Accidental Knight: A Marriage Mistake Romance(83)

“Sure, but the name’s Drake,” he says, falling in step beside him.

Dad smiles. “Then I guess you’d better call me Gary.”

I’m still blinking at the tears in my eyes when I say, “Dad, Drake and I are going to town for supper this evening. Would you care to join us? You could even bring Mom, I guess. We can eat wherever she wants.”

“I’m sure she’d like that,” he replies. “The restaurant at the hotel is decent. Let’s meet there at seven.”

I know our original reason was partly to show Erin my ring, but this is more important. “Perfect.”

As they walk out of the room together, I drop onto the couch.

Holy crap. What a day.





14





Make Me Prouder (Drake)





I follow Gary out the front door and down the porch steps, grateful he’d seen the look I’d given him when I said Bella didn’t know about the will, and understood it.

He’s smart. Smart enough to know the tale about marrying her for Jonah’s sake was a pile of shit.

It’s my cover. A partial lie built on a framework of truth. Yeah, I respected the hell out of Jonah Reed, but not enough to go along with this scheme if camaraderie was all we had.

Jonah never acted like he caught onto me, the real reason I agreed, but he may have known it, too.

He knew about Winnie.

Knew how I’d rant and rave and wake up screaming in my sleep some nights. Knew I couldn’t let her go. Knew I had this weird fixation because she was my friend, she was innocent, she didn’t deserve to die like she did, and the world threw her away and shoved the dirt over her grave like a piece of forgotten fucking garbage.

He knew I wouldn’t stop looking till I caught her killer, even if I put my own ass in the fire.

Our mutual hatred of Jupiter Oil, and Avery Briar, is what made me brothers with a man older than my own father.

“So what are you, really?” Gary asks as we arrive at his car. “A rogue FBI spook? A guy who left a biker gang? A vigilante with an axe to grind?”

His outlandish questions don’t surprise me, but I still don’t have an answer. A vigilante is the closest, yet I shake my head. “None of the above.”

“Then why in God’s name are you using my daughter as bait?” His voice turns cold, deadlier than a man as soft as him might seem.

His eyes are as green as Bella’s, and full of distrust.

Fuck.

Like it or not, he hit the nail right on the head. I hadn’t wanted to admit how it seemed, not even to myself, yet that’s exactly why I’d agreed to this wedding sham.

I knew they’d come. And even if she needed protection when they did, it was Bella who’d flush them out of the woodwork.

Avery was sneaking around for a while, looking for a way to strike, especially once Jonah took ill.

The old man knew it and was concerned for Bella. He wanted somebody capable to pull this off, and not just legally. If it got dirty, he wanted a man behind her who knew how to fight, to shoot to kill, if the bastards ever decided to abandon high pressure sales tactics in favor of something deadlier.

I’d been thinking along the same lines as Gary is right now. That she’d draw Avery in like a nightcrawler on a hook. It tore part of me up at first, haunted my conscience, but if I know anything about Bella, she’s proven one thing – she won’t back down easy.

She’d be doing this, standing up to her folks and Jupiter, if I wasn’t in the picture.

Better that I am. Better that she has someone to stand in the way of her and the worst.

Because the absolute fucking worst could be around the corner. Any day, any time.

“I’m not using her as bait. Not the way you think,” I say. “Check the employment records at North Earhart. I’m personal security. Have been for four years. First for Jonah, now for Bella. I’ll intercept any move Avery makes toward her, and I’ll make sure it gets him busted. One of those moves will be enough to have him arrested, charged, and convicted. Jupiter Oil will lose any standing they have around here, and at least five states and thirty towns will be better off once he’s out of commission.”

Gary glances toward the house.

“His asshole son’s already in jail,” I say, making it more convincing.

Frowning, his gaze turns back to me. “He is?”

“You seen the mug shots? The vicious-looking guy with the dragon tattoo? That’s Avery’s kid.”

He gives me a raised brow and then shakes his head. “Wow. This is all making more and more sense. Dad would’ve gone to extremes to take down an opponent. Especially a rival oil company as messed up as Jupiter.”

There’s one part that still doesn’t add up, but I don’t mention it. Why the hell did Avery let Dragon get arrested in the first place? There’s got to be a jailbreak coming, or something more sinister.

Not wanting to belittle Jonah’s love for Bella, I say, “It’s not just about that. Not entirely. Jonah loved your daughter very, very much, and was truly concerned for her safety.”

“Remorse is a hell of a thing,” he says. “There were so many times I wanted to call him. Wanted to ask if he needed anything, but I was afraid he’d hang up, shut me out of his life again.”