This isn’t about busting us.
Something is very fucking wrong here.
Furrowing my brows at the calm nature of this raid, I go to speak, seeing as none of these assholes are telling us what’s going on, but thenshewalks in.
Full police uniform.
Badge visible on her chest.
Gun on her hip.
Hair pulled back, professional, cold.
Elizabeth-fucking-Hale.
The gasp that runs through the club is audible. Brothers shift, tension crackling through the air like electricity before a storm.
“Are youfucking kidding me!”Nitro yells, his voice bursting with rage.
The brothers start to protest, voices rising, but I raise one hand, and silence falls immediately.
Elizabeth walks toward me, her expression somber, conflicted. Those eyes, the ones I’ve seen filled with desire, with laughter, with heat, now carry guilt. She stops a few feet away, and for a moment, neither of us speaks.
“I’m sorry…” Her voice is barely above a whisper.
“You’re sorry?Fuck me!”Nitro groans from his position on the floor.
But a slow smile crosses my face as I stare at her.
She inhales sharply, confusion crossing her features as I feel that same confusion ripple through the room. I chuckle, shaking my head like I’m in on the world’s biggest joke.
Because I am.
She furrows her brow, confusion flickering across her face. “Sin?”
I lean against the bar, completely relaxed.
Let them wonder.
Let them squirm.
“Why do you think an MC wouldeveragree to a reporter coming into their club?” I ask, my voice casual, almost amused. “Especially a reporter that reaches out tothem?”
She tries to swallow past the tightness in her throat. “You said you wanted to change the narrative on yourself.”
I sniff, leaning closer, my eyes locked on hers. “We run background checks, and as soon as your picture came throughwith your alias,Elizabeth Hale, I knew who you were,Victoria…”Her eyes widen at me, calling her by her real name. “Youhonestlythink we wouldn’t have pictures of Marcus’ family in his file? That I wouldn’t get Ghost to redact all that in case you went snooping?” I smirk. “Which you did.” I pause to let that sink in.
To let her process.
Nitro lets out a half scoff, half laugh like he’s pissed he was left out of all this critically important information. I’ll have to make it up to him later as Victoria takes a step back, her eyes widening.
Her gaze darts between the brothers, then back to me. “All this time…” Her voice is small, disbelieving. “Youknewwho I was?”
Everything she thought she understood is crumbling. I see it in her eyes, in the way her shoulders sag, in the tremble of her hands.
She thought she was the only one doing the deceiving.
Maybe it will help her guilt to know I was deceiving her the whole time too?
