Page 83 of Lawless in Leather

“Looking at the Angels’ social media reports,” Mal said. “Another one of those feather accounts popped up.”

“Feather accounts?” Lucas asked, walking around behind Mal to peer over his shoulder. “Does this have something to do with Marly? Is she still getting crap online?”

“They all do,” Mal said. “A depressing percentage of men seem to think that ‘come sit on my face’ is the social media equivalent of hello. But no, she hasn’t had anything specific. Not that I can figure out. The first account that messaged her was shut down by the time I got to look at it. But every so often, I get a ping on that feather image it used. So far, about ninety percent of the time, it’s people just using similar feather pics. But there have been a couple of accounts that appear, comment or DM something at one of the Angels—Marly twice—and then close down again.”

“Can you trace the users?”

“I have some of the guys at MC looking into it. It’s not easy unless whoever it is fucks up and forgets to hide his identity. And so far this guy is being very, very careful. But they’re digging.”

“Well, if anyone can do it, your guys can,” Lucas said. “So why don’t you come downstairs and join in the celebration?”

Mal shook his head.

“C’mon, Mal, you’ve been holed up down here since the party,” Lucas said.

“It’s not like I have anything else to occupy my time,” Mal said. “And we kind of have a lot going on.”

Lucas walked back around the desk. “Have you talked to Raina?”

“She made it fairly clear she didn’t want to talk to me,” Mal said.

“Well, she was freaked out,” Lucas said. “You did go a little overboard. But that was a week ago. She’s had some space. You should give it a go. Unless you’re determined to be an idiot and lose the best thing that’s happened to you for several years.”

“I thought buying the Saints was the best thing we’d done in several years,” Mal said.

“It’s very cool but a baseball team isn’t going to keep you warm at night. Won’t build a life with you. Won’t love you,” Lucas said. “If you want all that, of course.”

“I scared her,” Mal said. That was the part that was killing him. The fact that he’d scared her. Made her feel unsafe. She was too strong to be scared. And she’d been through plenty of crap without him adding to it.

“Yes, I imagine you did,” Lucas said. “But you know, in the medical world, we have this thing about symptoms and causes. If you ask me, what you did at the club is a symptom. Remove the cause, lose the symptom.”

“I’m not sure it’s that simple.”

“Didn’t say it was simple. It might be that this has all triggered some of the stuff you thought you’d dealt with when you first got out. And after Ally’s death. Maybe you’ll need to talk to someone about that some more. Or maybe if you find the fucker who’s messing with Raina and the Angels, you’ll be fine. Neither of which is an easy fix. But it’s worth thinking about.”

“You think she’d talk to me?” Mal asked.

“You can at least try an apology,” Lucas said. “Start from there and work up to some world-class groveling. Give her the moon. Or whatever the Raina equivalent of that is. That usually works. But only if you’re ready to listen to her and curb those instincts of yours. Otherwise you’re just going to set up the cycle all over again. And that won’t be doing anyone any favors. So think about it, but think hard before you decide.” He drained his beer, set the empty bottle on Mal’s desk. “Now, it’s my professional opinion that you are in desperate need of a few of these and eight solid hours’ sleep. But you’re a big boy and I’m not going to force you to come join the party.”

“That’s because you know you couldn’t,” Mal said, feeling a flash of humor for the first time in a week.

“You keep telling yourself that, big guy,” Lucas said. “Brains win over brawn any day.”

“You wish. Now stop bothering me. I can’t do anything until I’ve finished looking at this, so if you want me to stop working, then leave me alone.”

“Sad, sad, sad,” Lucas said, but he left. Mal shook himself and got back to work.

In the end he didn’t go to the party but he did shut down his system at midnight and call Ned to drive him home. When he got there, he showered, changed and made himself a sandwich, feeling hungry for the first time in days. He was eating it standing over the counter in his kitchen, trying to ignore the fact he missed Wash prowling around trying to steal his food, when his phone beeped to tell him he had an email.

Lucas.

Apparently midnight was the perfect time to take another swing at him. He almost ignored the message but changed his mind and checked it.

Something to think about, the subject line read.

Then the message was just: Better than a baseball team. L.

There was a video file attached.

---