“There’ve been some developments you need to know about.”
“You think I’d believe any of your bullshit? You fucking set me up. I know it. You know it,” I bit out. I hated the disappointment that went through me that Ronan’s betrayal actually hurt. I started backing up towards the house so that I’d be next to Cole if we needed to make a stand.
“It wasn’t about you,” Ronan said. “It was about Jonas. It still is.”
I stopped moving at that but didn’t respond otherwise.
“He used you. He used all of us,” Ronan admitted and I was actually surprised by the thread of disappointment I heard in his voice.
“Who?” I asked.
“Benny.”
I couldn’t school my reaction to that. Benny was one of the most trusted members of our group.
“Look Mace, can you just check me for weapons and let me in so we can talk about this? I’ve been running my ass ragged for three days trying to figure out what the hell is going on.”
I studied him for a moment and then finally backed up until I reached the porch stairs. I reached my gun behind me and Cole took it without hesitation. Ronan held out his arms as I approached him and I took my time searching him. I searched his car next.
“Grab the folder on the front seat,” Ronan said.
I got the folder and then searched the car as best I could for any tracking devices but figured it was pointless since Ronan would have told his backup where he was going.
“I swear, Mace, it’s just me,” Ronan said as I came around the car. “You trusted me once,” he added.
“The stakes are too high now,” I said. “Talk.”
“Jonas will want to hear this,” Ronan said.
“Cole,” I called out.
“Kitchen,” he responded without hesitation. “We can cover the front and back yard from there.”
I motioned to Ronan and followed him to the house. Cole was already in the kitchen and he had Jonas at his back. I could see my revolver tucked in the waistband of Cole’s jeans.
“Sit there,” I said as I pulled a chair out and put it near the front window so that I could watch both Ronan and the driveway at the same time. Cole moved to the window overlooking the back yard. I kept Jonas between us as I glanced down at the folder in my hand.
“Benny set this up?” I asked.
“Isn’t that your tech guy?” Jonas asked from behind me.
“He was,” Ronan said and I didn’t miss the fact that he used past tense. I knew what that meant in Ronan’s world. “After the shootout at your gallery,” Ronan said as he looked at Jonas, “I began looking at what we had. They weren’t any of my guys, Mace.”
I nodded because I’d already figured that. Ronan’s men would have had all the exits covered, but the men who’d shot at Jonas hadleft the roof unguarded. We wouldn’t have gotten out of there if they’d been Ronan’s men.
“Open it,” Ronan said as he motioned to the folder.
I flipped the folder open and the first page I saw was very familiar. It was a picture of one of the boys Jonas had been accused of assaulting. The statement the boy provided was exactly the same except for the part where he named his attacker. The same suspect was named on all three statements and listed as the person of interest in the case file on the missing boy. I handed the pages to Jonas so he could see for himself.
“Those are the real reports, Jonas,” Ronan said. “Benny pulled them from BPD’s servers and changed the suspect’s name to yours.”
“So no one else saw the other reports? The ones with my name on them?” Jonas asked.
Ronan shook his head. “Your name isn’t linked to any investigation anywhere.”
I didn’t need to look at Jonas to feel his relief.
“The emails between Jonas and Devlin?” I asked.
