Page 28 of Finding Jeremy
“You’re not the only one,” Reggie muttered. “I can’t believe my boys are gonna hit that milestone in a little over threemonths. I’m not ready for it. Hell, I’m not ready for their reaction when Tess and I give them the news about the baby.”
“You haven’t told them yet?” Gray said, turning to face him.
“We’re still trying to wrap our heads around it,” Reggie admitted, scrubbing his hand over his hair, knocking his bandana askew. “All these years, we haven’t exactly been trying, but we haven’t done anything to prevent it either. When the boys hit junior high, they really started developing separate interests, so we built a second bedroom on, so they’d have their own rooms. There’s no way we can move them back in together; it would be World War Three every night, so I started drawing up another new addition, and this time we’re gonna expand the den too, and the kitchen. Gonna add a four-season porch too. Tess has always wanted one, and I think it’s high time she had it too, since she wants to stay home with the little one until they’re ready to start school.”
“Phew,” Chaos breathed. “That’s a lot of changes. You gonna have Duncan and the boys do the construction work?”
“Wouldn’t have anyone else work on the house,” Reggie declared. “I know those guys will take their time and do it right. Besides, I’d rather give my money to my club brothers than anyone else.”
“Amen, brutha,” Chaos said.
Gray nodded. That was the way it was supposed to be. You supported one another’s ventures, not just within the MC but within Foggy Basin, where the city council had worked hard to keep corporations out to allow family-owned businesses to thrive. While Gray hoped to find a home that wasn’t in need of modifications, he knew he’d do the same as Reggie and hire Duncan’s crew if the need arose.
Yet there was still that little bit of nagging in his gut that had been there since he’d run into Gerald on the street. If he wasn’t the rat, then who had tipped the cops off to the routehe’d intended to take? And why him and not Chaos? As club president, he’d have struggled to run the club from behind bars and might even have found his position stripped from him while on the inside. Running the club, even with their outlaw days behind them, would have given someone a measure of clout and authority.
Staring out across the valley, Gray couldn’t think of a single thing anyone would have had to gain by setting him up.
“You good, brutha?” Chaos asked. “You’ve been awful quiet over there.”
Sighing, Gray cracked his neck, propped his chin on his palm, and decided to just bite the bullet and put it out there. Meeting Chaos’s gaze, he held it but saw nothing but concern in his old friend’s eyes, despite the silence and growing intensity of the moment.
“What led you to label Gerald the rat?” Gray asked.
Chaos never flinched; there wasn’t even a flicker of surprise in his eyes when Gray asked the question.
“Process of elimination,” Chaos admitted. “You, me, and Reggie never went inside the shop. That part was all Gerald and Wilson. They were the only ones who knew just how much they took and loaded into those metal cylinders. I knew roughly what we were supposed to have; that was the only way I could arrange to offload them. When I got to the buyer, I had what I was supposed to and a little extra, but what the cops found on your bike never added up. Figured maybe they missed it, so I took it apart when they released it to me and didn’t find a single fuckin’ piece of jewelry. What I did find in those compartments was a bunch of little screws and bolts.”
“Wait, what?” Gray said, so stunned, the only thing he could do was sit there blinking at Chaos.
“Yeah, those were my thoughts exactly,” Chaos said. “The way I figured it, there were only two ways that could happen.The cops or the guy whose job it was to fill the compartments in the first place, only what would have been the point of the cops bothering to exchange the jewelry for the bolts when they could have just emptied the chambers and gone on about their business? It wasn’t like any of us were gonna stand up and claim that there had been more on the bike; that would have fuckin’ buried you. Which led me back to Gerald, since he was the one who handed off to you.”
Gray scrubbed a hand over his face, easily able to follow Chaos’s logic. If Gerald had handed over the chambers feeling lighter than they should have if they were full, Gray would have instantly been suspicious.
“My guess is he gave them back to his uncle to sell after the insurance paid out,” Chaos said. “You getting pinched with a fraction of them gave legitimacy to the robbery claim, and Gerald still got to collect on his cut of the ones I sold.”
“Why stick around then?” Reggie asked. “That’s what I’ve never understood. His aunt and uncle left not long after they turned the shop over to their daughter, which had always been their plan, considering her health issues and him wanting to take her on one last grand adventure before she got too sick to travel. No one ever questioned it either ‘cause the whole town knew she was sick, and then to have the stress of a robbery hanging over their heads, who was gonna blink when they took off.”
“That’s an easy one,” Chaos declared. “Gerald stayed to keep suspicions off him. If he’d taken off after Gray had gotten pinched, the cops would have started digging into their association and asked a whole lot of different questions than the ones we got hit with during the investigation. They’d have started asking about bad blood and trying to make assumptions about Gray targeting the jewelry store as a means of getting back at Gerald for something. Hell, if he’d taken off, he’d have had me on his ass hounding him every time he turned around becauseI’d have suspected way sooner that the fucker double-crossed us. I didn’t start to put two and two together until after I found those goddamn screws and bolts.”
“Was the only reason you didn’t suspect Wilson of being in on it, the fact that there was nothing off with what he handed you?” Chaos asked.
“That, and he wasn’t the one with the in,” Chaos pointed out. “Gerald knew that shop inside and out. For all we know that jewelry never left the building; he could have just as easily hidden them somewhere inside it, and no one would have been the wiser. It was really damned telling that every one of the items you got caught with was on the cheap side.”
Gray snorted. “Yeah, it made me look like the biggest idiot in the world for receiving a bunch of low-end trinkets and bobbles.”
“Don’t see what the point is of him continuing to try to shift the blame off himself when what’s done is done,” Chaos said. “He’s never getting that kutte back.”
“Does make me curious to know what went on inside that shop,” Gray admitted. “And why he thinks I’d believe him when he tries to spin it around on one of you.”
“You knew how I felt about that night,” Reggie said. “I was good with doing my part as the lookout, but no way was I going in there or carrying them; there was too much to risk if something went wrong.”
“I hear ya,” Gray said. “Wish like hell I’d have opted to stay home that night.”
“Shit, if I could go back, I’d have just said no to the whole goddamned thing,” Chaos grumbled. “But seeing as we can’t turn back the clock, I think it’s time Gerald sees his way out of town for good, since he can’t steer clear like he was ordered to.”
“Are you going to sic Jake on him?” Reggie asked.
“Naa, this is something I’m gonna take great pleasure in handling myself,” Chaos said, rubbing the back of his neck. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s long overdue.”
