She watches the movement, her professional mask cracking at the edges. Those same eyes that used to look at me with exhausted love now shine with unshed tears. She’s aged, with lines around her eyes, gray threading through dark hair, but she’salive. Clean. Put together in a way I never saw growing up.
“I looked for you,” she says finally, her voice rough. “For years. But you’d disappeared so completely.”
I flip the chip once, twice. “I learned how to be invisible.” The words come out harder than I intend. “Guess I was too good at it.”
Victoria shifts beside me, and I’m suddenly aware that she orchestrated this entire thing. She found my mother. Brought her here. Reunited us without asking if I wanted it. The anger simmers beneath my skin, but I push it down.
Later.
I’ll deal with Victorialater.
“How?” The question tears out of me. “They said the Alliance dumped you in the desert. That you were dead.”
Maria’s breath hitches. “They tried. Took me out there, left me to die.” Her hands tremble as she grips the edge of the table. “But someone… a rival gang member, he was supposed to helpdispose of me. Instead, he took pity. Got me to the hospital, helped me disappear.”
“You got clean.” It’s not a question. I can see it in her. The clarity in her eyes, the steadiness in her hands when they’re not shaking from emotion.
“I didn’t go into rehab, I just went cold turkey, which worked in my favor for joining the force. If I did go to rehab, it would have disqualified me.” She straightens, finding that detective composure. “I wanted to come back for you, Diesel. But I was nobody. No money, no way to provide. And when I finally got on my feet, you were gone. Vanished into the streets like a ghost.”
Diesel. She called me Diesel again. The name feels foreign now, a relic from a boy who died the day she disappeared.
“So, you became a cop.” The irony tastes bitter. “The woman who had a gambling problem and couldn’t function properly because of her poor choices in men?”
“It wasn’t really a gambling problem… I gambled in a misguided attempt to get us money. To get away from those men, but I couldn’t break the cycle. We were too deep in it. When the Alliance got me, and I was in that desert thinking I was done for, but then I got my second chance, I used it to fight back the only way I knew how.” Maria meets my gaze. “I guess getting into the police force was a way for me to stop the bad guys that put us in that life we were living, Diesel. I worked my way up. Made detective. Then Chief Detective. And then this case landed on my desk… Las Vegas Defiance MC.” Her laugh is hollow. “I never imagined…”
“That your son was president.” I pocket the chip, needing both hands on the table to steady myself. “Life’s funny that way.”
Ghost clears his throat from his position against the wall. “So, what now? We’re all just supposed to work together? Play happy family while taking down Rourke? Cops and bikers don’t usually team up.” His voice is sarcasm mixed with contempt.
Maria’s detective mask slides fully into place. “If you want to take down Captain Rourke and the Hidden Hand Alliance, yes. This is bigger than personal feelings.”
Nitro finally speaks up, “I’ve been in the dark about all of this shit… which wewillhave words about later, Pres, and you know I’m the first to say protect the club at all costs, which generally means keep the heat the hell off our asses.” He glances at Victoria, then exhales, a glimmer of understanding passing through him. “But in this case, as your VP and advisor, Sin… I think you gotta listen to your mom and your woman.”
The other brothers smirk as I tense, wondering how much Maria knows about Victoria and me. Victoria licks her bottom lip like she’s rattled by being outted like that, her gaze clearly avoiding Maria’s, her eyes focused on her hands in her lap.
But it is Maria who breaks the tension. “Rourke’s untouchable as long as he’s wearing a badge,” Maria concludes. “We need evidence. Solid, irrefutable evidence that can’t be buried or explained away. Anything else that’s happening outside of that doesn’t matter right now, and frankly, is none of my business.”
I lean back, the president in me taking over from the abandoned thirteen-year-old. “All right, what do you have in mind?”
“A sting operation. We catch them in the act… Rourke and the Alliance together. Make it public so it can’t be swept under the rug,” Maria suggests.
Victoria speaks for the first time since this dandy little reunion started. “With media coverage. Real journalists, not… not whatIwas pretending to be. Make itimpossibleto bury.”
“I can tap their communications,” Ghost offers, pushing off the wall. “Find out when their next big operation is. Where Rourke will be.”
“And we provide boots on the ground.” Nitro’s voice is measured, strategic. “Eyes where the heat can’t be without warrants or probable cause.”
A slow smile crosses my face, and I sit forward, picking my poker chip back up between my fingers. “All right… let’s get this shit organized.”
The planning intensifies. Ghost talks about encryption and surveillance. Maria discusses trusted officers, a disturbingly small number. Victoria suggests legitimate journalists she knows from her training. Nitro maps contingencies like the tactical genius he is.
“There’s an arms deal,” Ghost says, fingers flying over his phone. “Checking Alliance chatter now… yeah, here. Weapons shipment from Mexico. Two weeks out.”
“Rourke will be there,” Maria states with certainty. “He always provides protection for their major operations. That’s the arrangement.”
“Perfect opportunity.” I stand, pacing the small space. “But we need to ensure no civilians get caught in crossfire. Thishasto be surgical.”
Maria nods. “By the book where it counts. We can’t give Rourke or the Alliance any ammunition to use against us in court.”
