Page 78 of Savior

“Nate,” Mike called out. “If you could pay a little bit of attention, this does concern you. Okay, sweetie?”

“How does any of this concern me? I told you that I’d give you the details of the night I was on call, but I don’t need to be involved in whatever team-building—”

“The Sons are successful because they work as a unit!” I snapped over him. “No one goes off on their own. It’s why it never seemed to matter how many you arrested, there were plenty more to take their place. They are completely committed to the cause.”

“Like Hydra,” Dakota whispered to no one.

I took a deep breath for courage and turned back to Nate. “As much as you don’t want to believe it, this does concern you. They’re going after the people I love. First, it was my father and then my grandparents. Tomorrow, it might be you.”

“Katy—”

My eyes burned with the need to cry. “Mike, you were right. We either work as a team or not at all. So, tell us what we need to do.”

He picked up a pen from the island and clicked it several times with a slow nod. “Bear—he mentioned something about the guy in the video maybe being a cop. Do you still have it?”

“Right here.” I pulled my cell phone from my pocket, carefully avoiding looking at Nate. I kept my eyes down, knowing that if I looked up, the tears clogging my throat would spill over onto my cheeks. “It was sent to me that... um, night. They wanted me to believe that you helped my father get out of the hospital without being seen.”

Nate nodded. “So, you left.”

Mike plucked it from my fingers before snorting. “Fucking hell! Masterson, this prick look familiar to you?”

“Son of a bitch,” Zane cursed. “Well, now we know how they were able to take your fucking job from you. Corruption goes all the way to the top. “

“Let me see,” Nate said before walking over to Mike. “That’s the guy who warned me to stay out of it. I thought he was with the club—”

“Nope,” Mike said, clicking his tongue against his teeth. “That’d be Sergeant Rogers, the bastard who cost me my job. Change of plans, kids. I think it might be time for a little surveillance work.”

Hadn’t we had enough excitement for one day?

Was I the only one who wanted to sleep off the remnants of last night?

“Lauren, you’re with me. We’ll stake out Sergeant Rogers’ house tonight, see if he leads us anywhere. We know the department had multiple moles, so maybe he’ll give up a few or at least get us on the right track.”

Zane pushed off the counter with a nod. “Dakota and I can take Bear. He says his hands are clean, but there’s only one way to know for sure if he’s talking to anyone outside the club.”

Mike nodded. “Good. We know that there are weak links within both of those. Who else do we have? Wait, where the fuck is Goblin?”

I moved until my back was against the wall, praying that I somehow blended in enough to not be called on. It was the same thing I’d done to get out of most team sports in high school.

“Um,” Dakota began, gnawing at the corner of her lip. “Okay, so no more secrets, right? You said that. Okay, I guess now is a good time to mention that I may have done something to upset Little Ricky, but I was only doing it in the interest of information. Information is the key to a long—”

“Dakota ran a paternity test on Little Ricky and Bear,” Zane interrupted with a shake of his head. “Then, she delivered the results to Molly like she was Maury fucking Povitch.”

“You what?” Mama exclaimed. “Why would you do that? Little Ricky’s father—”

“Is Bear,” Dakota finished for her. “The test proved it. In my defense, I thought that Bear was the traitor and I wanted to ensure that my best friend didn’t share the same blood, but I messed up, and now Little Ricky won’t talk to me.”

Mike massaged his temple with a heavy sigh. “Okay, that is more than I needed to know. Celia, we’re going to need to pair you with someone else—”

“Jimmy,” Lauren offered. “We don’t have a buddy for him.”

“That was intentional,” Mike said through his teeth. When Lauren continued staring him down, he growled, “Fine. Jimmy and Celia can work together.”

“Doing what exactly?” My mother asked, her hand already moving up onto her hip.

“Celia, pumpkin, you went to the storage facility on your own. Did you ever stop to think what would’ve happened if the Sons were there?”

“I had Wolverine and Angel!”

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