Page 48 of Darling Psycho

“I have a paper to write. Thanks for dinner, Zar.”

“How many times do I have to say it?”

Angela grinned, sliding into her leather coat. “I know, I’m welcome anytime.”

She slipped out the back way to say bye to Rider, who was cleaning the grill.

Before reaching her car, she watched Snake riding along the private road, waiting until he stepped down from his bike. “Hey, Snake. Looking for Rider? He’s around back.”

“How’s it going, Ang?”

“I can’t complain. Kiss your gorgeous boys from me.”

He smiled. “Will do. Hey, you got a minute?”

“Sure. Do you need babysitting? I can’t Friday. Zara already booked me.”

“We’re good on that front; Bale is home, we dump the kids on him.”

Standing with the tips of his fingers in the fronts of his pockets, Snake’s smile faded, and she got the sense of what he wanted to talk about and her whole body clenched with anticipation of hearing Lawless’ name.

“You still giving Lawless the cold shoulder?”

“Snake, it’s...”

“None of my business? Probably not, but we’re all family here, Angie, so that means I get to poke my nose in and tell you some shit that he won’t, because if I have to watch him prowling around another day, I might shoot him.”

Frowning, she asked. “What do you mean?”

“When you came into our lives, you were this shy, broken bird, and it took you a long time to recover. You did that recovery hiding behind Lawless.”

Going hot and cold all over, Angela remembered those days, weeks, and months like it was yesterday. Being put with a foster family, she’d clung to the only people she trusted, and that was the MC. That was Lawless. He didn’t coddle her, but at every turn, she felt protected.

“What you don’t know. What we didn’t know until a while back was, Lawless took it upon himself to hunt down the people who had a hand in what happened to you and your parents.”

Breath rushed out of her lungs, and Angela had to brace a hand on the Mustang. “What are you saying?”

“He traced the chain from Hades, and he followed it to Mexico. Those weekends away when no one knew where he was going, he was slaughtering anyone who was involved in the trafficking.”

Now Angela was dizzy.

Finding it hard to believe what she was hearing.

“And then it left only one man to bring the circle closed, but Lawless couldn’t get to him because the guy was in prison.”

“No,” she breathed, unblinking.

Emotion cold as ice clung to her chest.

Don’t say it, she pleaded silently.

“He’s a fucking perfectionist, Angie, and needed to see it through to the end. He was getting revenge and peace for you against the men who hurt you. For those responsible, however small the link was, for taking your parents away.”

“No, don’t say it, Snake.” She said, voice shaking. “Don’t tell me Lawless got himself put into prison. He wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t fabricate drug charges and let himself be locked away for three years.”

“The guy is dead, Angie. He was dead within the first six months of Lawless being there. He pulled strings and paid a lot with judges, DAs, and prison guards to put himself into the right prison to get to him.”

Six months. That meant Lawless was locked up for another two and a half years for her.