Page 6 of Tarnished

“Where’s Clarke?” he finally asked.

“None of your fucking business,” I told him immediately. He clenched his jaw but remained silent. “Beck, right?” He nodded once, his eyes never leaving me. River and Sam leaned against the wall, letting me handle this. “You were a guard, correct?” He nodded again. “Why didn’t you follow the orders you were no doubt given and try to kill me and Joey?”

“Was that the man with you?” he asked. When I only stared at him, he flushed the tiniest bit and cleared his throat. “Sorry,” he rasped, looking down at his lap. “I was trying to rescue Clarke.”

“Why?” I demanded. Why the fuck was a guard trying to rescue what they were supposed to consider nothing more than property? A money-hole?

He licked his dry lips. “I… I didn’t know why you were there. For all I knew, you were trying to take them for yourselves, and if you killed me… well, she would no longer have help.”

I hummed and crouched in front of him, resting my elbows on my knees. His breath hitched in his throat, his face paling the tiniest bit as he lifted his eyes to look at me. “Surely her parents would still be looking for her.” I arched a brow at him, waiting for more of an explanation.

Anger brewed in his light eyes immediately, and his scoff surprised me. “They’ve been faking every bit of their tears and sadness for the media since Clarke went missing. They do not care,” he spat, venom lacing his words. “If I hadn’t done something, she was going to die there. Never return home. Never be saved.”

“Who is she to you?” I demanded to know. The boy was singing like a canary, and I wanted to keep him talking. I had no doubt he was telling the truth, but I needed to know every detail I could get from him. My gut was telling me something bigger was going on, and my gut had yet to lead me astray. It was the only reliable thing I’d had my entire life.

“She’s my stepsister,” he rasped. I had a feeling she was a hell of a lot more to him than just his stepsister, but I wouldn’t pry that far. “I’m all she has—the only person that gives a fuck about what happens to her. I refuse to abandon her. I had plans to get us out of the country once I got her out of there. I have IDs and passports ready to go, and I have money stashed away. She can’t go back home.” His cheeks were red with his concern and anger. “She can’t. Please promise me you won’t send her back home. She’s eighteen. Legally, she can do what she wants.”

“Tell me more about your parents,” I said instead of giving him the promise he desperately wanted. I couldn’t keep Clarke here forever unless I had a reason to keep her hidden away from her parents and the public. River would never allow it, and I would never betray the man who’d given me a second chance. Who’d treated me like family from the moment we met.

My loyalty belonged to this club. Always.

Beck deflated, his shoulders slumping. Part of me hated the look of defeat written all over his body. I clenched my jaw, biting back the words I so desperately wanted to give him. But I couldn’t. Not until I’d taken this up at the table. Not until the rest of the club had given their vote on keeping Clarke here under our protection.

“They have to be involved,” he finally said. “When I was home, they never stopped doing the things they’d always done. My dad continued working. My stepmom continued shopping and attending brunches and dinners as if everything was normal. As if her daughter wasn’t missing.” He swallowed roughly, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the movement. “The few days I was home, people were coming and going—men and women who had personal guards. Who carried guns and knives. Everything about them made my skin crawl.”

Fuck.

I had a feeling they’d traded their daughter or sold her. No doubt in my fucking mind.

I stood back to my full height and turned on my heel, heading for the stairs. River and Sam quickly followed me. “Hey!” Beck called. I paused, glancing at him over my shoulder. River heaved a tired sigh. Beck drew in a deep breath. “You never promised me.”

“It’s not a promise I can make right now,” I told him honestly.

The look of defeat and pain on his face fucking gutted me.

“Tank interrogated the boy,” River began once we were all in the chapel later that day, his elbows braced on the table, his fingers steepled in front of him. “Clarke is his stepsister, and he thinks their parents are involved in her disappearance.”

“Well, fuck,” Gin muttered, leaning back in his chair. “That makes shit hella fuckin’ complicated.”

I silently agreed with him. We couldn’t return her home, and we also couldn’t return her to any family. Family tended to spill secrets, never wanting to believe someone in their family could be so vile and disgusting. Clarke wouldn’t be safe there. And the ring still hadn’t been torn down completely. Alejandro was still on the hunt for the big players, and while they were still at large, Clarke was in danger…

And now also Beck.

He’d been brave as hell for infiltrating that ring and trying to save her. As soon as we had names for them, Alejandro had background checks pulled, and I’d scrounged through both of their files just a little while ago.

Beck had been on track to play professional hockey. He already had offers on the fucking table. But he’d given it all up to hunt down his stepsister, the same girl he was no doubt in love with.

That took balls.

“I think we should offer both of them protection,” Sam spoke up, surprising the fuck out of me. He drummed his fingers on the table, the bulky, skull rings on his fingers glinting in the overhead lighting. “I’m sure people are on the hunt for Beck. His body won’t turn up when they scrounge through that building and identify their guards. And if their parents sold Clarke, then they’ll be on the hunt for her, too. Sending Beck back home might cost him his life.”

River looked around the table. “All in favor of offering Beck and Clarke protection?”

Everyone raised their hands, even me. River nodded once and looked at me. “Both of them are under your care, clear?” I nodded once. River looked at Alejandro. “We need a safe house.”

“Best place for those two is out of the country,” he said. “I have a safe house down in Mexico. I will have my men guard it.” He looked at me. “I assume you will be going with them?”

When I looked at River, he nodded once. “You go where they go,” he told me.

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