Page 100 of Ink's Devil

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Mace

“Bail denied.”

We’re all waiting in the clubhouse. Prez had wanted to refrain from a mass presence at Ink’s hearing as he didn’t want the judge to feel threatened, so only he’d been in attendance. But keeping our distance apparently hadn’t worked. I hated staying away, wanted to be there to show Ink he’s loved, missed and supported. Will he think we’ve abandoned him? Fuck, I hope not. We’d never do that.

“Church,” Prez announces, as he quickly spies everyone waiting around. Our businesses are today being left to the civilians to run having all hoped, rather than expected, Ink to be coming home even if only on a temporary basis. Everyone had wanted to be here to greet him.

Prez waits for us to sit down. “Where are we at?” he starts.

There’s nothing more to say about Ink. He’s in jail. Now we’ve got to concentrate on what little we can do to get him out, or, if that fails, to seek vengeance.

“Connor will live,” the VP pronounces. “I’m going to be able to question him today. Up to now he’s been circling in and out of it.”

“I’ve stopped the strong shit as per Ironside’s instructions,” Rusty announces. “He’s just on normal pain relievers now. Should give him a clearer head.”

Connor had been unconscious since we brought him back Sunday night, partly it sounds, due to medication. It’s good news he has improved and maybe we can start getting some answers. I’d hoped that would be the case. When I’d looked in on him earlier, his eyes were less swollen, and Rusty had assured me he was sleeping, rather than in a coma. Seems once all the blood had been washed off, his injuries, while painful, aren’t fatal now the deepest cuts had been stitched and his blood levels topped off.

Demon’s looking down at his hands which are clasped on the table in front of him. When he looks back up, he states, “I didn’t expect Ink to be granted bail. Not for the charge they think they’ve got him on. But I tell you, Brothers, I’m not certain how he’s going to get out of this. Judge didn’t even attempt to put a monetary value on his freedom.”

“What’s Ink’s state of mind?”

Demon stares at his VP for a moment before answering. It’s not that he doubts the veracity of the question coming from the man who perhaps knows him least, it’s because he’s deciding how to answer.

“Hard to tell from his brief appearance. But Sykes says he’s holding up okay. He’s worried sick about Beth being interviewed by the cops. What’s most important to him is that we do what we can to watch out for her. If she goes down…” Demon pauses to shake his head. “Well, everything Ink’s sacrificed will be wasted.”

“Did you tell Sykes about Connor? Does Ink know?”

“I called Sykes yesterday morning, but all I said was Beth’s in the clear, just to give Ink some comfort. The less either he or Sykes know, the better at the moment. Any temptation to embellish his story, or drop Connor’s name into it, might do more harm than good.”

“The only reason he’s inside is to keep her out of it,” Thunder, serious for once, states. “If he knew the truth of it, he’d go crazy. Does he know about the incident at her house? Or that Connor stored drugs there?”

“Fuck no,” Demon says, adamantly. “You think I want to heap that on him too? How would any of us feel if we had an old lady and couldn’t lift a finger to protect her?”

I wouldn’t know and am unlikely ever too. But from Beef and Pyro’s reaction, even Hellfire, Buzz and Bomber’s reaction, it wasn’t something they’d want to even contemplate.

But I add mine to the murmurs of agreement around the table. It’s best not to add to Ink’s worries. If anything happened to Beth, either as a result of the law entrapping her or physically because of those fucking drugs, if he knew she’d been moments away from eating a bullet, Ink would go out of his fucking mind.

Since Sunday night I’ve been revising my opinion of how Ink had come to be arrested, and the part Beth had played. Beth’s close brush with death had focused my mind, had made me realise how high the stakes were and to what lengths people would go to continue their drug trade. I’d started to understand the pressure that must have been brought on her to make her act out of character and deliver those drugs. I decide to give my brothers the benefit of my new thinking.

Raising my chin, I sum up, “I know none of us like the fuckup that happened on Saturday night, or like Ink’s woman for her part in it. Simply put, if Beth hadn’t been there, Ink wouldn’t be inside.” I pause for the inevitable nods, and some growls of agreement. Then, carry on, “There’s now no doubt in my mind having seen the state her brother is in, that he must have come across as convincing. As it turns out, it’s only by luck that he didn’t bleed out. Doc said that if he’d been left unattended in that state for much longer, that may well have been the result. Beth did what any of us would have done for a brother, she did what she could to help him. Beth was right to be concerned.”

“She should have come to us,” Pyro objects.

I find myself doing what I never expected, advocating on her behalf. “She had no time to think what to do. Whether she’d called us or gone to the cops, she was told Connor would be dead if she didn’t act there and then. Remember, she didn’t know what she was being asked to deliver until she found the drugs.”

“She’s a bitch.” Liz opens a pack of smokes. “Can’t expect any sense from them.”

Some laugh, some grumble. I leave it at that. I’ve said my bit.

Prez glances my way, then gives a slow nod. “I’ve spoken to Beth a few times and have had to be pretty forceful to stop her turning herself into the cops thinking it would get Ink out.”

“See? No sense as I said.”

“Liz,” Prez growls. Then starts again, “She’s doing no more than Ink. She’s prepared to sacrifice herself to help another. Just as she was prepared to do to help her brother.”

“Ever get the impression she’s had no one to rely on? That she’s used to doing shit on her own?” Eyes go to Hellfire.

---