom and Dad are alive. They’re gone. There’s no more kids. It’s all f*cked.”

Jim got to me. He really got to me. I sat there and stared at my beer bottle. This wasn’t me trying to just save Belle. Or to just get a piece of ass. There were enough relievers in the clubhouse that would do anything at any time. This was so much deeper.

I pushed my chair back and stood up.

“Back on track, man,” I said. “I need to know my next step.”

“Which is?”

“Your decision on how you handle this.”

“I’ll call and pull the deal right now,” Jim said. “Simple.”

“Not so much. There’s big money floating around and my name and my club has been pulled into all of this. It’s going to take more than just nixing this deal.”

“Meaning what?”