They both quickly covered up their surprise at this news, neither man looking happy. There was a short unspoken exchange between them before Ranger nodded like something had been decided while Toni just stood there feeling all sorts of confused.
“Does Gwen know it’s not your father?” Ranger asked her, his hand reaching for the small of her back.
Toni appreciated the comforting gesture. “I don’t know. Mom’s been to my office before, but I can’t remember if my dadever was when Gwen was there. But she’s using our code for when there’s a problem client in the lobby.”
“Does she feel she’s in danger?” Ghost asked quickly.
Toni shook her head. “I asked, and she said ‘no’. But clearly she knows something isn’t right or she wouldn’t have called me ‘Ms. Anderson’.”
“Okay, stay here,” Ranger instructed. “We’ll go and?—”
“No,” Toni interrupted, feeling almost frantic. “You can’t go to my office, Liam.”
He stared down at her, frowning. “There’s someone at your office who is creating red flags for your secretary. No way in hell are you going there.”
“I have to,” Toni insisted. “I can’t be seen publicly with the club, Liam. Eventually questions about my dad’s whereabouts are going to happen, and I can’t have it look like I have the town’s motorcycle club at my back when they do.”
“I don’t give a damn about what anyone thinks,” Ranger growled. “You are not walking into a potentially dangerous situation?—”
“Whoever is at my office came to a public location,” Toni tried to reason. “That means they don’t plan on hurting me.”
Ghost stopped Ranger from whatever argument he planned on throwing at her next. “Toni, Ranger’s right. We’re not about to let you go in there alone and unprotected. Plus, I think there’s an aspect here that neither of you have considered yet.”
Toni blinked, not understanding. “What’s that?”
Ghost’s green eyes softened slightly as he looked at her. “Clearly, someone besides the club knows you killed your father. Now, either your mother was in the house with you that night, saw what happened, and told someone else,orthat someone else was the one in the house that night.”
Toni felt the heat drain from her face. “There’s a witness…” she breathed out, terror making her hand lax. She almostdropped the phone, but thankfully Ranger caught it as he pulled her into his arms.
A witness! Fuck! What was she to do now? Calling the club had been a mistake! Now there was a witness to her crime, and she was going to go to jail! It hadn’t seemed such a terrifying thought when the witness had potentially been her mom. High or not, her mom would be considered a compromised witness, plus she hadn’t imagined a reality where her mom would turn her in.
Hadsomeone else been in her house that night? Someone who wasn’t her mom? Who? Why? Like her, her parents were fairly isolated socially. But with the addition of meth being reintroduced into their lives, who knows who had been in their home or why.
“Breathe, Toni,” Ranger encouraged. “It’ll be fine, baby. Everything will be just fine.”
“I don’t want to go to prison,” she mumbled into his shirt.
“You’re not going to prison,” he promised her—though Toni didn’t think that was a promise he had the right to make. It wasn’t like he was a king and decided the punishments, or pardons, for those in the land.
“I don’t want to leave Gwen there with whomever is in your office,” Ghost said from behind her. “Let’s take one of the cages over, and see what we can figure out before you go inside.”
“She’s not going inside alone!” Ranger snapped at his friend and brother-in-law.
“I never said she was, but I do agree that you can’t be the one who goes inside with her. Let’s go. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can figure this out.”
* * *
Toni was confused,but she was also trying really hard not to be rude, but she was also really, really confused. “I’m sorry, how is this a compromise?” she asked, eyes flicking back and forth between Ranger and the blind woman now standing beside him.
She’d seen Tally around, knew the woman was a chef at the diner, but that was the extent of her knowledge. To be honest, she kind of assumed the whole “blind chef” thing was some sort of gimmick. It also wasn’t like she ate at the diner all that often to have put that much thought into it, either. All she knew was how much she enjoyed splurging occasionally on the cranberry pear brie panini they’d added to their menu over the past year. Plus, they’d recently done something to their french fries to make them even more addictive.
“Just trust me,” Ranger encouraged, “Tally’s the perfect bodyguard.”
Toni tried to keep the frown off her face, assuming that Tally had some sort of vision capabilities since she was walking around with the traditional sunglasses and cane that most blind people did.
They were standing on the opposite sidewalk from her office space. One of the club’s SUVs hid them from view as they surveyed her office. Gwen was still on the phone, but other than asking the man on occasion if he wanted anything to eat, nothing else was said. Once Toni heard Gwen tell the man that she did not have a key to Ms. Anderson’s office, and therefore the man could not wait in there. Unfortunately, Toni did not hear the man’s inquiry or response to that, so she didn’t know for sure, but could only assume he’d asked to go into Toni’s office. Gwendidhave a key to Toni’s office, but she knew better than to allow anyone in under any circumstances.
But it did beg the question if there was something in her office that the man wanted.
