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Wrong.
Instead, they just exchanged side-eyed looks with each other. Like they were trying to decide just how much info they could trust the sheriff’s daughter with.
Shit!
Tears pricked the backs of Holly’s eyes. It was long past time to leave this party and get back to her real life. She’d been crazy to start thinking she’d find friends here.
“Well, fuck,” Izzy said with a roll of her eyes. “Don’t go and get all cry baby on us. Makes us think you aren’t going to run and tell the sheriff everything you saw tonight.”
“I’m not,” Holly immediately responded. “I wouldn’t. Why would you think that?”
There went this tight-knit group again, communicating with their eyes. What the hell was going on?
“What?” She looked between the women who suddenly found the floor very interesting. All but Izzy. Clearly the most outspoken and ballsy of the bunch, Izzy cocked her head and kept her gaze on Holly.
“You don’t know?”
Any pleasant buzz she’d achieved from the alcohol was quickly chased away by the frustration of being left in the dark about something everyone else seemed clued in on. “Don’t know what? Someone just spill it already.”
“Your dad has the entire sheriff’s department coming after the club almost daily. The guys are being pulled over for bullshit while riding, our businesses are being shut down because your father has been getting anonymous tips about illegal activity, yet not a single thing has been found. I even had that prick Deputy Schwartz at my tattoo shop yesterday because supposedly three sets of parents came to complain I had tattooed their underage children.” A furious scowl crossed her lips. “Fucking bullshit.”
“Shit, Izzy,” the redhead, Chloe, said. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
Izzy shrugged. “Because it was bullshit and nothing came of it.” Her attention came back to Holly. “You know he shut down every project LJ had running today?”
Holly’s heart stuttered to a stop. The loud music faded until she could hear nothing but the sound of her own breathing and Izzy’s words. “What do you mean?”
Chloe took over the story, sadness in her eyes. “My ol’ man is Rocket. He owns the construction company LJ works for. LJ is his lead project manager. Right now, they have four separate sites running simultaneously. More than usual, so they’re pushing it hard to finish everything on time, so pretty much someone was working at each site today even though it’s the weekend. Anyway, the sheriff’s office halted all work for the entire day, maybe even more, because they supposedly got a tip about the missing money from that casino robbery being stashed at one of the Hell’s Handlers construction sites.”
Holly’s stomach rolled, the tequila sloshing around like the sea in a storm.
“Of course, they didn’t find shit,” Izzy said with heat in her voice. “Because our men aren’t fucking bank robbers.”
Oh, God. She pressed a hand to her stomach. Did her father do this because of her? Was this his fucked up way of warning LJ away from her? No wonder the man wanted nothing to do with her. Guilt pressed down on her shoulders, hard.
“I have to talk to LJ,” she said, voice hoarse.
And tomorrow, she needed to have a difficult conversation with her father. Holly refused to be used as a pawn by the sheriff’s department to funnel information on men she knew nothing about. Nor would she be used in the opposite way to provide the MC with police tidbits. No matter how hot LJ made her or how nice these women were.
“Upstairs,” Izzy said indicating the staircase with a tilt of her gorgeous head. “Fourth door on the left.”
“Is he, um, will he…”
A smile curled Izzy’s lips for the first time since this conversation started. But it wasn’t a reassuring grin; it had a more sinister quality. “Will he be up there fucking one of the Honeys?” She shrugged. “Guess you’ll find out, won’t you? You’ve got some sex-rumpled hair and your lipstick’s all gone. How worked up did you get him?”
Pretty damn worked up if he felt even half of what she did when they kissed. With trembling legs, Holly nodded to the group of women who were clearly more family than friends before turning away. She’d taken three steps when a hand closed around her wrist.
“He’s alone, I promise,” Jazz whispered. “Just LJ and a bottle of tequila that’s probably working its way toward empty by now.”
“Thanks,” Holly whispered to her new friend.
As she climbed the stairs, her head spun, and her stomach threatened to expel everything she’d consumed that day, which was pretty much alcohol and pastries. Great combination.
The short walk from the top of the staircase to LJs door seemed to pass far too quickly. She hadn’t had enough time to prepare what she planned to say. Hell, she didn’t even know what she wanted to say. All she knew was the thought of LJ’s livelihood being threatened because her father discovered their quasi-friendship was sickening.
