Clear warning, Armie supposed, that he was not to kill Steve.
God, he wanted to. But as Cannon had said, Steve had more questions to answer, and he had to be alive to do it.
“Everyone take a breath,” Logan ordered as he stepped from his car. Taking in the scene, he approached cautiously. His attention paused on Cannon. “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on?”
“They’re assaulting me,” Steve complained while rubbing at his throat. “That’s what.”
Logan lifted a brow.
Armie ignored it and gave Steve a level look that shut him up.
There was a minute of Cannon and Leese both talking, and Steve rattling off excuses, before Logan got caught up.
He cuffed Steve, sat him in the back of his car, then returned. Hands in his pockets, his gaze repeatedly going to Merissa, Logan said, “Well, this is interesting.”
“If by interesting you mean totally fucked, yeah,” Armie agreed. “It’s interesting.”
“I found your dad.”
Armie did a double take.
“That’s where I had to go. Cannon told us about the threats and extortion, so we picked him up for questioning, but we won’t be able to hold him. Not unless we get proof that he, too, was involved. But I have an idea, a way to wrap it all up and get all our answers.”
“Okay.”
Cannon frowned. “You don’t know what the idea is, yet.”
It didn’t matter. If it settled things and made Merissa safe, Armie was all for it.
Logan took a minute to explain. “What do you think?”
Seeing Merissa, her face bruised but her shoulders straight with pride, he nodded. “I’m in. On one condition.”
Logan huffed a breath. “Let’s hear it.”
* * *
IN BED TOGETHER, Merissa’s sweet tush tucked against him as he spooned her, Armie asked again, “You’re comfortable?”
Sounding sleepy, she murmured, “Very,” and wiggled her ass against him. She had her injured arm over a pillow. After icing it and taking her prescribed pain meds, she was already able to use it more.
Kissing her temple, Armie thought of the lengths Steve had gone to just to hurt her—all out of some ridiculous power trip because of an inflated ego, and it enraged him all over again.
“Your fight is in a few days.”
“Yeah. Don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine.” Then he thought about that and added, “You’re going with me.”
“Okay.”
Her easy agreement took the wind from his sails. How he’d ever again let her out of his sight, he didn’t yet know.
“Armie?”
He kissed her temple again. “Yeah?”
“I’m sorry.”
Going still, he asked, “For what?”
She carefully turned to face him. “All this time you thought it was your past causing problems, when really it was just my stupid ex.”
“That’s not your doing.”
“Just like ugly rumors aren’t your doing?”
The quiet of the room made the conversation feel more intimate. Now that he’d admitted what he felt, he felt it in spades. There were a few moments here and there when it choked him up, others when it made him smile. “I never wanted those rumors to hurt you.”
“They haven’t. Steve was the only one trying to hurt me. Steve and whoever he hired.”
“We’ll get them,” Armie promised her. With any luck, that’d happen tomorrow, early. He wanted her free from the threats.
“I know. I just want you to understand. I don’t ever again want you to use it as an excuse to put space between us.”
He opened a hand over her rear and snuggled her in closer. “My heart can’t take it when there’s space, so no worries.”
She stared into his eyes. “Will you marry me?”
The smile crept up on him until he laughed. “Yeah. I’ll marry you, Stretch.” He stole a quick kiss. “It’d be my honor.”
Finally she closed her eyes and got comfortable again. “We’ll figure out details after your fight.”
Armie had never really anticipated competing with the SBC. After he’d resigned himself to it, he’d ended up looking forward to it.
But now, with Rissy’s proposal and the promise of a future together, he couldn’t wait to get it over with.
* * *
AT THE PARK, in the shadows of predawn, he and Cannon held back. The air was cold, the ground damp and his mood heavy. He’d left Leese, Denver and Cherry at Rissy’s house with her, but he wanted to be with her.
Armie watched the surrounding area.
Cannon watched him. “You sure you want to do this to your dad?”
“For your sister?” Expression hard, he nodded. “Damn right.” He’d do anything for her, so setting up his old man wasn’t a hardship.
They hunkered together behind a row of scrubby bushes at the perimeter of the park, both of them dressed in dark clothes to help conceal them. Armie wondered if this was where Bray had hidden. It seemed likely.
Last night, while Rissy had soaked in the tub, he’d called his dad at the motel where Logan had initially found him. Sure enough, he’d returned to the same place after he’d been released from questioning.
It had been easy to convince Mac that he was now willing to pay for information. Disgruntled that the cops had been “hassling” him, Mac was more than ready to take a payday and get out of town.
Armie had haggled with him, offering five hundred instead of the grand his father had requested. To Mac, that only made the deal more legit. If Armie had just agreed, Mac would have gotten suspicious.
He was to meet Armie at the park. Mac had complained about the ungodly hour, but he knew Armie jogged so that added to the plausibility.
Unfortunately for Mac, Steve had also been coerced to call Keno and Boyd back. They, too, would be meeting at the park, thinking Steve would pay up.
Steve hadn’t acted out of any concern for Rissy’s well-being. He was already caught and his options were to lend a hand, or go down for attempted murder.
Logan was none too happy that Armie had insisted on being present, and that Cannon had backed him up. If they didn’t know him so well, he probably would have refused them. Luckily for Armie, Cannon was a hard man to deny—especially when he’d previously been helpful to the cops.
When Mac pulled up in his battered sedan, Armie tensed with disgust and other more anomalous feelings that he didn’t want to dissect. This was the man who’d fathered him, then despised him. It wasn’t natural, but he’d learned to live with it.
Cannon nudged his shoulder, his way of reminding Armie that he wasn’t alone.
Mac sat in his car for the longest time before finally getting out, hands on his hips, and looking around the area. Failing to see Armie, he checked his cell phone.
He was heading back to his car when, as if on cue, Keno and Boyd arrived. Irate, they got out of their own rusted junker and approached Mac with animosity.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Mac demanded.
“I was going to ask you that,” Boyd said.
Keno laughed. “If you’re thinking of cutting in on our deal, the opportunity has passed.”
Mac backed up a step. Voice lowered, brows bunched together, he snarled, “You miserable fucks. Did you hurt that girl?”