And, in all honesty, that made sense.
Because that was how normal, sane people responded to seeing a beaten man dragged into a clubhouse to, as one might imagine, get beaten yet again. Maybe worse.
I should have been horrified.
Were he simply an innocent guy who had done nothing, I would have been.
But I found I had very little pity for a man who was selling drugs that would allow other men to sedate and rape women.
"Ty, what's going on?" I asked as his hand went to my lower back, leading me into the clubhouse where no one was around, save for Reign.
"Go on," Reign said, giving Ty a nod.
"Alright, so you know about this town and their different organizations..." Ty started.
"I know that the man earlier was from Third Street. And that they were on your territory. And that someone has been selling date-rape drugs in town." I left off the part about Ty being the one to tell me all that.
"Can't keep shit from those women," Reign murmured.
"It didn't take too much thinking to put it all together," I informed him with a small smile. "You told all of them about watching their drinks. But... why am I here and not the others?"
"Alright, so this club doesn't tolerate anyone working on our turf," Reign explained since Ty seemed hesitant to go on. "I especially don't put up with someone selling drugs on it. And that goes quad-fuckin'-drupal when it comes to shit like Easy Lay. So we have been keeping an eye out to confirm our suspicions. Tonight, Pagan and Sugar caught someone dealing just half a block away. They brought him in. For questioning," he went on, not even trying to make it sound like bloodshed wasn't a part of it.
"Okay..." I said, looking at Ty, eyes questioning. Why the hell were they telling me all this? And not the others?
"We wanted information on the new leader of the gang," Reign went on. "They have changed leadership a lot lately. We didn't know who is running the operation."
"The guy told us that one of the guys who has been in the organization for the past eleven years decided to rise up," Ty pitched in, giving me the feeling that we were getting to the important part if he was the one finally telling it to me. "Someone who started when he was twenty. Had some unique ideas on how to sell the drugs without it being obvious what was going on. Someone with a spiderweb tattoo on the side of his neck."
And there it was.
Ten years charged back to me at once, knocking out my air, giving me the sensations of that day all over again.
The unyielding, cold hood of the police car against my chest and stomach. The tightness of the cuffs around my wrists. The way his face had been utterly blank while my heart went just shy of in attack mode, my belly twisted painfully, my skin breaking out in a sweat, the fear making bile rise up in my throat.
Betrayal.
God, the betrayal.
Nothing would ever feel like that day had.
The day my life as I knew it ended.
"He was here the whole time?" I asked, my voice sounding choked.
The floor felt like it was crumbling underneath me, like the world was trying to suck me into its core.
Ty's hand moved out, grabbing me under the elbow, keeping me steady.
He'd been in town the whole time.
Selling date-rape drugs.
Ruining more lives.
The anger, buried under those things I told myself wouldn't make a difference to my plans for revenge - hope, dreams, happiness, the ideas of a future, a sweet, budding relationship - came back with a vengeance, overtaking me completely.
My hands curled.
My teeth clenched.
My skin started to buzz.
"Breathe, baby girl," Ty demanded. "We're not done," he added. "I know that your plan when you came back was to do something about him. Track him down. Make him pay for what he stole from you. And I figure that revenge of yours had a lot to do with something that might have gotten you locked up again."
"Ah, yeah," I admitted, something that made Ty smile a bit. "What?" I snapped a little, offended that he was amused by the idea.
"Don't underestimate a fucked-over woman," Reign butted in, sounding amused. "They are a force to be reckoned with."
"Anyway, Reign and I figured maybe we could give you what you want, but in a way that won't make you give more of your life away."
Were they offering to... take care of him for me?
Why would they ask? Involve me? When they clearly wanted to handle the situation themselves?
"Why are you running it by me?"
"Because, I figure, it isn't a great way to start something with us by doing something behind your back. And what we have in mind isn't what you had in mind for him."