“What’s that?” Rian asked.
“That little piece of land that your clubhouse sits on, my employer... he wants it.”
Rian chuckled at the request. He should have known. That's what this all came down to, didn't it? Billingsworth was dead set on taking over Bel Mar. Right now? That included their land. “Shock.” He paused with a tilt of his head. “What makes you think I have the power to make something like that happen? Or even that I would help you?”
Keppel smirked with a brief glance down. Rian could hear the man’s heartbeat, calm and strong. His breathing never lifted to an abnormal rhythm. The hint of his cologne filled the room, the slide of his boots along the tile floor loud.
“I think you can make anything happen to protect the club from danger, from harming the reputation you’ve worked hard to build in this town. It’s really a win-win. We get a section of land we want and you guys get a brand new location and clubhouse to call your own. You get let off free. Members of your club are still intact and, of course, they save face within the town. I really don’t see the downside to this.”
Rian chuckled again as he shook his head. “So, I get arrested for this murder, go to trial. It will never stick and I’ll be free. This plan you’ve made to trap the club into giving you what you want, what, to save me...” Rian’s expression changed as he glared at Keppel, “it’s not going to work, so what was the point?”
“See, that’s the great thing about towns like this. Something as hideous as a murder, especially to the town’s golden citizen, well, they will want someone to pay. If you get free, you think they will believe that to be justice? Or would they turn on you, on the club, and run you out of town?”
“So why not just let that happen? Play that theory out.” Rian asked as he stepped up to the bars.
“That’s pretty simple to answer. Who knows when we might need one of you again, for whatever reason? Boss always did enjoy the idea of having a club such as yours on the payroll… in a way.”
Rian shook his head. “Damned if we do, damned if we don’t. That what you’re saying?”
“Pretty much.”
“I have another option. We could find the real killer, then we stay in the clear, I’m free and we are the heroes in the town.”
Keppel chuckled. “You could attempt that when you’re released in,” Keppel looked at his watch with a click of his tongue on the roof of his mouth, “what, thirty hours?” He looked at Rian with a smirk before he turned to head from the holding area. Stopping he turned to glance back at Rian.
“You know, it’s a shame when people we love get pulled into this type of business. Give Lexi my regards.”
He smirked before he turned and left without another word. What the hell did that mean? Had they done something to Lexi? She wasn't involved in anything to do with the club, unless they'd forced her in. Otherwise? Dark Leopards had kept her free of it, Rian made sure of it. He stepped closer to the bars, eyes wide as he banged along the cell door in a panic.
Why him? Why was he picked for this? He wasn’t the President of the club, he wasn’t even the VP. Was it because he was an Enforcer? Tasked with protecting the club, their reputation, the members, at all cost. Was he simply the hapless idiot that had the misfortune to be out alone on the night they needed a scapegoat to show up?
Had Lexi been taken to distract him from finding the killer, now that they knew he'd stop at nothing once he was released? Could she be the bait, to influence him to talk the club into giving in and giving up their land? Rian shook his head, looking around the cell from top to bottom. He couldn’t shift, he’d be trapped and outed.
Twenty minutes. That’s how long Rian banged and screamed against the cell door before Deputy Weasley finally walked into the room. “It took you about damn long enough! I've been screaming for twenty minutes!”
“So you have. What now?”
“Please, I need to call Lexi. I just need to check on her.” The deputy sighed and shook his head, making Rian rattle the bars again. “I think she’s in danger.”
“What kind of danger?” Deputy Weasley asked, brow furrowed in uncertainty.
“I don’t know, I just…”
The deputy shook his head before he turned to leave, without giving Rian an answer. Rian gripped the bars, his head lowered as rage began to swell inside him.
Chapter Three Hundred Thirty-Three
Rian paced his cell well into the early morning. His palms pressed along the cool concrete before he pushed back and turned toward the door. He glanced to the clock that hung just over the entrance before he looked down to the silver ring that wrapped around his ring finger. It was the symbol of the commitment that Lexi and he had made together, she wore her own matching one.
His head fell back, a low grunt leaving his lips as he moved across the small room toward the wall once more. He wanted her to be sick, found himself praying she had the flu or a cold that would keep her from work, from seeing him. Sick meant safe, that's all Rian could think. He would allow himself to take the fall for anything he needed to if it meant it kept Lexi, the club, and its members safe.
He knew he would be cleared, the conversation between Deputy Weasley and sheriff Rowland only confirmed that. All this over a piece of land the club owned? It made no sense. Why would Billingsworth have someone killed just to frame a member of the club? Was that really
