Page 44 of Finding Jeremy
“Look, if you guys called me out here to kick my ass for helping Meadow the other night, then let’s just get it over with,” Gerald said as he stood and swung one leg over the seat. “I wasn’t stalking her or anything else you might think. I’d just gotten groceries and saw her with the kids in the parking lot with a cart full of groceries and a flat tire and changed it for her, nothing else. You know her old man and I used to be friends. I just felt like I should help her since he wasn’t around anymore to do it. She thanked me, and I followed her until she turned into her driveway just to make sure she got there safely, then I turned around and headed home. There was nothing else to it.”
“Naw, we got no issue with that,” Chaos said. “She called her brother as soon as she got home so he could come by and fix it in the morning. In this case, I appreciate you looking out.”
Gerald nodded and cautiously sat back down across from them. “So, what did you call me here for?”
“To show you this,” Chaos said, turning his phone to show the first of the hidden compartments, opened with the nuts and bolts on display.
It took Gerald a moment to comprehend what he was seeing. Gray’s gaze was trained on his face when he scowled and mouthed what the fuck beneath his breath as Chaos told him to go ahead and scroll through the next few photos. When his expression turned from shock to outrage, Gray knew they’d finally reached the truth of what had taken place.
Gerald shoved the phone back at Chaos, shaking his head in denial. “I swear, I didn’t know about that.”
“I believe you,” Gray declared, feeling a strange sense of relief at seeing Gerald so indignant over those images.
Gerald scrubbed a hand through his hair and just looked devastated as Chaos passed him the list of the jewelry Gray had been caught with.
“Wilson went into business for himself,” Gerald said. “That’s the only explanation for any of this. Nothing on this list was supposed to be part of the take. These are resales. Shit people traded in for credit. He must have grabbed them when he was picking the locks beneath the counters. I told him it would look suspicious if we only broke into certain ones, so I had him try a few others, but I told him not to open them all the way, just to make it look like he’d tried, ya know. I even took a crowbar to a few to try to pry them open, just for show. But one of them cracked, and I panicked a little because I didn’t want to have to grab those too, and I knew it would look strange if it were open and nothing was missing from it. I just wanted us to do enough damage to make the robbery look real in the eyes of the insurance company.”
“And you succeeded in that regard,” Gray declared. “I can only guess that getting me busted was Wilson’s way of buying time so he could make off with the real pieces and make his exit from the club look legit.”
“Yeah,” Chaos muttered. “He started easing away after his wedding and when that promotion came through that let him relocate, he handed in his kutte and parted in good standing, damn it all.”
When Gray glanced over at him, the man looked like he’d chewed on a persimmon.
“What’s done is done,” Reggie said. “We never should have done what we did.”
“No, we shouldn’t have,” Gerald declared. “After everything my aunt and uncle had done for me and my sister, I justwanted to help them out when they were struggling. I knew my aunt didn’t have long to live and that Unc just wanted to do something special for her before he lost her, but I regret dragging you guys into it. I should have come up with another plan or just done it on my own.”
“But you didn’t have the skill to pick the locks, or disable the security system, or even broker a deal that would make the pieces disappear after you had them,” Chaos supplied. “I knew that right from the beginning; that’s why I got on board. I was in a desperate pinch myself, with the second mortgage on the property, and saw an easy score.”
“We were all desperate, for one reason or another,” Reggie supplied.
“Yeah,” Gray concurred, recalling his own struggles back then and what a chunk of his cut had been intended for. “We were.”
“I owe you an apology,” Chaos declared. “I was hell-bent on holding someone responsible, and with it being your plan, it made sense that you and your uncle were the ones who double-crossed us since you’d have the means of disposing of the pieces through the shop once everything settled back down again.”
“I got why you thought it was me,” Gerald admitted. “I just wish you’d shown me this years ago; we could have cleared it up then.”
“Didn’t think there was anything to clear up,” Chaos admitted. “Since you’d been the one to pass Gray the chambers.”
Gerald’s eyes widened a little at that, then his scowl deepened again, and he pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. “Wilson gave them to me right before we headed back outside. I never even thought about it until now.”
“The only thing I don’t understand is why you waited for Gray to be released to stir all this shit up again,” Reggie said. “As far as everyone was concerned, it was a dead issue.”
“For you guys, maybe,” Gerald explained. “But my life has been shit since you guys cut ties with me. It wasn’t even about the kutte; even if you offered it, I’d never want to wear it again. But having you guys think I was a rat always rankled. Having the stink of it lingering on me all these years has been a heavy burden to bear. You know what the rest of the guys have been like whenever they’ve run into me somewhere. The stink eye, the thinly veiled threats, I’d have left town if I could have afforded it, but that old house of mine isn’t worth much, and who the hell is gonna buy it in the shape it’s in? Couldn’t hire Duncan and the boys to do any work on it, and I don’t have the skills to do the work myself. Been living in limbo with this hanging over my head. I just wanted to get clear of it so I could stop living like a pariah.”
“That’s at least something I can do to start making up for my mistake,” Chaos admitted. “Under one condition.”
“What’s that?” Gerald asked, that wary look back in his eyes again.
“After today, we never speak about that night again,” Chaos declared. “I’ll see that the ban is lifted on doing business with you. Just don’t give me a reason to regret it. I can’t promise things will change for you with the rest of the guys, but the truth will go a long way towards helping them ease up.”
“That’s all I ever wanted,” Gerald insisted, rubbing the back of his neck. “And to be welcome to have a beer or two with you guys from time to time. I never had much in my life. Unc’s living on a cruise ship now that my aunt has passed, and my cousins always resented having my sister and me living with them, so they haven’t been a part of my life for years. The club was more a family to me than they were. The best days of my life were riding with you guys.”
“What happened to your bike?” Gray asked as that nagging question popped back into his head again.
“Didn’t see a point in keeping it when there was no one left to ride with,” Gerald admitted with a heavy sigh. “Hated letting it go, but it seemed pointless to keep it around when all it did was stir up bad memories and hard feelings. To be honest, looking at it left me feeling bitter and pissed off, and I was afraid that if I held onto it, I’d do something stupid and create a worse situation for myself and the club too. Never wanted to be that guy.”
Nodding, Gray could certainly appreciate that; after all, he’d had plenty of years on the inside to think about revenge and allow bitterness to darken his soul until he’d considered asking Chaos to put a serious hurting on Gerald. Something he’d have regretted now that the truth had come to light.
