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"How very... not like me," my mom said, giving me a big smile. "I heard she bakes too."
"She does," I confirmed, feeling my lips curve up a bit.
"You really like her, huh?" she asked, giving me a warm smile.
"Yeah," I agreed, feeling no need to mention that it was new, or that we were just figuring it out. Because it didn't matter how new it was. I knew it was heading somewhere important.
"Can't wait to meet her then," my mom said, walking over toward her SUV. "But you need to look into this," she said, waving toward the house, but clearly meaning all of the events. "Because it looks like someone is determined. If you don't think Holly knows anything, talk to the brother. And if you need any help tracking some shit down, you know where to find me."
"Ma," I called, waiting for her to turn back.
"Yeah?"
"Thank you."
"Anything for you, bub," she said, getting in, and driving away.
From there, I headed my ass over to the hospital, having more than a bad feeling about the whole situation, and knowing Shep probably had his mind reeling as well.
"You fucker," he said when I made my way into his room, making the nurse look at Shep, then me in my cut, and scurry right out of the room.
Over the years, the guys in the club had more than their fair share of trips to the hospital. And, over time, they learned that so long as an all-out brawl wasn't taking place, it was best to just leave us to our own devices when things were looking tense.
"What did you do?" he added as I shut the door with a quiet click and moved further into the room.
He looked rough, sure, but alert. And pissed.
"Me?" I asked.
"Yeah, you," he said, grabbing the arm of the bed so he could sit up with his brace making the task more difficult than it should have been. "You come into her life, and all of a sudden, shit is going bad fast."
"Look, Shep. I think we have the same conclusion, but you're working with faulty reasoning." He gave me a disbelieving look, but let me go on. "I agree shit is not right, but I am telling you it isn't me. That's why I'm here. To figure out who it is," I told him, pulling up a chair by the side of his bed.
"I'm not addicted to my meds," he told me, shaking his head. "And I didn't take anything other than my one sleeping pill last night," he insisted "Actually, I've been dealing with the pain because the pain meds slow me down, and I have been trying to do more for myself. She's been struggling, whether she'll admit it or not."
"Okay," I said, nodding. Either he was telling the truth, or he was an unusually good liar.
"Okay?" he asked, brows drawing down over tired eyes.
"I have no reason not to believe you."
"Al...right," Shep said, not entirely convinced. His gaze slid away, looking toward the door for a minute before focusing back at me. "What made you come here?"
"Because I don't think Holly is capable of seeing negativity in anyone. I figure you might be more objective. What can you tell me about your accident?"
"Not much to tell. I was driving home. I didn't see anything. One minute, everything was fine. The next, I was flying through the air. After that, I knew nothing but waking up in the hospital, all fucked up."
"The cops had nothing on the case?"
"It was a side road. No street cameras. All they had was white paint scrapings. My bike was black."
"And no one saw shit about Holly's attack either," I said, sighing. "What are we missing? What happened leading up to these events?"
Shep's breath rushed out as he looked down at the tube sticking out of his arm for a long minute.
"Oh, that motherfucker," he hissed, head whipping up to look at me.
"What motherfucker?"
"Glen," he said, jaw going tight.
Glen. That was vaguely familiar. Holly had mentioned him.
"Your business partner?" I asked, brows furrowing.
"It has to be him. There's no one else."
"Work out the timeline for me then," I demanded. "Why did these things happen when they did?"
Shep's gaze went far away for a while. "I... okay," he said, nodding. "Holly getting attacked. She'd just come up with the idea for me to be able to still work for my company without having to go out and do electrical work."
"You did the paperwork, right?"
"Right."
"And right after she set that in motion, she was attacked?"
"Yeah," he said, nodding.
"And it was Glen who first told Holly you had a pill problem."
"Yeah," he agreed again. "I was so shocked for a while that I didn't bring it back to Glen. But then I called him and leashed into him. Because I know I didn't fuck up the paperwork. I've always handled the fucking paperwork. I knew what I was doing."
