Chapter 17 – Betsy
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
BETSY
It felt weird being driven and not riding my bike to the Sanctuary. As we turn into the parking lot, Archer puts the truck in park, but as he reaches for the door handle to jump out, I place my hand on his arm.
“Wait.”
He twists back to face me. “What is it?” he asks.
“There are things that I can’t tell you, and please don’t ask me to, because I won’t. My loyalty is to them and the club,” I declare.
He smirks. “You’re in a proper biker club,” he states. It’s not a question. “I fucking knew it.”
“I just need you to be understanding,” I say, pleading with my eyes.
His gaze softens slightly. “I will be; calm down. It will all be fine,” he assures me before getting out of the truck.
I wish I had the same faith as him that it will be okay, but truthfully, I know Eden would have done a background check on him.
I just hope he understands their prying into his life and doesn’t take it as a personal attack.
Walking inside, the place is a hive of activity now with the other women now joined. Before it would only be us. “Well, well, well,” Clare says, grinning as she walks up to us, eyeing Archer up with appreciation. “You go away with an injured shoulder and come back with a brand new man.”
I roll my eyes. “It’s not like that.”
“Oh, it’s very much like that,” Archer says, pulling me into his side.
“Nice.” Clare grins.
“Kitchen!” Mor yells. “Including lover boy,” she adds before walking off.
“Okay,” I sigh, leading Archer into our meeting room. He closes the door behind us, and Mor, Nyx, and Eden are all sitting around the table waiting. “Where’s Bernie?” I ask.
“She will be with us in a minute. She’s getting drinks and snacks.” Eden smirks.
I look down at the table and see a file in front of her. I give her a look, and she simply nods. Okay, here goes nothing. I take a seat, and as Archer sits next to me, Eden opens the file.
“Before we start, I need you to sign this.” She slides the NDA and a pen across to him. Archer looks over it and signs, no questions asked. I smile, knowing that’s the first test passed. Mor and Eden would have been watching for his reaction to that.
“I come baring coffee and cake!” Bernie sings, entering the room with a trolly.
“When did we get a catering trolly?” I ask.
“Well, as there are now more of us, and we are always growing, I figured I need a way to bring in more food at one time, or I will be going back and forth all the time,” she rambles as she places the coffee and cakes on the table.
“So, have you told him yet?” Bernie asks, taking a bite out of her cake.
“No,” I sigh.
“Told me what?” Archer asks, looking at each of us.
Eden sighs and opens the file. “We are a club; a biker club. We are more than enthusiasts, so when someone new comes into any of our lives, no matter how long they are in it for, we run a full background check on them,” she explains.
She lifts a piece of paper from the file and places it down in front of Archer.
I don’t look, already knowing what it is.
Archer’s mug shot.
I look at him, watching for his reaction. His jaw tenses as he picks up the picture.
“So, you’ve found my record.” He shrugs.
“You want to give us your side of the story?” she asks.
This I’m intrigued with, because that’s something that the police report doesn’t show you.
He exhales a slow breath. “My sister, Lucy, was at that party. I went to find her and bring her home. I found her passed out fucking cold. She had been drugged, fucking roofied, and the guy who she was dating had her fucking skirt up. I did what any brother would do. I threw him out of the second-floor window. The fucker survived, but he is paralysed now,” he says coldly with a shrug.
“It says you were arrested for assault,” I state.
“Pfft. I started a fight straight after downstairs so I wouldn’t be accused of what I did. Perfect witness, if you’re fighting somewhere else.” He shrugs, and my feelings for him swell. I assumed he was just some frat boy starting a fight and being a dick.
“Clever. Have you got any way of proving that?” Mor presses, folding her arms across her chest. I knew she would be the one for him to get past. Mor is the most cynical of us all. She trusts no man. Well, except Nyx.
“Google Felix Larson. That’s him. There will be a news article about his tragic fall, and what a shame it is that his football career has come to a sudden end. Doesn’t mention that the fucker can even procreate since his fall. I did the world a favour,” he brags.
Eden types away, then slides her tablet to Mor, where she reads over it and nods. “Fair enough.” She nods, not praising him or giving him any credit.
“So, you dropped out of that college,” Eden reads.
“Got kicked out for being arrested at the party,” he clarifies. “I was not welcome to stay there.” It was easier for them to do a sweep of a lot of us.
“So, that’s why you’re a more mature student at twenty-nine,” Eden continues.
“I also changed my major to law, as he may have lost the fucking use of his legs, but he never saw legal justice. I want to make sure that no fucker gets away with shit like that again,” he states
“How did you get into this college with your record?” Mor presses.
“The Dean owed me a favour.” He shrugs.
“So, you’re now studying criminal law,” Mor adds.
“I qualify at the end of the semester. Then I will be a junior lawyer,” he adds.
“Right, so your duty is to uphold the law. Correct?” Eden presses.
He scans the room. “Depends on what laws are being bent to a person’s advantage.”
“Well, what about breaking laws for justice?” Nyx asks.
“Well, clearly, I’m all for them. I paralysed a guy for fuck’s sake.” He snorts.
“We make men pay for what they do to women. No matter what the means,” I state, interrupting him.
His green eyes look over my face. “We all seek justice in any way we can. I see nothing wrong with that,” he says, his gaze never leaving mine.
“How are you about killing them?” Mor blurts out, pushing him, testing his reaction.
“I can think of a couple of men I would like to kill for what they’ve done,” he states honestly, his gaze never leaving mine.
“Excellent.” Eden presses pause on her recording device. “Now we have your full confession and the NDA. Welcome to the club.” Eden grins.
“You know that you admitted you also do things by any means necessary,” Archer points out with a smirk.
“Oh, we know, but thankfully, we have someone that is pretty good at tampering with things to make it look like it’s your full confession.” Eden winks at me.
Archer turns his head to look at me, a smile playing on his lips. “Brains and beauty,” he murmurs, just low enough so I can hear him. “You ladies are ruthless. I will give you that.” Archer smirks.
“We have a full background check on you. I know where your parents live, your sister, aunts, uncles... Hell, we even know who your dentist is, and that’s all thanks to Betsy,” Mor points out.
“You knew all this time?” he asks.
I wince. “Yeah, sorry.”
He rubs his hand over his face. “Damn.” He pauses. “I guess you know all there is to know about me then.”
“Not everything,” I add.
He places a kiss on my temple. “I get it,” he assures me, and I visibly sag with relief. I reach for his hand and thread my fingers through his, feeling his thumb stroking back and forth over the back of my hand.
“Lovely, now that’s over, you can leave and go wait outside in the bar. We have club business to see to,” Mor orders coldly.
I raise my brow at her, warning her that her tone is uncalled for. She rolls her eyes.
“Sorry. Can you please go and wait out there while we talk club business?” She forces a smile on her lips, and I almost laugh at her forced niceness.
“Unless you’re fucking and have declared your undying love for her and your eternal loyalty, then I’m afraid you’ll have to wait in the bar,” Eden adds.
My cheeks heat with embarrassment. We’ve not even had foreplay.
Archer stands, releasing my hand. “Don’t sweat about it. Give me a week,” he says over his shoulder as he walks out.
My jaw drops. Does he feel that strongly about me already? We’ve not even given what we are doing an official name or declared that we are exclusive or anything.
“He has it bad,” Bernie says, with a grin on her face. “It’s nice to see you living a little, rather than you having your face pressed up to a computer screen.”
“Okay, after this debrief, Mor and I want a full in-depth chat alone,” Eden adds.
“What is the latest?” I ask. They already know what I’ve found. Not that I’ve done a lot since the explosion, and now that she knows we are onto her, she’s probably gone underground.
“We sent a lap dog to sit outside her place to watch and wait for her to return. She would have wanted to see the damage,” Mor says, tapping her long fingernail on the table.
“And did she?” I ask, feeling hopeful.
“She did.” Eden grins, knowing how much of a ball ache it would be trying to hunt her down if we didn’t have that. I would have spent hours and hours hacking in and searching CCTV footage.
“She is staying at the Pot Berry B it just hurts. That’s all. It’s not like it’s fallen off,” I say, wiggling my arm about while ignoring the discomfort it causes me.
Eden smirks, seeing through my bullshit. “We are going to hit her tonight. You are to stay back and keep watch on the security cameras. We need you to hack into them and pinpoint where she is, because you know she’s going to run,” Mor instructs me.