Page 53 of Walker

“Or?” Keys asked, having picked up on the last blip.

I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and handed it over. “Tillie, my sister. After this morning, we’re no longer talking, so if you feel inclined to block her while you have that, it won’t hurt my feelings one bit.”

“Sorry to hear that. She doesn’t have anything to do with the notes, does she?”

“No. She refused to let us go there when we found the first one and no longer felt safe at the house.”

“I see,” Keys mentioned as she sat down and pulled out some equipment and a secondary phone that looked nothing like mine. “Your friends Shaina and Trinity, do they know about your situation?”

“Not the latest development.”

“You trust them?”

“With my life.”

“Who do you think is behind the notes?”

“My husband, who passed away two years ago, was a gambler and possibly a cheating bastard too. If I had to guess, it would be something to do with him or…” I glanced at my children; having forgotten they were there. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, Mom. They need to know. Joshie won’t remember this, and I already know thanks to Dina’s big mouth.”

I glanced around the room and shook my head. “I planned to leave him before he died on a work trip. The gambling was too much. Some months, he dipped into our bill money, and I wouldn’t know until I went to pay the bills and the money wasn’t there.” I glanced guiltily at my daughter then, because she didn’t know that part.

“I hate that it’s come to this because I never wanted them to know anything bad about their dad, especially after he passed away.”

“I can take them in the garage for a minute,” Hollywood offered. I shook my head.

“No, there’s no point. We’re getting death threats now. I think it’s a little past the point of protecting them from the truth. Ariel could have been… She picked up the first note and I didn’t even know she was on her way home from school. The second note showed up after she came inside the house. Someone could have…”

Walker held me tighter before he sat me down on the couch that was situated along the far wall. It was obvious the space was meant for customers. Tash came into the shop while I explained what had been going down lately between the possibility of their being a debt and the woman who claimed one of her children was fathered by my husband. I even told them how she flipped which child it was after I saw the youngest one and knew it wasn’t possible.

“Hollywood, Trouble, and me picked up Josh’s gambling buddies and had a chat with them.” Walker looked at Quickshot and then his eyes drifted to Keys and Tash a bit warily. “We should probably talk about it alone.”

“I need to know.” Keys stated and wiggled one of the phones in her hand. “I’m sitting here cloning her phone right now, so we can listen in on potential calls.”

Walker blew out a breath and then told everyone, while directing it all toward his new club president, about Terry, her Italian ex-lover who lived here when we were younger. I remembered Joey because he was all any of the girls could talk about back then. Walker explained how the S.H.E. MC seemed to be involved with Joey, who was part of the freaking mafia out of Chicago.

“No way,” Keys stated. Tash shook her head as well.

“They specifically mentioned MiMi being involved with him.”

The two women glanced at one another and both of them immediately were put on alert. If I was a betting woman, I’d say they already knew that MiMi might be an issue. Then again, betting is what got me into this bullshit situation, so I wasn’t going to take those odds. They weren’t my business, so long as the people who weren’t involved with the mafia could get those bastards off my ass.

“Joey was demanding that Josh pay back the nearly half million dollars he had spent on child support for Dina over twelve years before he found out he wasn’t the father and that Josh was.” Walker glanced at me then. “We have not confirmed that she is biologically Josh’s yet.” When I nodded my head, he carried on. “He then gave Josh a loan for thirty grand to take to the casino because Josh and his buddies assured him they could double it, bring the thirty back and then keep doubling the rest.”

“Obviously, that didn’t happen?” Keys asked.

“No telling what he did with the money because we got the call from Reesa about the death threat before we could go hunt Joey Farina down to question him.”

At some point, during all the explanations, Tash disappeared. I glanced around and when I didn’t see her again, I turned my attention back to Spike. “Where’s Tash?”

“She had to go pick Griff and Diesel up. She had her bike when he called, that’s why she stopped in here. I handed her the key to our loaner vehicle, so she could grab them.”

“She was stealthy,” I mentioned.

“That one sneaks up on everyone,” Keys stated as she finished with my phone and handed it back. “I’ll be able to see all your texts and hear your conversations. Normally, I wouldn’t encourage you to give your friends a head’s up, but if you think you need to…”

I shook my head. “None of us have anything to hide.”

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