She scowls. “Quite a lot, actually. He didn’t come to see me every day and there would be times when he would be gone for a couple weeks before he would come back but when he did stop by, he would stay and talk to me for hours.”
“So, you got to know him, then?” Blaze asks and she shakes her head.
“I wouldn’t say that. He asked me about my life and after a month or so, I was so starved for conversation that I opened up to him but mostly, he just talked about y’all.”
Every chair in the room squeaks as we all jerk to attention and I suck in a breath, my heart pounding in my chest and my stomach flipping wildly.
Holy shit.
This is crucial.
“What did he say?” Fuzz asks, his gaze intense as he stares at her. Her hand shakes as she presses it against her chest, near her neck, and keeps her gaze firmly on the table.
“He talked about how much he hated you and how y’all had taken everything from him…” She looks around the room and when her eyes meet mine, I nod in encouragement. “And he told me that he has so many plans to make y’all pay. He said he wants to watch you suffer the same way he had before he tears this club apart.”
The room is quiet, each of us contemplating what we’ve already learned and wondering how much more there is. We’ve already lost three girls… how much more does he have planned for us and can we really stop him?
“Do you know what he’s planning?” Smith asks and she shakes her head.
“I tried to get him to talk to me about his plan but he was always very vague… I guess that makes sense now. If he was always planning on dropping me off on your doorstep, he couldn’t tell me anything that would help y’all.” She scowls down at the table before shaking her head. “He did tell me about a woman he met in a bar, though. I got the sense that she had something to do with you guys but when I asked about it, he told me to mind my own business and he mentioned a man he’d met that hated this club as much as he did.”
My gaze snaps to her as I suck in a breath. “He has a partner?”
“I don’t think so. It sounded more like this man…. was inspired by him. He told him it was always better to use pawns to do his dirty work and there was something about a brother but I don’t remember that part…”
“Holy fuck,” Storm breathes, falling back into his seat with wide eyes and every eye in the room turns to look at him. Blaze frowns and Storm shakes his head, looking dazed. “Ian.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
If the man after us also knows Ian and was around when all that shit went down with Storm and his old lady, Ali, then this goes way fucking deeper than any of us thought.
“Was he in jail?” Henn asks and Veronica blinks up at him, shrugging.
“I don’t know. He never mentioned it.”
Storm turns to Henn. “What are you thinking?”
“Just that for this guy to get to Ian, he either had to be in jail or he excels at digging into our most private shit. I mean, he’s got to be on Streak’s level,” he answers, glancing over at me and I clench my teeth. That would explain a few things, like how he’s been able to hide from me so well.
“Let’s not jump to any conclusions,” Blaze says, his voice full of authority. He turns back to Veronica and offers her a warm smile but I can still see the stress creeping into his eyes. “Was there anything else?”
“Probably,” she answers with a shrug. “I was there for so long and he talked so much but I’m trying to remember.”
He nods, holding his hands up in surrender. “No one is trying to push you, darlin’. Just take your time.”
“Okay,” she breathes, staring down at the table again for a moment before she looks up. “The only other thing that stands out to me is that he said he’s been watching from the shadows for a while and that he would step in when he felt it was necessary to maximize the pain and agony he was trying to inflict on y’all… but I don’t know details.”
“Christ,” Moose whispers, scrubbing his hand down his face as we all look around the room, trying to wrap our minds around all this new information.
How long has he been watching us?
How many times has he intervened and fucked with us?
“What about the day you showed up here?” Fuzz asks. “What happened then?”
She sucks in a breath and her lip wobbles, tears filling her eyes as the memories play out in her head, but she manages to rein it in. “He showed up that day and took the shackles off before leading me to the front door. He was standing behind me and he had his hand clamped down on my shoulders then he lifted them off and told me to run. At first, I was shocked, frozen in place, so he nudged me forward and I took off. I didn’t have any shoes on and my feet were getting all cut up but I didn’t care. I was determined to get away.”
“Obviously that didn’t happen,” Chance says and she nods.
“As I was running, I realized that he was following me, hunting me, and I thought it was the end for me. I thought he was going to kill me.” A sob bubbles out of her throat and I shake my head, fighting back the growing anger in the pit of my stomach. “When he caught up to me, he threw a bag over my head and carried me back the way we came. The next thing I knew we were in a car and my hands were tied behind my back.”
Blaze blows out a breath and runs a hand through his hair. “What happened when you got to the clubhouse?”
“He took me out of the car and we walked for a while… I’m not sure how far… and then when he took the blindfold off, we were standing in front of the clubhouse.”
“And he instructed you to come inside?” I ask and she nods, her eyes full of pain as she glances over at me.
“Yeah. I had no idea what was going on and I thought maybe it was just another game, that y’all were in on it with him and he was just going to endlessly torment me before killing me.”
Blaze shakes his head, pain filling his face as he leans forward and meets her gaze. “I’m so sorry that this happened to you, Veronica… I can’t help but feel like this is our fault and if there is ever anything that you need, all you have to do is ask. This club is here for you, now and always.”
“I…” she whispers, gaping at me. “I don’t blame you guys. Since he released me, I’ve been researching the club and I know the good work you do. The only person to blame here is him but regardless, I’m thankful for your support.”
“It’s a really shitty induction but you’re part of the family now,” Storm tells her and she nods, glancing over her shoulder at the closed door.
“Based on what I saw out there, it seems like a good family to be a part of.”
Chance smiles. “We appreciate you saying that.”
Silence descends over the room as we all look at each other, unsure of where to go from here, and Blaze clears his throat as he stands up and motions to the door. “Okay, well, if nobody has anything else, I’ll walk you out, Veronica.”
“Okay,” she answers, sounding more secure as she stands up and looks around the room. “If there is anything else I can help with, please let me know.”
“We will, darlin’,” Blaze assures her. She waves good-bye and Blaze walks her out of the room shutting the door behind him. Nobody says anything, each of us trying to process everything we’ve just learned. The lengths this guy has gone to in order to get back at us is extreme and I can’t shake this damn feeling that I’m missing something that is staring me right in the face but I can’t seem to figure out what the hell it is. It just continues to eat away at me, at all of us, but maybe that’s all just part of his game and this really will end with the ruins of my club and the family we’ve built littered around us.