“I have no doubt I’ll have more than what it takes when that time comes,” Hack muttered, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “But I’m not too worried about the distant future. By then, you’ll probably have half a dozen kids to worry about and will have forgotten all about your plans for revenge trash talk.”
“I’m doing my best to work on the first of those half dozen.” Dom winked at me as he walked back over to the couch and dropped down at my side.
Hack smiled at me. “Hey, Lucy. Let me know if he ever gets out of line. I’ll put him back in his place for you.”
It was also hard to be embarrassed around guys who never directed their teasing at me and went out of their way to be welcoming. “Will do.”
“My little doll never needs to worry about how I’m going to treat her,” Dom growled, pulling me onto his lap and wrapping his arms around me. “Did you knock on my door because you wanted to fuck with me, or did you actually have something to say?”
“Yeah, man. I did.” His expression turned serious as he heaved a deep sigh. “I looked into the cop and his murdering douchebag of a son.”
I felt Dom’s body tense beneath me. “You find something?”
Hack nodded, a muscle jumping in his jaw. “Figured out real quick that there had to be some truth behind the rumors Lucy’s co-worker mentioned. News articles here and there that were quickly retracted. Mentions of police reports that didn’t seem to exist. But once shit like that has been entered into the system, you can’t hide it from guys like me forever. You might fool everyone else, but a good hacker can find the traces left behind if they know where to start looking.”
“Quit bragging and tell me what the fuck you found,” Dom rumbled.
“Intimidating people into keeping quiet isn’t a new thing for the dad. He’s tossed his badge around and bullied his son’s way out of trouble. First case I found dated back eight years to when he was in high school. The girl he dated was from the wrong side of the tracks, and he took full advantage of it when she tried to dump him senior year.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “The little fucker didn’t like taking no for an answer, and she didn’t have anywhere to turn. The cops ignored her each time she wanted to file a report. The motherfucker stalked her ass for months. He didn’t leave her alone until he found a new girl after graduation.”
“Fuck,” Dom hissed, his arms tightening around me.
Tears filled my eyes as I thought about the hell that young girl had been put through. “I need to tell the cops what I saw. He tortured that girl, killed my neighbor. Someone has to make him pay, and I’m safe with the Silver Saints to protect me.”
“Oh, he’ll fucking pay alright,” Dom promised, dropping a kiss on the top of my head. “Did you track the girl down?”
“Not yet, she’s in the wind.” Hack shook his head. “Took off a few months later, and nobody’s heard from her since. Not even her mom, and from everything I found, they were close back then.”
“Did he kill her, too?” I whispered, tears streaming down my cheeks.
Hack’s chin jerked up. “Either that or she’s been working for cash under the table for the past seven and a half years, didn’t renew her driver’s license or transfer it to wherever she went, and never registered anything in her name. No phone, no apartment, no utilities. The girl disappeared off the face of the planet.”
“What else did you find?” Dom asked.
I twisted around to stare up at him. “What else? Isn’t that bad enough?”
“It’s fucking awful, doll. But Hack wouldn’t have come to fill me in if that’s the only thing he tracked down. If there’s no trace of the girl, her story doesn’t help you, and his goal was to find something we could use to keep you safe,” he explained.
“Of course, I found more. No way in hell would I stop until you have what you need.” I turned back to look at Hack as he continued, “He had another girlfriend when he met your neighbor. She wasn’t too happy to hear she was being replaced by a woman who he fucked in their bed. Pitched a fit over it and took a bat to his car. The douchebag retaliated with his fists, right there in the parking lot. Lost his head and didn’t notice a girl who’d just gotten in her car a few spots over. Not until the cops showed up and she tried to back up the girlfriend’s story.”
I cringed. “Having a witness didn’t help?”
“Not even a little bit.” Hack grimaced, shaking his head. “I haven’t figured out exactly what he did yet, but the dad must’ve scared the shit out of the innocent bystander because she never showed up to sign off on her statement. The ex-girlfriend got arrested for property damage and filing a false report. With how they spun the story, she hurt herself to back up her assault claim.”