Page 37 of Kane

There was a reason she kept her private life away from her father. “Kane isn’t involved in any of his family’s dealings.”

“Really?” he mused, and dread trickled down her spine. Reaching down to his desk, he spun his open laptop to face her. Frozen on the screen was a still frame of Kane and his brother on Scott’s motorcycle. He hit the spacebar, and she watched the two of them exchange words before Scott walked away. Kane followed him into the apartment building she saw ablaze on the TV.

She swallowed. “Okay, he was there. It’s a pretty big leap to go from stepping on the property to him setting the fire.”

“Not when I have someone threatening to testify to it if I don’t pay him off.” Her father all but hissed. “I don’t like being threatened, Amanda. And I don’t appreciate you giving someone the means to do it.”

“I have nothing to do with you getting blackmailed.” Heat climbed her face. “And I don’t care what some lowlife says, Kane didn’t do this.”

“That lowlife…is an undercover cop.” He slammed the laptop closed. “If you think his word won’t carry weight, you’re a fool.”

None of this made sense. Kane wanted nothing to do with his father’s motorcycle club; she’d bet her life on it. “I know he had to have a good reason for being there.”

“It doesn’t matter, Amanda. Whether he did it or he didn’t, this cop has the power to put him away. Unless I pay him not to.”

“How much does he want?” She had some money saved. Maybe she could take care of this herself.

“Fifty thousand dollars.” The words fell like a lead balloon. “Your boyfriend had the motive, the means, and the opportunity to set this fire. There’s an eyewitness and a video placing him at the scene.”

Motive? “He had no motive, Dad. What could he possibly have to gain?”

He raked his hand through his hair in a very un-Beauregard-like gesture. “To benefit his father’s organization. The real targets were in the drug trade. They were the men the cop was in deep with. I’m not sure how this change in leadership ties to his family’s ‘motorcycle club,’” he said, curving his fingers into air-quotes, “but that’s the crux of it. Whether the Hale boy is part of the club or not is irrelevant. Some people actually value getting their father’s approval.”

His little dig hit home. She knew her father loved her, but it was a selfish kind of love. It had been the same way when he was with her mom. If she didn’t put him first—if she didn’t see things his way—he took it as a personal affront. You were either with him or against him. She sighed. “What are we going to do?”

“We?” He narrowed his eyes and approached her. “Wearen’t going to do anything.Iam going to pay this bastard for his silence.”

She let out the breath she’d been holding. “Thank—”

“You,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken, “will cut all ties with Kane Hale. Now and forever.”

“No,” she breathed.

Her father put his face centimeters from hers, so close she could smell the cigar smoke on his breath. “Oh yes. I will not leave myself open like this again. You want to save this young man, give me what I want.”

Tears streamed down her face, but her father appeared indifferent. “Decide now.” This. This was the kind of thing her mother ran away from, but now Amanda was trapped.

What choice did she have? She nodded.

“He’s at Northside Hospital. Go now. Make a clean break.”

She turned, her heart in her throat. Her stomach churned, threatening to empty its contents on the Aubusson rug.

“And Amanda, don’t get any ideas about changing your mind later. If you go back on our deal, I’ll go to the police myself. This stays between us. Remember, there’s no statute of limitations on murder.”

CHAPTER NINE

Amanda

Mike listened to Amanda’s confession without so much as a twitch on his face. But the moment she finished her story, his features twisted. “Your father is a rank bastard.”

Not the response she was expecting, but it was true, nonetheless. Beau Griffin was also controlling and narcissistic. His genteel manners and charming smile, the simple tools he used to boost his popularity among the people. Their regard fed his bottomless well of need for respect and adoration. No matter how hard they tried, the simple love she and her mother had to give could never have been enough. They’d been doomed to disappoint him.

The bourbon no longer burned as she swallowed it down, generally a sign she needed to stop drinking. She screwed the cap back on the bottle and returned it to its perch above the side-by-side refrigerator. “Be that as it may, he’s the only reason Kane is walking free.”

Mike rolled his eyes. “He’s the reason Kane was threatened in the first place.”

“Ah, but you’re forgetting one thing, big brother. My father had nothing to do with Kane going to the apartment building or with whatever went down inside.” She dragged one of the kitchen chairs from beneath the round oak table and sat down. “Don’t you think it occurred to me he was behind the whole thing? But it doesn’t make sense. There were too many factors out of his control.”