I couldn’t hold back my grin. “Thank you, sir.”
“So, what happens now?” Claire asked.
“I actually need to go the clubhouse and talk to Copper and the club’s lawyer. I haven’t been charged with a crime and shouldn’t be, but he wants her to know what’s going on in case any problems arise,” I explained.
“Because he was a police officer,” Frank said knowingly.
I nodded. “And because of my history with Ian,” I said quietly.
“But that doesn’t—”
“I know,” I interrupted and jerked my chin toward the stairs where Riley and Braxton were doing a poor job of trying to hide while eavesdropping.
“Riley,” Claire scolded. “What did Nana tell you about being a busybody?”
“You said no one likes a Nosy Nelly,” Riley pouted.
“And what else?”
“And that getting Braxton to listen for me is still being a Nosy Nelly.”
“Well, at least you do listen when you’re supposed to,” Claire huffed. “Go to your room until we call you to come downstairs. You, too, Braxton.”
I covered my mouth to try and stifle my laugh. Riley was a clever child, and she was going to be a handful when she got older.
“Thanks, Mom,” Avery said and wiped the tears from her face.
“Oh, honey. Are you okay? And I don’t mean your face. I mean in here,” Claire said and tapped Avery’s chest.
“I don’t know,” she sniffed. “I couldn’t believe all the things he was saying to me. He told Ian I was having an affair with another officer. He said that’s the reason Ian left me. He wanted to split us up so he could be with me. Then, he said such awful things about Kellan and the kids. He tried to kill my children, Mom! They loved him. They even called him Uncle Mark, and he tried to kill them! How could he do that?”
Claire shook her head. “Something must’ve been wrong with him. Something he was able to keep hidden from everyone. But you can’t dwell on that. The fact is you may never know why he did the things he did, and you can’t go back and undo them. But you can take comfort in the knowledge that he’s gone and can’t hurt your family anymore.”
“He can if Kellan gets in trouble for shooting him,” Avery countered.
“That’s not going to happen,” I reassured her. “But I do need to get to the clubhouse to make absolutely certain it doesn’t. When I’m finished, I’ll come back to pick you up and we can go see Sienna.”
When I walked into the clubhouse, Layla was in the common room. She looked up and pointed to Church. I lifted my chin in thanks. I pushed through the door and said, “Happy Fucking New Year,” to Copper and Bronze before I dropped into an empty chair.
“You okay, brother?” Copper asked.
I shrugged. “Yeah. Not my first kill, probably won’t be my last.” When Copper blinked at me several times with a blank expression on his face, it occurred to me that I should’ve chosen my words more carefully. “I wasn’t talking about Ian. I killed the guy who attacked Keegan.”
Copper nodded. “I know. I was just seeing what else you would say if I made you uncomfortable.”
“Really, Prez?” I asked, somewhat pissed off by his tactics.
“Think of it as my way of making sure you were really okay. You don’t have to like it, but it works, so I use it,” he explained.
“Got it. For future reference, I don’t have a problem taking the life of a man who was about to kill one of my friends or family members. This motherfucker had his gun trained on Avery, after he hit her, twice. He tried to kill me and her kids. I don’t have a single ounce of regret about killing him.”
“Good. Phoenix called a few minutes ago with some information. Apparently, Mark Pruitt was terminated from his job as highway patrolman for ‘not following department policies.’ Not sure what that means, but Byte is going to try to find out.”
“When was he fired?” I asked.
“Two weeks ago. Why?”
“The police report for my wreck and the witness statements didn’t make any sense. I’m wondering if he altered them to help cover his tracks. And if he did, did he mess with the reports for Claire’s accident as well?”
Copper rubbed his chin. “Seems like a good possibility to me. I’ll mention it to Phoenix so Byte will have something more specific to look for. Spazz has been looking through Mark’s home computer to see if he has anything of interest stored on it.”
“He’d be a fucking idiot if he did,” I said.
“Or overly cocky, which it sounds like he was,” Bronze added.
“How’s Avery?” Copper asked.
“She’s hanging in there right now, but I don’t think the weight of it all has had time to fully hit her yet. Someone she thought was a trusted family friend was betraying her for years. That’s going to have some kind of effect on her.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help,” Copper offered.
“Thanks, Prez.”
A knock sounded at the door before it was pushed open and Spazz entered the room with his laptop. “I think I may have found something.”
“You think?” Copper asked.
Spazz placed his laptop on the table and started to explain. “He doesn’t have much saved on his machine, but he does have a lot of pictures and videos saved to a cloud. I haven’t been through them all, but there’s a shit ton of pictures of Avery. At first, I thought the videos were just porn clips he’d downloaded, but then I noticed the dates on them. The first one is from a few months ago and they’re all exactly one week apart. Again, I haven’t watched all of them, but I did watch a few minutes of the first one and, well, you can see for yourself.”
Mark appeared on the screen with a sinister grin on his face. He stepped to the side and revealed a woman standing with her back to the camera. A woman with long, auburn hair. “Take off your clothes, Avery,” Mark instructed.
“The fuck?” I roared.
Spazz held his hand up. “Just wait.”
“Fuck that!” I said and pushed away from the table. No way in hell was I going to watch whatever the hell was playing on his screen.
“It’s not her,” Copper said.
My eyes darted back to the screen and I couldn’t hide my shock at what I saw. The woman was facing the camera completely naked, and it most definitely wasn’t Avery. “Holy shit!”
“Isn’t that your ex-wife?” Bronze asked.
“Yep, that’s Kelly,” I said in disbelief. “What in the hell is she doing?”
“Looks like she’s about to fuck the dirty cop,” Bronze stated.
“Shhh,” Spazz hissed.
“How did it feel when your boyfriend used your pussy as a get-out-of-jail free card?” Mark sneered.
Kelly’s lips curled up in a devious grin. “It was my idea,” she purred.
“Was it now?” he asked as he walked toward her. “Bend over, bitch. Let’s see why your boyfriend keeps you around.”
When Mark thrust into her and started calling her Avery, I’d seen enough. “Turn it off,” I barked.
Spazz stopped the video and stared at the three of us expectantly. “What?” Copper finally asked.
Spazz sighed. “He said, ‘Let’s see why your boyfriend keeps you around.’ He also mentioned her boyfriend using her as a ‘get-out-of-jail free card.’ So, I started looking through the traffic stops Mark Pruitt made around the time of the first video, and Todd Russo was one of them.”
“Todd ‘we-took-your-gym’ Russo?” Bronze asked.
“That’d be the one,” Spazz confirmed.
“Was he ticketed?” Copper asked.
“He was arrested for DUI and possession of cocaine,” Spazz told us.
“What’re you getting at?” I asked.
“I’m not sure yet, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Todd’s name is tied to Kelly and Mark. Oh, one other thing, the stolen tags on the truck belong to Todd’s uncle.”
“How did you f
igure that out?” I asked.
Spazz grinned. “One of the first things I did was check Mark’s browser history. I found an obituary for Todd’s grandfather that listed the surviving relatives.”
“I know this is fun for you, but put the pieces together for us before I beat it out of you,” Copper grumbled.
“I haven’t found any proof, but I’m guessing Mark knew who Todd was and tried to blackmail him. I don’t know how Kelly plays into it, other than the obvious, but my guess is they had something to do with Claire’s accident.”
“That fucking cunt,” I fumed. Kelly had always been the very essence of a spoiled brat—throwing an all-out tantrum when she didn’t get her way—but if she had anything to do with hurting Claire, I was going to make damn sure she paid for it.
“Hold on. Who is Todd?” Copper snapped.
“It’s more of who his uncle is. Luca Peccati,” Spazz announced proudly.
“As in those Peccatis?” Copper asked in surprise.
Spazz nodded. “As in those Peccatis.”
“Fuck,” Copper cursed. “What do we know about Luca Peccati?”
“Not much,” Spazz admitted. “He’s the oldest son of the late Luca Peccati, Sr. He has a home in Cedar Valley, as well as several others around the country. He’s a wealthy businessman with his hand in several pots. He tries to keep a low profile, but ends up in the news every now and then with organized crime accusations. Thus far, they’ve never been able to make anything stick.”
“Get me his contact info,” Copper ordered.
I looked back and forth between Copper and Bronze as Spazz’s fingers moved across the keyboard.
Copper shrugged and answered my unasked question. “The only way we’ll find out anything is by talking to him. If he doesn’t know that his nephew has been working with a dirty cop and pissing off motorcycle clubs, bringing it to his attention will be seen as a courtesy.”
“And, if he did know?” I asked.
“If he did know, then we’re about to have trouble with the mafia, and I’d rather know sooner than later.”
42
Avery
After Kellan left to go to the clubhouse, I excused myself and went upstairs to take another shower. Even though I knew I was clean, I still felt like I was covered in Mark’s blood.
I turned the shower on as hot as I could stand it and stepped under the spray. As soon as the hot water hit my shoulders, the tears poured from my eyes. How could I have been so blind to what was going on with Mark? And Ian. How could he just leave without talking to me? How could he believe Mark without any proof?
I wanted to scream at the injustice of it all. But I couldn’t do that without scaring my children and alarming my parents. So, I did what all mothers do at some point or another and held it all in for the sake of my family.
While I washed my hair and scrubbed my skin, I thought back to the night Ian left. Over and over, I replayed our conversation from that night trying to remember if he said anything I may have missed. I couldn’t bear the thought of him leaving this world thinking I was unfaithful to him.
“Mommy?” Riley called, effectively interrupting my thoughts and scaring the shit out of me.
“Yes?” I croaked and cleared my throat.
“Nana told me to come check on you. She said you’d been in the shower for a long time. Are you okay?” she asked.
Upon hearing her words, I noticed the water had run cold and my body was shivering. “Thanks for checking on me. Tell Nana I’m fine and I’m getting out now.”
“Okay, Mommy,” she replied and closed the door. Then she yelled, “She’s fine and getting out now, Nana!”
I quickly dried myself off and wrapped my hair in a towel before diving under the covers of my bed to try and get warm. Within minutes, I fell asleep.
I woke to my father gently shaking my shoulder. “Avery, you need to get dressed and come downstairs.”
“Why? What’s wrong?” I asked.
“There is a police officer here to speak with you.”
My forehead wrinkled in confusion. “How long have I been asleep?”
“I’m guessing around four hours, and that’s not counting the hour you were in the shower,” he said.
My mouth dropped open in surprise. I hadn’t meant to sleep that long. Actually, I hadn’t meant to fall asleep at all. “Oh, okay. Give me a minute to get dressed and comb my hair, and I’ll be right down.”
He nodded and closed the door behind him. I quickly got up and pulled on a long-sleeved T-shirt and a pair of yoga pants. My hair was a lost cause, so I ran a brush through it and pulled it back into a messy bun. After a quick swish with mouthwash, I made my way downstairs.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” I said to the officer. “If this has to do with this morning, could we speak in the kitchen or outside so my children don’t overhear our conversation?”
“Of course, Ms. Parker, whichever you’d be more comfortable with,” the man I recognized as the Sheriff said.
“Kitchen it is. Would you care for a cup of coffee?” I asked and gestured for him to follow me.
“Please.”
Once I had the coffee started, I joined the Sheriff at my kitchen table. “So, what brought you all the way to Devil Springs?”
“I have a few questions about Mark Pruitt I was hoping you could answer.”
“Well, I didn’t know him very well, so I’m not sure how much help I’ll be,” I said sharply.
He cocked his head to the side. “He wasn’t a close friend of your family?”
“I thought he was, but he obviously wasn’t. Close friends don’t attack you and threaten to kill you. And they damn sure don’t try to kill your boyfriend and your children,” I spat.
“I have to agree with you there,” he said and cleared his throat. “So, you didn’t know Mark Pruitt had an obsession with you?”
“No, sir. Not until this morning.”
“How long had you known Mark?”
I didn’t even have to think about it. “For almost ten years. I met him the same night I met my late husband, Ian. Mark was Ian’s best friend, so he was always around. He was Ian’s best man at our wedding and he gave the eulogy at Ian’s funeral. He was like a member of our family. Or so I thought.”
When the coffee pot chimed, I rose from the table and poured a cup for each of us. I placed his cup on the table in front of him and reached into the fridge for the creamer before taking my seat. I was thankful to have something to do with my hands—even it was just to wrap them around my mug.
“After your husband died, how often did you see or speak to Mark?”
“At first, I saw him every day and spoke to him several times a day. He was a big help to me and the kids. After a month or so, he would call or stop by to check in once a week. When I moved to Devil Springs, he came to visit maybe one weekend a month until the beginning of the summer. I didn’t notice it at the time because I was sick and ended up being admitted to the hospital several times, but that’s when the phone calls from him stopped, too,” I shared.
The Sheriff cleared his throat and shifted in his chair. “We did a search of Mark’s house earlier today and we found enough evidence to support everything you and your boyfriend told us this morning.”
“What kind of evidence?” I asked even though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
“We found pictures of you that had been taken through a zoom lens. We found video recordings of Mark calling other women Avery while he had sexual intercourse with them. He had detailed accounts of your daily activities, as well as those of your parents, your children, and Mr. Ward. We found a black Dodge Ram with visible body damage in a detached garage on his property. And we found some other things that don’t have anything to do with your case that we need to look into further.”
“You didn’t have to come all the way out here to tell me that,” I blurted, still in shock at some of the things he’d just told me.
“Well, I wanted to tell you person
ally that we won’t be filing any charges against you or Mr. Ward, but I also wanted to give you this,” he said and pulled a folded envelope from the pocket on the front of his shirt.
“I’m not sure how this wound up in Mark’s hands, but I wanted to make sure it ended in yours,” he said and pushed the envelope across the table.
“What is it?” I asked as I stared at the piece of paper like it was coated with a light dusting of Anthrax.
“Something you should read in private,” he said and got to his feet. “I should get going. Thank you for the coffee.”
“Of course,” I stammered and walked him to the front door.
He held out his hand and I shook it. “Take care, Ms. Parker.”
“What did he want?” my mom asked as soon as the door was closed.
“I’ll tell you in a minute,” I said and hurried back to the kitchen. Snatching the letter off the table, I headed upstairs and closed myself in my closet.
After inhaling deeply and slowly blowing it out, I carefully unfolded the envelope and pulled out the letter inside.
Avery,
I know you’re hurt and confused. And if I know you, mad as hell, too. I’m sorry, love. I had to do it to protect you and the kids. Something is going on with Mark. I stopped by his house last week to borrow his leaf blower, but he wasn’t home. I let myself into his garage to grab it and found a wall covered with pictures of you. I was so shocked, I just left. Hundreds of pictures, Avery. Some recent and some from years ago. I was fucking pissed, but I knew I needed to handle it carefully. A few days later, he told me you were having an affair with another officer. He suggested I leave you and request a transfer. So, I let him think that’s what I was doing until I figure out what in the hell to do about him. He needs help, but my main priority is making sure you’re safe. I love you, Avery. I know you didn’t cheat, but I needed your reactions to seem real, because I knew he was watching you. I’m sorry for the pain I’ve caused you the last few days, but I did it for our family. You, Riley, and Braxton are everything to me. I held out as long as I could, but you deserved to know the truth. Stay strong and take care of our kids. This will all be over soon. I love you with every beat of my heart.
Savior (Blackwings MC - Devil Springs Book 3) Page 20
