Page 74 of Shadow

“I do.”

Blackjack sighed before looking up at Kansas. “I was married before I joined the club. Emily was my high school sweetheart. We got pregnant in our senior year. There was no other choice. I loved her. She was my life, so I married her. The night Emily went into labor, I was rushing her to the hospital when a truck came out of nowhere. Emily and my son died that night. I spent months in the hospital. When I found out the fucker who hit us only got a slap on the wrist, I killed his wife and two kids. I took from him what he took from me. I don’t regret it, Prez. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. That motherfucker deserves to feel the pain I feel every day. I don’t know what that makes me, but I’m not sorry for what I did.”

Standing up, I looked at Kansas. “These men are not the ones you are looking for Kansas. Everyone has a past. Some darker than others but that doesn’t make them psychopathic killers.”

“What about Keys?” Kansas questioned.

“His file was vague and so was Monk’s. We’re going to have to ask them ourselves.”

“Someone better tell me what the fuck is going on!” Widow shouted. “And for the fucking record, I didn’t rape Beth. My best friend did and I killed him for it. Her parents blamed her for the rape and kicked her out. She’s not had it easy, and I help as much as I can.”

I nodded to Kansas.

What Widow said was correct.

“Jinx was investigating the massacre five years ago. He believed one of the survivors, one of us, was the mastermind behind the attack. He believed that one of us killed our former club members,” Kansas stated flatly.

“Bullshit,” Pence roared. “There is no way any of us would do something like that. You know me, Kansas.”

“Really? I didn’t know you had a sidepiece and a son.”

Pence flinched, then muttered, “How could you even think we would do something like that?”

“I didn’t want to believe. That’s the point,Pence. I refused to believe any of you were guilty, but when Whisper found Jinx’s thumb drive and I saw what he was investigating, I had to find out. Monk lied about the Vasquez Cartel attacking our clubhouse. It wasn’t them. Jinx had copies of the police reports. With the carnage that occurred, there should have been DNA, something left behind to identify the killer or killers, but there wasn’t shit. Nothing. The police found Hanover and Miller with their bodies mutilated in the same way. The crime scenes were damn near identical. Whoever killed our club brothers five years ago also killed Hanover and Miller. So, tell me Pence, whatwas I supposed to think?”

“Justin Conway killed them. We already know that.”

“No. Conway killed the Taylors. Ballistics matched his issued revolver to the bullets in the Taylors. To throw off the investigation, he wrote my name on Mr. Taylor’s bedroom wall,” Kansas admitted, then whipped his head to mine. “Oh, fuck.”

“What?” I asked.

Kansas looked at Pence. “Remember a few weeks ago in church? It was right after Kali’s house cleansing barbecue. Monk skipped out, and we tried getting him to tell us where he was?”

“Yeah, I remember. Fucker refused to answer.” Pence nodded. “So what?”

“He said he didn’t see how it mattered. That it wasn’t the club’s name on the wall in Mr. Taylor’s bedroom. It was mine.”

“I remember him saying that,” Blackjack added. “He was fucking pissed, too.”

“The LPD kept that part out of the police report.”

“Left what out, Prez?” Whisper asked.

“What room they found my name in? How the fuck did Monk know my name was on the bedroom wall unless he put it there?”

“But Conroy killed the Taylors,” Pence stated. “You just said it yourself that ballistics’ matched Conroy’s gun to the bullets that killed the Taylors.”

“I know, and Shadow, back me up here,” Kanas said, pacing the room. “When that fucker took Kali. She said Conroy kept saying shit that didn’t make sense.”

“Yeah,” I said, catching where he was going with this. “Kali clearly heard Conroy say we never meant for it to get this far. We were only trying to protect ourselves. What if he was talking about Monk?”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense. How else did he know about my name on the bedroom wall?”

“I knew because I was there checking in with my handler when Keys and Conroy walked in and shot them.” Monk said, stepping out of the shadows.

Chapter Eighteen

Shadow

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