“Good.”
She rose out of her chair. “I’ll let you know if we need anything else from you.”
When I nodded, she started for the door. As I watched her leave, I once again felt as if my chest were caving in. There was so much I wanted to say to her, but I was too stubborn. Finally I blurted, “Thank you.”
Samantha froze. Slowly she turned around to face me.
“You know, for sticking your neck out for me and my brothers.”
“You’re welcome,” she murmured.
We stared at each other for a few seconds before she hurried out the door. When it closed behind her, I brought my cuffed hands up to rub my shirt above my heart. No matter how I hard I tried, it still hurt like a motherfucker.
TWENTY-ONE
BISHOP
When the van carrying us home from jail pulled into the clubhouse parking lot, I couldn’t hold back my emotions, and I let out a giant whoop of joy. Archer had barely put it in park when I flung open the door and hopped out. Raiders came streaming out of the clubhouse. I don’t think I’d ever been hugged and kissed and thumped on the back so much in my life.
While the welcome was nice, it still felt hollow to me. Especially as I watched Alex and Annabel run into Deacon’s and Rev’s waiting arms. Even Boone, who had been married forever, had a happy moment with his wife. It made me miss Samantha, even though I shouldn’t, and I fucking hated myself for it. Yet in that moment, I didn’t care about all the bad shit that had gone down between us. I just wanted to feel her soft curves against my body, inhale the sweet smell of her peach shampoo, and feel the comfort of her arms around me.
With a grimace, I pushed those thoughts from my head and tried to focus on the party. I wanted a beer the size of my head. Before we could appreciate the welcome-home party, there were some things we needed to take care of in church. So we headed into our meeting room and closed and locked the door behind us.
Rev took his usual seat at the head of the table. He looked at Archer and Crazy Ace. “Were all precautions taken to ensure that the feds didn’t leave any bugs after the raid?”
Archer nodded. “We’ve each swept the room five times to make sure we didn’t miss anything.”
“Good.” He glanced around the table. “Now, gentlemen. We can begin.”
“Feels good to be back in here, eh, boys?” Deacon asked with a grin.
“Sure as hell does,” Mac agreed.
“Didn’t know when my ass would slide across this leather again,” Boone joked.
Deacon turned to Rev. “What’s on the agenda?”
“First of all, we need to sign these depositions.” Rev waved the manila folder at Crazy Ace. After Crazy Ace took the folder, he passed them out. “Read them and make sure they’re accurate before you sign them.”
The room fell silent as we read the typed versions of what we had told the ATF about Eddy and the Virginia shooting. Thankfully, we weren’t asked to give any information on the Rodriguez cartel. They were one group I wanted in our corner.
One by one we signed. Then we handed the papers back to Rev.
“Okay. Good. Right now that’s the only order of business that I have.” He shuffled the papers together and put them in the folder. “Who can run these over to Samantha, uh, Agent Vargas?”
At his question, I stared down at my hands. When no one responded, Rev cleared his throat. “Bishop, why don’t you take them?”
“No fucking way,” I replied.
“It might do you some good to see her. Maybe you guys could talk,” Rev suggested.
I jerked my gaze up to stare at him. “Are you fucking serious?”
“Yeah. I am.”
“You’re actually sitting there advocating for me to talk to the woman who betrayed me?”
“Look, I’m not saying it doesn’t make me fucking furious that at one time she was sniffing around here for dirt on us—”
“Exactly,” I said.
“But there’s also the fact that she was spending most of the time here trying to clear us,” Rev argued.
“Un-fucking-believable.”
Deacon sighed. “Look, B, she’s really putting her ass out on the line for you and for us. You can argue that she’s doing it because we’re innocent, but there’s also the fact that she cares about you.”
Crossing my arms over my chest, I demanded, “Could you forgive a woman for doing something like that?”
He snorted. “How quickly you forget that Alexandra handcuffed me to a bed in her efforts to take Sigel down. While it pissed the ever-loving shit out of me, she did it because she loved me, and she wanted to protect me.”
“It’s different with Samantha and me.”
Deacon cocked his eyebrows at me. “Are you so sure?”
I gazed around the table at the guys. They each gave me a look that told me I needed to take the depositions. “Fine.” I shoved out of my chair and snatched the envelope from Rev. Without another word to the guys, I headed out of the room and to my bike.
It took a good half hour to get to Samantha’s office building. Once I got to her floor, I had to look for help in order to find her office. It wasn’t an easy thing, since a lot of the agents and staff had gone home. A guy who looked like a wrestler in the WWE stood outside Samantha’s door. “I need to give these to Agent Vargas.”
“I need your ID first.”
“Damn. Do agents always have bodyguards on hand?”
“Whenever there’s a threat, we do.”
I cocked my head at him. “Vargas has been threatened?”