Page 34 of Shared By Her Brother's Best Friends

With no choice but to do as he said, I head outside to the parking lot. I’d thought that things had finally thawed between us. Yet once again, I’m left feeling confused and uncertain about what he’s thinking. He seems so cool and distant suddenly.

What is it about this man that makes me throw caution to the wind and feel like a sex goddess the one minute and a foolish schoolgirl the next?

Yet again I’ve let my feelings get in the way of the task at hand. I just hope Bess was able to find out some information before Mason started a war for me.

Chapter 17

Ty

Emma and Mason arrive at Bess’ house looking guilty as hell. The stubble rash on Emma’s chest, mild hickey on her neck, and ‘just fucked’ hair, tell me that they found the time to make up while we were separated. The fact Mason can’t look at her confirms it. The fact she tries not to look at him makes me think the ceasefire may already be over. The sooner these two quit pretending there’s not something going on between them, the better.

One look at Jax and Bess tells me they’ve come to the same conclusion. Bess looks thrilled by it while Jax looks pissed.

“Where the fuck were you?” Jax demands.

“Laying low until we knew it was safe to rendezvous here,” Mason retorts.

“What happened? Bess, are you alright? Did Venom do this to you?” Emma interjects heading over to Bess looking concerned as she notices the faint bruise forming on her cheek.

Bess chuckles lightly. “I’m fine, just a scratch. Why don’t you come and sit down and have a beer, there’s a lot I need to share with you.”

Once we’re all situated, with Mason and Emma on the couch next to me and Bess and Jax opposite. Jax spends the whole time glowering at Mason. With everyone seated and beers in hand, Bess starts to explain everything to Emma.

“I’m afraid I haven’t been one hundred percent honest with you, Emma about who I am and what I do, why I know the things I do and have the connections I have,” Bess says slowly, turning to a perplexed Emma with a sigh. “As I told you, Mason and I lived in the same foster home. It was a shit hole, but we bonded regardless. However, I was new to the system while Mace grew up in it, I also didn’t stay until I was eighteen like Mace. My mom cleaned up her act and I went home, leaving him to deal with some shit. We stayed in touch but as we got older our lives started taking very different courses,” Bess pauses for a moment, glancing over at Mason to ensure he’s comfortable with her sharing this.

Mason clears his throat. “Once Bess left foster care shit got bad for me, I got into a lot of trouble and fell in with a bad crowd. Your brother and the Iron Serpents were the ones who helped get me out of it. Bess and I lost touch for a while.” Although he didn’t go into details, Mason looks uncomfortable revealing even a hint of the pain from his past.

“I could have gone down the same path as Mason, but I was recruited fairly young myself into a completely different group. I was a typical teen acting out, but I was real smart—always had been. I used my smarts to con people, I was good at it too, gaining people’s trust, and infiltrating groups and places I had no business being in. One day I tried to con the wrong man. Luckily for me, he saw potential in me and rather than sending me off to juvie, he decided to recruit me and put my talents to good use. That’s when I began working undercover for the FBI,” Bess says.

Emma gasps. Whatever she was expecting Bess to tell her, this clearly wasn’t it. “Wait, you’re with the FBI?”

“I was. I guess right now you could call me retired. I won’t go into the details, but some shit happened, a friend died, and I quit. Couldn’t take it anymore. But I’m still close with a lot of people, still have my contacts,” Bess says with a shrug trying to hide her pain.

“I’m sorry,” Emma says gently.

Even when her world is falling down around her and so much shit is going on in her life, Emma still manages to feel sympathy and concern for others. She’s far too kind, too good, for this lifestyle. I guess that’s why I’m trying to keep my distance. As drawn as I find myself to Emma, we’re no good for her. She deserves more than what any of us can offer.

Bess flicks away her concern, moving the conversation along. “Anyway, the reason I’m telling you this is because it’s pertinent to what happened today and to how I know Venom.” Now Bess looks around at all four of us, sternly fixing us in her gaze. “I need all of you to promise that you won’t share this information with anyone, especially not J-Bird, nor can you act on it. If I can’t have your word, then you need to leave and go out of earshot now, or I won’t be able to tell you what Venom shared with me. Can you promise me?” Bess asks stridently.

We all affirm our consent.

Bess takes a deep breath. “The reason I know Venom is because we worked together.”

“So Venom is working undercover with the Hell Riders?” I ask.

She nods. “Yes. That’s why I needed Emma to distract Breaker so we could talk privately.”

She was right to make us promise not to tell J-Bird. He’d kill for this information. He’s gonna be pissed if he ever finds out we knew and didn’t tell him. But a promise is a promise.

“And that plan worked out perfectly. Emma was nearly raped because you left her alone!” Mason snaps.

“What?” Jax demands angrily, “That bastard. I hope you killed him.”

“So that’s why you sent the signal to get out fast,” Bess says, comprehension dawning on her.

“I’m sorry, could someone fill me in on what happened?” Emma says, confused.

“When it became clear that you and Bess had separated, Jax was tasked to listen in on Bess and me on you. Mason insisted on getting closer to the club should he need to rescue either of you,” I explain.

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