My stare fixes on the glowing embers, a strange sense of betrayal circling low in my gut. “I couldn’t get Jenna to tell me the name of the Blood Eagle last night—the dead girl’s old man. But I did learn a few other things.” I don’t say when. Don’t tell him that I also found out about Mary-Beth’s connections earlier in the day. That I spent the hours in between deciding how much he needed to know.
That I chose to withhold information from my president because something in me wants to protect the newcomer.Dangerous fucking mistake.
Chaos slowly straightens in his seat and shifts a journal to the drawer.Likely Vanessa’s.“What did she say?”
I ignore the growing nausea and spit it out. “Jenna’s father is an ex-Devil’s Breed member.”
His chair creaks as he leans back. “Is he now?”
“In her words, he has some beef with the club for kicking him out that relates to Jenna’s mom. Wants to fuck up their skin trade as payback and figured he’d use his daughter to help him do that.”
“How would that work if she’s a Breed brat?”
“Grew up outside the club. They don’t know her face.”
He humphs, and I don’t need the man to use his words to share the sentiment.Still doesn’t mean we can trust her.
“She swears that’s all it is, but she also flat-out refuses to share information on another key event,” I say.
Chaos leans forward, elbows to the desk. “Outside the dead girl’s father?”
“Yeah.” I glance over my shoulder before drawing a deep breath and continuing. “Nandi was right to be suspicious of her. Jenna killed the girl.”
Chaos sighs. “How?”
“Don’t know.”
“Why?”
“Wouldn’t say that either.”
He hesitates, likely thinking. “No wonder she won’t tell you the name of the Blood Eagle, then. She’d invite retribution to her doorstep by doing so.”
“Exactly.”
Silence hangs thick between us save for the occasional crackle of the dying fire.
“You don’t seem overly concerned by what you told me, Fang,” Chaos observes, rising from his desk.
“Neither do you,” I counter. Although it’s weak. I know he does his best thinking after the fact. That his apparent blasé attitude is nothing but the man processing what he’s heard.
“I’d say you almost seem disappointed, though,” Chaos states. “Upset at the revelation.”
I glance up at him as he settles in the chair opposite mine. Maybe I am disappointed. I wanted to believe Jenna was just another woman with a bad attitude. Figured it’d be easier to ignore the physical attraction if I could justify it away with her shitty personality. But that’s not all there is to her.
She’s prickly by design, sure. But if I came to one conclusion in all my thinking last night, it’s that she wields that attitude out of protection, not aggression. She’s defensive because she has to be. Because behind all that sarcasm and sass, there’s a woman with a basic need to survive.
Which almost makes me respect her.
Fuck.“She’s confused, Chaos.”
“What about?” He leans forward and retrieves whiskey and two glasses from inside the table between us.
“Her loyalty to her father. The things she’s done. What she feels obligated to do now.” I watch as he pours us two fingerseach. “Now that she’s seen the inside of the operation, she holds guilt over walking away from it. Thinks it’s her duty to help her old man shut it down, for the women, not him.”
“She’s probably seen some traumatic things,” he muses. “Definitely done at least one.”
“You don’t say.” I take the offered drink and hold it to my lips, inhaling the sweet scent. “My brand of charm doesn’t work with her, pres. Maybe you need to hand her off to Circus.” As much as it pains me to say it.
