Page 18 of Reckless Vengeance

“When did you tell him?”

“I don’t know, maybe six weeks ago?”

Back when he wanted her dead. That was why he didn’t say anything.

Brick gave me a knowing look, and I sighed.

“You got any dirt on Rivera you feel like sharing?” I asked Archer, pushing my empty beer away.

“What’s that vermin done now?”

“Nothing yet. Just making sure all of our ducks are in a row.”

“I can probably let you know if I stumble across something,” he mused, tapping his fingers on the table.

“For a price?”

“You boys keep me in the loop with the impending crew drama. That’s all I need,” he shrugged, and I held a hand out across the table for him to shake.

“Deal.”

Brick shook his hand too before we stood and headed outside to my truck, his eyes shifting to me as I drove out of the parking lot.

“Do you believe him about Slash knowing the Kings were coming?” he asked, making me wince.

“I don’t want to, but he would’ve loved it if Rage came and took Donovan away back then. It’s possible.”

“We need to talk to Skeet about it. He might flip the fuck out but⁠—”

“We’ll tell him. I’ll update him on the meeting later so he knows it was fine. I’ll reach out to the girls at Fairview and make sure they know to keep an eye out for Lexi. Skeet’s going to hate this.”

“He needs to get the fuck over it. His issues with Lexi are personal. This is good for the crew if we can keep the Reapers close,” Brick said firmly, voicing what I already knew.

“I agree. Skeet will be on board, I’ll make sure of it,” I said as I headed towards the Shed.

We needed to do a beer order, and as much as I hated it, we needed to go over the footage to make sure Skeeter wasn’t starting a fight with Matteo over nothing about the locked bathroom.

“I need your help with something,” I started, making him nod.

“Name it.”

“We need to find out what Matteo was doing when he went into the bathroom when the Soldiers started shooting. We⁠—”

“I can answer that,” he frowned, seeming confused by my question. “He went through the bathroom to try and ambush the Soldiers from the front door. Why? What did you think happened?”

I blew out a breath, knowing it was going to get chaotic.

“Skeet’s pissed because Slash unlocked the bathroom for Rory to escape through. I’ve warned him to keep his head on straight, but he thinks Matteo was holed up in there.”

“He smashed the window and was outside trying a sneak attack. Slash got shot before he could barge in. If Skeet checked the cameras properly, he’d know that. Why else would Matteo break the window?”

“He hasn’t gone through them all, just the one from the main room. If Matteo is on camera defending the place and not hiding, there’s no problem,” I answered, really hoping Brick was right.

It was a short drive from the docks to the Shed, and it was dead silent when we unlocked the door and stepped inside. No one had been here today, everyone was either at home or on jobs together.

I sat at Skeeter’s desk and turned the computer on, waiting for it to load so we could look through the footage, and I almost melted with relief when we found footage from outside the building of Matteo sneaking around the side with his gun raised, getting ready to barge inside through the front door.

“You need to make sure he sees this,” Brick murmured as I downloaded the file and sent it to myself so I could show Skeeter.