Gypsy King (Tin Gypsy, #1)(31)

I pulled into the parking lot, surprised to see Dad’s bike in the lot and him inside talking to Presley. “When’d you get here?”

He glanced at the clock. “About five minutes ago.”

“I went to the house.”

“That’s what Pres said. Sorry I’m late. I took a quick ride this morning to clear my head.”

“You didn’t go out of town, did you?”

“No, he didn’t,” Presley answered for him. “He promised he didn’t cross the county line.”

“We need to talk.”

Dad nodded, not moving from his chair across from Presley’s desk. “Yeah.”

“I’ll get Emmett and Leo. Pres, would you mind taking Isaiah and grabbing some lunch for all of us? Send Emmett and Leo in?”

“Sure thing.” She stood and reached for her purse. “Sandwiches?”

“Sounds good. Here.” I fished out my wallet from my back pocket and took out a fifty.

Presley took it and hurried from the office. Minutes later, Emmett and Leo came into the office from the interior door that led into the garage. The rumbling sound of the garage bay doors closing accompanied them.

I flipped the sign on the office door to CLOSED as the guys took a seat. Not exactly the long table in the clubhouse where we used to have meetings, but a stark reminder of just how much things had changed.

Silence stretched on long and tense as we waited for Dad to speak. The clock on the wall ticked in a mismatched rhythm to my heartbeat.

“Draven.” Emmett broke first.

“We went to high school together.” Dad’s eyes were trained on the papers scattered on Presley’s desk. “I knew her from years back.”

We all knew that already, thanks to Bryce’s newspapers, but I doubted Dad had read them since he’d been released. None of us interjected, though. We let him take his time. The president, current or former, deserved that respect.

“She called me out of the blue. I hadn’t heard from her in ages. Met her at the motel,” Dad continued. “Talked for a few hours, catching up. Spent the night.”

“Did you fuck her?” I asked.

His eyes snapped to mine, a hint of remorse flashing through his gaze. Then he gave me a single nod.

So Bryce had been right about that too.

“Spent the night. Got up to go home. Shower. Came to work. You were here for the rest.”

“She was stabbed,” Emmett said, his fingers steepled by his chin. “Any idea if the cops have a murder weapon?”

Dad sighed. “According to Jim, they found one of my hunting knives at the motel.”

“How would they know it’s yours?” I asked.

“Has my name engraved on the side. Your mom gave it to me ages ago.”

“Shit.” Leo let his head fall back into the wall. “You’re fucked.”

The room went quiet again—Leo wasn’t wrong. If the police had the murder weapon and could put Dad at the scene, there wasn’t much else they were missing.

“Anything else?”

He shook his head. “Don’t know. Jim advised me to stay quiet. I met with Marcus twice and he asked me some questions about what happened. How I knew her. Didn’t tell him much other than we went to high school together. After that, they pretty much left me alone in my cell. Didn’t ask anything else.”

“Yeah, because they don’t need to ask questions,” Emmett said. “They have you at the scene during the time she was killed. It was your weapon. Unless we can prove it was someone else, they have all they’ll need to put you away.”

“What about motive?” I asked. “Why would you kill her?”

Dad hesitated, his eyes dropping to his feet. But then he raised them and shook his head. “No idea.”

My gut twisted. I could count on three fingers the number of times Dad had lied to me. Now I’d be adding a fourth. It wasn’t obvious to Emmett and Leo, but there was something he wasn’t saying.

With Emmett and Leo here, I wouldn’t call Dad out. I’d ask about it later, when it was only the two of us. For now, we had other things to discuss.

“So it’s a setup.” It had to be a setup. Right? Dad would have told us if he’d killed the woman. “Who would want you to take the fall for this?”

Dad huffed. “That’s a long list, son.”

“Make it anyway,” Emmett ordered. “We gotta start somewhere.”

“I’ve got some ideas,” Dad said. “I need to make some calls, then we’ll regroup.”

“Fine. There’s something else.” I paused, taking a deep breath because I doubted the reaction to my announcement would be positive. “Made an agreement today with Bryce Ryan.”

“Who?” Dad asked.

“The hot new reporter in town,” Leo answered. “Dash has been following her around all week.”

“That so?” Dad’s eyes narrowed.

“It’s not like that.” Now it was my turn to lie. “Told you yesterday she’s good. I dropped by the paper today to have a word this morning. We made an agreement. She tells us what she’s got. We do the same. But first, she wants to talk to you.”

“No.” Dad stood and went to the door. With a flick, it was open and he was storming out.