2. Naomi
NAOMI
She tried not to fidget or, worse, bolt out of the room.
There had to be at least twenty men in this room watching her expectantly.
Sure, most of them had kind smiles and easy expressions on their faces, but the one with a patch on his cut who called himself Rogue, and another whose name was Ice, looked positively murderous.
Were they angry she was there? Glitch and Taz told her they needed her to come in and talk to him. They also said Asher could be in there too. Were they lying?
Fuck, she knew this was a mistake.
“Naomi, do you feel up to telling us what you can?” the man beside her, Ink, asked. He was handsome, with short dark-brown hair slicked back, and covered in tattoos that extended just below his jawline. His eyes were a bright blue, and warm and friendly when he looked at her.
But she knew well how people could hide their true lives and intentions beneath the surface without so much as a hint until it was too late.
When she remained silent, unsure if she could even force herself to speak, he didn’t push her.
No one rushed her, which eased some of her anxiety, but not by much. She didn’t know these men, barely knew the ones who brought her here, but the agents said she could trust them. No one here was part of the cartel or connected to it, but could they prove that?
She had a list of the names in her head, along with some written down that no one knew about, but that didn’t mean she knew everyone. The cartel had contacts everywhere, even in the most unexpected places.
“Naomi,” Glitch murmured, hand settling on her shoulder. “You’re safe here, I promise. It’s easier to tell everyone at once, or we wouldn’t make you face everyone like this. Just know that Karissa and I can kill every single one of them if they do anything to upset you.”
Naomi’s eyes widened and she tensed up. How could Glitch say that and not expect retaliation? She clutched Asher tighter to her as her heartbeat sped up.
The men glanced at each other, but none of them looked angry. In fact, the ones at the end of the table grinned, and the others just rolled their eyes.
Wait, they’re not angry? Naomi stared at them all.
“Don’t worry, she threatens that almost weekly at this point,” Ink said, with a chuckle. “And she and Karissa can definitely do it. Though, if anything, they’ll probably aim at Taz first because he’s the biggest pain in the ass to them. Well, to all of us.”
“I am not, don’t listen to them, darlin’.
I’m fuc—freaking delightful.” Taz huffed, looking at Asher.
Naomi gave him a small tilt of her head, appreciating his attempt at curbing his language in front of her toddler who absorbed information like a sponge, but dropped her gaze quickly when he gave her a bright smile, the blond in his beard giving him an almost friendly look.
Out of everyone, he was the only one who had been able to relax her.
It was almost like he sensed that she needed some reassurance.
Or maybe it was because he gave Asher a small teddy bear and helped him relax.
He even let Taz hold his hand, which was a small victory, considering how scared her son was of anyone other than her.
She probably should be more careful, but she was so tired.
Running, fear, pain—it was too much to bear after so many years.
“Naomi.”
She turned at her name, and her gaze connected with the brilliant blue of Rogue’s. His expression was no longer murderous, but there was still no doubting the tension rolling from him. Staring at the ground, she tried to calm her trembling, but it was a losing battle.
“Look at me, Naomi, please.”
Her eyes lifted to his, but she only briefly held his gaze before looking over his shoulder.
“None of us will hurt you or your son. My girls, they’ve been through a hell of a lot, just like the other women here.
We follow a code. Women and children always.
Being under our protection means you and your son are included.
If you don’t tell us what we need to know, we go in blind.
So we need you to tell us what you know and anything important. Got it?”
She blinked, eyes moving back to his. Should she dare trust him?
“See, I knew he was listening to those parenting books I put on his bench.” Ink grinned. A few of the men chuckled, and some of the intensity eased.
Rogue shot Ink a warning glare, but Naomi sensed Ink wasn’t planning to comply.
“What do you want to know?” she asked, her voice a little stronger. If this was going to work, she had to give them something. Even if it made her stomach knot and her brain scream at her to run.
“What was your job for the cartel, in as much detail as you can give us?” Rogue prompted. “We’ll go from there.”
She nodded. Speaking facts made things easier for her.
“I worked for the cartel as their recorder. My job was to record every account, all money, contracts, and agreements—everything. If the cartel was involved, it was my responsibility to ensure the real numbers were recorded, while fudging the figures they wanted out there for others to see. They knew rats and Feds were hoping to get as much as they could to take them down, so they kept the true amounts secret.”
“You have access to all their systems, then?” another man asked. His cut named him Fury, and his dark gaze was kind, but his expression intense.
She nodded. “Yes.” Pain lanced through her, but she forced herself to push on.
Facts. Give them the facts. “My father realized when I was young that I was very good at remembering things and math in general. When my IQ and memory were tested and showed to be so high, he kept giving me increasingly difficult tasks to see just how far I could go. I thought, at the time, he was trying to figure out how to use it to get me into some of the best school programs in the country, so I went along with it. Then I turned eighteen and he told me he had secured me a job that would pay handsomely.”
“He left out the part where you weren’t the one getting paid, I take it?” Razor, the biker behind Karissa, asked.
She nodded. “I trusted my father, so I never questioned him. Until I was brought in front of Diego Lopez and told what I was expected to do.” She swallowed hard, recalling her confusion and fear.
Then the anger. “Diego was very clear that I had no choice. He counted out the bills in front of my father before handing them to him. Five million for ten years of my service, with another stipend paid to him every month that I kept them from any trouble. I tried to fight, tried to run, but they beat me, and my father never stepped in. I was put in a cell, given sheets of paper, and told to get to work. I was terrified, so I did. That’s where I stayed for the past ten years, until they finally got complacent enough for me to run. ”
“And when you ran, what did you take with you?” Savage, the man at the head of the table, asked.
His patch read President, so she knew he was in charge even though she had little knowledge about MCs.
Still, it wasn’t hard for her to see she didn’t want to be on his bad side.
The man was huge, and he looked like he could break her in half without much effort.
“I … I took whatever I could carry. I have some ledgers, some lists, and what I could take for Asher. It wasn’t a lot, but there wasn’t supposed to be. The whole point was that I was brilliant and had an eidetic memory. I don’t need things on paper. I can recall it.”
“When you left, you went straight to the FBI?” Ink pressed.
She shook her head. “No, I knew they would expect me to go there. I remembered hearing a few of the men talking about a house they were leaving vacant for a week because the Feds were sniffing around. I had the address, and all I needed to do was get there. I knew the cartel members wouldn’t watch it except from the outside.
I left a note on the bedroom door, told the agents I was inside, and shared the information I had.
They came in and got us out of there.” She glanced down at Simba.
“From there, it was hours of interviews and gathering information, then trying to figure out how to keep me safe and quiet.”
“The cartel will have rats inside the Bureau, so they couldn’t risk you going to a safehouse,” Fury agreed. He glanced at Code, who sat directly across from her. “How fast would those rats have let the cartel know she was there?”
“Immediately,” Code said, mouth set in a grim line. “She’s too valuable to kill, though, if she knows all that information. Especially information that might not be recorded and could be used against them. They need her alive.”
Naomi swallowed hard, trying not to shake, but it wasn’t anything she didn’t already know.
The cartel couldn’t kill her. They wouldn’t let her take all that information to her grave; she was too valuable.
No, if they got hold of her, they wouldn’t kill her, but they would know exactly what buttons to push to make her cooperate.
She hugged Asher tighter, a gut-wrenching fear gripping her. Asher grunted, so she relaxed her grip slightly, but not much. She couldn’t stop shaking.
A hand touched her upper arm, close to Asher. She jerked but forced herself not to pull away as she turned to look at Ink, who watched her with understanding. Why did she find his touch comforting instead of terrorizing?
“No one is going to take your son from you, Naomi,” Ink murmured. “Every single person in this room, and the women waiting outside it, will do anything to make sure the two of you are safe.”
She wanted to believe him, to believe in something, or she was going to break. She looked around the room again. Could she dare trust all these people? They were strangers. Strangers could be bought. Strangers could betray her.
She was already trying to figure out how to escape if she had to. Take Asher and run. She didn’t know where she would go, but it would have to be somewhere that even the MCs’ bikes couldn’t reach.
Had she made the biggest mistake by coming here with the Devil’s Predators?