“Your statement is you drove home Sunday at three o’clock in the morning in the truck with Seychelle and you were here in this house all day Sunday.”
“That’s correct.”
Jonas sighed. “Girlfriends and fiancées don’t make the best alibis.”
“Oh my God, he thinks you were the one to murder that woman Tawny Farmer,” Seychelle said. “Doris and Inez told me about the murder when they came over for dinner last night. Jonas, he really was with me.”
Jonas glanced at Jackson, who nodded almost imperceptibly. The sheriff still shook his head. “She isn’t going to be a credible witness, Absinthe. You know that.”
“When did this murder actually take place?” Absinthe asked.
“She was killed on Sunday,” Jonas answered.
“Seychelle isn’t my only witness, Jonas,” Savage said. “I have one I doubt you’ll question. Go ask your wife. She was here talking to me in person.”
“Hannah? Why would Hannah be here?”
“I told you, Seychelle was very sick. Hannah came to help. She was here for quite a while both Sunday and Monday. Sent Sabelia here Tuesday.”
“Why would you think Savage had anything to do with Tawny Farmer’s murder?” Absinthe asked.
“Call-in witness said they saw him arguing with her on the side of the rode. She’d been on his bike and they stopped, and he got physical with her. That was the last they saw. Described Savage perfectly and his bike. Described the exact place we found the body.”
“Tracks of a bike?” Czar asked. “Just out of curiosity.”
“Could be why we’re sitting here instead of in an office somewhere. Car tracks on the side of the road.”
“You think she was killed somewhere else?” Czar guessed shrewdly. “And dumped close to Caspar in order to implicate Savage?”
“You know I can’t answer that,” Jonas said. “But you got enemies, Savage, and I’d watch your back.” He stood up. “The word is, Tawny was a government informant. But then word had it she ran with the Diamondbacks. She supposedly ran with the Venomous club. If she was playing the clubs, and informing on them both, she wasn’t going to live a very long life, and her handler had to know that.” He sighed again. “I hope you’re feeling better, Seychelle.”
Savage waited until their vehicle had driven off before he was up and pacing across the floor. The rage in the room was alive and growing with every step. Czar was right there with him. Even Absinthe wasn’t far behind in his anger.
“Those fuckers,” Czar all but snarled. “Pierce didn’t throw the blame on Alena. He put it on you, Savage. After all we did for Plank, that little fucker still went ahead with his plan. We showed him loyalty, worked our asses off and he didn’t call it off. I should have let those hit men slip past us and cut his throat.”
“Unbelievable,” Absinthe said. “We had so many damn bodies stacked up. We gave him his answers. Made certain he knew he was safe and his crew was safe. Seychelle made certain the women were, at great cost to herself. And he pulls this shit. He has that punk enforcer who can’t keep his dick in his pants kill Tawny and blame Savage. We can’t let him get away with this shit, Czar.”
Savage was seething. “There’s a possibility that fucking Pierce did this without Plank’s consent. He knows we’re going to come after him. He hurt Alena, and he’s going to pay for it. He can pretend to try to save her all he wants to, but he was banging Tawny and every other bitch he could when she wasn’t around. He disrespected her by passing on that video to Plank and sharing it with his brothers. He didn’t even try to protect her. Their relationship from the beginning was all about him. This setup stinks of him.”
“Did you hear what he said?” Czar asked. “Tawny was informing on the clubs to the Feds. I don’t think there was a mysterious Russian woman behind her informing. I think she did that all on her own. She liked to play her games. The Feds were there on the weekend, looking to talk to the members of the clubs that were willing to sell their clubs out. Of course, the members had no idea what they were really doing. They were under the influence of the Russian woman. Tawny was playing her own game.”
“As if we don’t have enough trouble with the Ghosts after us,” Absinthe said.
“The Russian woman is definitely connected to the Ghosts,” Savage affirmed, looking to Seychelle for confirmation. She had drawn up her knees and wrapped her arms around them and was resting her chin on top, her eyes following his every move. He was aware, instantly, that he had been doing what he always did, automatically draining off the anger from the other two men, just like an eager PAC-MAN, gobbling it up, storing it like a dragon in his secret vault. He cursed under his breath. There was no condemnation in her eyes, only that quiet acceptance she often got, as if she knew the one night they’d shared was nothing compared to what he would need after this.
“Tawny was not connected to the Ghosts or to the Russian woman. She was running her own game with the clubs and the Feds,” Czar said.
“And Brandon,” Seychelle murmured softly.
Savage’s head went up alertly. “What did you say, baby?”
Czar and Absinthe turned toward her.
She looked uncomfortable, rubbing her chin back and forth on top of her knees. Her eyes met Savage’s. “Tawny was very involved with Brandon. If she was pitting the Venomous club against the Diamondbacks for him, and I’m fairly certain she was, but she was also informing on both clubs to the Feds, then I doubt that Brandon knew that. If he found out, he would be really angry with her.”
“Go on,” Savage encouraged.
She hesitated again, no doubt feeling the level of anger the three men had toward Pierce. “It’s just that Brandon had a very intricate revenge plan. He was in it for the long haul. It wasn’t about involving law enforcement. He wanted to be a part of a club. His ultimate goal would be to take over a club, rise to the top. He uses women for his purposes. It would amuse him to see the clubs torn apart by these women gossiping and whispering conspiracy theories to their men. He wanted the Venomous club to eat away at the Diamondbacks until they started a war.”
“The hit men, what about them?”
“The women were his, a fun little idea to stir the pot and see if he could pull it off. Can you imagine, on a run, if the women in a club started off giving their men blow jobs and ended up murdering them? This run was his ultimate revenge, where it all was supposed to come together. He’d arranged it all. The women were his perfect diversion. They give blow jobs and kill, and while everyone is looking at them, the real hit men go after the presidents of the clubs and their closest men. That’s checkmate for Brandon. He didn’t care about Torpedo Ink, other than Savage. Tawny did. Every person named was someone she had a grudge against. He was nowhere near the run, so he couldn’t in any way be implicated.”
Czar leaned against the back of the sofa, regarding Seychelle with his silvery, piercing eyes. “You fucked it up for him, Seychelle. You quietly stopped those women by removing the suggestion Brandon planted.”
She nodded. “Even the president of the Venomous club brought his women to me Saturday and asked me to check them. I think Plank talked to him, or the women talked to each other. In any case, Torpedo Ink stopped his hit men. Brandon had to be furious that he put out all that money and nothing came of it. Not one single thing.”