Page 111 of Stay with Me

“Brothers,” Jax answered.

“I’m the handsome one,” Reece said, grinning.

Detective Anders tilted his head toward what was now obviously his younger brother. “Most definitely not the smart one.”

Cop brothers. Hot.

Sigh.

I needed my head checked.

“Anyway,” the detective said. “He was telling me you guys have been trying to find your mom and that you had some problems yesterday when you were in the city. I know what’s been going on.”

Jax’s eyes narrowed, and my stomach sank. No matter what, if the police really knew what had been going down, she was in trouble. Lots of trouble.

Reece held his gaze with a look that said sorry, bud, had to. “He knows about Mack. And that lowlife is the first on our suspect list.”

“This was obviously a warning to Calla,” Jax responded, voice clipped. “But it doesn’t make sense. If Mack found Rooster, then how did he not find Mona?”

“Rooster could’ve decided he wanted out of this mess,” Detective Anders said, crossing his arms over his chest. “He could’ve come back and if what your ... sources are saying is true, if he came back without the dope or the money equal to what they are holding, he would’ve gotten a warm welcome.”

Yeah, he’d gotten a bullet in the head. Mom didn’t have the dope. And she sure as hell didn’t have the money.

It had to be Mack, because like Ritchey had said, shit rolled downhill and that shit had rolled all over Mack.

“We’re also looking for the man who matches your description that came into the house and took the drugs. We’re going to find them,” Detective Anders said. “But we need you all to back off. Let us do our jobs. We don’t want you around any of these people.”

I didn’t want to be around any of these people, but I haddaysleft before I was supposed to produce my mom. I didn’t respond because I really didn’t want to listen to them try to talk me out of what needed to be done.

We had a lead.

Ike.

And Jax hadn’t mentioned Ike to the police or to Reece as far as I knew. Another officer popped his head into the room, announcing the front porch was cleared, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Jax followed Reece and his older brother out after the convo was wrapped up in here.

Clyde rubbed his hand over his chest. “This is a mess.”

I sighed. “I know. Mom ... do you think she has any idea of what kind of mess she’s in?”

Clyde nodded. “I think she does, and I think if she is smart, she’s living in Mexico right now.”

God, that would suck—her moving far away and me never seeing her again, but if Mom was smart, that’s what she should do. There was no way she’d ever be able to come back here. “If she doesn’t come back ... what happens to the bar?” I asked, focusing on the least important thing, because that was better than all the crazy more important stuff. I knew the bar would be left to me if she ... if she passed on, but I had no idea about the technicalities if she simply disappeared.

“Baby girl, you don’t need to worry about that.” He lumbered to his feet, his chest moving in deep, heavy breaths. “The bar will be all right.”

My brows pinched with concern. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m doin’ fine. You ain’t needin’ to be worried about me.”

I wasn’t sure about that, but then Jax returned without the hot cop brothers. He walked straight to where I sat, grabbed my hand, and helped me to my feet. “You want to get out of here?” he asked.

Nodding, I wanted nothing more than to get out of here.

Clyde made his way over to me, and without Jax letting go of my hand, he gave me his bear hug. “I like that you’re not staying here. That’s good. Real good.”

I was reluctant to let him go when he pulled back. “Everything is going to be okay,” I told him, because I felt like I needed to say that out loud.

He gave me a toothy smile as his gaze moved to Jax. “Yes, baby girl, it will be.”

---