Chapter Nineteen
“Prez says you have something I need to see,” Smokey said as he stepped into the small room Hawkeye and Pike used as a security office.
It wasn’t an inaccurate name, but it was an incomplete one.
They did use the room to monitor the cameras the club had placed around the perimeter and strategically around the rest of the compound.
But they also used it as the command center.
Smokey thought that was a more appropriate name for the room, but he’d been outvoted.
“Well, not so much see as hear,” Hawkeye said without looking up from his computer screen. “Have a seat.” He motioned to a dilapidated sofa along one wall.
Smokey glanced at the sofa and went to sit, moving the baby monitor receiver Rene had brought him to hang off his front pocket instead of being shoved in his ass pocket. How bad was it if they wanted him sitting to tell him what was up.
“First. I got a response back from Fletch.”
“What did he say?” Smokey’s stomach churned.
“He said with the parties involved, we need to do everything through the courts, the legal way. To do it any other way would compromise your case.”
Smokey clenched his teeth. The Werners had connections. Possibly more than the Fallen Angels had. This could go wrong very easily.
“That’s not as bad as it sounds. We’ve got a couple aces up our sleeves. However, you’re going to have to jump through a few hoops to get it taken care of. I’ve scheduled an appointment for you at a clinic in town tomorrow for a paternity test.”
Smokey started to protest, to say that he didn’t need a test to tell him Carter was his but Pike spoke up.
“It’s not for you. It’s for the courts. A blood test from a reputable lab will make it a thousand times easier to revoke his parental rights and have you established as Carter’s father.”
“All right, send me the information and we’ll be there, what else?”
“Fletch is working on getting the paperwork ready. He says he’ll have it ready by morning, then if we can get the fucker to sign it, we can have it filed.
Then we have to wait for a judge to sign off.
That could be anywhere from a few days to a few months.
Once we have things filed, we can reach out to our contacts in the courthouse to get it pushed through but it has to be filed first.”
“Okay.” Smokey knew all of this would need to be relayed to Tania but she’d had a long day and he wasn’t going to add to it. Tomorrow will be soon enough to add more to her shoulders.
“As for the other thing,” Hawkeye spoke, turning in his gaming chair to face Smokey. “It’s big but because of everything else, we’re limited in what we can do, at least right now.”
“What do you mean?” Smokey scowled at the club’s hacker.
Hawkeye pressed his lips together for a moment as if he was trying to find the words to say whatever he needed to tell Smokey.
“I’ve been looking into your woman’s husband since you called.
After the incident at the house this afternoon, I expanded that to be looking at his whole family.
That’s expanded some as we unearthed things people thought they’d hidden.
This is bigger than we thought.” Hawkeye’s gaze flicked from Smokey to Raven and back again.
“What do you mean?” the president asked.
“It looks like a few of the Demons survived the explosion,” Pike said.
“What do you mean?” Raven demanded, looking back and forth between Hawkeye and Pike. “I was sure we got them all!”
“I was too, and I was foolish to stop keeping an eye out for them.” Hawkeye shook his head. “But there’s no point in wishes and what-ifs. We know they’re out there now, so we can address them now.” He turned back to his computer.
“How many and what do we know?” Raven opened a door and pulled a folding chair from a closet. He opened it and sat, as if he wanted to be prepared for whatever they told him.
“Two for sure, three more possible but we’re still looking. The one that’s most relevant now is Books,” Pike said, glancing in Smokey’s direction as if it was relevant to what was going on with him and Tania.
“Relevant how?”
“It looks like the Werners have a gambling problem,” Hawkeye said.
“All of them?” Raven interrupted.
“That’s not completely clear yet, but from what I can tell the father and son for sure, not sure about the mother yet,” Pike said.
“Okay. I don’t see why that matters,” Smokey watched all three men, not sure who would answer or they might say.
Hawkeye spun around and faced him again.
“What do you know about your woman and why she married Werner?”
“She said her father picked him out for her.”
“I get that, but why would she agree?”
Smokey looked up at the ceiling. He took a deep breath and held it for several seconds before speaking.
“Tania’s homelife wasn’t something that was ever discussed when we were growing up.
I knew her, we spent a lot of time together, but most of it was either at school or away from either family’s home.
What time I did spend around her parents, mine were always there too.
” He tried to figure out how to say what he knew without implying that there was more.
“When I found her this morning, I asked why she didn’t go to her parents.
She said her dad would tell her she’d made vows and that her mother would try to talk her into going back.
” He shook his head. “I never saw any abuse in their household but thinking back at how her mother behaved when we were kids, hell, even the way Tania acted around her dad, I think there may have been some. Verbal and emotional, if not physical. It was like she was afraid to act out or even say anything her father didn’t agree with.
I’m suspecting if there was more to it than just her father pressuring her to marry him, then she may not even know about it.
We can ask her when she’s done with the girls. ”
“No need,” Pike said. “If that’s true, then we already know more than she may.”
“What do you mean?” Smokey asked.
“We’ll ask what she knows later but here’s what we know. She signed a prenup—”
Pike cleared his throat, then spoke. “Actually, they both did, just to be technical.”
Hawkeye rolled his eyes but continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted.
“But the prenup wasn’t what you probably think.
” He paused, reached for a legal pad from the desk behind him and brought it around.
“Did you know your woman inherited three million dollars upon her marriage? And if she and Werner divorce, he gets a flat payment of one hundred thousand dollars per year they were married.”
“What?” Smokey’s eyes went wide. He had no clue the Bussard’s had that kind of money, much less that Tania would get any of it. Where had the money come from? He blinked several times as he tried to process what he’d been told.
“It’s complicated. Most of the bulk of her inheritance is tied up and will take some time to get liquid, but from what I can tell, she may not even know about it. There have been small withdrawals since the wedding last year but they’re not going to her account.”
“What do you mean?”
“The withdrawals are going into her parents’ accounts,” Pike put in.
“What happens to the money after that?” Raven asked.
“That’s where it gets interesting,” Hawkeye looked down at the paper in his hand.
“It appears that roughly seventy five percent of what’s been pulled from the inheritance have been sent to the Werners, half to each the father and the son.
From there, they send different amounts to Books.
According to his records, they’re keeping up with the interest, but only making small dents in their debts. ”
“Holy crap, how much do they owe?” Raven asked.
“You don’t want to know,” Pike said without turning around. “The good news is they’ve siphoned off less than ten percent of her inheritance, or at least this installment of it.”
“Installment? There’s more?” Smokey shook his head, having a hard time processing that kind of money and that there was more to come.
“There’s more, some to be paid out to her at certain milestones and dates.
And that’s not all. There was also a provision for any children she might have.
When they reach a year old, if they’ve survived, a fund is created for them and certain amounts are deposited on milestones, much like with your woman. ”
Smokey shook his head, overwhelmed by the news.
“As nice as that is to hear, tell us why it matters now,” Raven spoke up. Smokey didn’t know if he saw that Smokey was reeling and stepped up or if he was tired of hearing about what didn’t matter to the problems they were facing now. He was glad there was someone there to keep them on target.
“It matters because it looks like the Bussards were giving the Werners the money as some kind of dowry, as outdated as that might be,” Hawkeye said, turning to look at the prez for a moment before turning back to Smokey.
“There has to be some reason, but I haven’t found it yet.
It may not be somewhere I can find online but I’m still looking.
If it’s out there, I’ll find it but in the meantime, we need to see what Tania knew about the trust, if she knew anything about the trust and whatever deal there is between her parents and the Werners. ”
“I’m also finding some evidence of the husband’s domestic history.
He was never married but he’s got a history of several charges of domestic abuse.
They were all dropped but we all know that’s not hard if you know the right people.
I’m also finding at least one record of a woman he’d recently been linked to disappearing, but I’m still looking into that one,” Hawkey continued.
“So, Tania wasn’t the only one he beat the shit out of,” Smokey said.
“Unfortunately not. And if things continue the way they have, she likely won’t be the last. But that’s not something we can deal with here and now.” Pike put in.
Smokey nodded. “We need to make sure she’s free first. That everything is done legally and through the courts. Then we can look at making sure he doesn’t hurt anyone else. But getting Tania and my son free of that piece of shit is my priority right now.”
“Good to know,” Hawkeye said with a nod.
“Is there anything else I need to know?” Smokey asked.
“Fletch says he’ll have the papers ready to be signed by morning. We can get the fucker to sign them, then file them with the courts tomorrow. Your appointment at the clinic is at nine. I’ll let you know as soon as I get the paperwork from Fletch and get it printed out.”
“Shit, that’s fast. He doesn’t need to work all night on it,” Smokey said.
“I told him that. He said he was grateful for something to do. Spider’s having a rough time of it and Fletch was looking for something to keep his mind occupied.”
“Do we need to have the DNA results back before we file for the divorce?”
“I don’t think so, but I’ll double check with Fletch and we’ll do whatever he thinks best, assuming your woman has no objections.”’
Smokey nodded. He’d let her make the choice on how she handled the divorce, but once that was done? The Angels would find a way to eliminate him. Shit like what he did to women didn’t get to happen in Craven’s Creek. The Angels saw to it.