Page 70 of Scar

Tally must have missed a hand gesture, but she could infer Scissors’ meaning. She wanted thewomento go in after Scar.

“I’m going too—” another voice declared, only to be interrupted again.

“Fuck no!” That was Lucky. “I am not sending my daughter?—”

“I am no longer just ‘your daughter’, Dad. I’m Scissors’ ol’ lady. You can’t stop me under your own goddamn bylaws. Only she can—and she won’t if she ever wants to have an orgasm again that’s not self-induced.”

There was a low chuckle and then what sounded like a quick kiss. “That’s my girl.”

Sissy continued, her voice a lighter tone but just as stern. “Scar is myfriend, Dad. I won’t be kept out of this.”

Tally stiffened, not liking the claim Sissy had just made over Scar. Mark had many female friends, but Tally had never felt the raw jealousy over his relationships with them as she did to Sissy’s relationship with Scar.

“Motherfucker,” someone murmured.

“Steel! Put a fucking stop to this!” Tally was pretty sure that was Bear.

Rather than reply to Bear, though, Steel said, “Keys? Can you get a look inside? What do you know about their security and protocols?”

“It’s a closed system, Steel. I need to get inside to get to their systems.”

There was a low rumble of masculine voices.

“I can get him inside.” Tally did not recognize that voice.

“Are you sure?” Steel questioned. “If you’re caught?—”

“This is Scar, Steel. He’d do the same for us. Fuck, hehasdone the same for us. We owe him this.”

This wasn’t the first time one of them had referred to Scar with such reverence. Tally was picking up on the respect and the loyalty this club had for Scar, but there seemed to also be a distance. Like Scar was one of them, but also not. She didn’t understand it and now wasn’t the time to question it.

“Keys, get ready to roll out. Ghost will get you where you need to go.”

She felt Keys nod, but Tally also heard him grumble under his breath, “I don’t need a fucking bodyguard.” Making himdefinitelysound like the baby of a family.

“Once Keys is inside, we’ll come up with a plan,” Steel announced loudly to the group. “But,” he said sternly, “I am not ruling out the women going.” He cut off the immediate protests with a loud whistle. “Angel and Scissors have just as much experience as any of us. As for Tessa, I agree that sending a doctor in is best. We don’t know what condition he’ll be in. We don’t know why Primis has him or why Alpha wants him?—”

“I think I know.” The room seemed to pause again as Tally sensed all eyes turned to Keys, who was still sitting next to her. She heard him clear his throat and felt him push his glasses up his nose again, like he was nervous. “I’ve been doing a lot of research into Scar after learning his name in April. Bulldog, are you aware of what happened to him in Afghanistan?”

“I know some,” Bulldog answered gruffly. “No one knows all except Scar, and he wasn’t talking.”

“Scar was Delta Force,” Keys told the room. “For those of you who haven’t seen the Chuck Norris movie, they’re the Army’s elite, the best of the best. They have a ninety percent washout rate during training. His entire team was held captive in Afghanistan for nearly three weeks. Scar was the team’s only survivor. He was taken from Afghanistan to Germany, where he went through extensive reconstructive surgery and therapy. He received his medical discharge and then disappeared for nearly two and a half years before Bulldog brought him to Mount Grove to join up with the club. So, I’ve been questioning, where was he for those thirty months?

“After Tally told us that her father took Scar, I started looking through where Alpha was around the time of Scar’s hospitalization.”

“Let me guess,” Bulldog said dryly. “He was in Germany.”

“Winner-winner,” Keys answered without humor. “What are the odds that less than two months later Primis made a big stink in Afghanistan and that exact same mountain was destroyed?”

“Holy fuck,” someone breathed.

Bulldog’s voice was pained as he said, “You think Scar signed on with Primis.”

Keys shifted uncomfortably next to Tally on the couch. “It’s not like I found a contract, but yeah. There’s more. I mean, nothing I want to go into now,” he added evasively, “but I have a pretty good idea. What would you have done if the devil showed up at your hospital bed offering you the chance for vengeance in place of your soul?”

Throughout the entire exchange, Tally listened silently. She was learning so much about Scar, but she also had more questions now too. What did Keys mean that he hadn’t known Scar’s name until April?

Her heart broke at what Scar had suffered through, and Tally now knew where the scars on his face and neck had come from. She couldn’t even imagine. And to top it all off, Tally didn’t flinch when Keys referred to her father as ‘the devil’.

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