Page 81 of Smitty

“I’m not seeing the issue, babe.”

“I’m getting there.” I swallowed, hoping to ease the lump in my throat before saying, “There was a table in the back corner. I almost passed it by, but something drew me over to it. At first, I thought somebody was working on a scrapbook or something.”

“A scrapbook?”

“I know it sounds ridiculous, especially now that I know what it was.”

“Brooke…”

“It was a bunch of pictures of men, and their names and addresses were on the back, along with a list of everyone in their family.” His eyes never left mine as I told him, “I wouldn’t have thought anything about them… it wasn’t like I knew any of the men, but they were wearing cuts.”

Every ounce of color drained from his face as he asked, “What do you mean?”

“The men in the pictures, with all the information written on the back of them, were wearing Satan’s Fury cuts… just like yours.” I opened my pictures and turned the screen to face him as I added, “There was a picture of you, too.”

“Holy shit.”

He started flipping through the various screenshots, pausing whenever it showed the writing on the back of the photo. His grip tightened around the phone when he came up to his picture, and he swallowed hard as he read what was on the back. I watched every emotion cross his face.

Recognition. Confusion. Disbelief.

And then something darker appeared when he came across the image of one of the older men. I leaned in closer and saw the name Preacher. Something about that particular brother had him on the edge. His shoulders grew rigid as he swiped again and again. He zoomed in on one of the pictures, and his breathing slowed until it was unnaturally calm.

Curious what he’d seen, I asked, “What is it?”

He didn’t answer.

I couldn’t make out everything from where I sat, but he seemed more concerned with the writing on the back of the picture than the image itself. He remained silent until I pushed, “Brayden?”

He finally looked up and asked, “Where is he right now?”

“Who?”

“The father of the kid”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s for us to worry about.”

“I risked my job showing you these.”

“I get that, but the less that’s said the better for both of us.” He kept his tone low and steady, trying to seem unfazed as he told me, “We’re not sure what we’re dealing with here. No sense in jumping to conclusions.”

He was saying all the right things, but his expression told me everything I needed to know. He was worried. Actually, it was more than that. He seemed truly rattled. He pulled his phone out of his back pocket as he announced, “I need to get this to Shep.”

“Wait… Who’s Shep?”

“You could say he’s our computer guy.”

“You have a computer guy?”

“We do, and he’s the best around. Dude can do just about anything.”

“Okay, but I only meant for you to see these. If anyone else…”

“I know you’re in a tight spot with this, Brooke.” His eyes met mine as he said, “I wouldn’t do something stupid. He’s good. You can trust him.”

“But…”