“Someone has to.” For the first time, real tears swam in her eyes. “The cops knew they raped my sister. They left behind evidence, but as usual, Robert’s father bought his way out of it. He bought the cops, he bought the attorneys and he bought the judges.”
“What evidence?”
“There were photographs of my sister’s body and the scene where my parents were in the living room. Robert’s necklace was wrapped around Priscilla’s wrist. How do you miss that? It was wrapped around her wrist and the medallion was clasped in her fingers. She was smart and she’d torn it off his neck and when she decided to hang herself, she wrapped that around her hand to make certain they knew who had raped her. It was very distinct. Thick chain links. Real gold. The medallion was flat and had the words Rule the World engraved on it.”
“How did you see the photographs?”
She shook her head and pressed her lips together. “I can’t tell you that, but I did get screen captures of them and gave them to my attorney. It was part of the reason I was able to get out of prison and the state made a very lucrative deal with me.”
He knew immediately that someone on the inside of the prison, someone with skills like Code’s, had gotten to those photographs, and Scarlet would never break her silence and compromise them. It shocked him that the pictures hadn’t been destroyed. Someone was either thinking in terms of protecting themselves or blackmailing Holden down the road.
“Fair enough, ledi, you had the proof, and that was the big thing. We don’t hunt unless we know those we’re after are guilty.”
He eased back in his chair to let her know he was switching gears. He wanted to take her to his house and see if she was willing to make the coast her home, to commit to him and his club permanently. He knew it was fast for her, but in order for both of them to disclose the things they needed to each other, they had to count on the connection, that pathway their brains had made—and the truth they shared. They had to jump in with both feet. That meant Scarlet was the one stepping off the cliff, and he knew it was much harder for her—more of a matter of trust than for him. He would have his club to make him comfortable. She would only have him. She’d been let down and she would be afraid.
“I want you to come home with me. I own a house here in Caspar. I’d like you to see if you like it. If you don’t, I’m telling you up front, I’m willing to find another one, anything at all you prefer. Czar wanted us to put down roots here and each of us to find a home. All of us more or less chose one that suited us best, depending on needs. This one appealed to me because it has space and I like that. I need it. I like to see what’s coming at me. I think all of us do. But I want you to see it and make up your own mind about it. I haven’t really lived there. I stay here at the clubhouse as a rule until I can’t take the noise around me and need solitude.”
“Why would it matter if I don’t like the house?”
She was going to make him lay it out for her. He glanced at Savage and then over at Mechanic. Both men got up from the bar stools without a word. Savage drifted over toward the front door and draped his muscular frame casually against the wall, pulling out his phone to look over text messages. He rarely texted anyone, so it was probably a ruse, although he looked thoroughly engaged. Mechanic leaned on the bar right beside the door leading to the back rooms where all the bedrooms and the back exits were. His solid body was between Scarlet and any doors just in case she got it in her head to make a break for it.
“I want you to stay with me. Give the library your notice and live with me. The Venomous club isn’t going to back down. Holden made it clear that he’s putting the word out to other clubs as well, so it won’t be safe to go back to work. You already know that. You only have two choices. You can run, hit that go-bag you have hidden in the wall back at your house.”
It wasn’t there anymore. Already, Steele and Maestro were cleaning out her house of everything she’d left behind and bringing it to the clubhouse. They’d sweep for anything she might have hidden carefully. She wasn’t going back there either, not for money, not for passports, not for anything that might get her killed.