Page 39 of Friar
The implication was clear: some of the brothers might be tempted to skip the questioning part.
“And in the meantime?”I asked, my voice rough with tension.“We just wait?While whoever did this is still out there, maybe planning their next attempt?”
“In the meantime,” Beast said firmly, “Cheri doesn’t go anywhere alone.She stays at the compound where we can watch her.Shield’s upgrading security at your place -- cameras, motion sensors, the works.She’ll be protected, brother.We all have her back.”
I wasn’t satisfied, but I nodded anyway.Beast was right -- we needed proof before we acted.That was club law.But every instinct in my body screamed for immediate retribution, for blood to pay for blood.
“I can take care of myself,” Cheri said quietly, her voice startling everyone.It was the first time she’d spoken since we’d entered the room.“I don’t need to be a prisoner.”
“Not a prisoner,” Beast corrected gently.“Family under protection.”
The debate resumed, more controlled now but no less heated.Half the club seemed convinced Tasha was behind the poisoning; the other half wanted concrete proof before condemning her.I understood both sides, but my patience was wearing thin.Every hour that passed without answers was another hour the person who’d tried to kill my family walked free.
Cheri’s glass of water trembled in her hand as she raised it to her lips.I watched her throat work as she swallowed, saw the effort it took for her to maintain her composure in a room full of angry bikers arguing about her fate.Pride swelled in my chest, fierce and unexpected.My church girl had spine.
“There,” Shield said suddenly, his voice slicing through the debate.We all turned to look at him, the abrupt silence almost deafening.He’d pushed his chair back from the laptop, his face illuminated by the screen’s blue glow.“Got something.”
I was on my feet before I realized I’d moved, Cheri’s hand still clutched in mine.We crowded around Shield’s workspace, heads bent to see what he’d found.
On the screen, frozen in mid-motion, was a figure bent over the food table.The timestamp showed 2:17 PM.The figure’s back was to the camera, but there was something deliberate about the way they hovered over a specific section of the table.The section where Beast’s brisket had been.Definitely a woman with dark hair.
“Can you enhance it?”Beast asked, leaning closer.“Get a face?”
Shield shook his head, frustration evident in the tight line of his mouth.“Not from this angle.But watch.”He tapped a key, and the footage played in slow motion.The figure glanced around furtively, then reached into a pocket.Something small passed from his hand to Cheri’s plate I’d set down when I got my beer, a movement so quick it would have been missed at normal speed.
“There’s your accident,” I said, my voice deadly calm as the rage inside me crystallized into something cold and focused.“Someone poisoned her food.”
Cheri’s fingers dug into my arm, her nails breaking skin.“Who is it?”she whispered, her voice barely audible.“Who?”
Shield froze the frame again, zooming in as far as the grainy footage would allow.The figure remained frustratingly obscured, their face hidden by the angle and the shadow cast by a nearby tree.
“Could be Tasha,” Hawk said, voicing what we were all thinking.“Height and build match.”
“Could be half a dozen women,” Snake countered, though with less conviction than before.
I stared at the frozen image, willing it to reveal its secrets.The cold rage inside me grew sharper, more focused with each passing second.I didn’t need a clear face to know who had targeted my family.I could feel it in my bones, in the primal part of me that existed before rational thought.Tasha had done this.And when I found her, there would be a reckoning.
“Keep looking,” Beast ordered Shield.“Find me a better angle.I want to be certain.”
Shield nodded, already turning back to his computer, fingers once again dancing across the keys.I felt Cheri sway slightly beside me, her body still weak from the poison and the treatments that had followed.Without a word, I guided her back to her chair, my hand steady on the small of her back.
“We’re gonna find who did this,” I promised her softly, my lips close to her ear.“And they’re gonna pay.That’s a promise.”
She looked up at me, her blue eyes wide with fear she was trying hard to mask.“What if they try again?”she whispered.
“I won’t let them,” I said, determined to keep her safe.
“This is no accident,” Shield stated firmly, his fingers dancing across the keyboard as he magnified different elements of the footage.“The timing… It’s too deliberate.They were watching and waiting for the chance to strike.”
“Motherfucker,” I growled, the word escaping through clenched teeth.My body hummed with rage, every muscle coiled tight, ready to spring.I wanted blood.Needed it.“I want every Prospect, every hang-around, every fucking person who was at that barbecue interviewed.Now.”
Beast nodded, his expression hardening into something dangerous.“It’ll be done.But we do it right.”He turned to the assembled brothers, his voice carrying the full weight of his authority.“As of this moment, we’re on lockdown.No one enters the clubhouse without being vouched for by a patched member.Cheri doesn’t go anywhere alone -- not to the bathroom, not to get a glass of water, not to step outside for air.Someone is with her at all times.”
He looked around the table, making eye contact with each man in turn.“We protect our own.This wasn’t just an attack on Friar’s old lady.This was an attack on all of us.On our family.On our home.”
Murmurs of agreement rippled through the room.Even Snake, who’d been the most skeptical, nodded his acceptance of the new security measures.
“Shield,” Beast continued, “I want you to keep working this footage.Find me a face.Find me something I can act on.”
