Why didn’t I think of it before? He looked somewhat familiar, but we deal with cops a lot with the club. I assumed it was some jerk from my time here.
“Do you have a picture of this guy from when he was a beat cop?” I ask suddenly.
Meek nods as he starts to type away on his tablet. Immediately, two images come up, both from the past.
“Well, son of a bitch.” I laugh under my breath.
“What is it?” Panther asks.
“That disciplinary action that was done against him…was it about fifteen years ago?” I ask Meek.
“Thirteen,” he corrects.
“Yeah, I can tell you all about it, considering I was the one who submitted the complaint.” I chuckle, running my hand down my face.
This fucking bastard.
“What happened?” Panther asks.
I take a deep breath. “When I was young, before I joined the club, I was a wild child. If there was havoc happening, I was probably involved. One day, I was fucking around outside this one place…Actually, I was casing it. Anyway, someone called it in, and this beat cop came up. He was fucking rough. Like way rougher than normal, and he was a fucking dumbass who was wearing a camera, which caught all of it. I never actually entered the place. My only crime was that I was walking in front of a nice house in the middle of the night. It wasn’t even a gated neighborhood. He tried to press charges, but since I never broke into anywhere or stole anything, there was nothing he could do. I was released as soon as my court-appointed lawyer pointed it out. She was a nice lady. Didn’t like how beat up I looked, so she pressed the issue. Since I showed up to the station with a split lip and an eye that was already starting to swell shut, she demanded the body cam footage and for charges to be pressed against the officer. They did an investigation and told me it was handled, and I wouldn’t see the officer again. They had me sign a sworn affidavit of what happened and said it would go on his file. Hegot reprimanded and moved out of my precinct. I never thought of him again.”
“He thought of you,” Meek mutters.
He’s not wrong.
“Did you get a payout?” Yak asks once I’ve finished.
I shoot him a look. “Trust me, you would have known if I was rolling in cash when we met. That was right before I joined the club. I’ll give him credit. The entire ordeal switched my trajectory. I stopped hanging out with street kids with no sense and joined the club. Got quieter, smarter.”
“Did you, though? Get smarter, I mean,” Talon teases.
I shoot him the middle finger while the brothers laugh.
“So that’s why he has a hard-on for you. From his perspective, you fucked everything up for him,” Meek says.
“Did he really, though? I mean, he did undercover work,” Eagle points out.
“Yeah, but taking down street workers isn’t exactly glamorous or something to brag about,” Wolf chimes in.
“What’s the worst unit you could be a part of?” Yak asks.
“Tax evasion,” Wolf says with no hesitation. “Swear to god, those guys cry themselves to sleep every night. It’s like career suicide.”
“Can we stay on track, please?” Panther sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“So it’s personal. He has a hard-on for Ridge specifically,” Prairie says.
“I’m sorry, I honestly forgot about that happening. If I’d known it would have brought attention to the club…”
Panther raises his hand, cutting me off. “You have nothing to be sorry for. It’s not your fault this dude holds a grudge. Besides, this could have happened to any one of us. We have all pissed off someone in the past.”
The brothers murmur in agreement.
“So what do we do? Rain’s not saying it, but she’s frazzled,” I tell them.
“Do you think she would tell him anything?” Falcon asks, speaking up for the first time.
“No,” several of us say in unison.
