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Rohan settled against Dutch’s chest, and church carried on. They covered the Portland renewal, a Louisville rotation and an invoice Colt wanted to talk about. Handful’s phone went off. Dutch glared at him, and Handful held up both hands. “Sorry. Delivery at Virtues.” String wrapped up with a report on everything he’d covered since I left. For twenty minutes, it was ordinary club business.

Then Dutch cleared the room. Rohan stayed tucked against his chest. When the door closed behind the last brother, Dutch looked at me through the screen.

“We need to talk about Chard,” he said.

“What about him?”

“Kessler called Thursday. They’re looking at sentencing after New Year, but that could be pushed back if they add more charges. Chard’s up to twenty-two counts and they’re still finding more.”

“There’ll be more than twenty-two.”

“Kessler thinks so too,” Dutch said with a smirk.

I found Gordon Chard before the first month was out. I was nineteen when I caught him selling a client list and made sure he never worked in the industry again. He’d hated me for fourteen years. Then Renner gave him the chance to do something about it.

Handful had barred Renner from Venom Virtues after he put his hands on one of the dancers. Renner never forgave Handful or the club for throwing him out. He paid Chard to hit Venom and Chard took the job because it gave him a way to come at me too.

The video was supposed to keep me focused on Wren while he went after Venom. It worked where she was concerned. I destroyed us. But I didn’t stop watching the club. Every attempt he made against Venom and Virtues failed, and every failure left something behind. I followed the traces back to him.

One question was still open. Chard had never said how he got our private video. The contents of one box seized from him hadn’t been indexed because the prosecutors already had enough to charge him. I thought the answer might be inside it. I’d asked Kessler’s office twice to check.

“You still want this handled the way we agreed?”

“Yes.”

I could have taken his address to the club. Some of my brothers might have killed the man who came after one of our women. I built a federal case instead. Some of it came from crimes Chard had committed. Some of it came from crimes he hadn’t. I made every piece hold up.

It took four months. When it was ready, Dutch and I sat in the ops room and went through every count. Then I handed Kessler a case tied neatly with a bow and let the prosecutor do his job.

“Consecutive, if Kessler gets what he’s asking for,” Dutch said. “He’s not coming out.”

“Good.”

“And he’ll have company in there.” Dutch’s voice stayed flat. “We know people inside. He’s going to have a long, uncomfortable time in there. That’s been arranged.”

I didn’t thank him.

“Does it help?” Dutch asked.

“No.”

“No,” he said. “Didn’t think so.” Then he ended the call.

Chapter 9

❧

— Wren —

Isent word on Sunday night through Robin because I wasn’t giving Seb my number, although I suspected he had it by then.

Monday. One o’clock. The boathouse. Thirty minutes.

I chose one o’clock because Sparrow goes down at twelve thirty and sleeps until three if the world is kind. That gave me time to settle her, meet him, and still be home before she woke. Simon would stay with her and the monitor. Robin would drive me to the boathouse and wait outside Moff’s office. In fact, all of them, aside from Simon, would be there.

At one thirty, I was leaving whether we’d finished or not. Robin and the others knew that. If—and it was a big if—I wanted to talk to him again, we could arrange another meeting. Today, I wanted answers. Why was he here? Why now? Did he know about Sparrow?

Robin stood in the doorway while I zipped Sparrow into her sleep sack.