Page 74 of Ink's Devil

“The thought of not being able to be with him again, Mom. The thought of only seeing him in a visiting room…”

“It might not come to that,” she rebukes firmly. “We’ll find Connor, build a case, and get Ink out.”

If only that was going to be so easy to do. Now the cops have gotten ahold of a Devil, they’re not going to casually let him go. But Mom’s right, for now, I’ve got to stay as positive as I can.

“You doing okay, Beth?” Mel comes over, indicates I should scoot over, and sits beside me.

It’s down to her that I’m not a quivering wreck. When I’d been brought up from the basement, she’d been there and just allowed me to cry without asking questions. All I could tell her was Ink had been arrested, but I couldn’t tell her why. Surprisingly, she’d seemed to understand that I couldn’t give her more. Just her being there was a comfort to me. When Mom had arrived, she’d made herself scarce so we could talk.

“I’ll be better when we know what’s going on,” I tell my friend. “This isn’t me, Mel. I don’t sit on my hands when I could be doing something to help.”

“But what could you do? Ink obviously got himself into this mess. He’s got to get himself out of it.” She frowns. “The club will be doing all that needs to be done.”

But she hasn’t a clue of the part I played, nor that if I could go to the cops, Ink would surely be released. Unless Demon is right, and they’d still implicate him as well.

At that moment the door to the clubhouse opens and a cold draft sweeps in, along with a man wearing a suit. Immediately I freeze, and it’s not from the temperature drop.Is he a detective?

But when Rusty goes across and warmly shakes his hand, then leads him in the direction of Demon’s office, I realise he looks more like a friend of the club, or, possibly, a lawyer.

If that’s what he is, maybe he’s got news.

Mel’s talking about anything and everything just trying to distract me, but I can only concentrate on the thoughts in my head and everyone about Ink.

I hate this. Hate sitting around unable to do anything. I’m upset, frustrated, and furious at Connor and at myself, as well as angry at the bikers who don’t seem to be doing anything.

Suddenly I stand. Mel stops her conversation with my mom as the latter narrows her eyes suspiciously. “What are you doing, Beth?”

“I’m going to ring Phil.” I don’t care what Demon says. I need to do something.

“No, you’re not.” Mom gets to her feet fast, her hand landing on my arm, and leading me out of earshot of my friend. “You are not getting yourself in any deeper with this. You heard Demon. You could be making things worse and not better.” She wipes a hand across her brow. “You were a little girl when he left, you don’t know what he’s capable of, Beth, I do. He’d never do anything to implicate himself. If he’s behind this, he wouldn’t be beyond letting you, or especially a man he doesn’t know, take the fall for him.”

I open my mouth to say it’s down to me to try to sort the fix Ink is now in, when Beef comes out of Demon’s office and walks over to me.

“Can you come and speak to the lawyer, Beth?”

Try and stop me.I walk so fast the VP struggles to keep up. Opening Demon’s door, I barge straight in.

Demon eyes me tiredly and shakes his head. “Do come in,” he starts, pointedly, then proceeds to the introductions. “Beth, this is Sykes, the club lawyer. Sykes, this is the woman Ink was involved with, Beth.”

“I gathered that,” the lawyer says drily as he stands, shakes my hand, and glances up into my face.

“How’s Ink?” I ask fast. In my mind I imagine him hurt and bleeding. Yeah, well, Mom’s not the only one who watches crime shows on TV and knows about the police brutality.

“Ink’s fine. I’m working on getting him out.”

Words I want to hear but find hard to believe. For some reason, meeting Ink’s lawyer has made this all too real. I can’t let this go on, if it’s in my power to stop it. “I want to go to the police,” I tell him. “Would it do any good?”

Sykes stares up intently, then motions me to a seat. When we’re sitting, and he can look me straight in the eye, he gives me an answer, “From what I hear from Ink, it could make matters worse. I don’t see how you could help him without you both ending up locked up. At the very least, they’d have Ink for aiding and abetting.” He sighs. “Look at it this way. You brought the heroin with the intention of delivering it to the dealer, Ink ended up doing just that. If I were prosecuting, I’d present the case as that having been the way you arranged it between you.”

I digest that for a moment, reluctantly coming to the conclusion that I have to agree he’s right.

“It’s all my fault.” When the lawyer raises his chin and lowers it, I know he’s not going to argue my point. “I was the idiot who believed my brother. I was the one who took the drugs to the drop. I was the one—”

Sykes holds up his hand. “Demon’s filled me in. Let me play devil’s advocate here. Your mother had a serious quantity of heroin stored in her house for a week. Who says she didn’t know it was there? Your brother sounds like he could very well be a criminal. Who’s to say you’re not as well? Your father is thought to run a gang out of Denver. You’re associated with him too, just by your relationship.”

“None of that is true…”

“May not matter to the cops. Once they start digging who knows what they’ll put together?”

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