Page 79 of Ink's Devil

“Makes sense, Prez,” says his VP. “Hell and I can be ready to roll once we know what kind of words we’ll need to exchange with Foster Sr.”

In case they’ll be telling him, his son is dead, I presume he means. Doubt it. If anyone asked me, I’d say my money was on Phil Foster being up to his fucking neck in this shit, along with his son and Beth. Fuckin’ family affair. Patsy? Maybe not her, it’s hard to feint that degree of shock when she found she’d been storing heroin in her home, but who the fuck knows? Green talks. Loudly.

“You want us to leave now?” I offer, getting ready to stand. I’m eager to be doing something, anything.

Prez glares at me. “Rushing off half-cocked could get us killed. We need to have a plan. If Connor’s dead, there’s no rush, and if he’s alive, he’ll have no idea we’re coming for him. There’re other things at play here, and I want to be as prepared as we can.”

I’m just itching to get my hands on Connor. He and his father can confirm if Beth was in on it the whole time, or whether they set her up. If they did, they’ll be the ones largely responsible for Ink going down. Only half listening to the meeting, I remember last night and her offer to go to the cops herself. Had that been genuine? I couldn’t be sure at the time, my anger perhaps clouding my judgement. Ink had made the decision though, he preferred to be taken than her. What does he know that I don’t?

If she really is as innocent and unworldly as Ink must think, she could have been the victim of expert criminals and the very people who were supposed to have her best interests at heart. Christ, she’d be gutted if that turns out to be the truth. I realise the edge of my anger toward her has been taken off at that thought.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Mace

My embryonic sympathy prompts me to ask, “What are you going to do about Beth and her mom, Prez?”

Demon purses his lips. “I sent them home.” I know that. I saw them leave.

“Drugs are gone, Prez,” Beef reminds him. “What if someone goes calling expecting them to be right where they were left?”

Demon frowns at Beef. “You think I haven’t fuckin’ considered that? Two defenceless women against fuck knows who? Ink’s claimed her which brings her under our protection. But he also wants to deny his relationship with her to the citizen world and keep her out of the clutches of the cops. And,” he pauses and looks at each of us, “as far as Beth knows, Ink’s finished with her for good. There is no relationship, and if anyone points the cops her way, she’ll confirm all they did was fuck a couple of times.”

Ouch. That must have been a slap in the face for her. No wonder she looked down when she left. Perhaps I’m getting some of the payback I was hoping for.

“All that falls apart if they stay here on the compound,” Prez finishes up.

“Would they be safer in a safe house?” Pal asks.

Pyro is frowning. “Beth’s kept no secret of seeing a biker from her friends. Anyone who was at the wedding saw them go off together, and that includes her work colleagues. It’s possible when the cops start digging, they’ll want to know how closely she was involved with him, and what she knows about where Ink was last night and why. It will be mighty suspicious if she’s not at home.”

“Or what if the cops manage to trace the drugs back to Connor? What if somehow it becomes known they were hidden in that house…”

“Oh, so, he left a return address in the packaging…” says the sergeant-at-arms sarcastically.

Beef is fast on his feet and around the other side of the table, his fist, quite rightly, gets Thunder in the gut. Then he returns to his seat calmly and continues his train of thought. “There are always signs, fingerprints perhaps. We’re talking about someone who left a million dollars’ worth of smack in boxes casually stored with his mom,” he reminds us. “So yeah, Thunder, he may have left a calling card.”

“Beth picked up the packages,” I remind them. “If her fingerprints are in the system, they will know she has to be involved.”

“Why would her fingerprints be in AFIS?” Pal asks. “Doubt that girl’s ever been arrested in her life.”

“She works for the government,” Pyro observes. “Same as Mel. Think it’s standard practice to take them when they’re first employed.”

“Do they automatically pass them on?”

Cad’s nodding his head. “Yup. Since 2015, the FBI stores fingerprints taken by employers and anyone else, together with personal info in their criminal database. If she’s been working there longer than that, then she’s probably okay. But it’s a risk they already have them.”

“Hey,” Pyro stares at Cad, “I had my fingerprints taken when I applied for a motor vehicle dealer license. Does that mean mine are now in the system?”

“Since 2015?” Cad queries.

“Yup.”

Cad’s nod back gives Pyro all the confirmation he needs. “Fuck.” But he follows it up with a chin lift of his own. “Good to know, brother.”

“Alright, alright. Anyone worried speak to Cad later. Mace, you’ve got something?”

My lips press together. Ink wants us to protect her. The only way we can do that is if we know all the cards the cops hold. If Beth’s fingerprints turn up on the packages of H, we need to know they can’t be traced back to her. If they can, we could be facing another whole level of problems. “Yeah, Prez, I think we need to ask her whether her fingerprints have been taken recently.” Christ, I hope they’re not. Ink’s sacrifice could be for nothing if the cops pick her up after all.

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