T-Bone - L. Wilder Page 0,32

or because you felt sorry for me.”

“You’re kidding me, right?” Seeing the doubt in her eyes gutted me. It got to me even more that I was the reason it was there. I’d never been good with the romantic shit. I always seemed to say the wrong things, do the wrong things, and in the past, it never really mattered. Deep down, I knew the women I’d pursued were just a flash in the pan, but Alyssa was different. I actually cared about her, and I didn’t want to fuck things up any more than I already had. I reached out and brushed a loose strand of hair from her face. “I’m not a man who does things I don’t want to do.”

“But—”

“No buts, Alyssa. I’ve been coming here every night because I wanted to, and I was with you last night because I wanted to be with you. Hell, I’ve never wanted anything more.”

“Good ... So, I didn’t mess things up between us?”

“Not a chance.” I leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. “Now go back to sleep, and I’ll check in with you later.”

“Okay.” As I stood to leave, she smiled and said, “Have a good day, Beckett.”

“You too, beautiful.”

On my way out, I locked the door, then headed out to my bike. On the way to the clubhouse, I thought about everything Alyssa had told me about the night of Homecoming. I thought about the anguish in her voice as she talked about that asshole forcing himself on her, the tears that fell as she told me how helpless she’d felt when she couldn’t stop him, and how she’d never told anyone except Clay about what’d happened to her. She also mentioned how Clay had gone and beat the living hell out of the guy, but it did little to suppress my need to seek my own revenge on him. That overwhelming need is what drove me to go find Riggs. When I got to the clubhouse, it was still pretty early and I was worried that he might not have made it in yet, but as luck would have it, he was in his room working on something for Gus. As soon as he saw me entering the room, his brows furrowed.

“Something wrong, brother?”

“I need you to do something for me.” I sat down next to him as I continued, “I need all the information you can find on a guy named Lucas Brant.”

“What is it with this guy? Hyde was just asking about him the other day.” He pushed his chair back from his desk and turned to face me. “Does he have something going on with his sister?”

“I can’t get into it right now, brother. I just need to get all the information I can on this guy.”

I hadn’t realized that Gus had come into the room until I heard him ask, “And what exactly are you planning to do with this information?”

“Don’t know just yet.”

“Hyde know you’re looking into this fella?”

“No.” I knew he didn’t like my response. It was written all over his face. Before he could try to talk me out of pursuing this guy, I told him, “This doesn’t have anything to do with him.”

“If it involves his sister, then I’d say it has plenty to do with him.”

“Hyde had his chance to fix this thing with Lucas, Prez.” I stood up and took a step towards him. “You know me well enough that I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think it was the right thing.”

“Going behind Hyde’s back isn’t the way to go about this.”

“How about this? I won’t do anything with Lucas before talking to him.”

“I have your word on that?”

“You know you do.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I turned my attention back to Riggs. “I’m gonna need everything you gave Hyde.”

After a few strokes of the keys, his printer started shooting out page after page. When it was done, Riggs grabbed the stack of papers and offered it to me. “This is everything I’ve got.”

I took a moment to flip through the pages, then said, “I’m gonna need you to track his phone and credit cards. I want to know every move this motherfucker makes.”

“You got it.”

“Appreciate it, brother.” Before leaving, I turned to Gus and asked, “You got a minute?”

“Yeah, let’s go down to my office.”

I followed him down the hall, and once we’d made it to his office, he closed the door behind us. “This about the girl?”

“It