Renny (The Henchmen MC 6)

So Alex stealing from rich pedophiles and giving to victims, that was just the work of any Tuesday.

"That wasn't even in your profile," L shot at me, wanting to spread blame around, though it didn't exactly matter to the case that he was a sick whack job.

"I can't catch everything, L," I reasoned, shrugging.

"If there is any justice in the world," Alex went on, typing something on her laptop, "while he's in jail, he will be getting a little taste of what it feels like to be a victim."

As someone who didn't subscribe to a common belief in the psych community that sex offenders could be reformed, I had to agree with Alex. There was no fixing that kind of sick. Sexual recidivism was at about forty-percent. And that was only what was reported. The thing about child sexual predators is that they target children, they can manipulate and scare them into silence. Most experts would put that number more at sixty to seventy percent.

And yet they kept putting those fucking sickos back on the streets.

"You know, I'm with George Carlin," Alex said randomly. When we all gave her blank looks, she shrugged. "In one of his stand-ups, he said something about how all criminals should be sectioned off in some of the useless flyover states based off their crimes. Murderers here, sex offenders there. Load them up with weapons and drugs and every month, open a door between each of the camps and let people sneak through. Let them suck and fuck and shoot up and torture and kill until there are none of them left. And, yes, I know this is weird coming from a criminal who is married to a criminal and is good friends with mostly criminals. But you know what I mean. This is all kinds of fucked up that these bastards walk free."

"Do any of the others have his particular brand of fucked-up?" L asked and I could tell it was killing him to do so.

"Not that I can find. I mean, El Jefe himself, Little Ricky, sure likes his teen girl with old disgusting fat man porn. But the girls are all legal. Can I call him El Jefe?" she asked, looking between us. "I mean they're Italian mob and that's a Spanish term..."

"Il Capo," L supplied, surprising me. "That would be the Italian way of saying 'the chief'."

"Right, well Il Capo likes to entertain the idea that any pretty young woman would be willing to suck and fuck his disgusting ass despite the only reason the girls doing it in porn is for the payout. But, you know, guys are stupid that way. Them and their twisted porn..." she trailed off, shaking her head. She swirled her chair then, head tucked to the side, looking at L. "What kind of twisted porn are you into, L?" she asked, then went right ahead and laughed. "I'll bet it's women who suck you off while you drink gallons of coffee or some shit like that. Anyway, yeah, I can't get a drop on a location for these guys. Their purchases and shit were all over the map. Has Janie made any progress on... what?" she trailed off when L and I shared a look.

"Jstorm isn't on this case," L said carefully.

"What do you mean Janie isn't on this case?" she asked, brows drawing together. "These are the people who got Wolf locked up and gave her a world of worry years back. And they're the same fuckheads who put several bullets in his body and made him crack his head on the car on the way down which has put him in a goddamn coma. Of course she's in on this."

"Lo and Reign decided," I started, only to be cut off by her.

"Oh fuck," she said, shaking her head. "Reign is going to be in the market for a new set of balls when she hears that. And, Lo, well, I know she and Janie have this mother-daughter thing, but I'm not sure that won't stop Janie from flipping shit on her either."

"Regardless," I cut in, agreeing, but knowing better than to interfere, "we have all agreed to leave her out of this because she doesn't need the stress."

"Right," she said, nodding. "Of course you guys did."

See, I didn't see it right then.

I should have. It was right there in my face, flashing like a neon warning sign.

But I was off my game. I was in a fog that I was pretending had nothing to do with the sex dreams I had been having about Renny that left me refusing to sleep and therefore a bone-deep kind of tired.

I never would have missed it otherwise.

Because Alex didn't say she agreed.

She said of course we all did.

That little oversight on my part would lead to a pinnacle point that none of us would see coming.