“Thanks.” Travis nodded and took another mouthful. Then, “Where’s Ajax today?”
“He and Blue have gone for a ride.”
Fucking fabulous. While Ajax and Leon had bullied him into their crusade, they were fucking off on a joyride. Travis would much rather be riding his own bike out of town than sniffing around this joint, but they’d made it clear what the consequences would be if he did anything of the sort. And although he had no desire to be drawn back into the fold, he also didn’t want to be at the receiving end of Leon’s enforcer punishments. “What about Micah? Seen any sign of him the last couple of days?”
“Prince?” She raised one pretty eyebrow. “I’m not his fucking keeper, but rumor has it he’s staying in the Hotel Monteleone.”
“I see.” Travis had never set foot in that high-class establishment, but maybe he’d pay him a visit sometime. Why should Micah be living in the lap of luxury while Travis was stuck with the dirty work? “I’ll have a burger and then I’ll check out the office.”
“Sure.” Sophie turned toward a redheaded barmaid down the other end of the bar. “Can you get Cash here a Priory Special?”
Travis cringed at her use of his road name. It had sounded cool all those years ago, but now it made him sound like a wannabe. Maybe because now he actually had money and in the end he’d achieved it through legitimate means, not extortion and gun trafficking and all the other shit the Deacons had been involved with. He’d discovered there was a certain thrill in achieving success through hard work rather than ill-gotten gains, and not having to watch his back wherever he went was an added benefit. No matter what Ajax or Leon thought, no way Travis was going back to all that.
Sophie went off to serve other patrons, and Travis finished his beer and tapped his fingers against the solid wood of the bar counter while he waited for his lunch. The redhead tried to flirt with him when she delivered it, but he just asked for another beer. She wasn’t bad looking, but she didn’t stand out the way Billie did, and besides, he wanted to focus on the task at hand. He scarfed down the beer and the burger and then headed out back to start examining Priest’s records.
The sooner he got to the bottom of all this, the sooner he could get the fuck back out of town.
Chapter 5
Travis spent the best part of twenty-four hours holed up at The Priory, the noise in the bar getting progressively louder as the night went on and then finally dying out completely in the early hours of Saturday morning. And he found nothing. Not a fucking thing in Priest’s records that gave any indication of something shady at play. He’d checked out Priest’s bank records, trawled through emails sent and received in the last year or so, and it was all mind-numbingly boring. But he’d kept going, always thinking that the next document might hold the key.
“Did you stay here all night?” Sophie asked, sauntering into the office with a cup of coffee around midday.
“I want to get to the bottom of this.” He eyed her mug. “Is that for me?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Under normal circumstances I’d tell you to make your own damn coffee, but you look like shit, so I’m going to make an exception.” She handed him the mug and he took it as if it were a million-dollar check. As he guzzled the much needed caffeine, she leaned against the desk and scrutinized him. “Did you uncover anything useful?”
“Nope.” Silence reigned a few moments as he drank and they both pondered this fact. He didn’t know what Sophie was thinking, but he was wondering if maybe Priest’s death truly was a tragic accident. Like him, Ajax and Leon had been shocked and devastated by the news of Priest’s death. Like him, they probably harbored plenty of guilt about never coming back, never trying to make contact with Priest, never questioning the reason he’d sent them away. So maybe this was simply clutching at straws. Ajax wanted someone to blame, a target for the revenge he needed, which would somehow make him feel less guilty about what had happened to the Deacons. Still, Ajax was Ajax, and he wouldn’t take kindly to Travis hitting him with such a theory.
“I’m going to dig around some of his acquaintances,” Travis said, putting his empty mug down on the desk. “I’ll need a list of anyone he had anything to do with. Suppliers here, drinking buddies, the mechanic who fixed his bike, anyone. Got it?”
Sophie nodded. “I’ll get onto it today.”
Travis heaved himself out of the office chair and grabbed his jacket off the back. He was almost at the door when Sophie spoke.
“Don’t you miss it?” she asked.
He looked back at her. “Miss what?”
“The club, the brotherhood, being a part of something. I know I missed you guys when you were gone.”
Travis closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. “Fuck no.”
And then he turned and stalked out of the office before she could look him in the eye. He didn’t want to miss this. Didn’t want to miss being part of the Deacons because that would make leaving again impossible. It would open him up to things he didn’t want to feel. Walking away from the brotherhood and Priest ten years ago had felt like someone had torn out all his internal organs. He’d felt empty, broken. Somehow Priest’s rejection had been harder to take, more disappointing, than all those times his mother had failed to look out for him. In the end, Priest hadn’t acted any more like family than his mother had.
But he’d recovered. He’d learned to live for no one but himself, to rely on no one.
The bright light of the early afternoon sun almost blinded him as he walked outside, and his head throbbed as if he’d been on a bender all night. He wished. While Ajax and Leon had been holding up the bar and Micah was fuck knows where doing fuck knows what, he’d been the one stuck doing the painstakingly boring groundwork. As he strode the few steps toward the gallery, a gray lump outside moved and he recognized it as Billie’s little dog. Animals lying on the sidewalk—often with signs around their necks begging for money—weren’t unusual in these parts, but he didn’t expect this one to greet him as if he were a long lost friend.
The dog, Baxter if he recalled correctly, lifted his head at the sound of footsteps and then started jumping up at him, his tongue lolling out, slobber getting all over Travis’s jeans. He tried to shake the mutt off, but it was a stubborn thing and followed him right into the gallery, still dancing around as if Travis were royalty.
“Baxter, stop it!” came Billie’s voice as they emerged into the courtyard. She was standing near the fountain, fiddling with some twinkle lights or something, and he guessed the anger in her tone wasn’t because she cared about Baxter putting dog saliva on him but more the friendliness her dog was showing toward him. The enemy.
Pretending to barely notice her, he stooped down to scratch Baxter around the ears. He had to admit, when you got used to it, the mutt was kinda cute. “Hey there, little fella. That feel good?”
“So, you do have at least one nice bone in your body.”
Travis straightened and finally looked at Billie, amused by the fury in her narrowed eyes and her arms-folded-over-chest don’t-mess-with-me stance. “Oh, baby, I can be very nice when I want to. You just say the word.”
“Whatever!” She turned away and went back to the tiny lights she was adjusting around the fountain. It gave him a nice view of her ass and he took a moment to admire it, to imagine what it would feel like naked in his hands. It had been a long night, and Billie as eye candy was a welcome distraction from the stuff with Ajax. In fact, he wouldn’t mind being a little more hands-on in terms of appreciation and putting some of his frustrations and pent-up energy to good use.