AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re gonna have to dumb this down for me, guys.”
“No one wants to partner with you,” Julian says and folds his hands on the desk. “They don’t know where your alliances are, and you were shot because of the club. You would’ve never been there if you weren’t screwing a daughter of a well-known club member. A founding member, in fact.”
His jaw drops. His loyalty comes into question because he took a bullet for the woman he loves? No, wait… They think it’s for someone he’s temporarily screwing. He doesn’t know if it makes it more or less offensive.
“We know you’re a good guy, but you’re too involved with the club. And we can’t have people questioning whether you’d put the club before them. Or the law,” Travis says.
“Involved?” he exclaims. “I’m nowhere near involved.”
“Ashley is.”
“Wait a minute,” he says, his anger rising far too high to maintain self-control. “You two have an alliance with the club. How is it any different?”
“We have an understanding. A mutually beneficial relationship,” Julian interrupts before Travis can provide a rebuttal. “But we also know which side of the law we both fall. With you, that line seems blurred. Especially now.”
Blurred? They work with the club to harm people they can’t arrest. That makes them no better than him. In fact, it makes them worse.
“I’ve worked with the club to help save this department. Twice! And just because I’m in love with a woman who left the same club you yourselves work with for almost twenty years, I’m suddenly seen as a traitor? For loving a woman with next to no involvement with the club you have a ‘mutually beneficial’ relationship with?”
“You have to understand how it makes others feel, especially with you being injured. It puts the rest of us at risk working with you. Your relationship has made you a liability, and we have to protect the rest of the department.”
No, not the department… them. The man he sees as his mentor just shoved his ass out the door, and he can’t even look him in the eyes.
“That’s rich considering both of you wanted women of the club. You’re telling me I have to choose between the woman I love and my job simply because she shares DNA with a Drifter?”
Julian lets out a deep breath and gives him fake sad eyes that makes him want to rip his face off. “I’m sorry, Grayson, but you’re no longer employed with the department. HR has cleaned out your desk, and all access has been terminated.”
“That’s it, then?” he asks and looks at Travis. It makes sense now. His password wasn’t expired, his login was terminated. They punked out and let him come in and embarrass himself. Everyone out there knew. “I get shot as a civilian, and I’m let go because of who I’m in a relationship with? After I’ve put my ass on the line for you guys for over a decade? Fuck you both.”
Standing, he walks out and grabs the box now sitting on his desk with all of his personal possessions. No one looks at him, and the anger builds.
“Grayson,” Travis calls.
“Go to hell,” he says over his shoulder. “Don’t come to me when you need something from the club. I hope they fuck you all over.”
Walking out to his car, he sits in the parking lot, his heart racing. This is bullshit. Absolute bullshit. Knowing what he has to do, he runs home to grab his contract before heading to the one person who might be able to help him.
Grayson steps inside the all glass building and heads up to the fifth floor. Stepping off the elevator, he looks around in awe. Never before has he set his sights on an office like this one.
“Can I help you, sir?” a young man at the desk asks.
“Uh, I’m looking for Lily Hankinson.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
Shit, does he need one? “Uh, no. But we’re kind of, well… we’re friendly.”
“Name?”
“Grayson Tate.”
The door to her office opens, and Lily’s bright green eyes widen as she looks at him. “Grayson? God, who got arrested? I really didn’t want to spend my afternoon at the police station.”
“No one,” he says and holds up his hands. “I was hoping to talk to you.”
“Yeah, go on in and make yourself comfortable. I’ll be right back. I have to sign for a package in the main lobby.”
“I can get that for you, Mrs. Hankinson,” the man behind the desk says.
