"Nah, I'm good," I tell him as I get up from the floor and take my seat back at the table with her still in my arms. Nobody says anything. They all take their seats, their eyes locked on Nova as she begins to stir a little. Doc steps beside me and looks down at her. "Are you sure?" he asks me again.
"Yeah." I want to know what else Data found out, and she isn't ready to hear it. He leans down, rolling up her sleeve and inserting the needle into the vein on her right arm. She lets out a soft moan as if she feels the prick but settles really quickly.
"She'll only be out for a couple of hours at most, and between the stress and the sedative, she'll feel pretty shitty when she wakes up. Make sure she drinks plenty of water and make sure she eats something," he tells me. I nod and blow out a breath.
As Doc takes his seat, Wrath turns to Nitro. "So how do we know all this is true about her uncle arranging for the killings?"
"Data," Nitro calls out.
Our security guy clicks the screen back to life, and a load of images of messages fill the screen. "These are messages between her uncle and Tommy, I managed to pull them from servers on the dark web."
"Hold on." Wrath stops him. "I thought the whole point of the dark web was that it was secure and these things would disappear?"
Data laughs. "Nothing disappears. Everything you put on the web sticks, things on the dark web are just a little harder to find. Not impossible, just harder. These messages are there, there is so much more though."
"Like what? Involving her?" Wrath asks.
I look from Wrath to Data, just in time to see him nod. "Woah, hold on, what are you talking about?"
"Ice, calm down," Nitro tells me.
"I wanna know," I spit.
"And you will, but you need to calm down," he states.
"Sorry," I breathe out.
"Continue," Nitro tells Data.
"I found a second will. There is an old one from just after Nova was born, where it names her uncle as her guardian should anything happen to her parents. But there is a second one from a few years before her parents were killed. It states a woman called Andrea Bennett, Nova's mum's friend, as the guardian of both Nova and Mason. It looks like the uncle managed to have it suppressed."
"Why?" Wrath asks.
"I mean we're only guessing, but I think it might have something to do with the inheritance that was due to Nova and Mason should something happen to their parents. Her parents were kind of loaded; her dad’s family had a little money. Her dad invested it, and between him and her mum they made a lot of money through business deals and investments.”
He flicks through a couple of other documents that show bank statements, business contracts, and legal documents. "The money they made goes to Nova and Mason, to be managed by Andrea Bennett until they are both of age."
Data pulls up another screen. "This one is the original will with amendments made to it, stating that everything they owned went to the uncle. Only he didn't bank on the other legaldocuments that have to be counter signed to release the money from the trusts they are tied into. They have to be counter signed by Nova, which is why he planned on killing her."
"Wait, when did he realise that she had to counter sign them?" I ask.
"Two days before the break in. It had been in motion for a while. He thought killing the parents would be enough, he thought that he was still named in the will as guardian and guarantor for their trusts. He had someone check over the will beforehand, not realising there was an updated live will in place. After he reviewed his will, he contacted Tommy and added in both Nova and Mason to the hit. In the event of their deaths the money rolls to him."
The atmosphere is charged with the anger rolling off each of us. I can't believe someone would be so cruel to someone that they are related to, I can't believe that anyone would be so cruel to someone they are meant to love.
"Brothers, there is more, but I think we should vote. Protecting Nova and Mason will bring risks to us and the club. I don't know how bad things will get, I don't know if we will face the law or Tommy Larson. I want you to think long and hard before we vote. We're all in, or none of us are in," he tells us.
I let out a laugh. "I'll protect her and Mase no matter what. If I need to leave then I will, but I want to protect them. I need to." I don't know why, I barely know her, but she's so far under my skin I don't think I can walk away even if I wanted to.
"Don't be rash, Ice," Nitro tells me, but there's no authority to his tone. "Brothers, we vote. All those in favour of protecting them, doing whatever we need to, to make sure that they are safe and to get these fuckers off the street."
"Yay," Nitro calls.
"Yay," Wrath states.
"Fuck yes," Tank says.
"She deserves someone in her corner. So, if the vote doesn't go the right way, I'll walk with you, Ice. Yay," Tongue calmly states.
