18. Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Eighteen
J ustice waited while they gathered in the conference room again. Ariel had sewn up Pit’s arm while the women made some breakfast. Justice and Tack had walked the property and then made sure there were extra people on the patrols.
The woman who Justice didn’t recognize, who had come into the building as a supposed Siren, had been communicating with someone.
She’d been given directions to take Teddy or Ian and then call for the next instructions.
Macy’s friend had said the contact number went to a burner phone, so it was a dead end .
After they’d eaten, Pit wanted them to go over what Macy had found out and try to identify this threat.
Justice was sipping his coffee, trying to tamp down his anger and not succeeding.
Not only was someone targeting his club, but waking up to make love to Adley had not happened.
After finally having her in his arms and admitting he loved her, he’d envisioned waking her up with his head between her legs.
From there, he’d planned on her screaming his name at least once.
He’d wanted it perfect for her. Instead, he’d had to deal with some person, or maybe a group, targeting his club—his family.
Justice stared at his son, who was asleep in his arms—the sleep of the innocent.
Justice wanted to keep the world a safe place for Ian and his cousin Teddy.
Since he’d returned, Ian and Teddy were in the arms of someone they trusted in the club.
Neither boy would be left alone now that they knew there was a threat.
Adley came in and wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning down to place a kiss on his cheek. He turned to look up at her. Her instincts had saved his son.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Justice said, choking up a little at the thought of losing Ian.
“You don’t need to thank me. He’s mine now too,” she said.
“Why is that?” Justice asked.
“Because dealing with all this made me realize, not only do I love his daddy, but I love him too. I was just too scared to say it out loud,” Adley said, her eyes shining bright. He was one lucky bastard, and he was going to make sure his family was safe.
“Love you too, Honey,” he said .
Adley nodded, then headed toward the front of the room with Macy.
Pit walked in carrying his son with his bandaged arm around his wife.
“Let’s get this started,” he growled.
Ruthy, Charlie, and Judith took seats across the table from him.
Judith slid a tray of muffins to the middle.
If there was one thing he’d learned about Judith Pearson, it was that she thrived on feeding people.
Justice decided he was still uncomfortably full from breakfast and would pass, but Tack had no problem grabbing three muffins—one of each flavor—from the tray.
“Macy, why don’t you go first?” Pit directed.
Macy nodded and walked to the butcher paper. “My contact was checking into Gina Brown because of the roadblock I hit and also into Detective Stanza, or Stain, as Adley likes to call him.
“Gina Brown’s Social Security Number goes back to someone who died in infancy.
My contact found out that Gina Brown, at least the one Justice met, appeared two months prior to meeting Justice in that bar.
It’s when the apartment was rented and when she first appears with a credit card and driver’s license,” Macy paused.
“You’re saying she was using an alias?” Justice asked.
“Yes. Also, my contact discovered that Gina’s autopsy information has now disappeared from the morgue. Samples, notes, everything relating to her death is gone,” Macy said.
“What does that mean?” Tack asked. “Can they still try to prosecute Justice? I’m confused. ”
“I think that can best be answered with what my contact found when she investigated Detective Stanza. He might have been hired into the police department, but his name and record as a police officer don’t exist prior to him coming to Kansas City,” Macy said.
“That can’t be. They run checks on police officers,” Tack said.
“He supposedly transferred from a department in New Mexico. The checks in his file for his records, etc., are bogus. Somebody covered for him,” Macy said.
“I realize I don’t know what they look like. Do you have pictures of them?” Judith asked.
“Sure. I printed the earliest ones my contact found but forgot to grab them from the printer,” Macy said .
“I’ve got it,” Tack said, walking out of the room to Pit’s office. He walked back in with two pieces of paper and hung them near their names. He sat back down, and Judith gasped.
His mom patted Judith’s shoulder. Judith turned toward Ruthy. “Tell me it’s not possible,” Judith said.
Ruthy stared at the pictures, then looked at Judith. “I’ve never seen a good picture of him. It’s why I never noticed the resemblance.”
“Ruthy, do you want to let the rest of us in on what the fuck is going on?” Pit asked.
“When we lost my husband, Charlie’s husband, and some of the men, she and I created Ruthless, my alter ego, to scare people into leaving the club alone.
When you all left for the military, I still had a lot of anger.
I channeled that into helping others while getting rid of what I considered the less-desirables.
“You were the figure in black who rescued us when I was eleven,” Adley said.
Ruthy nodded. “I did. I had proof that the club was selling women and kids. Your mom contacted me because she’d overheard the President making plans to gift you to his Vice President’s son on your twelfth birthday.
She gave me what information she could, and I planned.
After I had sleeping agents put in their food, I snuck into the clubhouse at three in the morning before I burned the clubhouse to the ground with the men inside it.
I had made arrangements for the women to have new lives, new names, new jobs, and a way to heal.
I assumed that the women and children weren’t evil like the men of the MC, but I might have been mistaken, and this is all my fault,” Ruthy said, then paused, staring at the picture.
Judith stood up and walked over. “Detective Stanza looks very similar to a younger version of my husband’s VP. His son would be around Detective Stanza’s age.”
Ruthy walked over to Pit and Ariel. “I’m so sorry. I put everyone in danger. At the time, though, his mom sounded so convincing that she, her son, and her daughter were there under duress.”
Pit stood up and wrapped Ruthy in his arms. “You did what you thought was right, and you avenged our family. I could never fault you for that.”
Justice was trying to wrap his head around the fact that the person who was going after them was someone who had planned this and not just recently. A year ago, Ariel had rescued them when they’d been attacked. He and Pit had chalked it up to gangs, but now Justice had to wonder if it was related.
“With his being a police detective, I think we need to come at this cautiously. First, Ruthy, you gave us new names and settled us here in Kansas City. Where did you settle his mom? And do you keep an eye on them?” Adley asked.
And another reason he adored his woman. She was thinking ahead on how to neutralize the problem. And now he knew she’d grown up in a fucked-up MC; he was amazed she even gave him the time of day. The courage she had to have to take a chance on him. He admired her even more.
“All the women and kids are in Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri. I can check my file and find out where I sent them. It was a dark time for me. Your mom and I connected when I was planning, so I wanted her close by. We’ve been friends for years,” Ruthy said.
“Let’s get the information from Ruthy, and then we need someone checking to see if everyone is where they are supposed to be. I don’t want to assume Detective Stanza is that kid and then find out we had someone get hurt because we weren’t a hundred percent,” Pit said.
Justice agreed. He walked over and hugged his mom one-handed. “Thanks for rescuing your future daughter-in-law,” he whispered in her ear. Hopefully, good news would help mitigate the guilt she felt over this.
“I don’t see a ring. Do I need to make you a list of what you have to do to get married?” she said back, hugging him and taking Ian from his arms. Adley snuggled under his arm and placed her hand on Ruthy’s arm .
“Thank you for rescuing us,” Adley said.
Justice listened to the women talk, staring around the room at his family.
He had a code he lived by. It wasn’t the same code that the police held to because sometimes, to achieve justice, you had to step over the line to make the guilty pay.
They’d figure this out, take care of the problem, and then he, Adley, Ian, and any other kids they had would live a life full of love.