Page 92 of Suspicious

Shrugging, I throw my arms to the side in frustration. “What the hell did you think prospecting was going to be, Hayes? Brothers getting together every night and having a group-fucking-hug? Being a prospect is all about us pushing you to the point where youwantto quit!We only want a brother at our six, who we know is willing to go through everything and will be there to fight beside us. The fact is, Hayes, we all went through theexactsame process you did. The onlydifference is we sucked it up…You. Fucking. Didn’t!”

Hayes’ nostrils flare, but it’s Bennett who reacts, sending a mocking laugh through the air. “While this is incredibly amusing to me, can we get on with therealreason you’re here invadingmytime?”

Bea steps forward, reaching for Haven’s blade. My eyes widen, but I don’t have time to stop her before she steps up to the side of Bennett’s desk, aiming the blade at him without any hint of fear. “You hacked my app and stole personal information from my clients. How? Why?”she demands, getting straight to the point.

Bennett’s eyes glance down at the blade, a smirk crossing his face as he spins back to look at Hayes, raising his brow. “You want to answer this one, seeing as you’resodesperate for respect?”

Hayes puffs out his chest, standing taller, and nods in response. “Because I was getting sick and tired of Loki treating me like a second-class citizen, I wanted to show him my worth. Show him I’m not the dumbass he thought of me. I wanted toproveI could be just as smart as Wes or Montana… I decided to spend my time listening. Hang back in conversations to see if there was anything I could do to Loki to prove Iamworthy.”

Furrowing my brows, I stare at him like he has completely lost his mind. I should have seen the warning signs earlier. But I’ve been so lost in my own shit that I didn’t see he was losing his.

“Anyway, one day, I heard him talking about Bea’s app and how she was going into the women’s prison to get them to sign up, and it got me thinking about how she would have all the criminals’ personal and medical information stored in the backend of her system. Plus, all their habits and use of the app. It’s a gold mine of information… for the right person.”

Alpha steps forward this time to back me up. “Loki’s right, Hayes. You don’t deserve the leather you’re wearing.”

Hayes snorts out a laugh, shakes his head, then shrugs out of his cut. “I don’t need this fucking thing. IthoughtI wanted to be Defiance. But I don’t needyouor your stupid club. When I brought the information of Bea’s app to the governor, he offered for me to join his security detail. So, this…” he holds the leather cut up in the air, “… meansshitto me,” he growls out, then swiftly drops the cut on the floor. The leather hits the carpet with a hefty thud, all of us curling our lips up in disgust, my stomach rolling with anger.

If there’s one thing you donotdo, it is to let your cut touch the floor.

Scowling, I bend down, pick up the idiot’s cut, and fold it over my arm. As I rise, my eyes meet his. He smirks, clearly feeling like he holds power right now.

He doesn’t.

Bea steps forward, her eyes enraged. “I stood up for you! I defended you! Told people at the club that you’d prove yourself. That you wouldn’t have stuck it out for so long if you weren’t willing to go the extra mile for Defiance, and you fucking dropthe club cut on the floor like that? I don’t even care what you’ve done tomeat this point, but evenI knowfrom my short time at the club, whatyoujust did, Hayes, wasfuckingdisrespectful. Aftereverythingthey have done for you… you’re just going to throw it all away.” Bea snorts out a mocking laugh. “I shouldneverhave believed in you… you had someone on your side, Hayes. You hadmeon your side.Now you have to live with the fact that theone personwho could have helped you is the person you betrayed.”

Hayes inhales sharply, his jaw wracking from side to side, and for the first time, his cocky attitude is silenced.

Side-eyeing Bennett, I let out a long exhale. “Let me ask you something, Governor… so Hayes came to you with this opportunity, and you hacked into the app. You got the information on the criminals Bea has on her system, then blackmailed her into trying to give you money for your silence, and in return, you gave Hayes asylum working for you, right? Then what is itexactlythat you get for stealing all this information and fucking up Bea’s life in the process?”

Bennett shrugs, reaching for the top drawer of his desk. We instantly aim our guns at him, and he hesitates with a chuckle but then continues to pull something out of his drawer at a slow pace. He grabs a cigar, then goes about lighting it, and sits back in his chair with the smuggest of looks on his face.

“For a tech genius, you’re not too bright, are you, Loki?” he states, puffs out a smoke ring, then continues, “As you can see from my stance on drugs and the reform I am trying to pass, I want a different kind of California… a different kind of America. And, if I can start doing that by getting the names, movements, and activities of criminals, then I am going to do whatever I can to achieve that.”

Snorting out a laugh, I shake my head. “You want their information so you can control them… manipulate them the wayyou tried to manipulate Bea?”

Bennett inhales deeply on his cigar, raising his brows and saying nothing in response. But it’s Bea who steps forward, still with the blade in her hand aimed in his direction. “You’re trying to portray yourself as this sparkly clean politician who values a non-corrupt and non-criminal America, butyou’rethe one doing all this shady shit on criminals,and to be fair, normal civilians like me, buried for your own personal gain. Tell me you’re a hypocrite without telling me you’re a fucking hypocrite?”

Smiling at my Old Lady as she stands up for herself, it’s impossible not to feel fucking proud of her right now.

Bennett suddenly stands, the smug smile on his face dropping, sending the tension in the room up another notch. “You’re trying to tell me thatyou,Beatrice Underwood, are anormalcivilian? You have been riding with these thugs for weeks. You wear Loki’s property patch, and you expectmeto take it easy onyou?No! You belong in prison withevery oneof these gutless pieces of trash.”

Surging forward, my feet thump hard on the carpet, and my ears ring with the undeniable rage swirling through my body. My skin vibrates with the anger pulsing through my veins. I don’t hesitate reaching him, my fists shoving Bennett back against the wall with such force the sheetrock shudders, a crack rippling up the façade as I grit my teeth, glaring at him. “Talk to her like that again, and I will fucking….End. You!” I growl, my fist coming back and slamming straight into his jaw.

His head snaps to the side, his obnoxious laughter only causing my anger to ignite in a fury of rage, pulling back my fist to hit him again, but the muzzle of a gun is pressed to my temple, causing my hand to pause in midair.

“Hit him again…I dare you,”Hayes growls while Alpha and Montana step up, reaching for my cut, attempting to pull meoff the governor. I resist, trying to keep a hold of him, my teeth grinding hard enough they squeak.

“Loki. Let the asshole go,” Alpha states matter-of-factly.

Huffing, I reluctantly drop the prick from my grip with a small shove. He grins, straightening out his suit as I step in beside Bea, pulling her to me. She wraps her arms around me, and instantly, I feel calmer being near her.

She forces a slight smile in a gesture of thanks.

Bennett takes his seat again, Hayes by his side—his staunch protector.

I should have seen this coming, clued in on Hayes’ suspicious behavior before this—this is all on me.

Bennett chuckles, shrugging his shoulders like me beating his ass meant nothing to him. “What did you expect when you came in here? That you would tell me to delete everything I have? Were you going toblackmailme? The thing is, Alpha… Loki… Beatrice, my love,you… have… nothing.You came in ill-prepared because you didn’t know about your little traitor in Hayes here and that he warned me you were on your way. I have everything here in recording.” Bennett glances up at the small camera attached to the ceiling.

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