"The Hellions have thirty men around Penelope, and they've gathered around the edge of the South Hollens quarry. They're trying to arrange an ambush for one or both groups. They don't intend to leave her alive once they've accomplished that objective."
"Sounds like you're knowledgeable about the subject," Cruz sneers. "Did you work out that little speech before coming here?"
My lips lift from my teeth in a snarl. "Listen here you smug little fucker, I came here to help believe it or not. You don't like it, and I don't like it, but the only way Penelope is coming back alive is if we work together."
"And why the fuck should I believe that you give a damn about my sister? You're a goddamn liar, Gardel. You stole my sister, and you raped her."
"She crossed the line, demanded two of your hookers back, and volunteered to come to my bed. And even then, I didn't fuck her til she wanted it. I'm not a saint, but I take a fucking hint and get lost when I know I'm not wanted. It's better than some people I could mention."
"Bull," Cruz hisses.
"I believe he's telling the truth." Doc Harman's voice is soft, almost inaudible over the faint ringing in my ears. But he hasn't spoken until now, remaining hunched over the bar as though refusing to look at me will make the unpleasant specter of his past disappear.
Cruz turns to him first, surprise leaching away some of that ever-present anger. Without the shadow of it lining his brow, I can see more of Maria in him now. The boys inherited that twitching muscle in the jaw she got when she was nervous or upset.
"What? He can't be. There's no way on earth she'd ever fuck him, Doc. He's a monster."
Doc Harman sat up straighter on his barstool and knocked back a long draft of IPA before turning to face the rest of the room. He kept his eyes off of me, probably unwilling to drink in the look of satisfaction that settles onto my face when I realize it's finally happening. Decades have passed, but it's finally happening. I'm being vindicated, and it only feels right that it should happen in this clubhouse, where I spent my life with the four men who ultimately betrayed me. I hope there is a heaven or hell because wherever they ended up, I want Rocco and Cruz to watch every fucking second of this.
"He's a monster of our own making," Doc says, speaking only a little louder so Ryker, Kase, and Bethany can get in on the conversation.
Cruz's anger has mostly dropped away, but the guarded look in his eyes doesn't disappear. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Gardel wouldn't rape or kill Penelope. She looks too much like Trinity."
That sentence impacts only one of the listening crowd. Brooklyn stiffens when she recognizes her mother's name. She was too young to remember the events of that night, and I'd thought to spare her the tale until she was older. And then she fell in love with Kase Cruz of all people. Soft-hearted fool that I am, I kept the truth from her to save her still more pain when things inevitably went sour.
Those denim eyes swing toward me, huge in her pale face. Her eyes ask a question. I nod. Yes. Yes, she will finally get her answers.
"Trinity?" Cruz echoes.
"Trinity Gardel," Doc answers with a weary nod. "Calamity's wife. They bear an eerie resemblance, which is why I don't think he's harmed her. At least...not intentionally. She sounded fine on the phone."
Well, now I'm just as lost as the others. "Phone? She called you?"
Doc looks like he wishes he just kept his mouth shut, the way he always has. "She called earlier asking me to confirm something she'd been told."
I snort. Still delicately dancing around the subject as usual. "Spit it out, Harman. She asked you if you really did pull a cover-up after Cruz shot Trinity."
Cruz laughs, like he's just realized he's on the receiving end of a bad joke. There's a hysterical note to it, and it echoes around the clubhouse, bouncing back to him. He falls silent when no one else laughs.
"That's complete... you're... that's a lie. My father never-"
"He didn't intend to kill her," Doc Harman's quiet voice cuts off Cruz's attempts at reasoned rambling. "When he and Trent went to the house, he only intended to wound Calamity. He never meant for it to happen. She was just supposed to hear him out."
Brooklyn raises a trembling hand to her mouth, shining tears sliding down her face. She's a smart girl. She can probably guess where this is going.
Cruz looks like someone's just slid a knife into his gut and twisted it. "You're lying. That's not true."
"Your father and I fell in love with the same woman," I say, continuing the story where Doc Harman was too spineless to go on. "And he hated it when she chose me. One night he entered my house drunk with a gun and tried to shoot me. The shot went wide and would have killed Brooklyn if Trinity hadn't gotten in the way."
A muffled sound of grief escapes Brooklyn, and Kase drops his horrified gaze to hers and hugs her closer to his side, though he looks as if all he wants to do is throw up.
"You should have grown up with a single mother and a deadbeat dad in jail," I finish bitterly. "But Rocco, Harman, and Trent all agreed to lie for him."
"Why?" Ryker asks quietly, piping up for the first time since I came in. "Why the fuck would they do that?"
"Greed, I suspect. I had quite a few lucrative ideas back in the day. It's lined their pockets nicely."
