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Reign nodded at that. And, though you might not expect it from his particular kind of dark and dangerous and detached, he obviously picked up on her distress because the next words out of her mouth were those of comfort. "Know that wasn't easy, babe," he said with a nod, "but I appreciate it. And you can stop shaking because no one here is fucking judging you for it." His light green eyes turned to me. "But she obviously wasn't relapsing."
"She worked at a pill mill," I went on, holding an arm out and she almost ran to me, hitting me bodily and exhaling a shaky breath. "Father and two sons- one to get her comfortable using pain pills, then one to help her rehab but not actually since he does some shit to make it worse then sends her to the dad."
"Who charges a shitton of money each month so she can have as many pills as she wants until he has a full-blown addict repeat customer on his hands," Reign said, nodding. Having been in the criminal underbelly as long as he had, there was very little he didn't understand from the mob to the small time bookies. It was his business to know all other business in the area. "But why this?" His hand raised, gesturing to the side of Bethany's face that wasn't smashed into my chest.
"She started working for them and got the inside track on everything."
"So she's a liability."
"Better to keep her drugged up and complacent," Renny broke in, "than have her get clean and start to see how fucked up they are. I'll bet every office girl they've had has OD'd."
"He's not wrong," Bethany agreed.
"Sugarplum," Renny said, big smile in place, "I never am."
"Which one did that?" Wolf asked, his voice a growl. He, like Edison, really had a problem with men abusing their strength. He had a trail of bodies behind him to prove it.
"Sunny, the physical therapist," I supplied.
"Makes sense," Renny agreed, nodding. "He causes the pain in the first place. He's used to it."
"Alright," Reign said, exhaling. "Well, this needs to be handled. Quite frankly, with this war and every fucking other thing we've had thrown in our way the past couple years, I'm gonna go ahead and sit this out. I think all these fucks would agree," he said, meaning Cash, Wolf, Repo, Duke, and Renny. "But feel free to bring some of your probie brothers with you and handle it. Don't wear your cuts and don't get fucking caught. But put an end to it."
With that, he pushed off the bar, gave me a chin jerk, and moved outside. It was barely ten seconds until I heard his bike fire up. He had a wife and three kids at home. I didn't blame him for having had enough action to last a lifetime.
"Wait, I have to tell Beth..." Lo started as Cash moved to drag her away.
"She can hear it some other time. Right now, we have some... reacquainting to do," he said, leading her into the hall toward his room.
"Right. Oh, here," she said distractedly as Cash leaned down to say something in her ear, reaching into her pocket and tossing the keys to the SUV at Alex who she had, presumably, picked up and was carless.
Alex snatched it and gave us a nod as she moved toward the door.
"Thanks for everything, Al."
Her brows drew together at that like my thanks were completely insane. "Ah, okay."
Then she was gone as well.
Soon after, Wolf grabbed Janie and left. Repo and Renny filed out and Duke went back to his room where, I imagined, Penny was waiting.
"You okay?" I asked as soon as we had a little more privacy, just Reeve sitting in the living space, flicking through channels. "I know that was hard."
"I think I was choking on my heart," she admitted, making a small smile creep up on my lips. "But it felt kind of good to get it out there, to not have some giant secret I was keeping from everyone."
"It's the hardest but most important step," I agreed, wrapping my arms around her body and pressing a kiss to the top of her hair.
"I don't want to know what you're going to do. About Mitchell, Chris, and Sunny," she clarified. "But I don't want you to do anything if there is even a chance of you getting hurt. Or any of the other guys for that matter."
"Sweetheart, you saw me fight. And I know you haven't seen Edison in action, but he's a force too."
"And I'm about one step up from a rabid dog," Pagan supplied as he walked behind us to go into the backbar to grab a bottle of whiskey.
"One step?" she asked, pulling against my hold to send him a wry smile.
"Alright, half a step," he admitted with a wink as he took a swig.
