“That isn’t my call to make. But I’ll state the case and it’s up to them.”
“Eddie and Hank can at least lean on him with this info. Maybe he’ll break. We’ll send someone out. And we’re going after Sanderson, Beck. He’s obstructed an investigation. Provided false information to the police. He’s got a record. He’s fucked.”
“I do not give a shit.”
“Figured that,” Lucas muttered. “He retracts his alibi, we got more on Benson and more to break him. But we still need that statement.”
“I’ll do what I can do.”
“Right. Gotta go.”
“Later.”
“Later.”
He made sure the call was disconnected before he tossed the phone on the bed.
“You’re a police informant?”
He gave his attention to Janna.
“The deal was, I got something solid on anything beyond Valenzuela, the big catches, I get immunity and WITSEC. But I made that deal and then Valenzuela dropped off the face of the earth. He got back, broke ties with our club. The deal changed. I get something on my club, or anything on Valenzuela, I plead guilty and get a reduced sentence for assault and battery on Rosalie. Coincidence, and this fucked-up shit that is life, the man who killed your friend was a brother in my club. Until today. He was one of the guys I told you about earlier. One we jacked his ass out. I never liked him. He was acting cagey. I looked into things. Felt in my gut he was the one who hurt your friend, though I didn’t know she was your friend. I had no proof. But you just confirmed it.”
“You were with me to get at Valenzuela.”
She put that right together.
Shit.
Shit.
Fuck.
“Baby,” he whispered.
She stared at him.
Fuck.
“You know,” she said quietly, “this fucked-up shit that is life, sometimes the more fucked it gets, the less fucked it is.”
He’d be shocked she dropped the F-bomb, repeatedly, if he knew what the fuck she was on about.
“You’re not making any sense, sweetheart,” he said.
“You were going to use me.”
He wanted to tighten his hold on her.
He forced himself to loosen it.
When he did, she wrapped her arm around him.
His chin jerked into his neck.
“But you couldn’t do it because you’re a good man trying to do right. You weren’t after immunity. You were after atonement.”
“Babe.”
“You like me.”
He pulled in another big breath that set his chest to pushing against hers.
“You like me a lot,” she whispered.
They were doing this?
Time to do it.
“Yeah,” he confirmed.
Light hit her eyes.
“They need me to come in, don’t they?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said softly.
“Okay, we should get dressed.”
That was when he tightened his hold on her.
She focused on him. “We should get dressed, Beck.”
“You kept this secret for months, scared shitless about Valenzuela, and babe, you should have been. That guy is a whackjob. But now it’s, ‘okay, we gotta get dressed?’” he asked.
“I didn’t have you before. Then even when I had you, I didn’t. Now I have you. And it was killing me, not saying anything. Not doing my part. Not helping them find who hurt Chantilly. Now I can do my part. So yes. Now it’s ‘okay, we need to get dressed.’”
Well, shit.
She trusted him.
Trusted him to keep her safe.
He looked in her eyes.
She was all in.
All in with him.
And it was all out there.
All out there for the both of them.
But getting it out didn’t force a bunch of shit in between.
Having it out brought them together.
So he had to get it all out there so she knew what she was getting.
“I loved her,” he shared.
Her expression went soft.
“I know,” she replied.
“I hurt her,” he said.
“I know,” she repeated.
“I let them hurt her,” he kept at it.
“I know,” she whispered.
Beck slid his hand to her jaw. “I won’t let anything hurt you.”
Janna, pressing close, her face growing gentle, her eyes going warm, slid her hand to his throat.
“I know.”
She knew.
Fuck.
He kissed his girl, his woman, wet, but light and soft, making it sweet.
When he pulled away, the melting look was in her eyes.
He gave her that.
Beck made her happy.
He took that in.
Then he said, “All right, baby. Let’s get dressed.”
While Janna sat with a cop named Jimmy Marker, giving her statement, Beck stood off to the side, out of earshot but not out of sightline of his woman, with Brock Lucas and his partner, Mitch Lawson.
“As I told you, Bounty is now Resurrection, we ousted Digger and Pacino. Straight up, the guys who we have left are the decent ones. The guys in