“I do,” Drew answered calmly.
“Well, I might have the first bit of info for you.”
Drew’s brows rose slowly. “I’m real interested to hear it.”
Rubin sighed heavily, the nerves and tension rolling off his every breath. The kid was about to betray his father. A father he didn’t get along with, sure, but a betrayal of blood was still a betrayal of blood, no matter who that blood belonged to.
“My dad is, apparently, arranging a surprise public speech tomorrow in the center of Babylon.”
“What for?” Drew frowned.
Papers were being shuffled, and pages turned. Whatever Rubin was doing, he was doing it away from prying eyes, and it was something that could potentially get him in trouble.
“A lot of this stuff is in some kind of encrypted code, I’m sure of it, but I’ve heard some things over the years. Things I probably shouldn’t have heard. If I’ve understood this correctly, he’s publicly announcing his plans to agree to the sale of some land in the next two years. Land that’s previously been protected or owned by someone or something else.” Another round of papers being shuffled before Rubin’s voice came even closer to the speaker. “He’s planning on only a few people being there. People who already know about the sale so there won’t be many there to protest—if any at all.”
“Doesn’t he have to go through some kind of public notice period for that shit? Weeks? Months?”
“You’re saying that like you think he follows the rules.”
“Good point.” Drew groaned, shuffling back and sitting upright, effectively forcing me to sit back and just look at him.
“I guess he thinks he can just put it out there once and then sweep it under the carpet?” Rubin offered, making his suggestion sound like a question. He was seeking approval of some sort from Drew, the reverence clear in his voice even when he was panicked.
“If he’s looking to do that, it means that land is worth a shit load of money to someone. Probably him.”
“Maybe.”
“You any idea of where this land is?”
Rubin took a moment until he finally hissed with a little victory. “Shit, yeah. Here… there’s a line here that mentions the land around the junction of southwest county road thirty-one fifty, and southwest county road thirty-one sixty.”
Drew’s face fell instantly, all the color draining away as he held my gaze and tightened his hand against me, his fingers digging into my flesh.
“Rubin?” he breathed.
“Yeah?”
“Repeat that location for me.”
“The land around the junction of southwest county road thirty-one fifty, and southwest county road thirty-one sixty.”
For a moment, I was at a complete blank. I wasn’t sure why all the color had drained from Drew’s face. I couldn’t understand the sudden violence that had wiped away the man who’d just looked at me like I was the only thing in the world. It was only the second time Rubin had said the cross junction that everything clicked into place. I looked out over the field we were sitting in the middle of, and I watched a pickup roll down thirty-one sixty in the distance before turning onto thirty-one fifty and begin heading toward us.
The junction was here.
Pete’s tree was where they planned to build whatever monstrosity they wanted to build.
And this was another strike of the sword in the battle we hadn’t even realized we were a part of until it was too late.
Chapter Thirty-Four
DREW
Iwas getting goddamn sick and tired of every nice moment I tried to create being ruined by some fucker who had no clue how to stop themselves from pissing me off.
Owen was a rat, the Mayor was corrupt, and the one thing I held close to my heart, besides Ayda and the club, was about to be ripped out from right under me so they could… what? Turn those green fields I loved so much into more gray asphalt that held no meaning.
Over my dead body.