Page 86 of Hell or High Water

Than

“You going to go back to the cabin, or do I need to assign someone else to stay with Montana?” Linc asked gruffly from behind his desk.

He’d sent me a text that he wanted to see me. I’d gone to the distillery today and handled things there while Ransom stayed outside the cabin for me. I needed a day to get my head on straight and figure out how to handle things with Montana. Lying in bed with her tucked up against me wasn’t ideal for thinking my shit through.

“I’m going back. I just needed a break,” I told him.

He put the cigar he had clenched between his teeth in the ashtray on his desk. It wasn’t lit. He no longer allowed smoking in the house now that he had a daughter and wife living here. Not even in his office. But he’d often hold one in his teeth just out of habit or addiction—I didn’t know.

“Talked to Levi today,” he told me. “Blaise plans to handle things himself if we have another breach on the property. What we know is that the Louisiana branch is pretty stable. Thaddeus’s son was engaged, but called off the wedding days before, causing a bit of a ruckus. The fiancée was the daughter of Homer LeBlanc, a distant cousin of the Kingstons. The Louisiana LeBlancs have been a part of the family since 1957. The shitstorm seems to have settled down. Levi said Wayon is an easygoing guy, and he can’t see him stalking a female or breaking onto family property. But Blaise isn’t writing it off just yet.”

Linc stood up. “He’s looking into other members there, and he said he’d send us any new information as it comes up. If this is family, then it can be handled within. We don’t have to worry about the governor’s bastard get—”

“Don’t call her that,” I bit out.

I fucking hated it when he called her that. When anyone called her that.

He didn’t get angry with my outburst, but he studied me, and I hoped like fuck he couldn’t tell the shit going on in my head by my expression.

“The governor’s secret daughter,” he continued, “getting splashed all over the news. A member of the family won’t go that far. They would know that the repercussions for something like that would come directly from the boss. And no one wants to piss Blaise off.”

He walked around the desk and leaned against the front of it, then crossed his arms over his chest as he stared at me. “I just want to make sure you’re clear on a few things,” he began. “When we find who it is, if it is family, then Blaise handles him. Not you. Understood?”

I nodded, but didn’t speak.

“Baskin wants her gone sooner, if possible. He said he’ll give her a payoff, if she’ll take it. I told him we’re handling an issue that concerns her first, and once it’s done, if he thinks that paying her off will work, then I’ll take it to Blaise and let him make that call.”

“What about her finishing high school? That’s what she asked him for. She has a scholarship and needs to graduate in order to—”

“I’m aware of her scholarship. She can finish the virtual school anywhere. There are only weeks left as it is, and if she wants to, she can finish early.”

This morning, I’d needed to get away from her, but right now, I was fighting the urge to run back to the cabin and lock us both inside. I couldn’t let them just toss her out. She’d be alone. She was nineteen years old. Didn’t they see that? How did Baskin not give a shit about her? She was his daughter. Did the man not have a goddamn soul?

“And then what? She is supposed to figure out life on her own? No family? Nothing? Just maneuver it all by herself?” I asked bitterly.

I fucking hated Baskin.

“She’s an adult,” Linc said.

“She’s nineteen!” I shot back angrily.

He raised his eyebrows, but other than that, his expression didn’t change. “Yet you’re fucking her.”

I glared at him. I needed space. This office was closing in on me.

“You seem to think she’s old enough for that.”

“She’s five years younger than me,” I tried not to snarl, but I failed. “Branwen is what, sixteen, seventeen years younger than you?”

That was a mistake. Although he’d not reacted to my angry responses before, I’d now mentioned his wife. He straightened and stalked toward me so fast that I didn’t have time to prepare for the impact of my back slamming against the wall. I heard the bottles in his bar rattle as he bared his teeth at me.

“Don’t ever mention my wife again,” he sneered, then slammed me back against the wall, holding the neck of my shirt in his fist. Something on his wall crashed to the ground, but he ignored it. “Now, you can get your head on straight, or you can keep forgetting that you don’t call the fucking shots and end up on the other end of Blaise Hughes’s barrel. I can assure you, that’s a place no one wants to be. There is no fuck worth that. If she’s a cunt to get off in, then there are thousands to take her place. If she has managed to own you in this short amount of time, then you need to prepare for the fact that you will lose her because you can’t have her. Not while her father is in office.”

His grip tightened, and breathing was becoming difficult for me.

“Can you do that, or do I need to assign someone else to stay with her? Hale is my friend, and I’d hate for him to lose his youngest son.”

I swallowed and sucked in the little oxygen I could.

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