Page 39 of Sweet Revenge

“You don’t trust Nick?” Cam asked defensively.

“I don’t know Nick, brother.” Bear faced Cam. “You may know him, you may think you know who he is now, but the truth is none of us knows if he’s even on our side. What he’s been living for over a year now is beyond any other undercover job you’ve had. It changes men.” He motioned between himself and Gunner. “We’ve watched it happen. Good men, men we’d never expect to go down ugly roads, did and for no other reason than the shit they spew started to make sense. After you hear it for so long, it starts to become who you are.”

Luke moved to lean against the desk in the office and crossed his arms over his chest. “We have something Nick wants, something we think is keeping him going in the right direction.”

The muscles in my shoulders tightened when I tensed. “What?”

Cam sighed loudly. “I talked about Madelyn…well, Maddie to us.”

My eyes flicked back and forth between Luke and Cam. “She has a kid now,” I reminded them, “with another fucking guy.”

“I let him know that didn’t work out. Told him she’s on her own, refuses to let anyone help, that no one has even seen the kid except Sydney, and that was in the hospital. That kid is almost three months old. She’s isolating herself from everyone.”

My eyebrows lifted. “What’d he say?”

“Not a damn thing.” Cam smirked. “Got real quiet. I know him. He’s only that damn quiet when something pisses him off or is out of his control. Something important.”

“Yeah, so what’s gonna be his next move if you know him so well?” Bear asked sarcastically.

Cam frowned. “I don’t know. Couldn’t get anything specific out of him, but if he says to step back, there’s a reason.”

“That’s all we’ve been doing.” Bear lowered his voice. “Sitting on my fucking hands does not sit well with me. We haven’t brought in anyone else that we normally trust because we do not want it fucking leaked that we’re interested in where Snake is.” He looked right at Luke. “Striker find anything?”

Luke shook his head. “Nope. Nothing. Said he followed a trail, but it went cold right outside of town. He doesn’t believe Snake’s still in town. Of course, when he asked around, no one saw a fucking thing. Either that, or everyone’s too damn afraid to speak up.”

“I think that’s more likely.” Bear swore under his breath. “Between the fucking Widows and the Diablos, people around here are scared to speak up. We need to get them out of here, all of them.”

“Agree.” Luke jerked up his chin. “I can tell you the FBI is all over the Diablos, and the last I heard, they have enough to grab Julio, who’s the current leader.”

Bear put his hands on his hips and looked at the floor. “So we got nothing.”

“My father.” I muttered angrily.

Bear’s head shot up. “You think he has him?”

I nodded. “He has him.”

Cam frowned. “Why do you think that now when during our last meet you didn’t?”

“I didn’t think this would be worth his time, but if Nick and Snap are telling the truth and don’t know where he is, then I think that’s because my father got involved.”

“You think he knows we have Maggie?” Bear asked.

“Probably.” I put my hands on my hips and dropped my head. “Fuck.”

“What do you want to do?” Luke inquired.

I let the hate for that man, the hate that I normally kept a tight hold on, bubble to the surface. “We draw him out.”

Cam shook his head. “How?”

“We bait him.”

“You got something he’ll want?”

“The same damn thing he’s wanted for the past five years,” I answered honestly.

“The video.” Bear guessed.

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