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Amber nodded. “And he did whatever he had to in order to do just that.”
I shook my head. The club wasn’t exactly above the bar. Matthew, our lawyer, was good at what he did, but he never touched anything dirty with his own hands. He also never took on clients who had done things that he considered morally wrong, like hurting children or raping women. He protected us, but he also made sure we knew that if we’d done something fucked up and were caught, that he would do his best, but we could expect to face the consequences of our actions.
I shook the anger from my head, anger toward a man who was dead but had left such a disgusting legacy for his daughter to have the burden to carry.
“You get a lot of people coming in here demanding shit from you because of him?” I asked, watching her carefully.
“Not so much anymore. But because I’m a lawyer, they expect I followed in my father’s footsteps.” She snorted. “Which I did not.”
I nodded. “Good.”
She shifted uncomfortably. “What is it that you need?”
“I want to know about your history with Mary and Allen. Have you met them before? Have they approached you?” Anything she could give me with relation to them was going to be a benefit.
Amber laughed. “Are you kidding?”
My brow creased in confusion. “Do I look like I’m kidding?”
“Wow! You really don’t know.” She tilted her head to the side. “Allen Sanders was my father’s best friend.”
My gut dropped and my shoulders tightened. “Excuse me?”
Her head bobbed up and down. “They were like poker buddies. Used to go out every weekend, often mix with some of my father clients. It was common for him to be invited to join large card games or exclusive parties when he got a client off charges. It was their way of thanking him, and also that’s when he would be paid. So it wasn’t obvious that they were putting in extra for him to do the dirty.”
My head swirled with all this new information. Allen knew the man who took advantage of his daughter. They were friends. Hayley would have met him—maybe at family dinners, parties, or holidays.
“This is fucked up,” I marveled as my brain tried to take in this information.
Amber brushed her hair back from her face. “Allen came to my dad, asking him for money. I was working in his office at the time, trying to get some experience for my college classes. I overheard Allen saying that Hayley was pregnant. At first, I was sad for her, I liked Hayley. I didn’t see her often because I lived with my mom, but she was a sweet kid.”
“Allen knew it was Edwards’?”
She nodded but hung her head as though she felt the shame on her shoulders, shame for what her dad had done to that poor young girl. “Allen asked him if it was true. If the baby was his—”
“Hayley told her dad the baby was his best friend’s?” I gasped, a shudder running through me.
“Yeah, and then he asked for one hundred thousand dollars or else he would go to the authorities,” she confirmed.
I felt like my mind had exploded.
Hayley’s parents knew what Edward had done.
They’d blackmailed him in order to keep it quiet. However, I guarantee Hayley never saw any of that money. Jayla and Hayley had lived hard, with Hayley fighting to keep their heads above ground. She’d taken the job at X-Rated while she studied to get her high school diploma, and lived in a one bedroom apartment on the wrong side of the tracks.
I grabbed a metal ornament off the top of Amber’s desk and threw it against the wall, screaming in a fury. Amber sat back, watching me cautiously but she wasn’t afraid.
The door flew open behind me and Skins appeared, his eyes scanning the room, wide and alert. “What’s going on?” he huffed.
“I’m going to kill that motherfucker, that’s what,” I spat.
Easing in deep breaths, I attempted to calm my raging emotions as flashes of Hayley flew through my head. Her crying because she thought we were going to fire her. The smile on her face when she realized we were giving her a chance to make her life better for her and Jayla. And then the darkness, the void expression on her face as she lay outside next to a dumpster, a knife pierced through her heart.
She’d fought so hard.
She’d done it alone.
All because she wanted to give Jayla a better life.
