Chapter 17 #2
Then she got up and walked out of the room. I turned in the seat, wondering what the fuck she was doing, but she came back carrying a taped-up bag. She set it down on the table between us.
“Waverley didn’t want me to do anything,” she said, taking her seat again. “Not just about keeping the truth from everyone, but to that human shit stain of a boy.”
The venom in her voice could rival my own when thinking about Reinhart.
“A couple of weeks after she left, when I knew for sure she would not come back, I went to find him. I followed the little bastard to a house he had taken one of the girls from school too. She was drunk. I told her to go wait in my car while I dealt with him.” She was staring past me, a sneer on his face as she recalled the night.
“He was a cocky little shit until I pulled a gun on him.”
I raised my brows but shouldn’t be surprised by anything the old ladies got up to, especially when it came to protecting the club.
“I knew he had pictures of you and Warren. It didn’t matter he handed them over to Waverley that night.
Two pictures wouldn’t be all he had. I terrorized the little fucker until he handed over the actual camera.
He swore everything was on the memory card in there, told me to destroy it.
Believed him too. He almost pissed himself when I put the gun to his head. ”
My gaze went back to the bag on the table. “Did you delete them?” That would have been what made the most sense, getting rid of the evidence against us. Even if we could have talked our way out of it with the police officers, it was best it never existed.
“He showed me the photographs he’d shown Waverley. He had more of you and War and Connor too. But it wasn’t anything King couldn’t manage. Pissed me off he’d manipulated Waverley with something so insignificant.”
My eyes were still on the camera.
“I only looked at the pictures he showed me. I didn’t know how to delete that shit, so I figured I’d just get rid of the whole thing, but for whatever reason, I forgot about it. Until Waverley came and told me what happened tonight.”
This wasn’t making sense. Why was it important? As long as she got the evidence off Reinhart, that was all that mattered. My eyes snapped up to hers, her mouth pinched, her eyes full of loathing.
“What is on that camera, Rosa?”
“I didn’t like it when he started coming around the club, working with King, building those houses, but I thought it was best I avoided him. I still had to uphold that promise and if I’d demanded King not work with the guy, he’d want to know why.”
“What is on the camera, Rosa?” I repeated through gritted teeth.
She pushed it over to me. “I only looked tonight. If I’d known…” she whispered and looked away, her eyes troubled. This was causing a lot of conflict for her.
I grabbed the package and looked in at the camera. It was a digital SLR with a long lens, expensive looking. The kind a pro photographer would use.
“I’m not proud of not looking at it sooner.
But despite that, it’s a good thing I held on to it.
Thinking back on it, he’d been adamant that I destroy it.
Back then I thought he was just scared, but now I know he was worried I’d look through it.
It will help take that fucker down. I charged up the battery, so there should be enough to see what you need to. ”
I turned the camera on and fiddled with the settings before the screen on the back showed a menu. Rosa told me to select the memory card to view it. I opened the pictures and started scrolling. My mouth dropped open, and I pushed to my feet, heart pounding as my mind raced.
“Fucking Christ, Rosa,” I managed to get out, drawing my eyes from the images. “Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner instead of sitting here talking about me and Wave?”
“What is on that camera can be dealt with.” There were tears in her eyes now, but she was angry, furious. “And you will lose focus on what is important. Waverley. She is important. And you need to remember what she wants, and that this is about her.”
I glanced at the camera again, then shoved it into the bag. I turned away.
“He’s in meetings with my daughter all the time, Hudson. Don’t think for a second I was diminishing what was on that camera. I just needed to be sure.”
“Sure of what?” I almost didn’t want to ask.
“That you will put her first.”
“I’ll always put her first,” I said, and I meant it.
I asked no more questions. I headed out of the house, the camera clutched in my hands.
Once I got to the clubhouse, I slammed through the door, not disturbing the few brothers that were still partying in the slightest. In fact, a drunken cheer went up when people saw me, but I didn’t stop to talk.
I headed straight to the security room with the camera.
Kansas wasn’t around. Fuck knows where he would be, in a pile of vomit, or balls deep in a club girl.
The security room had top of the line equipment.
It wasn’t hard to find what I needed. Pulling out the memory card, I loaded it up into a card reader and plugged it into one of the laptops.
I watched as the folders appeared on the screen, then called War.
I was so fucking angry I could barely contain the rage as I paced, waiting for him to answer.
I got what Rosa did. I understood her need to ensure Waverley was the priority, but this needed to be handled tonight.
“What’s going on?”
I looked over my shoulder at Omen as the phone continued to ring in my ear, then cut off. I hadn’t realised he’d followed me in. “Nothing. Go back to the party.”
“Doesn’t look like nothing.” Omen stared at me.
“Yeah, well, does it look like I want to chat about it with you?” I snapped.
His jaw tensed and for a second he was going to get into it with me, but he thought better of it and left. I dialled War again. I could do without having to find him, but I would.
“What the fuck?” War’s scratchy voice finally answered. “Do you know what time it is?”
“You a fucking grandma?” I snapped. “Get to the security room, now,” I snarled, looking back at the screen, at the five folders.
“What’s happened now?” War sighed heavily.
“Not talking over the phone. Just get down here.”
“I’m at Connor’s.”
“Fuck,” I muttered. Then I got even more pissed. “Why are you off the damn compound?”
“I don’t need to answer about shit to you, Hudson.”
I could hear rustling and the sound of a door shutting as he left the bedroom. I felt bad about interrupting. Connor had an episode tonight, but this was too important to worry about their fight.
“With all this shit going down with the Kingsmen? You shouldn’t be out there.”
“Thanks for the concern, but I can look after myself. Now, what the fuck is going on?”
We had secure phones. It was something we set up a long time ago, and we were also clever about what we discussed over the phone, just in case.
“Our problem, from tonight, I’ve found something.”
“What?” War asked, getting the urgency in my voice.
“Those pictures he had. There’s more.”
“The same kind?”
“No,” I gritted my teeth again. “Women.”
“Her?” he said, quietly but no less deadly. He meant Waverley. I didn’t know yet. If she was in there, no one would fucking stop me. Not even King. I would kill Andrew Reinhart and I wouldn’t care what happened after.
“Not from what I’ve seen so far,” I answered tightly.
“Give me twenty,” he said and hung up. Connor’s place wasn’t that far from the compound. I didn’t like the thought of War heading back here on his own, but the fucker had gone without telling anyone. He’d be in his truck at least. Connor didn’t ride on the back of War’s bike.
I glanced at my phone screen before I locked it.
It was just before five am. This was turning into the longest night of my goddamn life.
After pacing for a while, I dropped into a seat and glared at the folders.
There was a knock at the door, which I’d closed after kicking Omen out.
It wasn’t War, I’d been watching the gate cameras, and he wasn’t back yet. It opened and Ballistic walked in.
“Rosa sent me. She’s upset. What’s going on?”
Waverley wanted to keep everything quiet, and I could do that.
He didn’t need to know this started with her, but I wasn’t convinced Rosa hadn’t told him, despite telling me she’d been loyal to Wave.
When Ballistic looked at the camera, the laptop, then back to me, I knew I was right.
He grabbed a chair and wheeled it over, sitting down next to me.
I glanced up and saw a truck pulling in on the cameras.
“War?” Ballistic asked, and I nodded. “We’ll wait.”
I suddenly felt exhausted. The adrenalin of the night’s events was finally waning. And the night was far from over. War came in looking dishevelled and as tired as I felt. Ballistic gave him a quick look but didn’t comment.
“Ok, what have you got?” he asked.
“A camera. There was a memory card.”
I explained what Rosa told me. I figured I could trust Ballistic, so held nothing back. I told them about the couple of pictures I’d already looked at.
“Rosa’s had it all this time?” War asked, hands anchored at his hips.
“She didn’t know what was on it,” Ballistic said, giving War a look that would make lesser men’s balls shrivel. “And at this point, I’d say it was a good job she did.”
War nodded, letting him know he wasn’t pissed at Rosa.
“Open it.”
The pictures were of women and girls, some I recognised from school, in what looked like a hotel room, a few of them were inside a car.
In some, they were handcuffed to the bed or tied up in the back seat.
All of them looked out of it. There were things done to them, things which they were unaware of happening.
As I clicked through them, it was making my stomach turn increasingly.
You couldn’t see who was conducting the assaults, just the occasional bare arm, a hand, the edge of a knee.