Page 68 of Demo

“Has Ivy said anything?” Demo wasn’t sure what Ivy and Scar’s relationship was, though he was fairly certain that it was more of a tenuous partnership than anything else. He had a hard time imagining it being physical, with how anti-touch Scar was.

Bulldog shrugged. “I think she knows less than I do.”

“That’s not good.”

“No, it’s not.”

“I meant what I said,” Demo told him. “If I see Scar again, I’ll try to encourage him to stay. I know you don’t think it’ll do much, but maybe if he hears it from more than just you, it’ll finally sink in.”

“Thanks, man.” Bulldog pointed to the shears in Demo’s hand. “Need some help with that?”

Demo looked over to Barrington and stood up off of the table. “Nah. I got it.”

CHAPTER 12

There was a heavy air to Church the next day. No matter what Bulldog did to the man, Billy Merrick was still clinging to his innocence. He shouted obscenities and called them names, but he never once indicated that he was responsible for the bomb found on club property. Despite the evidence, Billy should have cracked by now. From the way Cage described the man, he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. There was no reason many of them could see for Billy to still claim he was innocent unless hewasinnocent.

Steel slammed his gavel down on the table. Everyone went immediately quiet. “When we first discovered the cellar, I never thought it would be put to use in the way it has been in the past two years. Additionally, I never thought we’d turn into executioners. Don’t get me wrong: I have no regrets. The men, and women,” he added begrudgingly, “who have died by our hands have all deserved it. Whether they threatened us, this town, or the innocent, they all deserved to meet their fates. Some,” Steel said pointedly with an inclination of his head towards Demo, “died too quickly as later crimes have been discovered. Regardless, we cannot raise the dead.

“I have never been conflicted about someone in our cellar before. I know what the evidence states, but I also know what my gut says. And I am questioning Billy Merrick’s guilt. He’s been in the cellar for nearly two weeks. Bigger and stronger men have not lasted half as long.”

“The evidence is solid,” Keys argued. “Everyone saw the video. Unless we believe that somehowYelizavetaframed her husband and built that bomb, which I don’t see how she could have because she was on the other side of their truck at the time it was planted?”

“I hate to ask this,” Grumpy leaned forward, “but what sort of background check did we do on her? She’s Russian and I know she got a green card into the country when she married Merrick. Does she have any connection to the Bratva or any other syndicate?”

Keys shook his head. “I did averythorough background check on her. No connections whatsoever. She calls her aunt in Russia weekly. Beyond that, she has no other family. They were all either executed or imprisoned years ago when she was a child.”

“How did she come to America?” Angel asked.

Keys shifted uncomfortably. “Merrick paid a mail-order bride service. Yelizaveta wasbarelylegal at the time.”

Other than the officers who already knew this fact about Yelizaveta’s history from the time when they’d hired her, everyone’s jaws dropped.

“Wait, so Yelizaveta is an honest-to-God Russian mail-order bride?” Pirate asked with awe.

Steel’s gavel hit the table with an echoingthwack. “Yelizaveta is to be treated with respect at all times!” he admonished. “She is a hardworking employee who deserves no less. Her marriage and the circumstances of how she obtained sanctuary in this country is no one’s business but her own.”

Pirate nodded. “I meant no disrespect,” he said sincerely. “I just didn’t know that was still a thing outside of porn.”

“Yelizaveta has been in this country for nearly twenty years and still struggles with everyday English,” Bulldog pointed out. “That should tell all of you how little her husband pays attention to her. He hasn’t even tried to acclimate her to this country.”

Cage cleared his throat. “I’ve heard him call her ‘the bitch’ to some of the other guys on a jobsite. More than once. I’ve never put up with that shit, even before I knew who Yelizaveta was. He’s careful not to say it around me anymore after I threatened to knock his teeth out last summer.”

“He calls her ‘Elizabeth’,” Angel added. “He doesn’t even use her real name.”

“We can all agree that the man’s an asshole,” Steel interjected. “Unfortunately, if that was the stipulation we used for entry into the cellar, we’d need to build a rotating door into it.”

“And a bigger cellar,” Lucky stated dryly.

“He’s more angry than scared,” Angel added. She was running her fingers along the edge of the MC’s insignia carved into the long conference table. “I even offered Moore a free day if he got Merrick to talk, but Merrick proclaimed he was innocent and that we were fucking idiots.”

“Heis a fucking idiot,” Cage emphasized again. “I don’t think you guys are comprehending just how stupid this man is. I am not saying anything against those mentally challenged,” Cage quickly added towards Lucky. “I am saying that Merrick is just plain dumb. He is the worst plumber on the team.No onewants to work with him because they know they’ll have to go behind him and fix everything he just did. I once saw him apply duct tape to a fitting because he couldn’t figure out it was on backwards and that was why the threads weren’t matching up.” Cage shook his head. “There’s no way he built that bomb. You’ll never have me believing so.”

“Any idiot withGooglecan build a bomb,” Demo argued. “Hell, most supplies needed are in people’s kitchens and they just don’t realize it. Who here knows that sugar can be used to make an explosive more powerful than dynamite?”

Some faces looked more shocked than others.

Demo turned his attention back to Cage. “Only a really stupid person would userubber glueto fuse wires to battery packsandforget to add a trigger.”

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