to the security system. A name, what it looks like, are there any cameras in the office?”
“I don’t think so,” she said as she grabbed the pen and paper he offered, writing anything down she could think of. “But there are in the passage outside and the rest of the house. Even my room.”
Ink made a noise like he’d been punched.
“I’ve grown used to getting dressed with a towel on,” she said quietly.
“Let’s go,” he told her, taking her hand in his. He cupped her chin. “Just remember, I’m here. I’ll get you out whenever you need to leave. And I will keep you safe. You and your sons. I fucking promise.”
He kissed her gently then escorted her back to the other bedroom.
Ink waited until she’d left then stomped back into the other room. He let the rage flood through him. He’d been holding it back by the bare skin of his teeth. Knowing what she’d been through, about her issues with people yelling, he’d held back.
But he couldn’t anymore.
He slammed his fist into the wall. Drew it back. Not enough. He punched the wall again.
“You’ll need to work on those anger issues unless you want to scare her,” Reyes commented. Brody and Duke had disappeared somewhere.
“I don’t have fucking anger issues,” he snarled, turning to face the other man who watched him coolly.
“The wall would beg to differ.”
“Fuck you.”
Reyes sighed. “You know what it’s like to have someone else calling the shots in your life and to be helpless to change things. You weren’t to blame for what happened to half your team.”
Fucking Duke. He’d kill him for telling Reyes Ink’s business. “Duke told you?”
“No,” Reyes said. “I’ve got a Brody of my own.”
He did? Who the hell was that? And why was he looking him up?
“I knew something was wrong. We still went in.”
“You told your superior, he didn’t listen, he sent them in. It’s on him not you.”
“So my fucking therapist tells me.”
Reyes sighed. “I know you don’t like me. That you blame me for getting the club involved with Bartolli, with the money laundering and blackmailing the senator.”
“It was Smiley’s fault. He paved the way.”
“And I cemented it,” Reyes said without a hint of guilt. “But the club is my life. And the brothers are my family.”
Ink nodded. He knew that.
“Do anything for any of them. Including kill someone.”
He’d already proven that when he’d killed Fergus Bartolli.
“That extends to Sunny and Jewel. And now your woman. Betsy thinks she’s weak, but you and I both see the truth. She’s fucking strong. She just needs a bit of help. We’ll help her, Ink. You don’t have to do this on your own. Just remember that. Like me, don’t like me. But I’ll help you get your girl safe.”
“Took everything I had to let her go.”
Reyes snorted. “Shocked the shit out of me that you let her go. Thought I’d walk in here to find you had her tied to the bed.”
“It was close.”
“Hmm, sometimes I think we clash because we’re so alike.”
Ink wouldn’t go that far.
16
Her stomach was alive with nerves as she snuck down the stairs. The cameras were off again. The alarms were blaring. Brody had done a good job of setting them off over the last few days. They’d had a technician out twice and he’d been unable to find what was wrong.
The guards were getting complacent, which was precisely the point.
Thank God Kit had gone with Forrest on business this time. He was still monitoring her phone, she was certain. But she knew that if he’d been home the guards wouldn’t be nearly as accepting of the security measures being down.
She was supposed to be going on a date with Ink in two hours. She had watched the video on unlocking doors with a card what felt like hundreds of times. She’d practiced on one of the bathroom doors which had a similar lock during the other times that the cameras had been down.
Still her heart raced nervously as she forced the card in and wiggled it. The door opened and she re-locked it once she was inside. Moving quickly, her heart racing, breath coming in fast pants she strode to his computer and shook the mouse. It came on. It took her three attempts to get the pen drive into the slot.
Calm down. Calm down.
She expected someone to barge into the room at any moment. For there to be some other alarm on a different system or a camera that Brody hadn’t