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I needed to go home. To put some distance between my heart and this man before I had nothing left over for Leo. So, I took a deep breath and prepared myself to tell Diesel that tomorrow Leo and I would be returning to my bungalow.
Chapter Twenty-One
Diesel
“Yo, Diesel, you got a minute?” Slate stood in front of me, his pale blue eyes swimming with an expression I couldn’t quite name.
“Yeah, what’s up?” Slate was a pretty serious dude when it came to MC business and keeping the club protected, which meant whatever he found was a big fucking concern.
He nodded for me to follow him, and I did, going through the bar and out into the parking lot. He glanced around, his gaze bouncing on all the cars that dotted our auto repair shop, and raked a hand through his dark curls before handing me his tablet. “You know this dude?”
I looked down at the photo of an older man with thinning silver hair and dead brown eyes. He wore a smile that was more of a smirk, like he knew a joke the rest of us weren’t privy to. The prick. “Not personally, but that’s Robert Carter, super rich developer, philanthropist, and capitalist pig.”
Slate grinned. “And the one whose shell companies have been buying up all the properties surrounding ours. Rumor has it he’s planning a run for state Senate.”
“No shit?” It wasn’t a big surprise for a businessman to think he had what it took to make it in politics. If you could screw people in business, you could screw them in government just the same. “Reliable source?”
Slate shrugged. “Most of the local news sources are reporting that he’s been seen talking to certain campaign managers, that he’s gathering a team of consultants with lots of political experience. It’s not concrete, but it’s solid enough to say it’s true.”
“Shit.” My mind raced the possibilities. “He’d kill to keep those dead girls a secret, if we can tie him to them. Or maybe he wants to use us as the launching pad for his campaign. Cleaning up the town and all that dumb shit.”
Slate nodded. “I was thinking the same. But that’s not all.”
My stomach flipped and I nodded for him to tell me.
“Stacy was on the payroll for one of the companies he owns. Stopped paying her right around the time she disappeared.”
“What?” I exclaimed. I knew Stacy had worked for a real estate company, but in this town if you throw a rock, you’d probably hit at least five new building developments. “You’re telling me Steel City Enterprises is part of Carter Developments?” We’d checked out Stacy’s place of work straight away, but it had seemed a legit small company.
“I dug deeper, he’s got a few small companies like that. Clearly, they are a front for something, I’m guessing money laundering or tax evasion. Haven’t got any evidence yet, it’s just a hunch.”
That was more than a little suspicious. “The dead girls and a missing woman? That can’t be a coincidence.”
“I don’t think so either, but I didn’t want to get all the brothers riled up.”
“Good thinking. I want you to do the deepest fucking dive you can do on Robert Carter. Find out every skeleton in his closet, every side piece he’s ever had, every payoff he ever issued. All of it, business and personal. We need to know everything, so we know how to fight back. If it comes to that.” The tingling in my fists told me it would definitely come to that. Rich dudes like that didn’t play by the rules because they had enough money to buy their way out of trouble, which meant we needed the kind of proof that would sink him.
Now we had a name, and a link to Stacy, my unease at letting Ellie move back to her bungalow was spiraling out of control. She was a grown woman, and I couldn’t keep her at my place against her will. Things were still okay between us, but she’d insisted she needed space to get her head together, so she was driving over there this morning with Leo. Tonight, on our date I planned to try and persuade her to move back—or at least let me or a prospect stay with her until this whole damn business was settled.
“Already on it,” Slate offered with a half-smile.
“There are you,” Rocky shouted. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”
“Well, you found me. What’s up?”
Rocky’s dark eyes were wide and wild. “There was a fire on Rust Road.”
Rust Road was the shit side of town, what some might call the wrong side of the proverbial tracks if Steel City had train tracks. “What does this have to do with us?”
“One of the firefighters who frequents our brothels called me. Said the sheriff is there and he heard someone mention the MC by name.”
“Yeah, alright. Let’s go.” I turned back to Slate. “Let me know what you find.”
He nodded and walked away, and I knew he would dig until we learned what kind of dump Carter took each morning.
Hawk and Rebel joined Rocky and me on the street that would take us to Rust Road. And more bad fucking news.
“Sheriff Cross,” I drawled as I walked towards him.
