Page 37 of Wyoming Cowboy Undercover

Rocco shook his head. His frustration was stamped on his face. “Agents had a legitimate search and arrest warrant that they attempted to serve,” he said, and she rolled her eyes. “Mistakes were made in Waco. Agencies have studied it, learned from it. No one wants a repeat of that tragedy.” He eased closer. “I would never let something like that happen on my watch. I swear it.”

“What do you want from me?”

“We need to know who the Shining Light’s weapons supplier is and what your father has planned in two days when there’s a full moon.”

All his questions about the moon and what it meant came rushing back to her. “There’s nothing planned besides the shedding ceremony.” When Alex would shed gray and don white. When any grievances, ill feelings or hidden transgressions would be released in exchange for the Light’s favor. “I’ve already told you that.”

“You’re Empyrean’s daughter. You must know something,” he said so harshly that she jumped. A look crossed his face as if he regretted it. “Please, tell me what you know.”

This was like a bad dream. She couldn’t believe this was happening. “My father would never hurt people.”

“An informant of mine died in my arms. The last thing he told me was that your father is behind whatever is about to happen. Please try and think. You must know something that can help stop it and save innocent lives.”

A sickening feeling welled inside her. “Don’t you think that if I knew about an attack my father was planning that I would do everything in my power to prevent it?”

His features softened. “Of course I do. But there is a plan for something big, something awful to happen that day.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know anything about that.”

“What about the weapons?”

“My father and Alex handle all the purchases.” She was kept in the dark about so much, too much, for so long. “I don’t know who the supplier is.”

“Where does the money come from? To pay for it all?”

Mercy wrapped her arms around her stomach. “My father started the Shining Light with his own money. From a trust fund. It’s how he bought the land and had the facilities built. When people choose to become Starlights, they sign over their worldly possessions to the commune. Most of the time, people come to us with nothing.”

“But there are some who come to you with quite a lot.”

Lowering her head, she said, “Yes.” She had questioned her father about how some novices had been recruited. Almost as though their wealthy families had been targeted for showing a weakness that the great Empyrean could exploit. Promises of saving a wayward teen, cleaning up an addict, taking someone drowning in darkness and turning them to the light was powerful. But combined with her father’s charismatic personality, it was priceless.

She’d seen him at work firsthand.

The answers he’d given her had been lies. She wasn’t blind or silent to the imperfections of their commune, or her father, but that didn’t make them terrorists.

“There must be a money trail,” Rocco said.

“I was never given access to any accounts or documentation showing how much there is or where it all goes.” God, she didn’t even have her own bank account. She’d had to beg her father to pay for training sessions at the USD. “What are you going to do now? Issue a warrant to go through my father’s computer? Seize his bank accounts?”

“No. It doesn’t work like that.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “There’s no legal basis for one, and even if there was, it would take time that we don’t have. Maybe if I can track down the supplier, whoever it is might know what’s in the works. If they sold your father explosives, he might have mentioned what it was going to be used for.”

May the Light help me...and guide Rocco.

After everything she’d told him, he still believed that her father was capable of masterminding a deadly act of terrorism.

“How are you going to find the supplier?” That might be the only way to vindicate her father and protect the compound.

“The Devil’s Warriors.”

The outlaw motorcycle club?

All her emotions seesawed from anger to concern. For Rocco. “They’re dangerous. Violent.” The commune had a former gang member, Shawn. He had been looking to escape the never-ending cycle of brutality. To this day, the horrific things he’d shared sickened and terrified her. “You can’t go to them,” she said, stepping out of the corner toward him.

He plunked down on one of the beds. Resting his elbows on his thighs, he dropped his head in his hands. “It’s my last option.”

Her heart squeezed tight in her chest. “You were almost dosed and beaten on the compound because you got caught snooping around.” She sat on the other bed opposite him. “If you go to those vicious monsters asking about their supplier, they’ll kill you.”

“I’m not used to assimilating in places like the compound. But a deadly biker gang?” He shrugged. “I’m used to dangerous territory. That’s different.”

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