Page 122 of Redemption

“I can leave?”

“Not quite.” Lenora brushed by. “But I have an opportunity for you.”

“No, thank you.”

She bristled. “You don’t even know what it is.”

“I want to go home, Lenora.Thatwould be great news.”

Lenora tossed her hand. “The girls you helped free last night? They were taken by the same two men who grabbed you. The Russians’ muscle has been busy lately.”

How many others had there been? Hate wasn’t a strong enough word for anyone who made a career out of abducting women to be trafficked. “What’s the opportunity?”

The door opened again, and the two men from earlier walked in: Attorney, the sergeant-at-arms, and the smoker.

“Quite the Mayhem trio you three are.”

The smoker let a puff curl with a choke of unexpected laughter while the older man’s sun-aged, weathered brow tightened.

Unexpectedly, the bedroom door opened again. A woman about Victoria’s age but with deep, brooding brown eyes that matched thick dark hair and a Latin complexion sauntered in, paying no attention to Victoria on the bed.

Funny how the interruption almost softened the old bastard in the leather vest with Mayhem insignia. Victoria eyed her. The woman was so casually beautiful in such an ugly place. Odd how eerily familiar she was since Victoria was sure she hadn’t met her. She struggled to place the girl, coming up with nothing.

She didn’t seem like she should be there. Yet with the jeans, tight shirt, and bandana pulling back her hair, she fit the part.

“Hawk says read this.” The slightest hint of an American-washed Hispanic accent made the beauty that more exotic.

Lenora’s man stepped forward and took the torn piece of paper. “Will do, Adelia. Move your ass.”

“Bossy today, isn’t he?” She gave a knowing glance to Lenora. It wasn’t teasing or flirtatious, but caring... She was too young for him, much as Victoria would be, but the vibe wasn’t that of an old hookup. Whatever the dynamic, she couldn’t read that look to save her life.

“Don’t talk to your Pops that way.” Lenora eyed the ripped note more than the girl as she waved and left.

No one seemed interested in Adelia except Victoria, who made a conscious effort to pick her jaw off the filthy rug.

Pops.

There were a lot of questionable situations in the land of Mayhem, but she didn’t expect their kids to be involved with abductions. Victoria couldn’t wrap her mind around how Adelia appeared to look only ten years or so younger than the sergeant-at-arms.

Hell, maybe it was all a misunderstanding. After all,old ladywas a term. Maybe pops was MC lingo.

Or maybe she was grasping at crazy ideas to make sense of what she didn’t get—though that look she couldn’t explain almost seemed like a teenager goading her father then a mother lecturing a daughter.

There was too much here that Victoria didn’t understand. “Who was that?”

“My kid,” he said nonchalantly.

The other man stubbed out a cigarette on the wall then put the butt in an ashtray, chuckling. At least he noticed that it seemed odd for a guy in his thirties to have a child in her twenties. But nothing further was said.

Instead, Victoria focused on the note. “Does Hawk think it’s a good idea for me to leave?”

“You know Hawk?” the sergeant-at-arms asked.

Having said it out loud triggered the vague memory of Mayhem hierarchy, and Victoria knew that whatever was on that note, it had come from Mayhem’s club president. “No. But I bet he wants me to leave.”

“Sorry about your luck.” He half-laughed, half-grumbled. “It says the Russians are having a pissing contest over their leadership.”

Lenora’s face pinched. “How does that affect my meeting?”

---