Chapter 78 Dante's deadline
Sage's POV
"What is it? What does it say?" Jaxon asked me.
"Dante just gave me forty-eight hours to decide whether I'm marrying him or not." I showed him the message and watched his face squeeze as he read the threat about exposing my father's secrets. "And he's threatening to go public with information about Dad working with the feds if I refuse him."
Jaxon grabbed my phone and read the message before his expression turned murderous. "How the fuck does Dante know about the feds? That information was buried deep and only a handful of people knew about it."
"Maybe Dante was one of those people or maybe he figured it out the same way we did by connecting dots that everyone else missed." I took my phone back and shoved it in my pocket. "Either way, he's using it as leverage now and he's given me two days to make a decision."
"This is getting more interesting by the minute." Diego looked genuinely amused by the whole situation. "So not only do you have two men claiming rights to marry you, but now one of them is threatening to expose something that could destroy your entire family. What are you going to do, Sage?"
I looked between Diego and the phone in my hand. "I've given you my official answer already, so you can leave now.”
“It'll be in both our interests if you give it again.” He said.
"The only thing in both our interests is you getting off Steel Wolves property before this turns into a situation nobody wants." Jaxon moved between Diego and me. "You've said what you came to say and now you can leave."
"I'll leave when I'm ready and not a moment before." Diego's voice went hard and cold. "But I'll give you some free advice before I go. Dante Moretti is playing a game you don't understand. If you let Sage marry him to escape from marrying me, you'll be trading one nightmare for another that's infinitely worse."
"Why do you care who she marries as long as it's not you?"
"Because I actually give a shit about what happens to her after the wedding, which is more than I can say for Dante." Diego looked at me with something that might have been genuine concern if I didn't know better. "He's not offering you protection and partnership. He's offering you a slow death wrapped in pretty promises and false hope."
"And what are you offering? A cage with bars made of contracts and obligations?" I crossed my arms. "At least Dante is honest about wanting to use me for federal protection. You're still pretending this is about alliance and family when we both know it's about getting access to the immunity deal my father made."
Diego's expression flickered but the mask quickly slipped back into place. "Believe what you want about my motives but remember that in two weeks, you're expected in Arizona for our wedding. If you're not there, the consequences will be severe."
"Is that a threat?"
"It's a promise." He turned and started walking back toward his bike. "Forty-eight hours until Dante's deadline and then another two weeks until mine. Use that time wisely because once the clock runs out, your choices disappear along with any illusions you have about escaping this situation."
Elena followed him without saying anything else but the look she gave me promised that this conversation was far from over. The Blood Sisters members mounted their bikes in perfect synchronization and within minutes they were pulling out of the parking lot like a military convoy leaving a battlefield.
As soon as they were gone, Jaxon grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the clubhouse. "Inside. Now. We need to talk before things get any worse."
I let him drag me inside while Ryder followed close behind with his hand on his gun like he expected someone to jump out of the shadows at any second. The main room was full of brothers who had gathered when they heard Diego and Elena were here, and every single one of them looked at me with questions they were too smart to ask out loud.
Jaxon didn't stop moving until we were in his office with the door closed and locked behind us. Then he turned on me with an expression that was equal parts anger and fear.
"Forty-eight hours? That's all the time Dante gave you to make a decision that could destroy this entire club?" He started pacing. "And he knows about Vincent's federal cooperation which means he has leverage we can't counter unless we figure out how he got that information and who else might know about it."
"We need to focus on finding Dad's killer first because that's the only real leverage we have against both Dante and Diego." I pulled out the list and spread it on the desk. "Five names. One of them pulled the trigger and one of them might have been working with whoever was blackmailing Dad."
Ryder looked at the names and his jaw clenched. "Jaxon. Me. Diesel. Snake. Dr. Martinez. These are people we trust with our lives."
"Which is exactly why one of them would have been able to get close enough to dad to kill him without raising suspicion." I pointed at each name. "I know it's not you or Jaxon. We have forty-eight hours to investigate the three of them and figure out which one is guilty before Dante's deadline expires and I have to make a choice I'm not ready to make."
"And if we don't find the killer in time?" Jaxon stopped pacing and looked at me. "What then? Do you marry Dante to buy more time or do you marry Diego and let Dante expose everything Dad worked to hide?"
"I don't marry anyone." My voice came out stronger than I felt. "I find the killer, I expose them, and I use that information to blow up both contracts before either deadline can force my hand."
"That's a great plan except for the part where we only have two days to do something the cops haven't been able to do in weeks." Ryder moved closer to the desk. "How do we even start investigating three people without tipping them off that we suspect them?"
"We start with the person Dad trusted most with his medical secrets and has personal history with." I tapped Dr. Martinez's name on the list. "If anyone knows what dad was dealing with in the weeks before he died, it would be the doctor who was treating him and covering murder for him."
"Martinez disappeared right after he told us about the federal cooperation." Jaxon pulled out his phone. "Tommy said he packed up his family and left town without telling anyone where he was going."
"Then we find him and we make him tell us everything he knows about what was happening with Dad before someone killed him." I stood up. "Because if Dante's right and the killer had access to dad's private phone lines, then Martinez might have been treating Dad for something related to stress or paranoia brought on by the threats he received."
My phone buzzed again with another message from the same unknown number.
"The clock is ticking, princess. Forty-seven hours and counting. Choose wisely because once time runs out, so do your options."