Page 93 of Darlin'

Panting and heaving, I turn down the block, the clubhouse in sight. I pick up my pace, sprinting like a maniac. As I burst through the bar, I ignore all the laughter and chatter, I ignore Marlow's voice, I ignore it all until I stop in the club's lounge, sweat dripping from my forehead, my ears stinging, my legs wobbly.

"One down, seven more to go!" Ryder shouts, holding a pint of beer in the air as Tiny, Rocco, and a few other members holler and hoot in celebration. "To us!" Ryder snaps his head in my direction, smirking. "Well, if it ain't the woman of the hour!" He raises his glass again. "To Savannah, a rat who managed to kill a snake!"

The boys, seemingly all intoxicated, shout out, "To Savannah!"

I stand there, confused, as I watch them celebrate. Why are they celebrating?!Whatare they celebrating?!

"Savannah." I hear Jo's voice over the noise. She waves me over from the hallway. "Come here. I think we need to talk."

"What's going on here?" I ask, unable to get a grip on reality. "Why are they..."

"The FBI raided one of The Vipers' stash houses yesterday," she explains, leading me to the office.

I blink. "Vipers?"

Jo swallows, opening the door to Jesse's office. Billy, Jimbo, and Beau stand around his desk. "We're sorry, Savannah. It was the only way."

"What?" I ask, meeting Jesse's dark and apologetic gaze, and my heart breaks at the truth. "What's going on here?"

CHAPTER 28

Family of Fools

"Maybe you should sit down,"Jesse says in a gentle voice as I stand in front of him, unable to process what in the hell is happening right now. "Please, Savannah, just sit down."

"No," I manage to squeak out, hugging myself as the people I thought were my friends slowly turn into strangers around me. "What..." I clear my throat, my heart racing as I feel everyone's apologetic stares. "What is going on here? I—I came here to..."

"We know you must be confused, kid," Billy pipes up, scratching his head. "And before we get into it, you gotta understand the situation we were in." He glances at my brother, who sheepishly looks down at his feet in shame. "We didn't think we had another choice."

"What choice?!" I ask, voice faltering. I lock my eyes with Jesse's. "What are y'all talking about? Just tell me already!"

"Okay." Jesse swallows, looking briefly at Jo, who gives him an encouraging nod. He licks his lipsnervously. "I think in order for this to make sense, I need to go back to the beginning. Uh—" He fidgets in his chair, placing his forearms on the desk. "A couple of years ago, we were approached by an FBI agent who was umm...down on his luck, let's say. He worked in organized crime, and he, uh—well, we struck a deal with him. He needed help getting out of some gambling debts, and we, well, we needed someone on the inside."

"On the inside?" I whisper, attempting to piece the puzzle together. "You mean Miguel?"

I freeze as his name leaves my lips.You cannot disclose my identity to The Sons, Savannah.Expecting wide eyes and disbelief to sprout from the people in the room, I'm relieved and wholly suspicious when no one bats an eye. They...they know?

"Miguel?" Billy snorts. "Hell no, that man's as boy scout as they come."

They definitely know.

Before I have a chance to dig deeper, a voice pipes up. "The Feds have been trying to bust us for decades," Jimbo explains, "but SOS operations aren't easy to crack. We've managed to run circles around the pigs. But recently, it's become more difficult, especially with Dante and the fucking Vipers interfering with our business."

"We've known Miguel is DEA for a few years now," Jesse adds, catching my frown of confusion. "He's in deep cover, and if it weren't for our friend in organized crime, we would've never known he wasn't one of us."

"So you knew? You knew this whole time that Miguel was an agent?" I clarify, brain buzzing with confusion. "But you?—"

"We've been feeding him misinformation for years now," Billy says, lighting up a smoke. "A little hiccup here, a little lie there. We couldn't show our full hand, though. So we played along. Everything was going fine until the Vipers started expanding into our territory." Billy exhales, gaze stone cold. "Blood always draws attention, and we didn't need that. We've been trying to find a way to uh—eliminate the problem for a while now." He looks at Beau. "A few weeks ago, your brother here managed to break into Dante's place. We found some useful information."

"Broke in?" I whisper. A few weeks ago? That's when... "Is that...is that why you were shot? You were?—"

Beau's unable to answer or even look at me as his own web of lies begins to unravel.

"I didn't want to involve you, Savannah," Jesse rasps, forcing my attention. His voice seems solemn and truthful, but is it really? Or is it full of fibs and fiction? "I wanted to keep you away from Miguel. I wanted you to?—"

"It was my idea," Jo pipes up, taking responsibility. "We got wind that Miguel was closing in on us, but all his evidence was mostly circumstantial. He needed something more. Something that wasn't just on paper. He needed?—"

"Your stash houses," I finish, realization dawning on me. "So you knew? You knew that Miguel approached me? You knew what he asked me to do?" I frown. "How?"

---