CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Loki

Pride swells in my chest when I glance at Bea. She's brave, standing here with us, facing down a man who could destroy us with a single phone call. Right now, in this moment, we have the upper hand.

And we're going to use it.

He spins to face her, furrowing his brows like he didn't expect her to have the balls to come at him. Then he shifts his gaze to Alpha, who puffs out his chest. "Start talking, Bennett," Alpha growls. "And don't give us some bullshit that you don't know what we're here about."

Bennett lets out a long exhale, then moves over to take a seat at his desk. "Okay, okay," he placates, with a slight chuckle. "Of course, I know what you're here for." His eyes return to Bea, a menacing smirk crossing his face, then he spins back to Alpha. "You're here to talk to me about my reforms on de-legalizing cannabis in California? If I get into the VP position, it's the first thing on my agenda, and that's going to hurt your business. Am I right, Alpha?"

We all snap our heads to face our president, our eyes wide because the club makes our money from our legal crops and the baked goods we sell using them.

Alpha, though, remains stoic. "It's a long time until November, Bennett… anything can happen."

Bennett chuckles under his breath, sitting back comfortably in his seat like he isn't bothered that a biker club has broken into his home and outwitted his security to threaten him. "True… but, when you align yourself with the right people, things have a habit of falling into place…" His eyes land on our prospect with a smirk. "Isn't that right, Hayes ?"

We turn to face Hayes while he stands at the back of the room, his eyes cold. His mouth is a firm, thin line as he begins to stride past us to slide in beside Bennett-fucking-Marshall, the move suspicious as hell.

My nostrils flare, my insides turn red hot, and my fists ball at my sides before I race forward to reach out for him. "You fucking piece of shi—" But before I reach out to grip his cut, Hayes rams the tip of his gun into my forehead. Instantly, the sound of guns raising behind me, in response, lets me know my brothers have my back.

Hayes' eyes remain focused on mine.

Both of us breathe heavily as we stare each other down.

Bea lets out a small scream behind me as Bennett chuckles like he really is enjoying himself. "Oh, now, now, boys. No need for theatrics. Hayes, down, boy!" he mocks, and his demand causes Hayes to slowly lower his gun away from my forehead.

If I could kill with a glare, Hayes would be eviscerated right now.

The fucking ungrateful bastard.

"What the hell have you done?" I snap at my prospect.

Hayes turns to look at Bennett as if to ask for permission to speak. This only makes me more fucking furious. But Bennett nods once, and then Hayes turns back to me with an arrogant smirk on his smug face. "All of this happened because of you, Loki. Everything that has been set into motion, you can only blame yourself for."

Jerking my head back at this cocky shithead. "The fuck are you talking about?"

Hayes glances at Bea, then back to me. "You think you're some hardass who can walk around the club treating prospects like they're shit on your boot? You think I didn't see you giving Wes and Montana when he was a prospect, special treatment, and leaving all the fucked-up jobs for me?"

Snorting out a laugh, I scowl at him. "I think you're being a pussy, if I'm honest right now."

Hayes lifts his gun to my head again. A sinister glint in his eyes tells me he's not joking around. "You made me feel fucking worthless!"

Shrugging, I throw my arms to the side in frustration. "What the hell did you think prospecting was going to be, Hayes? Brothers getting together every night and having a group-fucking-hug? Being a prospect is all about us pushing you to the point where you want to quit! We only want a brother at our six, who we know is willing to go through everything and will be there to fight beside us. The fact is, Hayes, we all went through the exact same process you did. The only difference is we sucked it up… You. Fucking. Didn't!"

Hayes' nostrils flare, but it's Bennett who reacts, sending a mocking laugh through the air. "While this is incredibly amusing to me, can we get on with the real reason you're here invading my time?"

Bea steps forward, reaching for Haven's blade. My eyes widen, but I don't have time to stop her before she steps up to the side of Bennett's desk, aiming the blade at him without any hint of fear. "You hacked my app and stole personal information from my clients. How ? Why?" she demands, getting straight to the point.

Bennett's eyes glance down at the blade, a smirk crossing his face as he spins back to look at Hayes, raising his brow. "You want to answer this one, seeing as you're so desperate for respect?"

Hayes puffs out his chest, standing taller, and nods in response. "Because I was getting sick and tired of Loki treating me like a second-class citizen, I wanted to show him my worth. Show him I'm not the dumbass he thought of me. I wanted to prove I could be just as smart as Wes or Montana… I decided to spend my time listening. Hang back in conversations to see if there was anything I could do to Loki to prove I am worthy."

Furrowing my brows, I stare at him like he has completely lost his mind. I should have seen the warning signs earlier. But I've been so lost in my own shit that I didn't see he was losing his.

"Anyway, one day, I heard him talking about Bea's app and how she was going into the women's prison to get them to sign up, and it got me thinking about how she would have all the criminals' personal and medical information stored in the backend of her system. Plus, all their habits and use of the app. It's a gold mine of information… for the right person."

Alpha steps forward this time to back me up. "Loki's right, Hayes. You don't deserve the leather you're wearing."

Hayes snorts out a laugh, shakes his head, then shrugs out of his cut. "I don't need this fucking thing. I thought I wanted to be Defiance. But I don't need you or your stupid club. When I brought the information of Bea's app to the governor, he offered for me to join his security detail. So, this…" he holds the leather cut up in the air, "… means shit to me," he growls out, then swiftly drops the cut on the floor. The leather hits the carpet with a hefty thud, all of us curling our lips up in disgust, my stomach rolling with anger.

If there's one thing you do not do, it is to let your cut touch the floor.

Scowling, I bend down, pick up the idiot's cut, and fold it over my arm. As I rise, my eyes meet his. He smirks, clearly feeling like he holds power right now.

He doesn't.

Bea steps forward, her eyes enraged. "I stood up for you! I defended you! Told people at the club that you'd prove yourself. That you wouldn't have stuck it out for so long if you weren't willing to go the extra mile for Defiance, and you fucking drop the club cut on the floor like that? I don't even care what you've done to me at this point, but even I know from my short time at the club, what you just did, Hayes, was fucking disrespectful. After everything they have done for you… you're just going to throw it all away." Bea snorts out a mocking laugh. "I should never have believed in you… you had someone on your side, Hayes. You had me on your side . Now you have to live with the fact that the one person who could have helped you is the person you betrayed."

Hayes inhales sharply, his jaw wracking from side to side, and for the first time, his cocky attitude is silenced.

Side-eyeing Bennett, I let out a long exhale. "Let me ask you something, Governor… so Hayes came to you with this opportunity, and you hacked into the app. You got the information on the criminals Bea has on her system, then blackmailed her into trying to give you money for your silence, and in return, you gave Hayes asylum working for you, right? Then what is it exactly that you get for stealing all this information and fucking up Bea's life in the process?"

Bennett shrugs, reaching for the top drawer of his desk. We instantly aim our guns at him, and he hesitates with a chuckle but then continues to pull something out of his drawer at a slow pace. He grabs a cigar, then goes about lighting it, and sits back in his chair with the smuggest of looks on his face.

"For a tech genius, you're not too bright, are you, Loki?" he states, puffs out a smoke ring, then continues, "As you can see from my stance on drugs and the reform I am trying to pass, I want a different kind of California… a different kind of America. And, if I can start doing that by getting the names, movements, and activities of criminals, then I am going to do whatever I can to achieve that."

Snorting out a laugh, I shake my head. "You want their information so you can control them… manipulate them the way you tried to manipulate Bea?"

Bennett inhales deeply on his cigar, raising his brows and saying nothing in response. But it's Bea who steps forward, still with the blade in her hand aimed in his direction. "You're trying to portray yourself as this sparkly clean politician who values a non-corrupt and non-criminal America, but you're the one doing all this shady shit on criminals, and to be fair , normal civilians like me, buried for your own personal gain. Tell me you're a hypocrite without telling me you're a fucking hypocrite?"

Smiling at my Old Lady as she stands up for herself, it's impossible not to feel fucking proud of her right now.

Bennett suddenly stands, the smug smile on his face dropping, sending the tension in the room up another notch. "You're trying to tell me that you, Beatrice Underwood, are a normal civilian? You have been riding with these thugs for weeks. You wear Loki's property patch, and you expect me to take it easy on you? No! You belong in prison with every one of these gutless pieces of trash."

Surging forward, my feet thump hard on the carpet, and my ears ring with the undeniable rage swirling through my body. My skin vibrates with the anger pulsing through my veins. I don't hesitate reaching him, my fists shoving Bennett back against the wall with such force the sheetrock shudders, a crack rippling up the fa?ade as I grit my teeth, glaring at him. "Talk to her like that again, and I will fucking…. End. You !" I growl, my fist coming back and slamming straight into his jaw.

His head snaps to the side, his obnoxious laughter only causing my anger to ignite in a fury of rage, pulling back my fist to hit him again, but the muzzle of a gun is pressed to my temple, causing my hand to pause in midair.

"Hit him again… I dare you," Hayes growls while Alpha and Montana step up, reaching for my cut, attempting to pull me off the governor. I resist, trying to keep a hold of him, my teeth grinding hard enough they squeak.

"Loki. Let the asshole go," Alpha states matter-of-factly.

Huffing, I reluctantly drop the prick from my grip with a small shove. He grins, straightening out his suit as I step in beside Bea, pulling her to me. She wraps her arms around me, and instantly, I feel calmer being near her.

She forces a slight smile in a gesture of thanks.

Bennett takes his seat again, Hayes by his side—his staunch protector.

I should have seen this coming, clued in on Hayes' suspicious behavior before this— this is all on me.

Bennett chuckles, shrugging his shoulders like me beating his ass meant nothing to him. "What did you expect when you came in here? That you would tell me to delete everything I have? Were you going to blackmail me? The thing is, Alpha… Loki… Beatrice, my love, you… have… nothing. You came in ill-prepared because you didn't know about your little traitor in Hayes here and that he warned me you were on your way. I have everything here in recording." Bennett glances up at the small camera attached to the ceiling.

Furrowing my brows, I smirk. "Forgive my confusion, but how will a recording help you in this case? You just admitted to everything?"

He smiles cockily. "There's no audio recording, only visual attached to that camera. But I have been recording this entire conversation using my AI computer program. I now have all your voices on record. I can add and manipulate your voices to say whatever I want them to for the audio of the recording… isn't technology grand?"

Everyone looks at me as if to ask if it is possible for him to do that.

The problem is, yeah, he really fucking can.

But there's still a flaw he didn't count on.

"You have this AI software in your systems recording all this, recording this moment in time… you think that's going to protect you from us right now… that's your safeguard from us?"

Bennett grins. "I know it is."

Shrugging, I bring my gun back up, aiming it straight at his head, but he doesn't even bat an eyelid as I glare at him. "And if I was to pull my trigger right now? Put a bullet between your eyes, then do what I do best and hack into your systems, work with the AI program to manipulate this footage to make it look like you shot yourself. How does that sit with you, Governor?"

He chuckles, that same old smirk crossing his face. "I mean… in theory, it's a good plan. You could try it. I know it would make you feel like a strong, capable man taking care of his woman. Doing the right thing, seeking vengeance, blah-fucking-blah… but let me cut to the chase, Loki. You might think you're this tech guru who knows what he's doing. But I have the power of the government behind me, and when I tell you that my systems have all kinds of back-end encryption… I mean… well, let's be honest… were you able to find me tracking the breach? Or did you have to send in a woman to a prison to do your job and find me through word of mouth?"

My nostrils flair, my chest rising and falling at the undeniable hatred I have toward this fucking asshole. My hands clench so tightly into fists I feel my knuckles turning white. Bea places her hand gently on my back to try to placate me, but it doesn't help as he continues his rant.

"All this is to say, Loki, that if you shot me here, now, and then tried to access my software, all it would do is trigger the safety protocols that have been put in place. The footage that has been recording, albeit without audio, would be sent to every major news outlet within seconds, showing you shooting me in the head. And a biker assassinating a potential future vice president, well, we all know how that would go down for you and the club, now wouldn't we? I'd be immortalized because files of me alerting LA Defiance of the de-legalization of my cannabis reform and giving you time to change your business plan will also be sent to the news. It's such a shame that you had a motive for my assassination attempt and that everyone in this room, including your precious Beatrice, will also be an accessory to my murder." He sits back in his chair, his hands behind his head like he knows we have absolutely no fucking leg to stand on.

Exhaling, I clear my throat, my eyes meeting Alpha's, clear hesitation in them.

He nods in understanding.

We have to leave and try to figure another way around this.

We can't get anything from Bennett tonight.

We need to regroup and come up with another plan—a better plan. Because right now, he has far too much power, and we're sitting under his hammer, waiting for the killer blow to take us all out.

Through gritted teeth, I growl out, "We leave now… what happens to Bea's app?"

Bennett shrugs, a cocky smile on his face. "I won't tell anyone where I got the information… if you don't."

Alpha scoffs. "But you'll still use it in your campaign moving forward?"

Bennett chuckles. "Fuck, yes. Of course I will! Why would I go to all this effort if I wasn't going to fully commit to my cause?"

"And with an opinion like that, you're just going to let us walk out of here? The criminals you're trying to take out of California?" I ask.

Bennett grins, waggling his brows. "If I get you arrested now for trespassing, no one knows about it. No… when I take down LA Defiance, it's going to be headline news. I thought I already gave you that impression. So, I let you leave, then I take you down in a bigger, bolder fashion later… it's just good politics. All about those ratings and approval numbers, you get the picture."

Rolling my eyes, I huff. "You really are a fucking asshole."

Bennett snickers. "That might be true, but I'm also going to be the vice president, and then in another four years, I'll be running for president… let that marinate in your little home-baked goods before I completely destroy them… and your filthy club ."

Hayes grins like the fucking Cheshire cat, and I leer at him, my chest puffing out in my temper. I point at the fucking traitor, then turn my head back to Bennett. "You think this asshole has your back. He'll turn on you too. But it's nothing less than you deserve, Governor."

Hayes scowls at me, calling him out, but Bennett widens his eyes, glancing at Hayes and letting out a small laugh. "Who? Hayes? Fuck no! He's not staying with me—"

"What?" Hayes snaps, his eyes wide with fear as he stares at the governor.

Bennett signals to Maverick and Montana to step over. They both glance at Alpha, and he nods as Bennett stands, straightening out his suit again. "The thing is, Hayes, you gave me the information I needed, and I am very thankful for that. But you also showed me your true colors. That you are more than willing to turn sides on a dime. I can't have people like that on my team—"

"You said you would protect me!" Hayes' eyes widen so extensively, it's like they're going to explode from his face as he starts backing away from Montana and Maverick.

Bennett laughs mockingly. "I lied…" He turns to face Alpha and me. "Think of this as my gift to you in compensation for how I am about to ruin your lives. You can take out your anger and frustration on this imbecile . You're welcome!" he mocks.

Hayes spins and tries to run for the exit, but Montana and Maverick reach him first, each grabbing an arm and holding onto him tight while he kicks out and attempts to get away. "You can't fucking do this! Alpha, do something!" Hayes spits.

Alpha chuckles, nodding his head. "Oh… we plan to." He turns to face Bennett. "This isn't over between us. Don't get comfortable."

Bennett shrugs, a cocky smile lighting his face as he takes another drag of his cigar. "I welcome an attempt at round two."

Alpha spins, signaling for us to leave. Montana and Maverick take a kicking and screaming Hayes out with them. The other club members follow, but Bea and I remain. Bennett raises his brow as I wrap an arm around Bea's side. Stepping closer to him, I grin. "You underestimate us… that's your mistake."

He snorts out a laugh, shifting his gaze to Bea. "I love the pictures on your phone, too, Bea. Some of them were quite… delightful. And the voice memos? Very interesting. I especially liked the one where you were talking about all the times you and Alex… well... you know, and you got a little excited and started to take care of yourself. The sounds you made. So delicious!"

My head whips toward her, and I see her eyes welling with tears. In that moment, I know this bastard is telling the truth. I knew he'd hacked her cell and extracted everything. That's why I took it and ran every damn program I could, scrubbing off every last bug he planted. But I didn't check the files he'd stolen—just the ones from the app. That felt like the bigger threat at the time.

My nostrils flare as I step forward, not caring about the fucking cameras. "I'm going to fucking annihilate yo—"

"You know what? Slut-shaming a woman is a low act. Alex and I have been a part of each other's lives for our entire lives, and you trying to make me feel humiliated over our sex life is not going to work. If you have recordings of a woman expressing herself and her enjoyment for the man she loves and people can't see the beauty in that, then that's on them . And equally, any pictures you may or may not have were taken purely for Alex when we were younger. Because I know for certain I have not taken any kind of pictures like that for anyone else . This brings me to my next point… those pictures are, in fact, of a minor. So, you distributing them will only tarnish your record… Governor." She extends the last word out for emphasis.

Trying to fight back my smile, I bring up my free hand and flip him off. "As I said, asshole. You underestimate us… all of us."

With a deep scowl crossing his face, he folds his arms across his chest, looking like the smug, arrogant ass-fucker he is. "Get the fuck out of my house."

"With pleasure," I grumble, spinning Bea with me. We head for the exit.

We have a long drive home, and we didn't get the problem dealt with when it comes to the damn governor.

Plus, now we have fucking Hayes to deal with.

I'd say, all in all—this was a complete and utter fuckup.

I'm angry as hell.

Luckily, I have an ex-prospect I can take my fury out on when we get back to the clubhouse because no one disrespects the Defiance name, let alone the club cut like that and gets away with it.

And Hayes is about to find that out the hard way.