Chapter Thirty
RHYS
“She’s engaged. She’s taken! We’ve talked about this, and now she’s here. Do you have any idea who her fiancé is?” Chaos barks as I enter the room. I anticipated this, and I’m ready for it.
“I have Wes looking into him, but he’s been busy with our other bullshit!”
“Yeah, well, guess what, buddy? He took a break from our shit when he hit another dead end, and guess what he found when he started looking into him? Blake Mercer is the fucking accountant who’s the mastermind behind the bank accounts.
He’s the money man in between, funneling it all where it needs to go and making it more complicated to trace than the fucking whereabouts of the Holy Grail. He’s our fucking key to all of it.”
“He what?” I stutter, leaning forward, bracing my knuckles on the wooden table. Then it all comes crashing in like puzzle pieces clicking into place.
“All I really know is that Blake was making millions working for them and that he handled all the major accounts for their company and all the businesses they worked with. He never told me what type of business, and I honestly never asked. I knew he was an accountant, and I knew that he would have multiple companies he worked with, so it was pointless to ask.”
“He showed me two manila folders, the first one was photos of us—together. The shelter, the coffee shop, in my office, when I was concerned about your injury, us standing too close, us . . . kissing. He’s been having someone follow me.”
Fuck.
Chaos shoots me an evil, concerned glare. “You think he won’t come looking for her?”
“And what? We’ll suddenly turn away innocent people because we’re scared of retaliation?
That’s not who we are, and you fucking know it!
What’s the real reason here? ’Cause this sure as shit ain’t making any sense to me.
This is what we do. We did it with Kinsey, we did it with Saige, and now we have Bristol. ”
“Saige can take care of her fucking self.”
“And yet the entire club ran into battle for her. I ran into battle for her. Going off of nothing but her intel, without you by my side.”
“How do you know she’s not a fucking mole, Sin? How do you know he didn’t send her right into the lion’s den? What have you told her?”
“Don’t you dare question my fucking loyalty!
” I yell, not giving a shit about the respect of the hierarchy here.
“I just watched you bring a fucking serial killer into our home, and we all backed off the moment you told us to. We stood by her when we knew nothing about her, and then again offered to lay our lives down to protect her before she was even your old lady. We did the same for Kinsey! And you’re telling me that now that I’ve found my other half, that suddenly your trust issues are back? ”
“That’s not what I’m saying—”
“That’s what it fuckin’ sounds like. So put it out there right now, if you’re telling me she’s out, then so am I.”
“You know the only way out, Sin, and it sure is shit ain’t walking.”
“Then this sounds like a you problem. ’Cause I know you aren’t seriously questioning my loyalty. There’s no fucking way that the brother who’s seen me through thick and thin is actually talking to me like this right now.”
Chaos releases a long, pent-up breath, running his tattooed fingers through his long hair before taking a seat in his chair. I follow his lead, pulling my chair out and taking a seat, my spine stiff, still on edge, despite him decompressing some.
“Does she know what he does?” he asks, much calmer.
“We talked last night. She knows he’s in finance and works for some heavy players, but he keeps her in the dark, as far as I know.”
Chaos scoffs. “As far as you know.”
“Yeah, as far as I know,” I snap.
“What else?”
“He’s been verbally and emotionally abusive. She hasn’t admitted it yet, but I’m nearly positive he’s hit her. She tried to leave him, but he went berserk.”
“Abusers usually do when they’re losing control.”
“Yeah, but this asshole has been having her followed, pulled out folders of her around town, pictures of her with me, then pictures of just me. He knew about us, and she doesn’t know for how long. He threatened to have me killed if she left him, then threatened to burn her animal shelter down.”
Chaos’ face turns hot. “And you didn’t think to immediately come share this new development?”
“Would you have walked away from Saige in that moment? Or Kinsey? Or Morgan? Fuck no, I did what I needed to do, and that was to distract her and take her away from all the hurt. I held her all night so she could rest peacefully before all hell breaks loose. Don’t you dare tell me you’d do anything differently for your woman, ’cause you’d be a fucking liar if you did.
I just found out last night. We didn’t exactly talk about her fiancé.
As you can imagine, it’s a bit awkward, considering how I feel about her. ”
“Does she feel the same way about you? Or are you just blind to all of it?”
Without a question or a single hesitation, I know Bristol is in love with me.
She doesn’t ever need to speak the words, and I know them to be true.
The thing about true love is you can see it if you know where to look.
I feel it in every expression, every touch, in her smile and laugh, in the way she speaks to me, in the way her body visibly relaxes when I’m close.
Her body and heart recognized who I am to her way before her mind did.
It just needed a little bit to figure everything out with how complicated her situation was.
“She does.”
“And you’re sure she’s innocent?”
“I’d bet her life on it. Which is worth more to me than my own.”
“Okay. Then let’s do this. We need to bring him in.”
The part of me that is the vice president of this club, the Heathen side, knows this is the only option.
He’s ready to go get this motherfucker and do what needs to be done to get the information out of him.
But the human side, that side of me that loves Bristol more than anything in this life or the next, knows that she doesn’t want him to die. Even if he deserves it, in my eyes.
“No matter what happens, he can’t die.”
“The fuck? What do you mean, he can’t die? Is he a supervillain with immortality?"
“Bristol doesn’t like violence, even if he’s a deserving piece of shit who’s put his hands on her, degraded her, controlled, and stalked her.
She couldn’t live with herself knowing he died, and she’d carry the blame.
I’m going to protect my woman from everything, even if that means going against something that I don’t necessarily agree with.
He should die, and trust me, brother, there’s a huge part of me that would delight in ripping him apart limb by limb after we find out who he’s working for.
But I love her more than my own desires. So, he doesn’t fucking die.”
“I hear you, and that’s fine by me. He can join the other one, and they can live the rest of their lives together.”
“Wes gave you all the info? You know where to find him?”
“Yep. I’m sending Malice out to stalk him a bit first, then we’ll pick him up as soon as there’s an opening and bring him in for questioning.”
“I need to get Bristol somewhere safe first. Blake’s been having Bristol followed. If he knows she ran right to me, then he knows where she is, which means we’re all vulnerable here, especially Bristol.”
“We’ll go back on lockdown until it’s over. Saige will not babysit, and I won’t ask her to.”
“Don’t need her to, I know exactly where I’m taking her.”
Chaos’ eyes go wide for a moment, then understanding flashes through them.
“Tell your mom I said hi.”