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Lucas gathers her close, rubbing her arms comfortingly.
“I know,” I agree.
“I’m sorry,” Gemma says.
I offer her a lopsided smile, appreciative of the sympathy for the hell Fox has been through.
“Yeah.” Connor hitches his shoulder. He pulls his phone from his pocket and starts typing. “I’ll get it for you. What I have is thin. I was never able to dig up too much on him, and since I was—” His gaze zeroes in on Thea again, burning in its intensity “—occupied last year, it was enough for me. It’s mostly old stuff from an incident report, and half of it was redacted by your dad and his work buddies when I got it from him.”
My brow furrows. “What do you mean? Why would my dad give you a police report?”
“Well,” he hedges. “I mean, I’m no saint, you know?”
“Connor Bishop,” Thea says with a chastising bite, elbowing him.
He coughs, murmuring to her under his breath, “All right, jesus, baby. You don’t have to break out the elbows. I’ll tell her.” Turning back to me, he presses his tongue into his cheek. “So, it’s not a very well kept secret. I’m surprised you haven’t heard anything.”
“About what?” I push.
“The chief is known for taking bribes and looking the other way. I held that knowledge over his head to get what I needed on y
our punk ass biker to make sure I could keep him in line if I needed to.”
My brows fly up in shock. “Um, what?”
“It’s true.” Devlin shrugs and turns his attention to Blair and runs the back of his knuckles over her cheek in a loving gesture. She blushes, nuzzling into his touch. “I’ve had to utilize it before. It’s probably one of the worst kept secrets in town.”
“Yeah, even my dad tells me about it,” Lucas says. His father is a lawyer. “He jokes with him about it when they get together for poker nights at my parents’ place on the lake.”
Dad has always been a good guy to me. He’s protective, but deep down he’s the man who used to smile and laugh with me. How could he take bribes? My world wobbles and I twist my fingers in the blanket. I gulp as I remember once again what Fox said to Lana—that he knows what my parents are capable of.
They’re definitely hiding things from me. Now I’m sure of it. That’s the only thing that makes sense to explain why they’ve always been so strict.
“You said his name is Wilder?” Devlin asks.
“Yeah.”
“I recognize it. Is he related to anyone that worked for Nexus Lab?”
“Yes. His parents and my mom worked in the same research department.”
“They used to be mentioned a lot in the science journals at my parents’ house. I remember reading about the articles on their drug research,” he says, somberness creeping into his voice.
For the most part, Devlin is relaxed and happy, but I remember before he and Blair were together. When I’d see him in the halls at school, he seemed to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. His name is well known in this town for his parents’ famous medical clinic. I’ve met them once or twice when Mom has corralled Holden and I to attend events for her company. They’re a cold and unfeeling couple who barely seem like they’re married, let alone parents.
Blair puts a hand on his arm and whispers something to him that clears the shadows from his expression. He leans into her for support, closing his eyes.
“Can I borrow the journals?”
Devlin snorts. “Sure. They’re barely ever there, so I can get them for you if you want. I doubt they’d miss them.”
“Thank you.”
I’ll take anything I can get to find out who Fox has become and discover what he’s involved in.
Sixteen
Maisy
