His eyes narrow slightly.
“He had said that if it was him, his club that found them… he wouldn’t put them back in the system either. That the smart thing to do would be to get them fresh identities and a new life…”
I can feel sweat trickling down my neck, down my back. Settling heavy beneath the cotton of my t-shirt and weighed down by the leather of my cut. I swallow, my mouth feeling pasty, letting my eyes trail quickly to Clutch, but he isn’t looking at me, he is looking down at his clenched fists.
“Bex looks thirsty,” Razor says lightly.
A couple of the club girls laugh behind him. I don’t look his way. Angel’s eyes never leave my face like he is tracking every facial expression.
“Now all these years… decades later. Rumours are swirling of trafficking and cartel involvement and of course everything the Blood Reapers are being accused of.”
He lets that information sit there. He isn’t accusing me, not asking a direct question. But he is giving his club just enough information that they can make their own assumptions. Angel is either giving his clubenough rope to hang me with or someone fed him just the right amount of information to fuck with me.
“When was the first time you met Preacher?” he asks.
“I never have.” My voice doesn’t shake as I hold his eye contact. “The first time I saw him in person was this morning outside the hospital.”
I gesture toward Angel slightly.
“And you know that. Because you and Razor were waiting by my car when I finished my shift.”
Angel studies me for a long moment, then nods slowly, like he believes me.
Then he asks quietly, “Tell me something, Bex… Why would someone be at a hospital with no record of treatment?”
I shrug slightly. “I’m sure there are lots of reasons.”
Angel straightens, the relaxed posture disappears. He steps forward so Razor is now at his side and Clutch is behind him.
The room tightens and it feels like the walls are closing in. And then he asks the question that makes my pulse spike. The question he’s been building to, setting up this whole time.
“Where is Mara?”
CHAPTER 13
BEX - ACT LIKE IT
The question feels like a stone dropped into still water.“Where is Mara?”
Everything goes from quiet, to the ripples coming off of the question, the taunt of an accusation moving over everyone in the room.
For a second, I can hear the refrigerator behind the bar humming. The soft clink of someone setting a glass down somewhere behind me.
Razor hasn’t taken his eyes off me; neither has Angel. I feel the weight of Clutch’s stare just to Angel’s left, close enough that in a few steps I could be in his arms. But I have never felt further away.
He still hasn’t said a word.
My mouth is dry, but my voice comes out steady.
“I don’t know.”
The silence stretches as Angel studies my face carefully. He’s not angry… not yet. It’s like he’s judging the weight of my words, the truth in them.
He nods saying, “See I want to believe you and I don’t think you are lying… But I have it on good authority that you were seen treating Mara, at the hospital.”
Razor shifts, it’s subtle. Just a single step closer. But I see it.
And still, Clutch doesn’t move.