Page 5 of Inside Job

“Lewis?” I practically roar. I’ve always hated the slimy weasel dick. “You’re basing this on the word of that sniveling little prick?”

Mr. Grimm stiffens as his expression hardens. “That sniveling little prick is my son.”

I’ve been more of a son to this man than Lewis will ever be. While that idiot was out chasing skirts and blowing his inheritance on bail money, I was right here, by this man’s side. “He can’t be trusted.”

Instead of arguing with me—a futile waste of time on his part—Grimm closes his eyes and offers a single nod, conceding. He keeps them closed as he drops the next bomb. “Lewis wants me to turn Betty over to him.”

Possession sparks deep inside me. Betty is mine, always has been. It took me leaving to realize that. No, that’s not true. It took me returning to fully understand how much I need to claim her, body and soul. The kiss earlier was just a teaser to what I have planned once I get her alone.

“For what purpose?”

“He says he can get the truth from her.”

Hell to the fuck no. No one touches my honeybee. “I’ll kill him if he touches her, you have to know that.”

Grimm’s eyes slowly open, and he rests an iron glare on me. It doesn’t faze me. When it comes to protecting what’s mine, nothing will faze me. “I know, which is why I need you to take Betty from here. Protect her, Hawk. I’ll deal with my son, but I need you to keep her safe while I do. And I need you to find the mole, while you’re at it.”

A growl triggers deep in the back of my throat. Protect my honeybee. Make her mine. I’d planned to do exactly that, but now I can do it with the blessing of the man she considers her father. “I’m an outlaw for leaving the family. Don’t you think it’ll raise suspicion if someone regarded as an outlaw takes her from here?”

He waves off the comment. “If I cared about any of that would I have asked you to come back?”

Good point. “Have you tried talking to her?”

“Oh god no.” He laughs. “She can’t know she’s being accused of any of this. It’ll destroy her. You and I both know she’s innocent.”

“Then why the hell are you listening to Lewis?”

“I have to understand why he’s trying to pin this on her.”

Deep down, I already know the reason. Lewis has always wanted Betty and hated the relationship she and I had. When Mr. Grimm sent me away on that job, I suspected Lewis would move in on my honeybee. It kept me up at night picturing the two of them together, that slimy weasel dick’s hands on my Betty despite the fact he’s currently on his fourth wife. Not that being married has ever stopped him. Wife two, three, and four all graduated up from mistress during the previous marriage.

A disturbing thought springs up. Dear god, this had better not be some foolish attempt on Lewis’s part to get Betty into his bed. It would be a deadly mistake on his part to think I’d sit back and let that happen.

“I realize this is an unconventional request,” Mr. Grimm’s comment breaks me of my troubling thoughts. “But you and Betty are close, at least you used to be. From the greeting she gave you—and you gave her right back—you’re still close. She trusts you, Hawk. So do I. Find me the source of the leak. That’ll clear any suspicion that it’s Betty.”

“You have my word I will take care of this.” I stand and move to leave. I’ll take my honeybee far from here, tuck her away in my cabin at the foothills of the Cascades, and get to the bottom of this shit show.

And if Mr. Grimm thinks he’s getting Betty back after this is over, he’s going to be very disappointed.

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