“I thought I would find out if there was someone else in town she was sleeping with who might have a motive. Until I can find the men who were with her that day at the diner and find out if they could be responsible, then your ass is still the best suspect the jury will have.”
“They weren’t responsible for Sam’s death, so if that’s your only lead, you need to start searching somewhere else.”
“How can you know that for sure?” Diamond questioned.
“Because they’re not in town. If they were, the sheriff would have them locked up. Find someone else.”
“It’s not that easy,” Diamond snapped.
“If it was going to be easy, Viper wouldn’t have hired you.”
Shade almost smiled at the look Knox was giving Diamond. The lawyer was turning bright red in embarrassment.
“Let’s dance.” Knox didn’t give her a chance to refuse, taking her hand and leading her to the dance floor where he turned Diamond into his body, pulling her hips close.
Diamond instantly struggled to put some space between them.
“That’s like oil and water, isn’t it?” Mick asked as they both watched.
“More like dynamite and nitro. Put them together, and you have Armageddon.”
“Fuck, Shade, I didn’t know you could crack a joke,” Mick laughed.
“I wasn’t joking.” Shade watched Diamond and Knox dancing together. The same look Shade had seen on his face the day before was there again.
Knox had intended to pay Diamond back for not following Viper’s orders, but the brother was on a slippery slope, not realizing his own danger.
Bliss was grinding against Rider while Evie danced with Cash. Stori and Raci were dancing together, giving Knox fuck-me looks over Diamond’s shoulder. When the music ended, Knox let her leave the dance floor, placing her back on the stool.
“I need to be going.” Diamond placed her empty beer bottle on the bar top.
Knox moved closer to her side. “Want another beer? I can give you a ride home.”
Shade rolled his eyes at Mick as they made fun of his attempted seduction. That woman needed more than a fuck-me stare.
“No, thanks. I’ve had enough.”
When she would have jumped down from the stool, Knox leaned forward, placing his hand between her thighs. The lawyer froze in place.
Shade subtly moved closer to Knox’s back, unable to see what the brother was doing. Knox gave him a warning glare over his shoulder, and Shade placed his hands in the air. Backing away an inch, he moved so he could watch them in the mirror behind the bar.
“I think you should stay and party with us. We can show you a good time.”
Shade thought she seemed to already be having a good time by the way her body was trembling.
Knox flashed the metal ball on his tongue, and the sight must have scared the shit out of her because she jerked his hands away from her thighs
“If you don’t move your hand, I’m going to drop your case and keep the half million Viper owes me without giving a damn that your ass will be sitting in jail for a crime you didn’t commit.”
Knox was smart enough to remove his hand, standing back up straight to lean against the bar. He picked up his beer and took another drink.
“How do you know I didn’t kill Sam?”
Rider came to stand by Diamond’s side, motioning to Mick for a drink. When Mick gave him his beer, Rider remained, obviously listening to their conversation. The brother needed to learn to be more subtle.
Shade shook his head. Diamond thought Rider was just eavesdropping, but Rider was really feeling out the situation with Diamond. The two brothers loved breaking new women in together. Shade could have told Rider he was shit out of luck, though.
“I drove through the neighborhood you crashed your bike in before I came here today. It’s a shortcut to the road that leads out here then to the clubhouse, so I know why you were on the road.”
“So I was taking a shortcut? What the fuck does that have to do with me killing Sam?”
“I couldn’t understand how you wrecked your bike on such a little road with barely any traffic. I saw by the skid marks you obviously crashed to avoid hitting something.”
Knox shrugged. “So, a car pulled out in front of me.”
“Nope. There was no parking where you wrecked, and it’s a one-lane road. As I sat, trying to think how such an experienced rider had wrecked, I saw several interesting things.”
Knox stiffened, throwing Rider a dirty look. “Don’t you have something better to do?”
“Not right now. This sounds too good to miss. You never did tell me how you busted up your bike.”
“Fuck off,” Knox said, taking a drink of his beer while glaring at Diamond.
Rider’s grin widened as he took a seat on the stool next to her. Shade was suppressing his own grin, interested to know what had gotten Knox so uncomfortable.
“I saw a beautiful neighborhood filled with older homes that had an abundance of trees. The yards also had several squirrels. I think you swerved to miss a squirrel. You couldn’t kill Sam if you wrecked your bike to prevent killing a squirrel.”
“I didn’t wreck my bike to keep from hitting a fucking squirrel.”
Shade choked on his drink because Knox’s red face showed he was lying.