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“Ham’s right,” Optimus agreed, holding his hands up in the air as a way of saying he meant no harm. “We just want to have a chat and hope maybe you will have some information which could fill in the gap.”
“Famous last words,” Romeo grumbled, his dark eyes continuing to scan the room.
Blizzard took the file with the sheriff’s name and details and sent it flying down the table. “We found out who attacked Meyah,” Blizzard informed him.
Romeo stopped the file with his hand. “Fucking good. Fucking bast—” His words were cut short at the first page, his brows pinching together as he looked down at the information and the photo. A deep growl started in his throat, and he quickly closed the file.
“Why didn’t you mention you were running from a fucking sheriff?” I demanded. “Do you realize what he could have done? What he could still do? He fucking sliced Meyah’s neck open, Rome.”
“I fucking know, okay,” he roared, pushing to his feet and sending the chair behind him flying back against the wall. “I fucking know because I’ve been living with that shit for almost six goddamn years now.”
Standing up slowly, I tried to ignore the way Romeo was looking at me like he was trying to shoot me down with his eyes, but at the same time, I also saw the hurt and the pain behind them. “What do you mean?”
“John Visser…” he pointed down the table at the file, “… your fucking sheriff was my foster parent when Mom and Dad died.”
It was like a fist full of lead to the stomach. It threw me off balance and made me unsteady. My heart was already thumping harder and faster, the blood pumping so quickly I could hear it whooshing around my ears.
“The scar on your face,” Optimus pointed out, the first one brave enough to talk or take control of the situation. This was the whole reason he was in charge.
Romeo’s top lip twitched baring his teeth. Reaching up, he brushed his fingers over the prominent feature, one that I’d started to get used to. “Meyah ain’t the first one to feel what it’s like to piss off the great and mighty fucking sheriff.”
I placed my palms flat on the surface of the table letting my head hang down between my arms and cursing under my breath.
Romeo began to pace at the end of the table. “Look, when Ham said MC, this isn’t what I imagined. I didn’t realize there would be kids and old ladies here. People who are vulnerable and who he could use to get to me.”
Op leaned back in his chair. “You thought you’d walk into an MC which was all about drugs running and being fucking assholes… people you were trying to get away from. So when we went after Visser, you wouldn’t feel guilty for losing one or two of us here and there?”
Romeo looked across the room at my president like he was impressed someone had been able to decode his plan so easily. “Exactly. I just needed some extra force behind me to back me up.”
“But instead you got us,” I snorted.
“Yeah, I got you. Something far fucking stronger,” Romeo shot back. “And that’s why he’s scared. Because suddenly I’m not alone anymore. I’m not that frightened teenage boy who watched anyone who stood up for me shot down or found a few days later floating in a fucking river.”
I got it.
The sheriff kept Romeo isolated. Kept him in line by taking away anyone who would fight for him or care for him. He stole anyone who might possibly give Romeo the strength to fight back.
“He would usually send someone else. A couple of his stupid fucking idiot goons that he recruits,” Romeo continued, this time a little calmer. “John Visser doesn’t do his fucking dirty work, that’s why he had me. I was his fucking bum boy.”
“You worked for him?” Blizzard asked, the boys all sounding eager to know Romeo’s story, while all I could do was imagine in my head the different things Romeo would have been forced to go through. What kind of sick and twisted shit he was made to endure. If this Visser guy could do this to Meyah without even blinking or breaking a sweat, what was he going to do to break down a guy like Romeo who was physically and mentally already a lot stronger?
“I got mixed up with the wrong kids when I was younger. Started doing drugs and hanging out at night, fighting, fucking, and just being a fucking douche bag,” Romeo continued almost robotically like this was a story he’d played over and over in his head like a bad movie. “I was a stupid teenager who’d just lost the people who meant the most to him. He took that weakness, and the fact I was already trying to numb the pain with the good shit and making connections on the streets and turned it into something else.”
Blizzard laughed, but it was dark like he just realized how fucked up this entire situation was. “He hand picked you,” Blizzard noted with a shake of his head. “He signed up to be a foster parent looking for someone with serious issues he could manipulate.”
“Meyah said the sheriff left a message… that Romeo better be back in Vegas in a week or…” I informed the group, letting the words hang in the air.
“Then we have time,” Optimus noted.
Romeo looked up at him, his eyes slightly wide. “Time for what?”
He thought the club was about to toss him out on his ass. He thought we were done, and that he was out on his own.
But this was just the beginning.
“Time to make a plan.”
