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No one would have suspected Thad Mayes of sending his ex-wife anything so incriminating. She hadn’t been a part of the League—it was the reason for their divorce—but still, she had kept his secrets, kept his evidence against himself and the men he had banded together with.
Just in case, she had written in her journal. He had asked her to take anything he sent her and place it, unopened, in a safe place. He’d collect it later, he had promised. He had never collected it.
A few months before her death she had written in that last journal that Thad was going to make life easier for her. Zeke was grown and on his own, and it was time she enjoyed her life. She’d threatened to turn the pictures over to the authorities. Pictures she had taken while she had been with him, pictures of the men that had formed the Freedom League. She’d had no idea the proof she had actually held in that damned rental unit.
Proof far more incriminating than what she’d had herself.
She’d stored that journal away, the last one she had written in before she was killed. A year later, Thad Mayes had died in another inferno that had burned his body and any evidence he may have kept himself. That had been mere months after the picture of the two dead state police officers had been taken.
“Joe and Jaime were seeing Gene’s youngest daughter, Cammi,” Rogue said faintly.
“That’s what this is all about, isn’t it?”
Zeke felt as though the tension was going to break him apart. His muscles, his bones, were tight with the fury racing through him.
“She had to have been the girl they were seeing. Joe and Jaime knew Gene was a part of the Freedom League,” he said harshly. “They knew, and they didn’t say anything because of Cammi. Because they were in love with her. But someone overheard a conversation they had. One where Jaime stated that Gene was a part of what happened last year with the Mackays. That he’d use it against her father if he caused them too much trouble. They died because of what they knew, and that’s why Callie Walker died as well. Because Gene had to keep his part in this a secret. ” His fists clenched at his side.
“Because he was still a part of the League. ”
“Do you have proof?”
Zeke shook his head. “All I have is proof that he was part of the League, and the deaths of those officers. ”
“What are you going to do, Zeke?” she asked. “Gene is at the bar looking for you. He said he’d been trying to contact you all day. He has to be suspicious. ”
“I’ve faxed the pictures to Agent Cranston,” he told her as he turned to her. “I want you to stay here, Rogue, where you’ll be safe. No one will know you’re here. The bar could be torched with you in it. They don’t care to kill innocent bystanders. I’m meeting the Mackay cousins and Agent Cranston in town in an hour. We’ll take care of this tonight.
All of it. ”
He’d been busy. The moment Teddy Winfred’s information had clicked in his brain Zeke had come home to search for the pictures he had himself from his youth. In searching for them, he’d found the boxes of sealed, mailed envelopes his mother had kept. The information in her journals had shocked him, enraged him. It had taken most of the day to find everything, and there were still more to go through. But he had what he needed.
“What about Cammi?” she asked. “She’s not part of this, Zeke. ”
He stared at her in surprise. Cammi had never been kind to Rogue. She had sneered at her, insulted her countless times over the years, but still Rogue was thinking of her.
And, as Rogue stated, Cammi was innocent of everything but wanting the wrong men.
He hoped.
“We’ll watch out for Cammi,” he promised her. “I want your promise that you’ll stay here, keep your phone off, stay out of contact. ”
He held her gaze, willing, determined that she would do exactly as he wanted her to do.
He couldn’t give her promises yet, he couldn’t let himself believe in promises yet, not until this was finished.
“What aren’t you telling me?” She asked the question he hoped she wouldn’t. “How are you involved in this, Zeke?”
He leaned against the old desk, crossed his arms over his chest, and watched her carefully.
“Look at those pictures again,” he told her softly. “The earlier ones, Rogue. I was fourteen before Mom divorced that bastard. The League is generational, baby. I was a part of it before we went to Los Angeles. Before I even understood what it meant, I was there. I hunted with them, I listened to their plans, and I let myself be convinced I was right, they were right. This is why I came back, to see it finished. The Mackays cut off the head of the organization, but the body’s still alive. It can reform if it’s not finished.
This will finish it. My mother and my wife were killed as a warning. Gene has to know how close I am to revealing his part in this. I can’t risk you. I’d die if I lost you. ”
“There’s more. ” She shook her head, those flaming curls whispering around her shoulders and down her back as she stared back at him from the most beautiful eyes in the world.
He’d tried to hide from what he felt for her. From the time he first saw her, until now.
As though a veil lifted from his soul, Zeke saw what he didn’t want to see. Emotions fueled by needs. The knowledge that this one woman had been created for him. She could be his greatest strength or his greatest weakness in the hands of his enemies.
