“Yes. Nathan can clear this up and take it back to my office. The convention is over.”
Or my part of it is, and I don’t waste any time grabbing the few things I need from my suite before heading down to my car.Lukas, my driver, must sense my mood, because he’s all business as he pulls out into the early morning traffic. I grab my phone, scrolling to a name I’ve put off calling for a long time. Trust Kane to use blood and slick to make me reach out first. “Fox, I need to talk to Kane.”
“Hello to you, too, bossman.” There’s a matching growl in his voice, and I mutter a slightly more gracious greeting for Fox Straw, President of the Jackals MC. “That’s better. Now, tell me, what’s got you barking like a junkyard dog at the most powerful guy in the state?”
I roll my eyes at his boast. “Must have missed seeing you at the winner’s podium at the last election.”
“Bossman, you can have the city. The rest of the state is mine.”
Unfortunately, that’s not just empty bragging. Within the city limits, I’m a household name, while everyone with a drop of country in their blood knows Fox Straw and his Jackals. “And Kane? Is he still yours, too?”
Fox snorts down the phone. “I didn't steal your boy, bossman. You hurt his feelings, and he came to me to escape ‘em.”
I clench my hand into a fist where it rests on my thigh. Even in jest, I hate to hear that Kane is hurting. But I’m sure as fuck not taking the blame for our rift. “Is that what he told you? There are two sides to every story, Fox.”
“Not the way he tells it,” he says dismissively, then starts a side conversation with one of his guys, muttering something about a run to Kirkland that they need to reschedule. The fact he’s comfortable discussing his business in earshot of the highest authority in the state goes some way to illuminating the size of the man’s ego. “You want to leave a message for your boy if he heads back this way?”
“So, he’s definitely not with you?” I rub at a painful tick in my temple. “Or out on one of your runs?”
Now he hasmetalking about his business, but I need answers, and Fox usually has them.
“Haven’t seen him for nearly a month. He was actually down your way a week before he disappeared, and I thought you two might finally be patching things up.”
I mull over that for a while, staring blankly out at the city we grew up in together. We might have been born on different sides of the tracks, but by the time I started college, Kane and I were inseparable. He even dropped out of high school so he could follow me, shadowing me on campus until I graduated, and he could officially take over as my bodyguard. Of course, I had enough money for him to never work a day in his life, but Kane wasn’t built that way. His high school principal might have sent me a thankyou card when he dropped out early, but the guy is responsible down to his marrow.
“Do you think he could be mixed up with the Carrillos?”
“Jesus, bossman,” Fox spits, sounding angry for the first time. “You need to sit down with your brother and talk this the fuck out.”
His anger just stokes my own. “I would if I could fucking find him!” When Fox’s laughter rolls down the line, I bark, “What?”
“You start stitching his name together with those scumbags, and he’ll findyou, you poor bastard.”
I cut the call, almost slamming the phone on the floor at the echo of his laughter in my ear.For fuck’s sake.Those two assholes deserve each other.
I’m still stewing by the time Lukas pulls through the gates of the governor’s mansion. It’s actually smaller than the house I grew up in, but still too big for me to rattle around in alone. It’s one of the reasons I’ve been thinking about finally asking Lily to move in with me after a year of courting. I’d hoped it would be the three of us, but Kane fucked that plan up when he told me he wouldn’t touch Lily with a cattle prod and a Hazmat suit.
I grit my teeth as I storm inside, brushing past my housekeeper with another barely civil greeting. If Kane doesn’t pull his fucking head in and come back to me soon, I might lose my title of most charming politician to ever sit in the governor’s office.
As I enter my office, the thought spurs me over to the bar. I have one hand on my crystal decanter when a knife flashes my way, and I leap aside, the weapon embedding itself in my mahogany sideboard. I whirl with a glass in hand, ready to smash it into the face of my intruder, only to find Kane reclining in my favorite chair.
He looks… rough. He was always a confronting sight with his massive build and preference for leather, but he’s gone feral since I last saw him. His hair and beard are a shaggy nightmare, his body covered in so much grime it’s hard to tell if he has new ink, or if the smears of color are fading bruises. Instead of looking closer, I turn and stare at the hunting knife, which is still vibrating despite being buried five inches deep in the wood. “That's an antique, asshole.”
“Just like you,” he smirks, swirling a generous shot of whiskey in another one of my crystal glasses. “If your reflexes were any slower, you’d be bleeding all over your antique rug.”
“My reflexes are fine,” I snap, grabbing my own drink and taking a gulp. “And you’re only three years behind my forty, in case your senility has set in.”
“Youngest governor in history,” Kane says in a sing-song voice as he slaps dust from his jeans. “Blah, blah, blah.”
“You know I don't care about any of that shit.” I carry my drink over to my desk and lean against the edge, facing him. “So, where have you been?”
“On the road.”
“Really? Fox told me you disappeared a month ago.”
“I go where I go.” He gives an infuriating shrug. “Fox doesn’t own me.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to snap,because I do, but I let the moment pass. I have plenty of other fights to pick with him, after all. “Tell me about The Serenity Center.”
