Page 36 of Consequences

“We got a problem.”

“Did you find him?”

Brock nods and pulls up a picture of him. “Yeah, I did.”

“Okay, let’s get go kill this—”

“We can’t.”

The stabbing feeling of betrayal has Beckett looking at him like an enemy rather than an ally. “Excuse me?”

It seems to pain Brock, but he explains what he learned after talking to his father-in-law. As Beckett hears what he has to say, he stares in shock. This asshole is known in town but no one knows him at the same time. And he’s powerful.

“We can’t touch him, man.”

“The fuck we can’t!”

“He’s untouchable. He has shit on everyone. Probably us, too. If we target him, he’s going to unleash his fury against us. We’d be lucky if we’re not all locked up in prison.”

Anger momentarily silences him as he stares at the man telling him they can’t save his girl. The girl he just got back into his life and finally into his bed.

“It’s not that I don’t want to,” Brock says. “But if we’re all locked up behind bars, we can’t protect her. She’d be a target without any barriers preventing him from hurting her.”

That calms Beckett a bit, but he shakes his head. “He’ll take her again if we don’t stop him. I know he will, and I can’t just let that happen. No fucking way.”

“Killing him will make our problems worse, not better. Trust me, others have thought about it.”

“How the fuck does that work? Death stops everything.”

“He has contingency plans to protect him against it. Powerful people are brought down by him and his blackmail. I have an idea, but we have to get everyone else onboard with it.”

He shakes his head, realizing this is bigger than they originally thought. “No, we can’t. If the whole club goes into this, it’ll get too loud and messy. Tell me what you need done, and I’ll take care of it. It’s my girl, so it’s my problem.”

Referencing Shannon as his girl makes Brock’s eyebrows shoot up. “You can’t.”

“The hell I can’t. Look—”

“I need to get into his computers. At his house. I need to get into his network to find something damning enough to use as mutual destruction. We can’t take him out, but we can fight fire with fire.IfI can get it. If there’s nothing, I can try and take his files. Take away his power altogether.”

He sighs and rubs his hand over his face. Beckett doesn’t have the skills to do this, and he knows it. “You have to get into the house?”

“Yeah.”

“Wait, you said he works for your father-in-law.”

Narrowing his eyes, Brock stares hard at him. “Yeah.”

“Will he be at that fundraising party for some charity I keep seeing advertisements for all over town?”

“Probably. Why?”

“Because that’s the time to strike.”

“Doing this without the rest of the club—”

“I’m going with or without you. It’ll be easier with you, but if I have to snag his entire system and bring back here piece by piece, I will. This needs to fucking end, and we need to keep as many people safe as possible.”

The look of unease on Brock’s face doesn’t deter Beckett. “It doesn’t feel right, but your plan won’t work. He’s likely got a home network, and—You know what? Never mind. I guess I’mgoing with you. But for the record, if this blows up in our faces, I’m going to tell you I told you so for the rest of our lives.”

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