Page 87 of Dark Horse

“Think we can get her to move back home now that Ethan’s gonna be out of the picture? She can take over this shit, and we can take a vacation.” Levi smirks.

I laugh, needing it after the day I’ve had. “Somehow, I doubt it. But fuck, after today…”

“We need to bring Hudson in on this. If this is all related to the relic and whoever wanted it…”

“He could be a target as much as us,” I acknowledge.

Levi presses his lips together and raises his brows.

I pull my phone out of my pocket only to see that I have several missed calls and texts from him.

H.K.:

Call me as soon as you see this. It’s urgent.

“Well fuck, he’s already been trying to get a hold of me,” I explain to Levi before I hit the call button.

“Where are you?” Hudson answers the phone with a question.

“Downstairs at the bar. Are you still here in the hotel?”

“Yes. I’m coming down. Meet me in the chess room?”

“See you there.”

“I can’t findthe shell corporation that owns the bidder account. But I found the one that owns the house. It took my guy several layers deep, but he found one of the owners.”

“Someone we know?” I’m guessing by the disturbed look on Hudson’s face that it isn’t a good answer.

“This room—it’s compartmentalized from the rest of the place?” Hudson asks. I’ve never seen him strung this tight in the entirety of our business dealings.

“Yes.”

“Do you have your phone on you?” he asks quietly.

I nod. I usually don’t bring it into this room, but I needed to know if anything happened with Dakota. He shakes his head and then mimics me turning it off. I do as he asks, and Levi follows suit. We place them in a box on the far side of the room, and Hudson grabs a piece of paper and a pen from the bookshelf before walking us to the far corner. He scrawls across it quickly and then holds it out for us.

Abbott Schaefer

I stare at it blankly for a moment before I can even begin to process what I’m seeing—what it means. The Governor of Colorado owns the home where the relic came to rest after we sold it, which likely means he was the one who bought it. Which could mean he’s the one who sent us after it all those years ago, and the same one who burned down the Kellys’ ancestral home trying to cover up the theft of the second relic.

He also would have been the one who appointed the new sheriff—my uncle. The same one who ran the police department that was harassing Dakota. The same man who would have known exactly where and what to target in this building because I gave him all the details when I invited him.

“Fuckkkkk.” I roar the word, and Levi falls back against the wall in shock as he has the same realization. Hudson takes a lighter out of his pocket and sets the paper on fire, tossing it into the wastebasket as we all watch it turn to ash.

It feels like a metaphor for my entire life right now.

“I didn’t think he was that far gone,” he mutters under his breath.

“Nothing’s safe here if this is what we’re up against. Nothing andno one.” My mind immediately goes to Dakota, Hazel, and Ramsey at the hospital. “I have to get back to them. Make sure they’re safe and take them somewhere we’ve got more security.”

“The hotel’s not safe. Not after knowing this and the bombs. It could be anyone on staff who helped him.” Levi keeps his voice low.

“The bombs?” Hudson asks in a surprised whisper.

“They rigged the whole wedding—the reception room would have been full of bombs disguised as champagne bottles. They were going to kill everyone who attended,” I explain.

“Two birds, one stone.” Levi shifts his finger between the two of us, and Hudson’s face falls.

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