Saving Lawson (Loving Lawson Book 2) (19 page)

              Before I could argue, Marko was already grabbing me by the arm and steering me into the house. I tried pushing him away, looking over his shoulder as the men began to surround Heath, their guns pointed at his face.

              “You have to help him,” I begged Marko. “You have to help him, Marko! Please, don’t let them take him! They’ll kill him! Are you listening to me?!
They’ll kill him!
”

              But Marko kept restraining me, forcing me to watch as they led Heath away from the house and to the cars. I cried and kicked, feeling completely and utterly helpless.

              “Calm down, Allie,” he told me.

              Calm down?

              How the fuck was I supposed to calm down?

              “You just let them take him!” I shouted. “You let him go and you didn’t say a word! You didn’t care!”

              “Of course I cared,” he retorted angrily. “But what the fuck was I supposed to do? Heath told me to take you to your mother’s house and that’s what I’m going to do! You want to hate me? Fine, fucking hate me then. I’m used to it.”

              I didn’t reply. I just glared at him as he grabbed Heath’s car key from the coffee table.

              I fucking hated Marko for doing this.

              I fucking hated Heath for goading his brother.

And I fucking loathed Ryker for wanting to put a bullet in the only man left I ever loved.

Allie

“What’s going on?” Mom asked.

              I watched Marko climb into his car and pull out of the driveway.

              “Allie, answer me,” she stressed.

              How could I answer her when I had no freaking clue what was going on either? If Ryker’s accusations were true, then the last couple years made a lot of sense. I couldn’t hate Heath for it even if it was true. Surely there was an explanation. He wasn’t a greedy man. He wouldn’t wake up one day and decide to do something incredibly dumb as rob a gang.

              Ah, fuck, he really did rob them, didn’t he?

              “Allie, for the love of God, would just tell me?!”

              I turned to her startled face, and for once I saw genuine concern there. Who would have thought it?

              “I don’t know,” I eventually answered her.

              She glowered at me. “You don’t know?”

              I couldn’t stand here another minute. Not when I didn’t know what was going on out there. On our drive over, I saw Matt’s car parked in the driveway of his Uncle’s house. Matt, the most helpful person aside from Heath I had ever come to known, would surely help me at a time like this, right? Plus he had connections! I could find out where they were and I could help Heath somehow.

              “Kayden’s asleep?” I asked her.

              She eyed me carefully. “Yes. He’s in your bed.”

              “Good. Keep an eye on him. Lay down next to him if he wakes up and cries.”

              “Why are you telling me this?”

              I grabbed my jacket and threw it on. “Because I have to find out what’s going on… Heath needs me right now. I just know it.”

              She crossed her arms stubbornly. “I won’t allow you to go. That bulldozer man that just left said not to keep you out of my sight!”

              “Mom, I don’t have time to discuss this with you!”

              “You want to wind up dead?”

              I paused and shut my eyes. God, she just had to say something dramatic, right?

              “You’ll be as stupid as your father going out there fighting crime. That’s suicide, Allie! And I won’t have another person do that to me!”

              I exhaled and opened my eyes slowly. I blinked back tears and muttered, “Dad never killed himself, Mom. The same people that have Heath…
they
killed him. He owed them money, and they killed him when he couldn’t pay it back and staged the whole thing.”

              When she didn’t respond, I turned to look at her. Her eyes were rimmed red. She shook her head in denial, stammering out, “That-that’s not possible. That’s not true.”

              My chest ached and I swallowed back my own emotions. “It is, Mom. When he lost his job, how do you think he floated us by? He was using their money, and he was meant to pay them back when he found one… but you know he never did. The job market dried up, and they brought him down when the time was up.”

              She shook and when I took a step toward her, she held out her hand to stop me. The one time I wanted her to receive my affection, and she was still shutting me out. I bit back telling her how horrible it felt to be cast aside like this time and time again! She was hurt? Well, so was I! She didn’t want to believe it? I didn’t, either! But it was the truth, and there was no denying it.

              “I’m going,” I told her firmly.

              She was too involved in her thoughts to acknowledge me. I took off out of the house, racing to Matt and hoping he hadn’t left in the short time I’d been at Mom’s. I saw his car still in the driveway behind his Uncle’s beat up looking Ford and hurried to the front door. I knocked over and over again, even when minutes passed without response.

              “Matt!” I called out. “Matt, please!”

              When I heard the door unlock, I stopped. It swung open and Matt’s confused face greeted me.

              “Allie? What the hell is going on?”

              “I need your help! Please!” I told him hastily. “Please, Ryker took Heath and I don’t know where he is or what they’re going to do to him! They’ve taken him!”

              “Calm down, hon. Slow down. Come here.”

              I stepped into his arms and he led me into the house, kicking the door shut behind him. He sat me down in a small living room, telling me to breathe over and over again.

              “It’s going to be fine, just relax and then tell me what’s happened.”

              I clenched my hands into fists and tried calming myself down. I blocked out images of Heath being hurt and focused instead on Matt’s calming voice. He could help me! Marko abandoned me, but Matt was here now and that was all that mattered in that moment.

              “Okay, okay,” I muttered after I’d finally calmed down enough to speak.

              “Bit better?”

              “Yeah.”

              For the first time since he let me in, I actually looked at him now with clear eyes. He looked tired, rubbing his nose every few seconds. He smelled of sweat too, and a little bit of alcohol.

              “Where’s your Uncle? I don’t want to wake him up if he’s asleep –”

              “Forget about all that,” he interrupted. “He’s not here, so don’t worry. Now tell me what’s going on.”

              “Ryker showed up in front of the house with all these men,” I explained. “They threw bottles at the house to get our attention. And then when we were out…he fired gunshots up into the air, like he was possessed, and he was screaming at Heath. He said he… he’s been robbing from them. Taking down their cash houses. All the other guys had guns in their hands, and all the while Ryker was threatening to kill him, Matt, right in front of me! After they took him, Marko took me to Mom’s house and then left me without a care in the world! I’m sure he’s probably forgotten all about it!”

              I was angry. I knew I was venting about Marko, but he really didn’t spare any time to see if we were settled in the house. He’d just turned around and taken off, furthering my suspicion about him. No matter what that guy did to prove his friendship and loyalty to Heath, that strange feeling inside of me never lessened with time. It just sat there.

              Matt’s face darkened. “Jesus Christ, Allie, that’s fucked up.”

              “Yeah, I know. I saw your car when he dropped me off, and I wanted to know if you could help me. If you could just… I don’t know, make some calls and ask if anyone knows what’s going on. I mean, surely you know people from that gang, right? You know everybody!”

              He thought about it, resting his elbows on his knees. He stared off into space. I watched him nervously. I hoped to God he might know the answers.

              “Yeah, I might have a person I can call up,” he muttered. “Fuckin’ hell, Ryker. He’s such an asshole, isn’t he? He never changes.”

              I shook my head. “Never.”

I felt like an idiot for thinking he had come out of prison a different man. Most prisoners don’t. In fact, most wind up back in jail, and my bet was his day was coming.

              “Always having to hassle Heath,” Matt went on. “That guy had his fuckin’ throat cut by fuckin’ trench coat wearing druggies. And what’s Ryker’s excuse for being a shit? Because he saw some fucking baby half-dead under a bed? Ridiculous.”

              Matt’s anger over Ryker was startling.

              But what was most startling… were his words. My nod slowed down, and I stared at him with a peculiar look, wondering just how far drunk he was to say something like that. He noticed my look, and instantly his body tensed and he sat up straight.

              “I’m going to make that call,” he told me. He turned away and pulled out his phone. He dialled a few numbers and disappeared into the kitchen. I held my breath and tried listening in, but my brain was too occupied by what he’d just said.

              That guy had his fuckin’ throat cut by fuckin’ trench coat wearing druggies…

              How did he know they wore trench coats? Had I said that to him? I didn’t think I did. When Heath went out searching for those men, he never described the coats to anyone.

             
And what’s Ryker’s excuse for being a shit? Because he saw some fucking baby half-dead under a bed?

              Now that… How in the hell did he know about
that
?

              I turned my head in the direction of the kitchen just as he began talking. I couldn’t hear what he was saying. My body felt all wrong, though. I didn’t feel safe anymore. My vision blurred and I shook my head and edged off the couch.

              Being here wasn’t a good idea.

              Matt knew too much.

              And he knew too much for a reason.

              A reason that was literally smacking me in the face.

              “You’ve been sitting there for five minutes and you’re looking freaked the fuck out,” he said from behind me.

              I jumped at the sound of his voice. Five minutes? I’d been sitting here for five minutes? It felt like five seconds…

              “I said something stupid to you before I left, and I want you to completely rid it from your memory, Allie.”

              I nodded just to please him. I knew inside I couldn’t.

              “I’ll do that,” I whispered hesitantly. I looked towards the hallway. I needed to get out of here.

              “You’re lying,” he stated, and then he exhaled slowly. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

              “I’m not lying,” I responded. “I swear –”

              “I’m fuckin’ drunk right now and I’ve just told you something I shouldn’t have.”

              I began to tremble. He was acknowledging it. He was admitting he was a part of something, and I didn’t want to hear anymore.

              “Allie,” he said softly.

              “I need to go.” I stood up and nearly stumbled over my legs from the nerves. All the while, he just watched me by the entrance of the kitchen with this look of sadness and exhaustion. He put his hand behind his back and grabbed at something.

              “You’re not going just yet,” he told me.

              My eyes connected to the gun he produced, and I froze. I stared up at him in shock, but I felt betrayal most of all. “What… What is this, Matt? I came for help –”

              “I’m not helping a pair of Lawson pricks,” he interrupted sharply. “They’ve done nothing but turn this fucking town apart!”

              I shook my head. “No, Matt, the town was already torn apart by that gang.”

              “The Syndicate started out helping people,” he shot back. “They loaned out money for the people in need! They never did the drug shit until my father died and
he
came in!”

              I was confused. So damn confused. “What’re you talking about, Matt? Your
father
?”

              “My father started it from the ground up, Allie. Got his head blown apart by some druggies that robbed him blind. Druggies that were actually about to pay a premium and didn’t care it meant killing somebody innocent for the dough. And what did my Uncle do? He decided there was too little demand and there was room in town for a drug cartel.” Matt shook his head in disbelief. “I was five fucking years old, Allie, and all he saw when his brother passed on were dollar signs!”

              “Your Uncle? He’s… he’s the boss?””

              “Yeah,” he answered quietly. “What kind of fucked up man calls himself Boss, anyway?”

              I looked around the room. “All this time, he’s been living here?”
Here, in a shitty house half a block from my own?

              “He’s kept his identity under wraps. Forced me out of the gang that belongs to my father.” Anger rose in him. “Fuck, I did everything in my power to prove I was worth it to lead. To take his place. Instead, he made me into some spy bitch, and who the fuck gets the cream of the glory? Fuckin’
Ryker
. Some pussy little bitch that bitched about pulling a trigger on anybody.”

              I was shaking hard. I had to hold onto the arm of the couch to steady myself.

              “Ryker never killed anyone?” I found myself asking. I’d genuinely thought he’d taken it that far if he was being considered to lead.

              “He did,” he growled out, rubbing his nose again. He was high too, I realized. “But he didn’t want to. He relied on fucking Ricardo to do most of the dirty work, and only when it involved some abused fuckin’ kid did Ryker
take care
of it. It was bullshit. Ricardo had enough of him, and I fucking wanted to see him fall. You can’t tell me he doesn’t deserve it after what he did to you! I saw the way Ryker treated you, Allie, and fucked other chicks behind your back. Ricardo told me how he used to glare at my Uncle and avoid listening to the rules. Ryker was irresponsible. He wasn’t meant to lead. No. That’s why I put him away. I needed that time to gain my Uncle’s trust. I’m sick of being everyone else’s bitch, Allie. So sick of being taken advantage of. But you know how that feels, right? You can relate.”