Chapter 75 Multiple contracts
Ryder's POV
I wanted to put my fist through the wall after Sage told us everything Dante said during their meeting.
Three men now claimed rights to marry her based on contracts and agreements that her dad made without ever asking what she wanted. Diego through the current Blood Sisters contract. Dante through the original agreement from three years ago. And me through the only thing that actually mattered, which was the fact that we loved each other and chose to be together.
"This is completely fucked." I paced back and forth across Jaxon's office while trying to control the rage building in my chest. "Vincent traded Sage around, using her as a bargaining chip he could use to settle debts and make alliances. First to Dante, then to Diego, and he never once considered that she might want a say in her own future."
"I know and I'm just as pissed about it as you are, but getting angry doesn't solve the problem." Jaxon sat behind his desk with his head in his hands. "We need to figure out what to do about Dante's offer and whether we can trust anything he told Sage about knowing who killed Dad."
"We can't trust him because he's a lying manipulative piece of shit who got kicked out of this club for good reasons." I stopped pacing and looked at Sage who was sitting in the corner with her arms wrapped around herself. "Right? Tell me you don't actually believe anything he said."
"I don't know what to believe anymore." Her voice was quiet and defeated in a way that made my chest ache. "He had proof of the original agreement and he had information about Dad's murder that we didn't know about. The threatening letters he showed me were very similar to the ones I found in Dad's home office, which means he's telling the truth about at least some of it."
"Or he's telling you partial truths mixed with lies designed to make you trust him enough to consider his offer." I moved closer to her. "Sage, you can't seriously be thinking about marrying Dante."
"I'm thinking about all my options because in case you haven't noticed, I'm running out of time and choices." She looked up at me with tears in her eyes. "In less than three weeks, Diego expects me in Arizona for a wedding I don't want. Dante is offering me a way out of that contract but the price is marrying him instead. And you're offering me love and freedom but no actual plan for how to escape from either of them without getting everyone killed in the process."
The words hit me like a physical blow because she was right and we all knew it. I'd been so focused on keeping her safe and telling her that we'd find another way that I hadn't actually come up with a real plan for how to make that happen.
"So what are you saying? That you're actually considering Dante's offer?"
"I'm saying I don't know what the hell to do anymore and I need time to think without everyone pressuring me to make a decision right this second." She stood up and moved toward the door. "I need air and I need space and I need both of you to stop looking at me like I'm about to make the biggest mistake of my life."
"Sage, wait." Jaxon stood up but she was already walking out and slamming the door behind her.
I started to follow but Jaxon grabbed my arm and stopped me. "Let her go. She needs time to process everything without us hovering."
"I'm not hovering, I'm protecting her."
"No, you're smothering her and she's right that we've been pressuring her to make decisions without giving her space to actually think things through." He released my arm and sat back down. "Give her an hour to clear her head and then we'll regroup and figure out our next move."
"An hour is too long when Dante is out there probably planning his next move to manipulate her into accepting his offer."
"Then we need to move faster and come up with a better plan than just telling her to trust us and hope everything works out." Jaxon pulled out the list of names that Dante had given Sage. "Starting with figuring out if any of these five people actually killed my father."
I looked at the list and felt sick to my stomach because two of those names were us and another two were people I trusted with my life. Jaxon was my best friend and president. Marcus had been in the club since before I joined. Dr. Martinez was the only person I didn't trust on the list.
But one of them might have killed Vincent and I had no idea which one.
"I know you didn't kill your own dad, and I certainly didn't do it. So we need to investigate the other names in this list quietly without tipping anyone off that we suspect them." I sat down across from Jaxon. "Starting with their alibis for the night Vincent died and working backward from there."
"Agreed, but that's going to take time we don't have. Sage has three weeks before Diego's deadline and Dante gave her even less time to consider his offer." Jaxon ran his hands through his hair. "We're backed into a corner and I don't see a way out that doesn't end in bloodshed or Sage marrying someone she doesn't want to marry."
"Then we make a third option that nobody's expecting." I leaned forward. "We expose whoever killed Vincent and use that information as leverage against both Diego and Dante. If we can prove that someone in the Steel Wolves was working against us and that Vincent's death was an inside job, it might be enough to invalidate both contracts."
"How would that invalidate the contracts?" I asked him, completely at a loss of the point he was trying to make.