CHAPTER 43
Kaya
I feel lighter than I have in weeks. Everything is out in the open and we’re going to move forward together. Us and our baby. It blows my mind when I think about it and I can’t keep the grin off my face. We get up and leave the room heading towards Ace’s office.
Maverick lays his hand flat against the small of my back as we walk in. Deuce is already in a chair with Ace sitting at his desk. We take the other two seats next to Deuce.
“Has Maverick told you anything about church?” Ace asks.
I shake my head. “No, we had other things to talk about.”
Ace looks back and forth between the two of us. “Everything good?”
Maverick places his hand on my knee. “Never better.”
“Okay then.” Ace turns to me. “Cipher flipped out because he’s been removed from duty for the time being.”
I sit up, my brows rising in surprise. “Why?”
“We have a leak. Something happened on the run Maverick and the other guys were on that pretty much confirmed it. This is high priority and as top secret as it gets. You hear me?”
I swallow hard and nod.
“I need you checking into the following members. Cipher, Rebel, Grayson, Riker, Ratchet, Flip, and Tank.” He says the names like he’s reading off items on a grocery list.
My face must have told how shocked I was because Ace tilts his head and raises a brow.
“Don’t think about them as friends, your best friend’s man, or my sons.
As of right now, they are suspects. Some are less likely than others, but we can’t go at this in any way other than looking at facts.
I need everything—their backgrounds, criminal history, any and all associations, and friends they still talk to from when they were ten.
I want phone records and family histories.
If they have a fourth cousin in jail in Nevada, I want to know. ”
Deuce sighs. “Why are we wasting time checking into your boys? And Ratchet? Come on, Ace. You know damn well Rebel has been on Brennan’s runs before. He knows how he works. Riker too.”
“We’re not crossing anyone off until we’re sure.
Cipher knows his shit. I don’t want him getting into our system and seeing that we’re investigating everyone but my kids.
It’s a bad look. We go at this as if they are all equally suspected…
Even if they’re not.” He laces his fingers together on his desk.
“Now, the prospects, they shouldn’t have had any information about the run, but it’s not impossible.
If you get nowhere with the first seven, then you check into them.
And that means every prospect except Gator, including Alex. ”
“Okay,” I say shakily. “What happened on the run?”
Maverick and Ace explain everything from Brennan changing locations to them seeing the feds at the original place. I don’t know what to say. All I can imagine is Maverick being arrested on weapons trafficking. I suddenly want to meet Brennan and give him a big kiss for taking so many precautions.
“Fuck security and everything else, this is what you’ll be doing until we figure out who the hell this is.” Ace says with a hard edge in his tone.
“Got it,” I agree.
“We have the run to Warner coming up this week. You and Dom will be leading that as well. You’ll take Leo and Ty with Shade driving the truck. No prospects and no one that wasn’t on Brennan’s run.”
Maverick agrees and we’re quickly dismissed.
We immediately head to the basement. I’m actually really excited about this job, though not about revealing one of the members as a rat.
The list goes through my mind. There’s no way it’s Grayson, Rebel or Riker.
I don’t know Ratchet that well, but Deuce thought the idea of him being guilty was crazy.
Cipher, Tank, and Flip I’m not as sure about.
Then again, I don’t know any of them really well.
People are capable of anything if they’re desperate enough.
I sigh and sit down in front of the keyboard, wincing a bit. My body is achy all over. All of the monitors are set to security feeds at the Petal and garage with absolutely nothing happening. I start typing as Maverick stares at me. I slowly turn to him. “What?”
“Your cheek is really red.”
“Hurts too,” I say matter of fact as I continue typing. “But my arm feels better so that’s a plus.”
“Babe,”
I face him again. “What?”
“What else hurts?”
I shake my head. Everything. My arm and leg muscles, my head, my side where he punched me, my face, just about everywhere has some kind of pain, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. “I’m fine.”
“I’ll get you some Tylenol. Wait, can you take Tylenol?” he asks with a raised brow.
I nod. “The doctor in the ER said Tylenol is fine in moderation, but I’m ok.”
“Kaya, I don’t want you sitting down here in pain.”
“I promise, I’m ok. You can get me a bottle of water and some Tylenol and if I need it, I’ll take it,” I say, trying to pacify him. I just want to get started on this. The faster I find something, the faster the club can deal with whoever the hell is putting them at risk.
Thankfully Maverick goes upstairs, so I start with Tank. I don’t know why, but he just sticks out to me to be first. He was in the hospital but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have done it. I open his file. Real name— Jake Tobias Carter. I start digging. And digging. And digging.
One after the other I comb through the suspects’ records from past employment, police databases, census reports, and school records.
I dig through family connections from articles like birth and wedding announcements, obituaries, abandoned social media accounts, and even the DMV, trying to find any tidbit of information that may point to someone being desperate enough to become a rat.
In all seriousness I’m not really looking as hard at Rebel and Riker. They are Ace’s kids so most of the work is already done. They’ve worked for the club since they were teenagers and neither have a criminal record beyond Riker getting two speeding tickets. Plus, what would the motive be?
Maverick comes in and out bringing me water, pills, snacks, and finally a sandwich. I keep at it for four and a half hours until he returns, but this time he pulls my chair back, rolling me away from the computer. I huff and glare up at him, clearly annoyed.
“Come on. We need to go to bed.”
“Just let me finish—”
“No, Kaya! You’re pregnant and went through a lot yesterday.
You can get back to it tomorrow morning.
” I take in his worried face and realize he’s one hundred percent correct.
Even though I hate stopping in the middle of stuff like this.
When I’m on a problem, I just want to see it through and get to the solution.
I frown and stand up. “You’re right.” I lean up and give him a kiss.
His eyes widen. “I thought I was going to have to throw you over my shoulder and carry you out of here.”
I wink at him. “That would have been hot, but no, I should get some rest. The growing bean needs me rested.” I push the chair in and hit a few keys to bring back the security footage.
Maverick puts his hand out to me and we head upstairs to go to bed.