Billionaire Ransom (12 page)

The doctor stood there staring at him, his mouth hanging open. Morgan didn’t know if reality was hitting him, or if he was still feeling the effects of whatever had been in that syringe, and he didn’t really care.

“You failed,” Morgan said, “You can’t give back whatever money he already gave you. You’re a fucking doctor; why the hell would you need the money?” He straightened, refusing to let his pain show. “Now let me be clear here. I’ll say this again in case you fucking forgot. If you kill me, you just lost your only chance to live, because you’re a dead man either way. If Wilkes doesn’t decide to kill you to clean up any and all loose ends, and, knowing him, I’d say you already have a contract on your head, the one of my guys will kill you. Your only chance is that I live and Wilkes goes down. Do you get me?”

The doctor swallowed hard. There were white rings around both his eyes and his whole body shook. “I get it,” he muttered thickly.

“Then you’d better go while you have the chance,” Morgan sighed. He would have to sleep with one eye open for the rest of his life.

The doctor paused. “Can you really take him down?”

“Yes.” He didn’t know for sure, but his life hung in the balance, and he was willing to lie and scare the shit out of anyone he needed to.

The doctor nodded and walked toward the door. He paused as he opened the door. “You could’ve killed me.”

“I could’ve, but I didn’t.”

“You’re a better man than me.”

Morgan held his gaze as he said, “Don’t ever run into me on the streets, or you’re a dead man.”

The doctor left hastily, leaving Morgan alone in the deserted and shadowy infirmary. He knew better than to relax, though. A deputy would come by eventually with food… he needed food and rest. He was weak and fragile, and it angered him.

He needed to figure out a plan. Now that the pill Jon had given him was wearing off, the pain was back, dulling his thoughts and making everything else seem small and distant in comparison.

Katie still felt weak when they pulled into the driveway of the house that had once belonged to Lisa. She snorted. It figured. She got off the bike and shot Craig a nasty look. “You’ll be glad to know Morgan and I cleaned up the mess you left.”

Craig shot her a filthy look and then said sarcastically, “Gee, thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” she shot back.

In single file they walked in. Jessie sighed and stripped off her jacket, revealing a thin tank top below. The swell of her breasts and the tightly tucked angles of her waist showed perfectly in the top, and Katie rolled her eyes when she caught Craig staring and then draw in a quick breath.

Jessie stretched her arms over her head and ran her hands through her sweat-tangled hair. “Okay, let’s get a look at this file. Somebody grab skinny-cat some food as well.”

Half the bikers settled into the living room to catch a game of football as Craig dropped a case of beer off in the center of the room. “Gentlemen,” he said, and turned back to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Katie opened her backpack and spread the photocopied pages across the table. Nate and Jessie stood looking over them while Craig handed Katie a glass of lemonade.

“One of the guys is ordering a pizza. You want some crackers or cookies while we wait?”

Katie waved her hand. “Whatever.”

Nate glanced up and scowled at her. “Eat. I’m not putting up with this shit on the road.”

Craig handed her a box of unopened crackers, and she pulled out the package out and began chewing. They actually settled her stomach a bit, and she drank her lemonade. Craig refilled it and handed Jessie a glass as well. He handed Nate a beer.

They stood silent, drinking and looking over the files, and then Jessie whistled. “Wow! That’s a hell of a lot of money.”

Katie nodded. “I know.”

Nate shook his head. “I’ve been in the wrong part of law. I should’ve been in finance. And developing. Or ambulance-chasing.”

Craig said, “I don’t understand how this helps any of you, or us.”

“It gives Wilkes a lot more motive than it gives you and the Orphans, or us.” Nate ran a stubby finger down the pages.

“Yeah, but we’re bikers, and he’s some rich fucker born with a silver spoon in his mouth,” Craig said. “Who the fuck’s going to believe us over him? No offense, Katie.”

“None taken,” she said sarcastically, “But you have a point. I was wondering the same thing a few days ago. How do we get people to believe he would kill for this when he already has a lot of money and, honestly, to him, ten or twenty million is a drop in the bucket?”

“Unless it isn’t,” Jessie said. “Is the corporation having any money problems or anything?”

“No, in fact it’s doing really well.” She grit her teeth over the words she almost spilled out. That the company should be doing well since it was involved in so many illegal activities.

Nate pulled a pair of reading glasses out of his leather jacket. Katie almost burst out laughing but then pressed her lips tight together, knowing it would only get her in trouble. Nate pointed to one page. “Okay, so what we have here is a record of phone calls between Wilkes, some other fuckers, and the numbers here. These are the phone numbers of several dead guys. Before you ask, those same numbers are in my phone so, yes, I’m sure.”

“Maybe they were discussing a plan to sell,” Craig suggested. “I mean, we don’t know what they were saying.”

Nate lifted a page. “This is a letter from them to Wilkes’ offices, saying no dice no deal. The sale was denied. Why the fuck they wouldn’t sell is beyond…whoa!” His jaw dropped as he read some more. “Okay, now I get it. They wanted more money.”

Craig said, “How much more?”

“Another hundred thousand or so. Weird, since that isn’t a whole lot. Why didn’t Wilkes’ company just give them the extra money?”

“Maybe it wasn’t about the money,” Jessie said. “Maybe it’s not even really about the property. Some men can’t take no for an answer.”

Katie rubbed her forehead. “They wouldn’t give the extra money, but they damn sure still wanted the land. See here? These are squatter’s papers. They started trying to get it without paying anything at all. The guy who actually owned it wasn’t even the leader of the crew; it belonged to a man who inherited it from his aunt. She died last year, but she hadn’t lived there for almost four years. They were going after squatter’s rights, but I don’t think it would have worked. This is so weird.”

Nate harrumphed in agreement. “So the company began trying to move on it with legal maneuvering that would allow them to take it for free. Why not just pay the extra? It wasn’t that much, and the shit they were pulling just to take it would have cost more than what they were asking. It reads like...like pettiness; the trouble of killing off a dingy crew so they could have a plot, when they could easily afford to buy it without causing any problems. It’s bad judgement and stupid business sense. You’re a financial analyst, Katie. Even you’d have known this was a bad idea.”

“Except, they never told me.”

“Again, unless they didn’t have the money and the legal fees were something that could be put off until that deal went through.”

Katie shrugged. “I’m telling you again, there’s no issue with money.”

“Then it goes back to ego,” Jessie said.

Katie said, “That still doesn’t make any sense at all.”

“It makes a lot of sense,” Jessie said. “But you’re right. If it’s not about the money, or ego, it’s about something.”

Craig laughed. “That’s apparently the million-dollar question.”

“I know.” Katie looked over to the lawyer who stood the only chance of getting Morgan out of jail. “Nate, can you get them out with this?”

Nate pressed his lips tight, his eyes still on the papers on the table. “The hearing doesn’t start until tomorrow morning. We have to find something between now and then that’ll explain why all of this makes sense. We’re not talking about some small shit here; we’re talking multiple counts of murder and whole boatload of more illegal shit going on. Proving this is next to impossible. These are copies. It could be a matter of he said/she said. I honestly am not sure we have something concrete enough.”

Katie rubbed her eyes. Exhaustion had come back, and her stomach rumbled.

Craig raised his eyebrows. “Pizza should be here soon, but I’ll run to the store and grab some more stuff. There’s a lotta guys here and we’re going to need more beer.”

“I’ll go with you,” Jessie said suddenly.

Craig looked at her with a wary eye. “You afraid I’m gonna run off to tell someone you’re here, or that I’ll just vanish from your life?” He winked at her.

“Don’t even,” Jessie warned, but her lips quirked upward and Katie read the amusement on her face. She grabbed her leather jacket and followed Craig out.

Katie sat down at the table, eating the dry crackers and staring down at the papers, willing the truth to pop out off of them. “There has to be something here we aren’t seeing.”
And I’m willing to bet it has something to do with those files I didn’t bring with me. Damn it.

Nate sat down beside her, his lawyer face on. “Look, worst case scenario… we have a good motive for someone besides your guys doing it. I mean, what did they stand to gain? Nobody knows. It isn’t enough to speculate about what they might have gained, and the most the DA can claim is that there’re rumors of drugs. But this is real evidence of what looks like a lot of motive.”

“Enough to prove Morgan and his crew aren’t involved?”

“Twenty million dollars is a hell of a lot of motive. The question is why, if they wanted it badly enough to kill for it, they didn’t just buy it. They’re going to want to know the answer to that. You know it. I know it. The problem is that I can’t find it in here. So it’s all speculation, and that doesn’t hold up in court for shit.”

Katie shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe if we pause and come back to it then it’ll come to us.”

Nate rubbed his eyes. “I have to tell you, this whole thing almost isn’t worth the favor I owe Morgan.”

“Why do you owe him for?”

Nate twisted his mouth. “A long time ago I got into some shit at a rally. It was stupid and my fault. I got into it with a few guys I shouldn’t have. Not to mention I was standing alone, way too far from my crew.”

She raised her eyebrows but didn’t say anything, waiting for Nate to continue.

“So, just as this guy was about to blast a hole in my gut, along came Morgan. Just walked right up, and stepped right in front of me and stood there, looking for all the world like there wasn’t a damn gun pointed at him.”

Katie’s mouth dropped open. “What? Why would he do that?”

Nate shrugged. “Beats me. I mean, he was part of some stupid little club with…what three members back then?” He ticked them off on his fingers, “Morgan, Clive, and Craig. He didn’t need any help from them, but they stood with him, both of ’em. They just walked up and ringed me like they’d known me all my life.”

“So really you owe all of them.”

Nate scowled. “No, I owe Morgan. Because even then he was the leader, and if he hadn’t done it they would have just stood there and watched me die. Morgan started it; they just came in on the back end.”

“Wow. You guys are idiots.”

“Yeah,” Nate sighed. “I couldn’t believe it either.”

“How come they didn’t just shoot him too?”

Nate shook his head. “I have no idea. Hell, that cocky bastard Morgan started whistling the theme from one of those old spaghetti Westerns while he stood there. They should have shot him just for that.”

Katie started giggled. “I have to agree with you there. I hate those things.”

“Oh, I love the old spaghetti Westerns, I just doubt whistling a high noon tune when there’s a gun at your head is the smartest thing a man can do.”

Katie laughed harder. “I have to agree with you there.”

“He’s got guts, that Morgan. More guts than any man I’ve ever known. He’s crazy, loyal, and courageous, and one day it’s gonna land him in a bad situation.”

Like now?
Katie blinked. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not trying to scare you. This is a death penalty state. You know that. Morgan’s loyal as hell to his crew. He’s gutsy and, yeah, he’s a lotta nuts too.

“If it comes down to it, he’ll take the fall for all of them. He’ll say he did those killings to keep his guys clear. You need to be aware of that. The reason you should know that is because, if that happens, the last thing on earth a man like Morgan would want is for a woman to try to get him out of it by saying someone else, like someone in his crew, is guilty.”

Terror blacked out her vision. She couldn’t even speak around it. “I see. But I’m not out to prove someone in the crew did it. I’m just out to prove that he didn’t. No one innocent is going to take the fall for what happened.”

“They,” Nate corrected gently. “Don’t ever get it twisted, Kate. It’s not enough to prove it wasn’t Morgan, because he’ll take that fall no matter what if his guys are set up for it.”

“I see.” She did see, and what she saw horrified her.

Morgan. Dead. But not in a way she could even understand, murdered by the state for crimes he didn’t even commit. Tears filled her eyes and she tried to blink them back.

She wiped them away angrily. “We’d better come up with something better than just what we have then,” she said, and began looking through the papers again.

Craig and Jessie came back, and they all sat down to eat the deli sandwiches and chips they’d brought back along with other groceries. Katie was incredibly tired and her exhaustion was dogging her now more than ever. Jessie suggested she lie down, and Craig showed her to a bedroom. The pizza arrived as well, the smell teasing her nostrils. She was too tired to ask for a slice, even though her tummy growled that it wanted one.

Craig stood in the doorway for a moment before quietly saying, “I’m really sorry about that day.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She yawned, not wanting to have this discussion now.

He stared at her and finally sighed, “Okay then.” He turned and left.

Katie shook her head and went to lay down on the bed, not bothering to get under the covers. Just as she felt herself drift, she jerked when she heard someone yell,

“Holy shit!”

She sat up and scrambled out of the bed. Her feet hit the floor, and she stumbled before regaining her feet and going to the living room. Nate was pacing the floor, his face excited and animated.

“What’s going on?” She rubbed her eyes, wondering where the rest of the crew was. Probably showering or washing their bikes, or whatever biker dudes did.

Nate turned to her. “I think I figured out why they didn’t just offer more money.”

She blinked. “What?”

“The answer is: How the hell do we know? What we do know is that they didn’t; they started legal maneuvering to get it for free. They wanted that land, and the only things standing in their way were those guys. I know it isn’t perfect, but it’s the best we’ve got for now.”

“It’ll have to do,” she said, with a smile that felt forced and false. She knew lawyers. Her father had amazing ones. Nate did not look like them or talk like them. This was all they had.