The powerful rumble of motorcycles, the exhaust-crackling bellow gripped Holden before he caught sight of them. There were at least twenty. They rounded the corner, hitting Third Street.
Had they come from Delgado’s? Had the Iron Warriors been there? Had they gone to intimidate Grace?
Was that why she’d hung up on him?
The group of motorcycles rode slowly in formation. In no apparent hurry, as though parading through town, deliberately making a spectacle. They wanted their presence known—seen, felt and heard.
Their growling engines ran riot over Holden’s nerves.
Out front, leading the pack, wasn’t Rip. It was Todd Burk. Their gazes collided as they passed each other.
The skin on the back of Holden’s neck prickled, and it was as if someone had just walked over his grave.
But his only thought was of Grace.
The Iron Warriors hit their throttles and zoomed off.
Holden did likewise, pressing down on the gas, going over the speed the limit. Just beating the light before it flashed from yellow to red, he took a sharp left turn, zipping around the corner. He cut into the parking lot behind Delgado’s and parked. Hurried from the vehicle. Rushed through the door.
Not a single customer was inside. The place was quiet and empty. Except for Grace and Xavier, who both sat at the bar. Drinking.
She was a self-admitted lightweight when it came to alcohol and never drank in the middle of the day, much less on the job.
That was enough to confirm to him that the Iron Warriors had in fact been there.
“What did they want?” Holden asked, marching up to her.
Xavier poured her another shot of whiskey.
She swallowed with a grimace and coughed. “To give me a warning.”
“About?” he asked, coming up alongside her, and put a hand on her back.
“Getting involved.”
Xavier shook his head, pouring himself another drink. “About sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. She needs to stay out of it. Keep quiet. Say she didn’t see anything. Hear anything. Specifically, a particular type of V-twin engine.”
Grace sighed. “I’ve gotten myself in a jam.” She looked up at him, her eyes clouded and sad and full of fear. “I don’t know how to get out of it.”
But he knew how to get her out.
The Powell name, all his family’s money and power, as mighty as it was, wouldn’t be able to put a stop to the Iron Warriors and Todd.
Only one thing could.
The law.
Holden rubbed her back to reassure her it would be okay. He’d find a way. Somehow.
She turned to him, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. He pulled her up to her feet and tightened the embrace. Held her with his chin on the top of her head, giving her comfort, for as long as she needed.
After a few moments, she pulled back and put one hand on the bar and the other on her hip. “I’m in over my head. Maybe I should go to California for a few days, spend the holidays with my mom, until this is resolved.”
His heart clenched.
He’d already envisioned spending Christmas Eve with her, surrounded by his family, who’d make her feel welcome and put her at ease. They’d get to know her better, firsthand, see why he was so drawn to her. So captivated.
She’d be safe. Let her guard down. Have fun, without worry of judgment.
All the things she deserved.
But it was more than that. This didn’t sound like her. Grace didn’t surrender. She dug in and fought, even if it looked like a losing battle.
“Where is this coming from?” Holden asked. She didn’t want to abandon the cottage. She didn’t want to leave Wyoming. “Is that really what you want? To be with Selene?”
Grace rolled her eyes and lowered her head.
“Leaving for a few days would be for the best,” Xavier said. “The Iron Warriors meant business.” He took another shot of whiskey. “They scared me senseless. I thought I’d have a heart attack, and I had nothing to do with it.”
This was Xavier’s bright idea—for her to flee town and head back to California, where she didn’t belong.
“Maybe he’s right,” Grace said, sounding defeated. “My mom already offered to buy me a ticket. All I have to do is call her. No groveling necessary. She could probably book me on a nonstop flight out of Denver tonight.”
“They’ve got one leaving at eight,” Xavier said, looking at flights on his phone. “It’s only a two-and-a-half-hour flight nonstop. You should call your mother right now. There are only three tickets left.”
Holden groaned, wanting Xavier to shut up. The man meant well, but he wasn’t helping.
Grace had never been straightforward with Holden about her relationship with her mother. Her responses were always cagey, but he had read between the lines. Taken in her body language, heard the things she didn’t say.
He knew.
To call their relationship strained would be putting it mildly. Selene, the glamourous, bewitching, one-time supermodel made Grace feel inadequate, as though she would never be enough for her mother, and still wanted her daughter to run on a hamster wheel in search of her approval, which would always be just out of reach.
Grace would go to California for the holidays, where she would be miserable, over his dead body.
“Running away isn’t the answer,” Holden said. “You’re not leaving.”
A small smile tugged at her lips but worry swam in her eyes. Her face turned haggard with fear.
Xavier jumped to his feet. “You don’t know what it was like with them here. They stabbed the bar with a damn bowie knife.” He pointed to a gouge in the wood of the bar. “They’ll skin her alive if she’s the reason Todd Burk goes down.”
Then she wouldn’t be.
“Be quiet,” Holden snapped at Xavier. The man rocked back on his heels and sat down. Cutting his gaze from him, Holden looked at Grace and clutched her shoulders. “I can fix this. I can get Todd and keep you safe.”
“How? I don’t want you to put yourself in harm’s way. You can’t threaten or intimidate them. They’re not Rodney.”
Didn’t he know it.
“Putting myself in harm’s way comes with the job.” But he would walk through fire to protect Grace. When she grimaced, he gave her a hopeful smile. “But that’s not part of my plan. Do you trust me?”
“With my life,” she said without hesitation.
That was all he needed to hear. “Then you’re staying here. And I’m going to go fix it. Right now.”
She pressed a palm to his cheek. “How? I need to know you’ll be okay.”
“By taking the attention off you. You can’t identify who killed Emma or the bike he was riding. Those are facts. Testimony from you wouldn’t put anyone away.” He’d make it so that she never even had to enter a courtroom. “I’m going to do my job, follow procedure, follow the trail until I have the cold, hard evidence we need.” He was going to start by following his gut instincts.
“Promise me you’ll be careful,” she said, letting her hand fall from his face.
“I will. Don’t worry.”
“I don’t know how not to.”
“Start by playing some Christmas music in here and then think about how you’re not going to spend the holidays locked up in a Pacific Palisades prison with the Grinch.”
Grace smiled and the sight of her smile lit up his world. It was all he needed.
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, Holden found himself on the opposite end of Third Street, stalking into the Fierce & Sassy nail salon.
Nikki looked up at him from behind the reception desk. She tensed, her eyes going wide. Her mouth opened. “You can’t be in here.” She glanced around at the customers noticing his presence, which only seemed to amplify her alarm.
“Actually, I can.” Resting a forearm on the counter, he leaned toward her. “Plan on staying, too. For as long as necessary.”
“No, no, no,” she said in a harsh, low voice, her eyes narrowing. “You have to leave.” Nikki was the type of woman who slapped on too much makeup that made her look older than she was, with signature cherry-red lipstick and nails like long talons. She always wore revealing clothing. Low-cut tops revealing plenty of cleavage. Short-short skirts that ended midthigh and sky-high heels, regardless of the weather.
She dressed like a gangster’s girlfriend was expected to.
“It’s been slow around the office with it being the holidays. I’m free to stay.” He raised his voice a bit. “All day.”
“I’ve got nothing to say to you. Not now. Not ever. Now get gone.” Then she mouthed, “Please, I’ll do anything.”
That was the nature of the rapport they’d built over the past couple of years. For the sake of appearances, she talked a good game, did a lot blustering and pretended to stand her ground. But he’d learned that if he got her alone, with no prying eyes to report back to Todd, she opened up to him. She had confided in him on a number of occasions about her boyfriend’s abuse, although she wouldn’t press charges.
She’d also shared that there were issues in the MC dividing the members. Some, like Rip, wanted the club to take the straight and narrow path of only engaging in legal pursuits. The others enjoyed the money and perks of their illicit activities.
Based on the group following Todd earlier, it looked like he was winning the battle.
Holden slipped the note from his clenched hand and let it fall to the other side of the desk in front of her. Meeting her eyes, he tipped his hat and left.
From the sidewalk he looked back at her. Head bent, she was reading the note he’d written.
Meet me at Divine Treats in three hours. They’ll be closed for the day. We’ll talk there. Privately. Discreetly. Or I come back to Fierce & Sassy.
I’ll be loud and it’ll be ugly.
Raising her head, Nikki gave a furtive glance around. Then she looked at Holden and nodded.
THE DOOR WAS UNLOCKED when Nikki strode inside. Her three-inch heels click-clacking across the tile floor.
Holden was waiting behind the counter. “Turn the bolt and follow me.” He didn’t want anyone wandering in by mistake, thinking the pastry shop was open. Most folks knew the bakery closed at four in the afternoon, but he wasn’t taking any chances.
Nikki did as he told her.
Amy and the others had cleared out and agreed to come back later to finish cleaning up.
“What do you want?” Nikki spat out, flouncing into the kitchen, where no one would be able to see them from the street.
“I want the truth. You and Todd are lying. He wasn’t with you at the clubhouse on Thursday.”
Nikki put a hand on her hip. “Says who?”
“Says common sense. The good Lord gave me some. A bunch of strippers were at the clubhouse that night.” There was no way that Todd was there with Nikki, watching the show or doing things with the entertainment that would’ve made his girlfriend extremely angry if she had been present. “So I know you weren’t there.”
“That’s supposition. Not proof.”
“One of these days, Todd is going to knock all your teeth out. Rupture a spleen. Give you brain damage. Or simply kill you. It’s possible he might do all of the above. Wouldn’t you like to see him pay for some other crime before then?”
Nikki moistened her lips, probably salivating at the thought of seeing him pay for something other than killing her.
She crossed her arms and leaned against one of the large commercial ovens. “How do I know that whatever I say to you won’t get traced back to me? Because if he knows I talked to you, he will kill me and find a way to get away with it. He gets away with everything.”
Holden’s job was to protect and serve. Especially those who wouldn’t or couldn’t protect themselves. He wouldn’t do anything to bring Todd’s wrath down on her head.
“When he kicked you out of the club,” he said, “or you stormed off irate, I’m sure you didn’t go home to sulk while he was out having a good time. Did you?”
She shrugged. “Let’s say it went down that way and I didn’t go home. Then what?”
He was on the right track. “Then you probably went out with your girls,” he said, and her eyes brightened. “Had some fun without any men. All I need is one credit charge you made somewhere that night. A traffic camera you passed that says you were somewhere else. I can pull all that without anybody talking to me.”
She hesitated, thinking about it, weighing her options. Probably comparing how much she loved Todd versus how much she hated him. “I went to the Wild Pony that night with my girls. Like you thought.”
The saloon/dance hall was located over in Cheyenne, about an hour’s drive. They had live country music, line dancing, a mechanical bull. The works for a good time.
“Did you use your credit card?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. I bought a few rounds of drinks. One close to midnight, for sure.”
“Thank you.”
“His alibi with me may be garbage. But I think he lied about being with me, in front of all of his brothers, to protect me.”
“From what?”
“The humiliation of everyone knowing that he was really with another woman that night.” She chewed on her lip and stared at her feet. “I think he was with some stripper. Probably Misty. He’s got a thing for her.”
Holden stared at her with pity. Todd cheated on her, beat her, disrespected her, and not only did she stay with him and defend him, but she also honestly believed that his lie had been to protect her.
“You know, Nikki, it’s possible he could’ve killed Emma and then gone back to the club and slept with a stripper. Maybe he lied to protect himself.” Because he didn’t have an alibi.
A couple of tears leaked from her eyes and rolled down her cheek. “I don’t want to believe he would do that. Hurt Emma. Because if he killed her, then he might really be capable of killing me, too, one day.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t... I can’t...”
There was a but that wanted to come. A big one. He heard it. Sensed it. Felt it deep in his bones. “But what?”
Nikki looked up at him, smudged mascara giving her raccoon eyes, her cherry-red lips trembling. “I found something on his bedside table at the clubhouse. It hadn’t been there before. I didn’t understand why he had it, or where he got it from. And when I asked him about it, he got so angry with me. I’m talking furious. He grabbed me by my face and told me that I hadn’t seen it. Never to say a word about it.”
Holden stepped forward, getting closer. This was it. A vital piece to the puzzle he needed. “What did you see?”
She sniffled and wiped tears from her eyes. “Do you promise you can put him away?”
The Iron Warriors had given the man the fitting nickname Teflon. Because charges never stuck to him.
“I promise I will do my absolute best,” Holden said. “Trust me, I want him behind bars more than most.” They had a history and Todd had a lot to pay for. “What did you find?”
“A Shining Light necklace.”
Emma’s.
The one that had been missing when Holden had found her.