Page 49 of Friar
I stood behind Shield’s workstation.My body craved rest, but my mind wouldn’t allow it, not until I watched Tasha’s face when she realized her game was over.The monitors in front of us cast a blue-white glow across Shield’s features as he cued up the recording, his fingers dancing across the keyboard with practiced precision.
“Got it isolated,” Shield murmured, adjusting the volume.“Audio’s cleaned up as much as possible.You can hear both voices clearly now.”
Beast loomed over Shield’s other shoulder, his massive frame casting shadows across the workstation.The clubhouse had gone eerily quiet, brothers positioned strategically around the main room, creating a gauntlet of leather and denim that Tasha would have to face.I caught Hawk’s eye across the room where he stood by the hallway entrance, his slight nod telling me everything I needed to know.They had her.
Shield hit PLAY, and a woman’s voice, unmistakably Tasha’s, filled the room.
“I don’t care how you do it.Just make it look accidental.”Her words crackled with static but carried clearly enough to send ice through my veins.“The pregnant bitch needs to disappear.”
A man’s voice responded, lower and harder to make out.“That’s gonna cost extra.Pregnant women draw attention.”
“I’ll pay whatever.Just make sure she doesn’t walk away from it.And if he’s with her…” A pause.“Try not to hurt him, but if he gets in the way, do what you have to.”
My hands curled into fists at my sides.The cold calculation in her voice, the casual way she’d put a price on Cheri’s life, on our baby’s life, made my vision narrow to a red-tinged tunnel.
Beast’s jaw tightened, the only outward sign of the rage I knew was churning inside him.His control was legendary, his ability to maintain a calm exterior while plotting vengeance something I’d always admired.Now, that control served as an anchor for my own slipping restraint.
“Again,” Beast ordered quietly, and Shield replayed the damning exchange.
The door at the far end of the room opened, and Forge entered first, his face set in hard lines.Behind him came Hawk, and between them, Tasha.They’d cuffed her hands in front of her with zip ties, but she walked with her head high, defiance in every line of her body until she registered the scene before her.
Her stride faltered when she saw the gathering of brothers.Her gaze darted from face to grim face before landing on the monitor in front of Shield.Recognition dawned slowly, confusion bleeding into the first hints of real fear as she took in the timestamps on the footage, dates that matched perfectly with each attempt on Cheri’s life.
“What is this?”she demanded, but the tremble in her voice betrayed her dawning comprehension.
No one answered.Forge and Hawk guided her to the center of the room, where the brothers had formed a loose circle.I stayed by Shield’s workstation, unwilling to give up my view of the monitor that held the evidence of her betrayal.From this position, I could see both her face and the screens that would condemn her.
Beast paced a slow circle around her, his boots falling heavy on the wooden floor.The sound seemed to echo in the unnatural quiet that had fallen over the clubhouse.Even the Prospects who usually hovered at the edges had been dismissed.This was club business of the highest order.
“Tasha,” Beast finally said, his voice deceptively gentle.“We’ve known each other a long time, haven’t we?”
She swallowed visibly, eyes tracking him as he moved behind her, then back into her line of sight.“Yes.”
“And in all that time, have I ever struck you as a man who tolerates threats to his family?”
Her lips parted, but no sound emerged.She looked to Hawk, to Forge, to each face in the circle, finding no ally, no sympathy.When her gaze landed on me, I stared back with all the cold fury I’d been containing since the diner, since the poisoning, since the first time she’d tried to take from me what wasn’t hers to claim.
Beast continued his measured pacing.“We have phone records,” he said, nodding to Shield who brought up a new screen displaying call logs with highlighted timestamps.“We have witness testimony.We have your credit card statement showing a gun purchase the day before the diner.”Each piece of evidence appeared on screen as he named it.“And now, we have audio of you hiring a hit man to kill Cheri.”
“That’s not -- I didn’t --” Tasha’s denials died as Shield played the recording again, her own voice condemning her with each syllable.
“We know it was you at the barbecue,” Beast continued relentlessly.“We have footage of you tampering with the food.We know it was you who orchestrated the hit-and-run.We know you were at the diner.”
Tasha’s knees buckled suddenly, and she would have fallen if not for Hawk’s grip on her arm.Her carefully constructed facade crumbled before our eyes, mascara-stained tears carving black rivulets down her cheeks.
“She took everything from me,” she whispered, no longer bothering to deny the obvious.Her voice cracked, raw with the bitter envy that had driven her to attempt murder.“Friar was supposed to be mine.I’ve been here for years.I’ve earned my place.She walks in pregnant and suddenly she’s untouchable?”
The pathetic justification for her actions made my stomach turn.As if her time hanging around the club as a whore gave her some claim on me, some right to decide who lived and who died.I pushed away from the workstation.
“You tried to kill my child,” I said, my voice so low it was nearly a growl.“My woman.My family.”
Tasha flinched at my words, tears flowing freely now.“She trapped you.Can’t you see that?She got pregnant on purpose to tie you down!”
“The baby is mine,” I said, the DNA results still fresh in my mind.“Mine by blood, not just by choice.”Not that it would have mattered if biology had proven otherwise.Cheri was mine.The baby was mine.My family by choice as much as by chance.
Tasha sagged in Hawk’s grip, defeat finally settling over her as she realized there was no escape, no explanation that could save her from what was coming.“I just wanted what she has.”
Beast stopped his pacing directly in front of her, his expression as close to disgusted as I’d ever seen it.The slight twitch of his jaw was the only sign of the controlled fury I knew was raging beneath his measured facade.
