Torch (Great Wolves MC) - Jayne Blue Page 0,4

opinion,” he said. “I just want you to get familiar with the contracts. I’m going to ask you to be a go-between on some of this stuff. If the club needs anything that requires legal advice, you’ll refer them to me.”

“But isn’t that what Jason’s supposed to be doing?”

Uncle George waved me off. “He’s a good kid, but Jason’s just using this place as a stepping stone. He’s waiting to take the bar exam in a few months. After that, he’ll light out of Lincolnshire. This town isn't a place people usually end up, Sydney. They pass through.”

“Except for you,” I said.

He smiled. “Well, I had a reason worth staying.”

That reason was my Aunt Rachel. I hadn’t known her well. But she grew up in Lincolnshire and only met my uncle by chance. There was a story there he didn’t like to tell. Uncle George shocked everyone when he left Connecticut. My grandfather had put him through Yale Law with the hopes of making him into a politician. When he married Aunt Rachel, Grandpa Bailey had disowned him.

I rested my chin on my palm as I looked up at my uncle. He’d taken on a kind of mythic status within the family. The black sheep. The one who left the church and got away.

Well, until me.

“If that’s what you need,” I said. “I’ll do my best.”

“Thatta girl,” he said. “You were a good writer, if I recollect. Which means you’re a good reader. That’s what I need for now. Now get going before the bank closes.”

I gave him a salute and picked up the money pouch. Uncle George tossed me his keys before I could remind him I didn’t have a car of my own.

I didn’t have anything of my own. My whole life, I’d lived on my father’s dime. It hadn’t occurred to me to mind. Until now.

With a renewed sense of purpose, I took the keys and headed out the back door. A crisp, blue sky awaited me. I stepped off the landing and a stray cat brushed up against my leg, on his way to the dumpster behind the building.

“Shoo!” I yelled. But he was already long gone. As I started the car, I realized I hadn’t bothered to ask my uncle where the bank actually was. I checked inside the pouch and found the deposit slip.

My eyes went wide. There was over ten thousand dollars cash inside of this little bag. I quickly zipped it up and punched the address on the slip into my uncle’s dashboard GPS.

The bank was just two miles away in downtown Lincolnshire. Downtown. I was used to cities with skyscrapers and bumper-to-bumper traffic. Downtown Lincolnshire had only three or four blocks to it. Plus, it was clean. Mostly.

I parked at a meter, then realized I hadn’t brought any change. I leaned into the car and opened my uncle’s console. Old guys like him always kept quarters hidden in there. Sure enough, I found fifty cents and crawled back out of the car.

That’s when a shadow fell over me. He was scruffy, smelling of body odor so strong it made my eyes water.

“Whatcha got there, chickie?” he said. He was missing his front teeth, and his words whistled past the gap.

“Just move along,” I said. I clutched the money pouch close to my chest. He honest-to-goodness salivated as he watched me.

The bank was across the street. I’d parked in front of a dry cleaner, but there was no one inside. There was just me, this guy, and a bagful of money.

“I just need a twenty,” he said. “Can you spare it?”

The guy moved closer, backing me up against the car. I saw the raw need in his eyes. He looked malnourished.

“I just need a twenty,” he said again. He put one hand on Uncle George’s car, caging me in.

Then a second shadow fell over me. A wall of muscle and rage moved in. He picked up my would-be mugger by the arms and tossed him against the building.

“No!” I shouted. “Wait!”

Torch. It was Torch. His eyes lit with fury as he towered over the scruffy guy.

“You know who I am?” Torch said, his voice full of power and menace.

The guy put his hands up, bracing for a blow.

“I didn’t mean nothing,” he said. “I was just looking for a taste.”

Torch knelt down and jabbed his finger in the guy’s raw-boned chest. “She’s on club business, you hear me? You tell that to your friends. I’m here to send a message.”

Torch curled his