Page 26 of My Knight

“I asked Poppy to tell me,” I added and hoped that would push him just a little further, “and she said I needed to ask you.”

Pirate laughed, short and surprised. “Now that is surprising. Yarder will be glad to know she didn’t spill the beans to you.”

“But you can spill the beans?”

He nodded, and his expression softened. “Yeah. I can give you the condensed version of what’s going on. It’s the least you deserve after what happened to you.”

Ten minutes later, my jaw was practically on the floor, and I didn’t think I’d ever recover from the sheer shock of what Pirate had just laid on me.

“You guys have the Texas State Attorney General and the U.S. Attorney General on your asses? And they’re trying to kill everyone around you?”

Pirate nodded, calm as you please. Like he hadn’t just casually dropped a nuclear bomb on my understanding of reality.

“Yeah, baby. Dove’s dad got us messed up in all of this. He thought it’d just land us in prison for a few years. Something we’d ride out. But this shit was bigger than him. Way bigger. He’s on the run now, too. The last we heard from him was when the bakery space we were looking to rent got blown up.”

I blinked. “Holy cow,” I breathed. “No wonder you were trying to keep this away from the cameras. It’s insane. It’s crazy that Boone and Gibbs are doing this to you.”

“Yeah,” Pirate said and let out a humorless laugh. “No one would believe it.”

“Don just has it looking like you guys are having beef with a rival club.” I shook my head, stunned. “That’s all the producers see. That’s all the audience will see.”

Pirate chuckled. “That’s good, honestly. The less anyone outside knows, the better.”

I nodded slowly as my thoughts spun faster than I could track. “Why did they go after me, though? I mean, sure, I’m at the clubhouse a lot filming, but I had zero other connection to you guys. It’s almost like Boone and Gibbs don’t have as much information as they think they do.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “It doesn’t make sense either. I mean—not that I’m trying to give them advice—but if they were gonna go after someone close to the club, Dani would’ve made more sense. Smoke’s all over her. It was obvious.”

I swallowed hard, still trying to process everything. Multiple explosions. Mysterious notes. Missing club members. Dead people connected to the club. And now me being attacked.

I was sure there were other things he wasn’t telling me, but even just the little I knew now was mind-blowing.

“So what are you guys going to do?” I asked.

Going to the police felt like the logical thing. But Pirate had already made it clear—that wasn’t an option. Boone and Gibbs were too embedded. Too protected. No cop was going to take the word of a motorcycle club over a pair of clean-cut sociopaths in suits.

“Our solution should be here next Thursday,” he said, voice low. “We managed to find a connection to some heavyhitters. The kind of people who can blow Boone and Gibbs out of the water.”

I didn’t know if I wanted to ask who those heavy hitters were. Something told me that the more I knew, the deeper I got. And I wasn’t sure I’d ever climb out of it.

“And then this is all over?” I asked instead.

He nodded. “That’s the plan, baby. And I have to say—it’s the best one we’ve had yet. Stretch going off on his own didn’t help anything. He thought he could fix it, but he’s only made things messier.”

“Do you know where he is?”

Pirate shook his head and rubbed his hands over his thighs. “No clue. He’s gotta be close to Boone and Gibbs, though. They know he’s digging around. Which means he’s making waves—but that also means he’s in danger.”

I exhaled slowly. “This all feels like some movie plot.”

“Yeah,” Pirate said with a wry smile. “It’s pretty insane. But it’s going to be over soon.”

“And then you guys go back to normal?”

He shrugged. “Not so sure about normal. But at least we won’t have to look over our shoulders every time we leave the clubhouse.”

I nodded, my eyes suddenly stinging. Not with tears, just fatigue. Everything he’d told me, everything I’d learned—it was exhausting to even think about. I let out a slow yawn and lifted my hand to cover it.

Pirate glanced over at me and raised a brow. “Alright, that’s your cue. Come to bed, baby.”

---