AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So what’s the story here?” Duncan asked.
“Story is the truth, as far as we can take it,” Dex said. “Lydia showed up here, Phoebe showed her the door. What happened after she left, nobody here knows.”
Eight mused for a moment, then nodded. “That’s good. That should work.”
Duncan turned and studied the body on the floor. Her eyes were closed; Vin or Margot must have done that. People almost always died with their eyes open.
It was self-defense. Phoebe had done nothing wrong. They should have been able to call 911 and let law handle it.
However, like all the rest of his family, Duncan had no faith in the legal system. In fact, the Bulls were intimately familiar with how corrupt all law enforcement organizations he knew of were—the club was a corrupting factor, paying off virtually all the official-types with any measurable power. People who could pay were allowed to go about their business, whatever that business was. People who couldn’t pay bore the brunt of the ‘justice.’
This woman was known to have caused Phoebe a lot of trouble. They had clearly been in a violently physical fight. Phoebe had survived, and Copperman had not.
More importantly, Lydia Copperman was one of those to whom laws did not apply. Phoebe Davis was one to whom they did. And the Bulls did not have quite the same influence here as they did in Tulsa, especially not with an oil baron’s wife dead on the floor.
So no, they could not have called 911 and let the LEOs handle it.
“Let’s get it done,” Duncan said.
––––––––
~oOo~
––––––––
It was nearly midnight when Duncan split off from the other Bulls (and Lynette, who rode with Dad) and headed back to the ranch, the work of the night complete.
He was exhausted. Every muscle in his body was sore and making sure he knew it. He reeked of gasoline and fire. But he felt good. Things were good.
The afternoon had scared the shit out of him in a few different ways, but now everything was fixed. Phoebe’s tormentor was gone, and with her, most of Phoebe’s problems. She probably still had to finish the required repairs, but she had a way to do that, and now there was no one who might try to fuck her up some more.
She hadn’t let him help her in the way he’d first wanted to, having the club buy in on the ranch, but he’d found another, less intrusive way, by simply hitting up Toby Keller, who’d replaced the roof on the clubhouse a few years back, and had done work on some of the Bulls’ homes, too.
But now, he’d been able to offer her the kind of help only the Bulls could provide. When she’d been in that kind of trouble, he’d been there. He’d helped. He’d fixed it.
His family had been there for them both. Seen through the lens of this night, the shit they’d done in Eureka finally made sense to him. They did what they had to do to protect the people they loved. Period. It wasn’t always clean or simple or pretty. Usually it was messy and complicated and ugly, and it left them reeking of blood or fire or both.
But in the end, the people they loved were protected. Secure, safe, healthy, comfortable.
Not one damn other thing mattered.
––––––––
~oOo~
––––––––
The house was quiet when he went in the front door. Gremlin stood in the hallway, growling softly until he saw who it was, then his tail started up and he came in for some love. The dog wasn’t thrilled with the way he smelled, but he liked him enough to give him a pass. Duncan crouched at the door and ruffled his ears, then scratched his belly.
“All clear?” came Vin’s voice, low and careful, from the far end of the hall.
“All clear,” Duncan replied.
“Thank you, Dunc. I don’t know how this would have gone without you.”
“Doesn’t matter. It went the right way. I’m never gonna let her get hurt.”
Vin chuckled softly. “I don’t know that’s a promise you can make, but I get the need to make it.”
