“I don’t need to be a psychologist to see what’s plain in front of my face.”
“You’re wrong, Rosa. It won’t work. She doesn’t fit in here, doesn’t want to be back here.”
“Don’t be too sure about that.”
“All she’s done since I laid eyes on her is talk about her home, her job, herboyfriendand being away from that life. You think coming back here is the best thing for her, or even what she wants?”
“Like I said, don’t put too much stock in those things. It wouldn’t take much convincing now.”
I didn’t know what she was getting at. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“Let’s just say there may not be as many pros to going back to North Carolina.”
“Will you stop talking around shit and just tell me what you mean?”
“You need to talk to her.”
“Women,” I muttered and without thinking, took a drink. It had cooled down and tasted like bitter shit. I pushed it away in disgust, more than done with this conversation. I rose, but she grabbed my forearm and pulled me back down. For a little thing, she had a powerful grip.
“Waverley told me the plan,” she said. “It’s a good one, Hudson. Sometimes instant gratification isn’t the best way.”
I smirked, and she looked pleased she got something out of me other than my surly attitude.
“Despite everything I did helping her leave here, I felt the same way you did. After she left, I did something,” Rosa set her cup down, pausing for a moment.
Then she got up and walked out of the room. I turned in the seat, wondering what the fuck she was doing, but she came back carrying a taped-up bag. She set it down on the table between us.
“Waverley didn’t want me to do anything,” she said, taking her seat again. “Not just about keeping the truth from everyone, but to that human shit stain of a boy.”
The venom in her voice could rival my own when thinking about Reinhart.
“A couple of weeks after she left, when I knew for sure she would not come back, I went to find him. I followed the little bastard to a house he had taken one of the girls from school too. She was drunk. I told her to go wait in my car while I dealt with him.” She was staring past me, a sneer on his face as she recalled the night. “He was a cocky little shit until I pulled a gun on him.”
I raised my brows but shouldn’t be surprised by anything the old ladies got up to, especially when it came to protecting the club.
“I knew he had pictures of you and Warren. It didn’t matter he handed them over to Waverley that night. Two pictures wouldn’t be all he had. I terrorized the little fucker until he handed over the actual camera. He swore everything was on the memory card in there, told me to destroy it. Believed him too. He almost pissed himself when I put the gun to his head.”
My gaze went back to the bag on the table. “Did you delete them?” That would have been what made the most sense, getting rid of the evidence against us. Even if we could have talked our way out of it with the police officers, it was best it never existed.
“He showed me the photographs he’d shown Waverley. He had more of you and War and Connor too. But it wasn’t anything King couldn’t manage. Pissed me off he’d manipulated Waverley with something so insignificant.”
My eyes were still on the camera.
“I only looked at the pictures he showed me. I didn’t know how to delete that shit, so I figured I’d just get rid of the whole thing, but for whatever reason, I forgot about it. Until Waverley came and told me what happened tonight.”
This wasn’t making sense. Why was it important? As long as she got the evidence off Reinhart, that was all that mattered. My eyes snapped up to hers, her mouth pinched, her eyes full of loathing.
“What is on that camera, Rosa?”
“I didn’t like it when he started coming around the club, working with King, building those houses, but I thought it was best I avoided him. I still had to uphold that promise and if I’d demanded King not work with the guy, he’d want to know why.”
“What is on the camera, Rosa?” I repeated through gritted teeth.
She pushed it over to me. “I only looked tonight. If I’d known…” she whispered and looked away, her eyes troubled. This was causing a lot of conflict for her.
I grabbed the package and looked in at the camera. It was a digital SLR with a long lens, expensive looking. The kind a pro photographer would use.
“I’m not proud of not looking at it sooner. But despite that, it’s a good thing I held on to it. Thinking back on it, he’d been adamant that I destroy it. Back then I thought he was just scared, but now I know he was worried I’d look through it. It will help take that fucker down. I charged up the battery, so there should be enough to see what you need to.”
