Page 17 of Sweet Revenge
I shook my head. “She still can’t remember.”
“Do you think she’d at least testify what she overheard about the fire he set at Kate’s house?” Bear asked.
“She won’t.” Luke placed his palms flat on the bar top and leaned forward, dropping his head. “She’s afraid.”
“You asked her?”
His head popped up and he looked at me. “In the hospital. She didn’t answer, which was all the answer I needed. I’ve known Maggie a long time, and when she’s afraid, she clams up and won’t talk.”
“Brother,” Bear said, and Luke stood straight again to face him. “We all know how bad you want him for the fire and for the assaults on Maggie, but Maggie testifying about the fire will not keep him locked up. We need more.”
“We need to prove he’s the one who shot you.” I thought about the shooting a few years ago and what it did to the Dimarco family. They’re all close, and Luke was shot in front of all of his brothers. They saved him just by being there that night and acting quickly, but I knew them well enough to know it changed every one of them, and they’d been trying their hardest ever since to prove Snake was the shooter.
Luke’s gaze hardened on me. “No way to do that. No one’s talking. My brothers got the plate number, but it’s licensed as a commercial vehicle to a lumber company who actually reported it missing earlier that day, which means Snake stole it. It’s never been recovered, so we can’t get prints or fibers from it.” He motioned back and forth between himself and Cam. “Our hands are tied. Our department can’t waste any more resources on this shit, so anything we’re doing is off the clock. If Maggie could remember something and agree to testify, then we’d have somewhere to start and could officially be working the case again.”
“Did she know about the shooting?” I asked.
“If she did, she never mentioned it.” Luke frowned. “Snake’s hated me for years for attempting to lock him up for assault, and even though he trusts Maggie not to file charges, I think even he’s too smart to admit to attempted murder.”
“You ready to bring us in?”
My eyes shifted and landed on Jax Dimarco, immediately seeing what I always saw with Luke and all six of his brothers, and it was that they all held themselves the same way. Luke and his brother Cam both work for the police department, while Jax, Brody, and Chris own and operate the private security company, Elite Securities. His last two brothers, Jake and Ben, run their father’s construction company.
“Pike told me you guys are hiring because you already have more cases than you can handle.”
My eyes found Pike who stood on the other side of the bar watching the meeting he had organized. Pike and Bear became friends years ago when he first started working for Elite and began handling the security at the very bar we were all sitting in right now. The only place we could all meet and call neutral territory. After all, it wasn’t every day that you’d find a group of men all either from a security company, the police department, or an MC who are friends, but we are. It hadn’t been an easy road to navigate, but I trusted every man in this room or we wouldn’t be here.
“We are,” Jax agreed but then lowered his voice to a threatening level. “But this isn’t a case we’ll turn away.” Bear nodded, and Jax continued. “Is there a way to get Brody into the Widow’s clubhouse to set up equipment?”
I shook my head. “No, it’ll never work. They’ll know exactly what to look for. Half of them were military and the other half have been trained to see and hear all. They had to be when they decided to start selling kids.”
Brody, another of Luke’s brothers who works for Elite, shook his head. “I have shit they’ve never seen; I promise you that.” He sat forward on the stool he was occupying. “It’s virtually undetectable.”
“Virtually isn’t good enough.” I answered honestly.
Jax looked over at Brody before his eyes landed on me again. “I need to ask, how is it that you know so much about this club?”
My eyes sliced over to Bear who held my stare, and I knew I had a decision to make. A decision he would stand behind no matter what it was. I’d been holding onto a secret for a long time. One I kept from my own club members and also from the men in this room. Bear was the only one who knew, and I’d planned to keep it that way, but this shit with Maggie was getting out of hand, and I needed to find Snake. The need to find him and end him was burning in me, and I was afraid of how it would change me if I didn’t end it now.
I let my eyes scan over my brothers, my friends—including the Dimarcos, who had become that out of circumstance, but friends all the same—and decided to trust them.
I nodded at Bear who crossed his arms over his chest and waited. “I know the club well because I used to be a member.”
I predicted the look of shock that slid across the faces in front of me, so I wasn’t surprised when silence overwhelmed the room. I waited, letting the information settle, knowing questions would follow, and I wasn’t wrong.
Jax was the first to speak. “How long were you in the Widows, and how the hell did you get out?”
“My entire life.” You could’ve heard a pin drop when I announced that, so I continued. “My father is the president of the national chapter. He runs the whole damn thing. The home base for the club is in Colorado.”
I waited while the shock settled in the room. After all, it wasn’t often that one club lets another member leave only to join another club. And in this case, a rival club.
“He’s still living?” Jax asked.
“Yep.” I sneered. “Still lives in Colorado and calls all the shots.”
“And you just left?” Jax questioned suspiciously.
I ran my hand through my hair and sighed, hating that I was even thinking about the old bastard, let alone talking about him, but for Maggie’s sake, I’d do it. “I wanted out after some shit went down. He agreed, but I had to move away. I’d gone to school with Bear who had moved when we were seniors in high school, called him up and he invited me here to North Carolina. He said he was just voted in as president of his club and was looking to make some changes if I was interested. I was, so here I am.”