“What’s the name?” Harley called.
They all turned to her expectantly. “The guy I tackled said it was Ray Donovan. He’s the one who made the fliers and pays the bills,” she said.
Lucas grumbled a string of curses and shoved back from the table, slamming out the front door with a bang. Delilah jumped and stared after him. “Is he okay?” she asked but Nash waved it off.
“He’s fine. Just give him some space,” Nash said but they were all looking at Jake. He knew they were waiting to see how he’d react to the name. But he couldn’t feel a damned thing right now. His insides were strangely numb. He’d always suspected this day would come. He’d never thought about who would be standing next to him in the line of fire when it did.
Xavier and Jake shared a hard look as the name sank in and Delilah huffed. “Obviously you know the name. Does someone want to fill me in?”
Nash cleared his throat. “Ray is Jake’s foster dad. Lived with him between junior and senior year of high school before he cut out early after Ray was arrested. Xavier’s dad rented him a room at the Lodge while the courts emancipated him and he’s been with us ever since.”
“Ray’s a bad guy,” Delilah said and Nash nodded.
Harley snorted but didn’t offer any more than that.
Xavier picked up the story, his eyes trained on Jake the whole time. Jake knew what his alpha was doing. Asking if this was okay, to tell her all of this. He didn’t stop it but he was still reeling too much to give him the go-ahead. Or tell it himself. “Ray’s anti-shifter all the way. Jake had to hide his bear but one night Ray found out and he lost it. All hell broke loose. Jake took the brunt of it for a while and it messed with him, but Ray’s not going to be satisfied until all the shifters are out of here.”
“I don’t get it. Why is he just now stirring up trouble if he’s had it out for you for so long?” Delilah asked.
“Because he did a dime in a state pen for killing his wife the night Jake split on them,” Harley said and Delilah flinched.
“He was in prison,” she said slowly. She turned to Jake. “You saw it? You testified against him?”
“Yes,” Jake answered simply, wanting to squash it all. Mostly, he just wanted to move on to the part where they could go kick Ray’s ass back to prison. Anything to end this whole ordeal that had dragged all of his friends and even Delilah into the line of fire. Jake had had enough talking. He swung his gaze to Xavier. “What’s the move, boss?” he asked sharply.
Xavier rubbed his stubble, staring absently at the grungy wood floor. “We need to know what his end game is here. Or what’s driving him.”
“You think revenge isn’t enough?” Jake asked. He scoffed. “I put his ass in prison.”
“No, the fact that he killed his wife put him in prison,” Nash corrected and Jake rolled his eyes.
“The fact is, we don’t know for sure what set him off like this,” Xavier said. “Now that we’ve seen some faces, we can identify more of his friends and try to get closer, figure out what’s going on here.”
“And that’s where I come in,” Delilah said.
“I agree,” Xavier said at the same time Jake said, “Hell, no.”