Page 101 of Golden Atonement

“When what?”

“When did you learn the truth?”

“Sypher cracked the thumb drive shortly after my supposed death. It didn’t take the kid long to figure out I wasn’t really dead. Too many inconsistencies, according to him, and when he put two and two together, he waited and picked up where Pops left off, gathering information. He knew eventually Montana would fuck up. All Sypher had to do was wait and let everything run its course, all the while, he kept a tight lid on everything he learned.”

“I’m gonna beat that little shit’s ass,” Chipper grumbled. “He knows we don’t keep shit from family.”

“He didn’t.” Max smirked. “He went to the only person he knew who could help him that was not associated with us.”

“Ace.” Slaughter smirked. “The kid went to Ace.”

“Yeah,” Max confirmed. “Sypher knew I didn’t trust Montana. Fedorov was like me. He only cared about protecting Illyria. But Montana, well... all that fucker cared about was his precious fucking club. I shouldn’t have second-guessed myself. Pops always told me my first instinct was the right one. Instead, I let my fear of losing Remi cloud my judgment and it damn near cost me everything.”

“What was on the thumb drive?” Massacre asked.

“Everything, and I mean everything,” Max admitted when he turned to look at Ravage. “Pops had gathered information on all the biker clubs and anyone associated with the underground. He left nothing to chance. More specifically, Pops gathered information on George Stone and his involvement with Baranov and Devlin Scott.”

The club enforcer smirked, shaking his head. “Let me guess. Pops knew all along, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“FUCK!” Ravage roared, storming from the clubhouse as Karlyn chased after him.

“Don’t stop now,” Bullseye sneered. “What else haven’t you told us?”

“Everyone of us has a file.”

“Me too?” Romeo, Axel’s brother, spoke up.

Max nodded. “Yes, even your mother Maria.”

“I don’t understand,” Maria said. “I had nothing to do with the club until I moved here.”

“You are a member of the Valentinetti Family,” Max stated, sitting, as he pulled me down onto his lap. “Like I said, there are thousands of files. All compiled into one little fucking thumb drive. I didn’t know what it all meant, and Sypher is still sifting through all the information. It’s a lot.”

“What about him?” Ink glared, pointing to Jason.

“Jason showed up at a crucial point when I was second-guessing everything. My pact with Montana and Fedorov, my faith in this club, but mainly my ability to protect my wife. You all remember what life was like back then. I was constantly drinking. I brought the club sluts back to the clubhouse. I was out of my fucking mind, but when Jason showed up, he also brought me something I wasn’t expecting. Clarity.”

“Gonna need more than that, Prez,” Ink snarked.

“After the party. The night you all welcomed me into the club,” Jason said, speaking up, “I brought Reaper something I found when Mom gave me all of Dad’s stuff. Alex was off fighting a war, and Sarah had just started college. Neither of them wanted anything of Dad’s, so Mom gave it all to me. I was going through Dad’s footlocker one day and found a journal. When I started skimming through it, none of it made sense. It was just a bunch of numbers and letters.”

“A code.” Phantom sighed.

“Yeah.” Jason nodded. “I didn’t know how to read that shit, but I figured Reaper might, so the night after the party, I gave it to Reaper.”

“I didn’t know what it was, either,” Max informed.

“So you called Sypher,” Bullseye groaned. “And let me guess. The fucking genius knew what it was, didn’t he?”

“Yes,” Max muttered. “It was the keys to unlock the thumb drive.”

“Keys?” Massacre asked.

“Every file on the thumb drive has a special key code to unlock it and there are thousands of files. Just to get into the thumb drive, Sypher needed a special thirty-two-bit encryption key code, which was on the first page of Arsenal’s journal.”

“How many key codes are there?” Phantom asked curiously.

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