Mad Dog (Angel’s Rebellion MC: #2) (Angel's Rebellion MC), стр. 34
Her eyes latched onto his as he spoke to her, “I'm terribly, terribly sorry, Ava, he said gently, then he reached toward her and pulled her in for a hug.
Damn the fucker. I should have been the one doing that. But I didn't leave my damn chair. Jesus. Christ. I was already letting her fucking down. I think a part of me was scared. For some reason, I had the feeling that once I ever had her in my arms, I would never want to let her go.
She cried for a few minutes and when she started to straighten up, Viper leaned back and gently wiped the tears off her face, then got up and went back to his chair. His face had a ravaged look on it. I knew he was thinking about how he would feel if he lost one of his Old Ladies or kids. I knew the look and the feeling well.
I cleared my throat, “Why were you hunting me, Ava? Is there something I can do for you?”
She started wringing her hands together, as if she was unsure if she should ask me whatever was on her mind. Then I saw the moment she got her nerve up, she sat up in her chair and looked me dead in the eye.
“Do y'all ever kill anyone?”
I barked out a laugh, “Are you trying to hire us to kill someone? Darlin', we aren't a hit crew.”
She looked a little deflated at my comment.
“Why don't you tell me why you asked that?”
She tensed a moment, drew a deep breath then spoke, “A few months before the accident occurred, my husband had recently passed the bar and had started a new job at a law firm. One of the partners asked him to work on a brief and have it ready by the next morning, so Brian worked late that night to get it finished. The partner, Mr. Jerik, had told Bri to put it on his desk so that he could have it first thing when he got to work.”
She paused for a moment like she was gathering her thoughts. “As Brian was leaving Mr. Jerik's office, he overheard a phone conversation that involved another one of the partners, a Mr. Miller. Bri said he wasn't intentionally trying to hear anything, but no one else was in the building and Mr. Miller's voice carried.
“Bri said he heard Mr. Miller asking about when his purchase of ten kilos of meth would be delivered. Then Bri said Mr. Miller stated that his next order would be double that. Bri said he left as quietly as he could, and he hadn't thought he was heard.
“Each of the firm’s partners had their own junior associates and Brian didn't work for Mr. Miller. But the next morning and all the rest of the week, Mr. Miller called him into his office for asinine things. He said he knew then that Mr. Miller had somehow seen him. I'd asked Bri if he could go to the police, but he said that he didn't know who he could trust. That he needed to think long and hard on it. He was telling me this on our car ride.”
Mother. Fuck. Her family had been intentionally killed and if we hadn't stopped to help out, they would have made sure she was dead too.
“After our car came to rest at the bottom of the mountain and right before he died, Bri told me to run and get as far away as I could and to not come back.”
She lowered her eyes for a moment, her gaze appeared to be mindlessly looking down at the floor. Then she straightened her shoulders, picked her head up and said to me, “It's been seven years. I changed my appearance and somehow managed to go on, but I still mourn their deaths. I have had to learn to live again. However, without closure, it will be hard to go on with my life until the bastard who killed my husband and my son is dead. And one way or the other, he is going to die. Even if I have to spend the rest of my life in prison for killing him myself.”
God. Damn. One way or the other, we had to help her. There was no way I could let her go to prison for killing the bastard. I glanced at Possum and he nodded at me, next I looked at Seer and he nodded as well. I glanced at Blood and received affirmation as well. I looked over to Viper and saw his jaw was clenched tight and so were his hands. I read his answer in his eyes.
I looked at Blood, “Call Church now.” He lifted his chin at me and stood up to go do it. I looked at her and asked, “Ava, you think you can go through it one more time?”
“I can go through it a million times if it means you'll help me.”
“Follow me then, darlin’,” I said as I stood up and we all made our way toward Church.
As Ava passed by me, she handed me the other picture she had been holding. I glanced down to see a picture of a man holding a little boy. Everything inside me froze up. It was like looking at Beth and Angel, just in reverse. I knew the hell that Ava had gone through and was still going through. Somehow, someway, I was going to help her find closure like I had when I made sure the motherfucker that had killed Beth met his maker, may he rot in hell for eternity.
~*~
Ava
I watched as all the men entered the room, some carrying beers. I had obviously interrupted their party time. Every one of them glanced at me