Page 16 of Cash's Treasure

“No, he left everything to my stepmother. That’s why she kicked me out. He had considerable savings, and he left it all to her. The house, the cars, and the money all went to her and her kids.”

The words are said matter-of-factly, and I realize with a smile that none of that bothers me anymore. Sure, I was raised in luxury, but I wasn’t exactly spoiled. No, Cash has spoiled me more than my own parents ever did, letting me get my way in everything.

He never denies me anything I ask, and that only makes me love him even more.

“Something is not right,” Cash says after a while.

“Whatever it is, I want to stay out of it,” I say honestly. “I’m happy with my life right now. I’m happy being here with you, like this.”

Cash does not return my smile, and I roll my eyes. This is why I hid my past from him. Knowing my best friend, he will try to get answers to everything, but sometimes, there are just no answers. I’ve made peace with that fact.

I grab the empty beer bottle from his hand and replace it with a fresh one. The kitchen falls into a comfortable silence as I focus on making us dinner, and Cash doesn’t say another word until I am done.

“I don’t want you going to work tomorrow.”

“I’m fine—”

“No,” he says firmly, grabbing my waist and spinning me around so I am facing him. “I need a few days to look into this, and I can’t do that if I am worrying about you.”

“It’s not worth your time, Cash.”

“Anything that concerns you is worth all the time I have,” he counters, his eyes pleading with me like they rarely do, to listen. “This will eat at me until I have answers. Stay home tomorrow, please.”

“Fine,” I say in a resigned tone. “I’ll stay home and work on a recipe I found. Promise me you’ll be home on time tomorrow to try it.”

“A hailstorm couldn’t keep me away from you, Freckles.”

With that, his lips are once again on mine, sealing his promise in a kiss.

Chapter Seven

Cash

They say goal of prison is to reform and rehabilitate, but in my case, that couldn’t be further from the truth. During my three-year stint in prison, I made a lot of connections and honed my skills. I learned how to not get caught the next time.

You see, it’s not the biggest man who survives in prison, but the smartest one. Not to toot my own horn, but I am a goddamn genius, at least when it comes to numbers. It helps that I am built like a tank too, so prison was smooth sailing for me.

One of the connections I am grateful to have made in prison is a man named Fredrick Richardson. He is an ugly motherfucker, but he can get any official documents through legal or illegal channels. Either way, I don’t care how he does it as long as I get what I want.

Last night, I asked him for everything he could find on Kayla’s parents from their backgrounds, assets, and wills to their bank statements and everything in between. He said it was going to cost me, but I was willing to pay any price, and I wired him the money as soon as he gave me the exact sum. Freddy knows better than to scam me. I would hunt him down and break him in ways he would never think possible.

It's a side of me that Kayla has yet to meet.

She saw glimpses of it last night, but she managed to push back the beast before he could come out for blood. Neither of her stepbrothers would have made it out of that alley alive if she hadn’t stopped me.

My thoughts drift to Kayla as I wait for Freddy to send me everything I requested. I could have done all this work back at our place, but I wasn’t going to get anything done with my distraction in the same house as me. I opted instead to work at the clubhouse. Every club officer has a private room with an ensuite that’s free to use whenever and however it’s needed. A few of the single guys live in their rooms full-time, but I need my peace and quiet, so I rented my own condo, which I’ve been sharing with Kayla since the day we met.

I may not live at the clubhouse, but I’ve often worked in my room here, especially when my feelings for Kayla threatened to get out of control. I suppose that won’t be an issue now that Kayla and I are officially together. Even if we haven’t talked about it or put labels on it, Kayla is mine. I’ve told her as much, and she agreed. I don’t need any more than that.

Fuck, just thinking about her is enough to have my cock stiffening in my jeans, and I run my hand over it, but now that thoughts of Kayla have already filtered in, there is no getting rid of them.

Fuck it!

I grab my phone to FaceTime her, the call going through immediately. “Hey, I was just thinking about you,” she chirps, her beautiful face appearing on the screen.

“You were?” I ask, my voice thick with need. Just hearing her soft voice is enough to make my balls ache with the need to be inside this beautiful girl.

“Hmm, remember that desert we saw in the movie we watched last night? I want to try and recreate it. I just ordered all the ingredients, and they should be arriving soon . . .”

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