Snitches Get Stitches (Bear Bottom Guardians MC 8)

Hoax was married to Pru, the daughter of Sam, one of the men that had started Free. When Hoax had gotten out of the military, he’d started working for Free, and was slowly starting to take on more than just a supporting role as the time passed. I was sure that in a couple of years, Sam would just be a helping hand instead of the entire program like he was now.

Hoax was also a member of my MC and hadn’t known who it was I was trying to get help for, only that I needed help for a friend.

And I saw the moment that he almost said no.

“Theo, honey. Go have a seat at the table,” I urged as I stood up. “I have to talk to Hoax for a second.”

Hoax’s jaw set and he looked like he’d rather throw Theo out than help her at all.

Sam, Pru’s father and Hoax’s father-in-law, seeing that something was wrong, followed us out.

The second the door closed behind us, Hoax turned on me with a ferocious growl.

“What the fuck, Liner?” Hoax hissed. “What in the absolute fuck are you doing with Tara?”

I was already shaking my head. “Not Tara.” I turned to Sam. “I asked for you to do this without him.”

Sam shrugged.

“I got suspicious when he was having this meeting without me, so I came despite being asked not to,” Hoax scoffed. “By the way, that sure the fuck looks like Tara.”

I tilted my head slightly and then looked at him like he was goddamn dumb.

“Did she look like she knew you at all?” I pushed.

Hoax opened his mouth to reply, then shut it again with a frustrated growl.

“No,” he finally admitted.

Tara knew all of the club seeing as most of them had taken a few rounds with Rome, taking turns sitting there with him so that he didn’t have to face Tara’s wrath by himself.

And Tara wouldn’t have missed the opportunity to shoot a couple of scathing words in Hoax’s direction. Even if he was about to find her help—help in which she desperately needed.

Hoax’s lips thinned. “Just…listen to her entire story. Okay?”

Hoax gritted his teeth and walked away without saying a word, leaving me standing with Sam in front of me.

“Swear to God,” I said softly. “She’s not what she seems.”

“Twins?” he guessed.

I nodded.

“I wasn’t able to pull up much about her,” he said. “Only a birth certificate. And her daughter’s birth certificate. She has no credit. No school history. No college classes. No nothing.”

I gritted my teeth. “That’s what happens when you’re not allowed to live a life.”

Sam’s eyes narrowed.

“Just listen,” I urged.

Sam nodded once and then gestured for me to follow Hoax into the conference room.

I did, finding Theo at the large table.

She looked like a child sitting in the large seat at the very end, and Hoax sitting at the other end glaring at her wasn’t helping.

As I walked by, I kicked the side of Hoax’s chair, causing him to curse.

When I took the seat beside Theo, I could tell that she was mad.

At me.

I sighed. “Theo, this is Hoax. Hoax is in the MC.”

Understanding dawned on Theo’s face.

“Oh,” she said softly. “I’m sorry. I’ll go.”

Then she started to get up, but Hoax and I said, “No, sit,” at the same time, causing her to freeze halfway standing.

I tugged on her arm to get her to sit back down and said, “Tell him your story, honey.”

Theo swallowed hard and then desperately reached for the bottle of water that sat in front of her, unopened.

She twisted the lid, or tried to, and sighed.

I took the bottle from her, twisted the cap off myself, and then handed it back.

She took it with a grimaced expression on her face, gulped half the bottle down, and then sat it in front of her without the lid.

We all waited.

“My first memory is of my sister tying me to the bed when I was six,” she started.

Both men at the table froze.

“I woke up and my hands and legs were tied to the bed. Tara was standing over me with a kitchen knife in her hand, staring at me,” she said softly. “When she finally realized that I was awake—she’d previously been staring at the pulse on my neck—she bent down and pressed the knife to my neck, right under my carotid artery, and pressed down hard enough that I felt the tip of the knife break the surface.”

Still the men said nothing.

“I screamed, waking my father up,” she continued. “He walked in, sounding distracted, saw what was going on, then admonished my sister for making a mess. And since my father encouraged us all to be ruthless, he didn’t do anything about the blood that was leaking out of a cut on my neck, nor did he tell my sister to untie me.”