“So, Mr McNeish isn’t the brightest tool in the box. Maybe he had customers he couldn’t disappoint and thought he could get away with it.”
Sykes eyebrows rise almost to his hairline. “My client is a Marine. I presume he’s passed his aptitude tests.”
“Mr McNeish is an ex-Marine. People change.”
I seethe. Once a Marine, always a Marine. But I keep dumb. I’m worried about opening my mouth and anything I say being twisted.
“Do you need money, Mr McNeish?” Barker asks. “Are you dealing on the side?”
“I have a good job. I’m a mechanic and I work at our auto-shop. I live at the club, so my expenditure is small. I have more than enough for the things I want in life.”
It’s Hastings turn to scoff. “Anyone can get greedy.” He taps the table with his fingers, then after a few seconds, proposes, “If we buy your story that another man was there, how about you just being opportunistic? Seeing what you thought were drugs and taking them, not to give up, but to sell yourself, or share with the club to provide funds?”
I do not want the club being dragged into this.
But Sykes gets in first. “Mr McNeish has just told you exactly what he was doing. He was heading toward the cops. He was going to turn what he’d found in. It’s a shame the man slipped past him, but you have gotten the drugs off the street and have arrested this Fender Childs who presumably was going to sell them. I do not think you have a case against Mr McNeish and ask you to release him.”
“We are continuing our investigations. While we do, Mr McNeish will stay on remand.”
As I expected, I won’t be going home to my club. Not today. Maybe never. Barker and Hastings weren’t at all convinced by my story, and if I’m honest, I wasn’t myself.
Chapter Twenty
Beth
“What’s going on?” I ask for the hundredth time, as Demon walks past.
“Beth,” my mom says, “when they know something, they’ll tell you.” Her voice sounds tired and she looks pale. It had come as a shock to her to have been woken at dawn and then to find out she had boxes containing an unbelievable amount of drugs in her son’s old bedroom, which Connor had stored without her knowledge and definitely not her approval. When she’d appeared in the clubhouse, she’d been shaking and demanding to know what was going on.
I think partly to shut her up, Demon had agreed I could bring her up to speed. She wouldn’t have stopped without a full explanation of why I, and now she, were here. One question led to another, and I found I’d been unable to hold anything back as Mom used her best mother’s investigative techniques to get to the bottom of what, who and why. With the result, she’s now also having to deal with the information that her son is missing, and possibly injured or dead. In my view, she’s holding up remarkably.
Demon’s eyes flicker with concern as he views my mom before his expression turns stern when he addresses me, “I’ve got no news, Beth, other than what I’ve already told you. Cad hasn’t been successful getting any answer from the phone, and he’s still working on finding your brother’s location, or at least, where he made the calls from.”
Yes. I knew that. Cad’s been doing all he can to find Connor. That I can understand his difficult task, doesn’t mean I like it. “It was more than twelve hours ago I last spoke to him,” I cry out, reminding Demon. “Connor might be dead.” I ignore the gasp from my mom, but it’s not the first time I’ve voiced that fear. She already knows that either willing or not, her son set up her daughter, and that it was only Ink sacrificing himself that means it’s not me locked up in a jail cell right now. I get to my feet and take hold of Demon’s sleeve as if to stop him moving away. “Demon, there must be something we can do. Let me try to contact Phil…”
“Beth,” he says sharply, “Phil Foster is a man we’ve got in our sights, but I want more information before I confront him. We’ve got to step carefully for now. I will do nothing that could jeopardise Ink getting his freedom—unless you know more about him than you’ve already told me?” When I shake my head—neither Mom nor I have anything other than the belief Phil’s into shady dealings with no specifics at all—Demon continues, “I need to know whether Phil Foster is involved, and if so, in what way, before we approach him.”
“Beth, come and sit down.” Mom clearly realises Demon is fast approaching the point where he’s going to stop being tolerant of my constant questions.
I release my hold on his sleeve, and Demon steps away. I sit again beside Mom on the couch. Jeannie appears, and two fresh cups of coffee are placed in front of us.
“You okay?” she asks, looking from one of us to the other.
Mindful Demon asked me to keep what I know to myself, I meet her eyes, and just confirm the little she already knows. “As much as anyone can be when the man they’ve been seeing has been arrested.”
Her expression softens. “Seen it too often before, sweetie. Just sit tight and let the club sort it out.”
That would be easier were it not all my fault, and if I wasn’t the reason Ink had been taken by the police. Something everyone other than the women are very aware of.
Jeannie might have been sympathetic, and Mel, of course, is supportive though doesn’t know the half of what’s gone on. On the other hand, Ink’s brothers who know it all give off a vibe they really don’t want me here. So much so, rather than a friend of the club, I feel like an intruder. I shiver at just some of the looks sent my way and wish I were anywhere else but here. Question is, where’s better? Cad’s my best hope of finding Connor, and Demon is waiting on information about Ink. I’ll just have to grow a thick skin around men who are blaming me that Ink isn’t here.
Without Ink here, I’m nothing to the club, other than a friend of Mel’s. No greater connection than being the fuck buddy of a brother who, down to no fault of his own, is now in jail.
I wanted to be something to Ink. Hell, I was going to talk to him about starting a real relationship, wasn’t I? That he’d done what he did, stopped me from being arrested, surely suggests he’s got feelings for me too? Fuck Connor for messing up two lives. Though I’m trying to hang onto the hope that Ink might walk free and we can have the discussion I’ve been planning. Though it’s more likely, he’ll want nothing to do with me. No one else has bought my explanation for what I did.
Everyone here, including Mom, thinks I’ve been stupid. I can’t criticise them for that. There are a hundred other routes I could have taken, none of which would have ended with their innocent brother behind bars. In the cold light of this Sunday morning, my reasoning last night is questionable at best, and it’s not just me being punished for it. That the man who could have been the love of my life is lost to me now, tears my heart in two. But what shreds it into pieces is when I wonder what he’s going through. What’s he thinking? I feel so damn miserable, and so damn guilty.
When Jeannie walks off and is out of hearing, Mom turns to face me. Her lips thin. “Take me through it again, Bethany. Starting with why you didn’t tell me Connor was in trouble.”
My lips, copying her expression, press together and I shake my head. “I don’t even know if that was a lie, Mom. Maybe he knew the cops were staking it out and didn’t want to be caught himself.”
Mom frowns. “I don’t have any time for your father, you know that. But I thought Connor would come to his senses one day, not that he was beyond redemption. If he set you up, Beth, then there’s no hope for him. I can’t believe my son would do that.”
Neither can I. “Perhaps he’s an addict himself, Mom? Perhaps he’d do anything to score.”
“Score?” An incredulous laugh escapes. “He doesn’t need to score. Not with ten spare kilos of H he can leave in his old room.”
She’s got a point.
“You okay?” The older biker with ginger hair comes over and sits down. Like Demon, his concern is for my mom. “Still feeling shaky?”
Mom shakes her head. “I’m not okay, but I’m starting to deal. I’m just so
pleased you’ve taken that stuff away.” She shudders. Rusty leans forward and puts his hand on her arm, then moving his fingers down feels her pulse. She lets him. He’d introduced himself as a medic. He doesn’t appear to have much time for me but does for my totally innocent mom.
Anxiously I watch his face, but he doesn’t seem worried.
It’s been a shock for us both. For a week we’ve stored an incredible amount of drugs in our home. What if the police had come searching? Or rival criminals? Or disreputable friends of my brother who’d left it there? He must have known he was putting both of us in danger. There are so many unanswered questions. Who do the drugs belong to? If Connor, where the hell did he get the money to buy them? And if, more likely, it’s someone else, who, and what lengths will they go to, to recover them?
My thoughts prompt me to ask, “What did the club do with it?”
Rusty’s eyes narrow at my question. He rests back in his chair. “Don’t you worry about that.”
“Has it been destroyed?”
He doesn’t deign to answer. Instead he gives Mom such an intense look, she shifts a little uncomfortably. “You’ve had a shock, darlin’. You start to feel rough? You just say.” With that he stands and moves off.
“I wonder what they’ve done with the drugs?” It seems I can’t get that off my mind.
Mom considers for a moment. “They might not destroy them immediately. Might need them as leverage, I don’t know. Offer them up to the cops, perhaps? Plant them on someone?”
I stare at her, my eyes wide.
“What?” she shrugs. “I watch crime shows. You know, where bad guys are set up.”
Just like that she’s reminded me of Ink. “Like I set Ink up,” I say, glumly.
“I still don’t know why you did something so crazy, Bethany. You should have informed the police as soon as you found that Connor might be in danger, and definitely when you found what he had stored. Then Ink wouldn’t be in the position he is.”
“What would you have done, Mom?” I challenge angrily. “Connor could have been, might still have been, telling the truth. His life could have depended on me doing what he said. I didn’t have any time, I was too scared for him to think of myself. Of course I knew what was in it as soon as I’d opened that damn box. The last thing I thought of was calling 911. It didn’t even cross my mind. I couldn’t take the risk that Connor would have been killed.”
“Or that’s what he told you.”
“That’s what I believed at the time, or if those drugs are his, he could have been arrested.”
“Then the right man would be sitting in jail.”
I gasp. Her blunt statement is the truth. Trust Mom to give it to me straight. “I’ve been so, so stupid.” She’s right. If Connor’s dealing heroin, he’d deserve a long sentence, much more than the man who is locked up.
Her hand comes out and rests on mine. “You’re a good sister,” she says, her tone gentling. “What would I have done?” She thinks about it for a few seconds, her brow creasing. “If I had been put on the spot, needing to make a fast decision while being told it was a matter of life or death, I’d like to think different, but have to say, I’d probably have done the same thing as you under the circumstances.” She pauses, then looks straight into my eyes. “Ink must think one hell of a lot about you, Beth, to do what he did.”
I could tell her Ink’s a good man, that he’d have done it for anyone, but I’m pretty certain that’s not true. He did it for me, even though I didn’t ask him to. “I think he must,” I reply at last.
“And what about you? What are your feelings for him?”
“I think I could love him, Mom.” I might even be there already. What more could a girl ask for but someone who’s as good as Ink in the bedroom, fun out of it, and prepared to do anything to keep her safe?
“You’re not someone who’d be happy with a brief fling, Beth. You might have tried to kid yourself you could have walked away if he asked you to, but I reckon your heart would be broken. I was scared, I admit, when you started this relationship, not about him being who he is, but that I thought you would get hurt.”
“The thought of not being able to be with him again, Mom. The thought of only seeing him in a visiting room…”
“It might not come to that,” she rebukes firmly. “We’ll find Connor, build a case, and get Ink out.”
If only that was going to be so easy to do. Now the cops have gotten ahold of a Devil, they’re not going to casually let him go. But Mom’s right, for now, I’ve got to stay as positive as I can.
“You doing okay, Beth?” Mel comes over, indicates I should scoot over, and sits beside me.
It’s down to her that I’m not a quivering wreck. When I’d been brought up from the basement, she’d been there and just allowed me to cry without asking questions. All I could tell her was Ink had been arrested, but I couldn’t tell her why. Surprisingly, she’d seemed to understand that I couldn’t give her more. Just her being there was a comfort to me. When Mom had arrived, she’d made herself scarce so we could talk.
“I’ll be better when we know what’s going on,” I tell my friend. “This isn’t me, Mel. I don’t sit on my hands when I could be doing something to help.”
“But what could you do? Ink obviously got himself into this mess. He’s got to get himself out of it.” She frowns. “The club will be doing all that needs to be done.”
But she hasn’t a clue of the part I played, nor that if I could go to the cops, Ink would surely be released. Unless Demon is right, and they’d still implicate him as well.
At that moment the door to the clubhouse opens and a cold draft sweeps in, along with a man wearing a suit. Immediately I freeze, and it’s not from the temperature drop. Is he a detective?
But when Rusty goes across and warmly shakes his hand, then leads him in the direction of Demon’s office, I realise he looks more like a friend of the club, or, possibly, a lawyer.
If that’s what he is, maybe he’s got news.
Mel’s talking about anything and everything just trying to distract me, but I can only concentrate on the thoughts in my head and everyone about Ink.
I hate this. Hate sitting around unable to do anything. I’m upset, frustrated, and furious at Connor and at myself, as well as angry at the bikers who don’t seem to be doing anything.
Suddenly I stand. Mel stops her conversation with my mom as the latter narrows her eyes suspiciously. “What are you doing, Beth?”
“I’m going to ring Phil.” I don’t care what Demon says. I need to do something.
“No, you’re not.” Mom gets to her feet fast, her hand landing on my arm, and leading me out of earshot of my friend. “You are not getting yourself in any deeper with this. You heard Demon. You could be making things worse and not better.” She wipes a hand across her brow. “You were a little girl when he left, you don’t know what he’s capable of, Beth, I do. He’d never do anything to implicate himself. If he’s behind this, he wouldn’t be beyond letting you, or especially a man he doesn’t know, take the fall for him.”
I open my mouth to say it’s down to me to try to sort the fix Ink is now in, when Beef comes out of Demon’s office and walks over to me.
“Can you come and speak to the lawyer, Beth?”
Try and stop me. I walk so fast the VP struggles to keep up. Opening Demon’s door, I barge straight in.
Demon eyes me tiredly and shakes his head. “Do come in,” he starts, pointedly, then proceeds to the introductions. “Beth, this is Sykes, the club lawyer. Sykes, this is the woman Ink was involved with, Beth.”
“I gathered that,” the lawyer says drily as he stands, shakes my hand, and glances up into my face.
“How’s Ink?” I ask fast. In my mind I imagine him hurt and bleeding. Yeah, well, Mom’s not the only one who watches crime shows on TV and knows about the police brutality.
“Ink’s fine. I’m working on getting him out.”
Words I want to hear but find hard
to believe. For some reason, meeting Ink’s lawyer has made this all too real. I can’t let this go on, if it’s in my power to stop it. “I want to go to the police,” I tell him. “Would it do any good?”
Sykes stares up intently, then motions me to a seat. When we’re sitting, and he can look me straight in the eye, he gives me an answer, “From what I hear from Ink, it could make matters worse. I don’t see how you could help him without you both ending up locked up. At the very least, they’d have Ink for aiding and abetting.” He sighs. “Look at it this way. You brought the heroin with the intention of delivering it to the dealer, Ink ended up doing just that. If I were prosecuting, I’d present the case as that having been the way you arranged it between you.”
I digest that for a moment, reluctantly coming to the conclusion that I have to agree he’s right.
“It’s all my fault.” When the lawyer raises his chin and lowers it, I know he’s not going to argue my point. “I was the idiot who believed my brother. I was the one who took the drugs to the drop. I was the one—”
Sykes holds up his hand. “Demon’s filled me in. Let me play devil’s advocate here. Your mother had a serious quantity of heroin stored in her house for a week. Who says she didn’t know it was there? Your brother sounds like he could very well be a criminal. Who’s to say you’re not as well? Your father is thought to run a gang out of Denver. You’re associated with him too, just by your relationship.”
“None of that is true…”
“May not matter to the cops. Once they start digging who knows what they’ll put together?”
“Should Beth hear Ink’s story?” Demon asks.
Sykes nods. “Yes, for the reason that if she came forward now, it would make Ink out a liar. Ink’s saying,” he turns to me and looks me up and down, “that a man, tall and slim appeared. Ran off when Ink confronted him and dropped the bag. Ink picked it up and was taking it to the cops, when the dealer took it off him at gunpoint.”
Satan’s Devils MC -Colorado Box Set: Books 4-6 Page 58
