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And maybe Lenora, too, by the sound of it. Parker starteda search of possible Cullen and Deacon connections but came up empty since Cullen should have been in prison and Deacon should have been dead.
“No, they’re really hers. At least some of them are.”
Jared shook his head. “We can’t help. Good luck—or sorry about your loss.”
“Screw you, Westin.”
“God damn it.” Jared smacked his fists together. “Do you hear yourself? This is your fucking kid,Lenora. Drop your pride, your oath, and do something to save her.”
Parker’s heart pounded and broke that she’d give up.
“I already did,” Lenora whispered. “I tried.” She cleared her throat. “Why do you think Cullen is out? If he could reason with Hawke… I put my ass on the line and told him I’d help make amends with Seven. I—” She paused “—don’t know what else to do.”
“You have to trust us,”Parker offered as quietly. “They’re going to kill her. No one wants to. No one even knows why. Everyone’s protecting everyone. And your rules will ruin you.”
Lenora didn’t disagree.
Jared put his head in his hand like he didn’t think what they said mattered. Lenora had been too deep in the Mayhem would to see a way for an outsider to help.
“What the hell did she do that’s such a secret?” BossMan finally asked.
She quietly sniffled. “You’re not lying about Deacon?”
“Not lying,” Jared confirmed. “But should it even matter?”
Lenora pulled a breath that echoed around the room. “Adelia built a funnel with Mayhem’s gun sales to make mid-level purchases from human traffickers. It was much like a Ponzi scheme because she always continued, and the money was never really put back, just movedfrom one account to the next, one transaction to another.”
“What?” Creases formed on Jared’s forehead. “That makes no sense.”
Parker scowled, confused.
“She saved them. Bought people and set them free.” She sighed, laughing sadly. “God, she pulled off an enormous operation across the country, using money she didn’t have, and a group of women who never uttered a word about it.”
Adelia was ahero. “Why are you hiding this?”
“It takes a lot of old ladies lying to their husbands for years to pull off this fete and more money than you can imagine that she didn’t have permission to use.”
“Still,” Parker added, unbelieving that was worth dying over.
“The Mayhem you know is all right but that’s not how every chapter, and not everyone is lucky enough to have strong women and men to makesure a group of women caught lying won’t feel their wrath.”
The Mayhem was a gang. Parker couldn’t forget that when they only saw the shinier side of the club.
“Hawke found other problems with the accounts that I still don’t understand,” Lenora continued. “Though in the last ten minutes, I might understand more than I did before. Tex killed Ethan because he’s the one who turned Adelia in tothe leadership and asked for her execution. Rules… I haven’t seen or heard from him either. He’s probably dead too.” Lenora’s voice shook. “Look, Adelia’s a dead. Now or later, she’s a woman who hasn’t met her maker yet.”
“She’s not,” Jared rebutted. “We can talk to Hawke—”
“No. There are consequences, and she’s always known.”
“Where is she, Lenora?” Jared asked.
“She has an expiration dateand can’t save any more women. What do you think she’ll do before Mayhem gets her?”
“Damn it! Enough with the riddles.”
“She’s monster hunting,” Lenora said, exasperated.
Parker tried to picture what Adelia had been doing. “She’d go after the traffickers?”