Page 88 of Carver’s Crusade

“Once we were inside, the club moved,” Jinx says. “One minute Rollings and the others were crowing about how the two assholes came through, and the next, Demon Dawgs were flowing into the house. It was controlled chaos.”

“Rollings panicked and rushed into his office,” Smoke says, picking up the story. “Izzy went after him. He must have had a gun in his desk, because he managed to get off a shot before she took him down.”

We all go silent as we picture the scene. Izzy is the bravest person I’ve ever met. I can’t imagine what it will do to Smoke and the rest of the club if she doesn’t make it. I’m too afraid to ask about the seriousness of the injury. It had to be bad if she is in surgery.

“Did you get everyone?” Shield asks. “What about the two women we think they kidnapped Friday night?”

“Oh, we found them upstairs. They were both drugged and tied up. They’re also being treated here, somewhere,” Smoke says. “Feral and Penny, along with the prospects, stayed back and called the cops. We wanted to take them to the clubhouse, but we knew you wanted to see if you could get them prosecuted.”

Shield nods. “I’ll call in later.”

“What happened to you guys?” Dante asks.

Min tells Dante about Jackson and Marcus showing up at the clubhouse because Nancy kidnapped Mia. She says they were hoping for help from the club, but since everyone was gone, several of the women worked together to free Mia.

Babe wraps his arm around Min’s waist when she describes how she ended up killing Nancy.

“Will this come back and bite you?” Babe asks her, although his eyes are on Shield.

“No, we found a scapegoat. Or I should say, he showed up and presented himself.”

“Who?”

“Tony,” I say. “He arrived just after Nancy died. He claimed that he was there to pick something up from Nancy. We figured out that he meant Mia. I think he was there to buy Mia from Nancy.”

“Son of a bitch,” Dante swears. “Where the fuck is he? Did you arrest him? He should be dead.”

“He is dead,” Shield says with a sideways glance at me.

“I killed him with poison,” I explain.

The only shift in Dante’s demeanor is his eyebrows rising. “Excuse me?”

I proceed to tell him about The Trial Ordeal and my use of the calabar bean.

“Wait, you’ve grown and processed the poison?” Scar asks, leaning forward.

I nod.

“Do you still have the plants?”

“I have a few. I brought one over to Nancy’s house so it would look like she brewed the poison.”

Dante smirks. “Good thinking. So, you can frame Nancy with the other murders, and you made it look like Nancy and Tony killed each other?”

Shield nods. “Yeah. I haven’t called it in yet. Not sure how long it will take for someone to discover the bodies. I’m guessing it will be sometime tomorrow when CPS serves the paperwork terminating Nancy’s custodial rights to the Filby children. The longer it takes for someone to discover the bodies, the better. I’ll make sure to get control of the investigation. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

Dante nods. “Good. Welcome to the family, Raven.”

Carver tightens his arm around me.

I feel grateful for everything the Demon Dawgs have done for me, but we still need Izzy to make it through so we can be whole.

Scar steps into the room, drawing everyone’s attention.

For one terrible second, nobody breathes.

Smoke is the first to move. “Well?”