Page 54 of Deception
“The information Julian has is old information. The same information many of the veteran women would know just because of proximity and time spent in the clubhouse, but we wouldn’t have told them about the changes we’ve made.”
“Which rules out the newer women. We wouldn’t have told them about old hiding places. It never would have come up, and they wouldn’t have seen it,” Jennings says.
Ky’s jaw drops as he looks at Venom. “Who do you think it is?”
“We can’t rule out too many until we know more,” Colt says.
“You can’t be serious,” Venom says. “Sure, your wife is talking to a professional about her shitty childhood, but you can’t believe Lex would ever rat on anyone here. No matter what someone may have done to her.”
“We have to look at everyone,” Colt says, but he avoids looking at Venom.
The Sergeant at Arms jumps up, his chair sliding back hard enough to hit the wall behind him. “Colt, look me in the face. Do you honestly believe Lex could be behind this?”
“Venom—”
“If you think she could do this, I’m handing in my leather right now. There’s no fucking way, and I want to beat your ass for even implying it.”
Finally looking at him, he shakes his head. “No, I don’t. I’d bet my patch and my life that it’s not her, but my belief can’t cloud how we look at this. We have to be objective, and she’s a veteran who knows more than the average old lady. She’s up there with Tess and my mom. Even Felicity.”
“Felicity wouldn’t,” Ky says. “If she was going to talk to the cops, it would’ve been when I was in the doghouse last year.She’d never wait until Gavin was almost a member to take us down.”
“Unless she thought the club would be behind bars before he was affected the same way,” Jennings says. “It might be a situation where the ball got rolling, and she can’t stop it now.”
TK sniffles. “It’s not your mom. She had ample time to take us down when we weren’t good, and she never did. Hell, she stayed married to me to protect the club.”
“Tess is happy to have me stepping back, and we’ve got a solid retirement plan set up. One that depends on me being in the club for at least a few more years. She’d never risk that,” Jennings says.
“Lex is loyal to a fault. Hell, she almost died when the Slashers took her, and she still gave up nothing,” Ky says. “I would bet money on it being Tess or Karmen before I’d believe it could be Lex. Even Felicity.”
Relieved no one seems to be pushing the issue, Colt nods. “I don’t think Emma knows enough to talk to the cops. But we still have a long list to go through. Lily probably knows the most, but it wouldn’t make sense since she’s our lawyer.”
“It’d be kind of shitty for her to betray us,” Venom agrees. “What about that redhead with Elliot?”
They run through the old ladies, determining who can be completely ruled out, who falls in the possibility category, and who would be the most likely offender.
“What about Autumn?” Ky asks. “She’s been pretty distant, but she did catch Rocco cheating. Not to mention they both had to get treated for the clap before that because of his wandering dick.”
“Yeah, I was here that night,” TK says. “That wasn’t pretty.”
Colt shakes his head. “I don’t really get the rat vibe from her. Yeah, she’s a veteran like Lex and Felicity, but if she hasn’t leftRocco for it, do we really think she’d get him locked away for life?”
“I’d believe it was her before Felicity.”
“I also don’t know if I really know her anymore to have a good sense of what she’d do. It just seems unlikely that would be her choice of revenge.”
The more they talk, the less Colt feels like he has a grasp on who it might be. He’s even less sure than when he walked in because exes are now being thrown around. Everyone from Kai’s mom to Cinder gets put on the table, and his head spins.
“What do we do here, Pres?” Jennings asks.
“I think we need to talk to Lex,” he admits. “One, to completely rule her out, but mostly because she has a better handle on the women than we do. Maybe someone will jump out at her.”
“What do we tell the rest of the club?” Venom asks. “I mean, we can’t just keep this a secret, right? They need to know to keep their mouths shut.”
Letting out a sigh, Colt nods his head. “Yeah, let’s get everyone together. All charters. Let them know someone’s talking to the cops, but we won’t give any details about our speculations. We’ll shift things to the other charters to cover ourselves while we look into it.”
“What do we tell people when they ask who we think it is?” Ky asks.
“Just tell them we have no answers, and we’re not starting a witch hunt until we have them,” Jennings answers for Colt. “You know Lex is gonna be pissed we’re entertaining her as a possible rat, right?”
