And all the pieces fall together.

“So you had to leave town or Marcus would have killed you,” I said as I pieced it all together.

He nodded. “Yes, and I had to keep moving around over the years because Marcus had his feelers everywhere. That Adelaide President was in his pocket and came close to finding me a few times.”

I scowled. “I don’t trust that asshole.”

Before Blue could say anything further, a knock at Mum’s back door cut through our conversation.

“You expecting someone?” I asked as I stood.

They shook their heads, so I left them to go and see who it was. I pulled my gun out, ready for any possibility.

The tall cop who’d stood at my front door the other day, now stood in front of me at Mum’s door. “What the fuck do you want at this time of night?” I demanded as I shoved my gun away.

“Blue here?” he enquired.

“What the fuck?” I was completely confused now.

Blue joined us. “Let him in, Scott. Carter’s working with me on this.”

Carter?

Working together.

What the fuck?

I spun around to face Blue. “What the hell is going on?”

Carter pushed past me, shutting the door as he went. “I’ll tell you what the fuck I’ve got going on,” he muttered, meeting my gaze. “I’ve just come from the hospital where I have a dead informant lying in one their beds. You know anything about that?”

“Fuck, did you kill Rogue?” Blue asked, his voice strained.

I eyed the cop, not willing to admit anything in front of him.

Carter raised his brows and said, “I reckon he did, so there goes our lead on Bourne.”

I held up my hand. “Wait one fuckin’ minute. Can one of you tell me what the fuck you’re talking about.”

They exchanged a look before Blue finally shed some light on what they were up to. “Carter is Miranda’s brother. I asked for his help when I learnt Marcus was working with Bourne to find me and also to get Storm back into the drugs. We’ve been working together to bring Bourne down, but the asshole covers his tracks so damn well, we’ve struggled.”

“Up until now,” Carter drawled. “Rogue was wanted in Queensland on some charges and I was cutting a deal with him. In exchange for information on Bourne, I would work to drop some of the charges.”

“Rogue was working with Bourne?” I asked.

“Rogue was working with everyone, Scott. Whoever paid him got the information. He didn’t care who he told what to, so long as he got cash for it,” Blue explained.

“Fuck,” I muttered, stunned at his double crossing. “So you’re after Bourne, not Julio?”

“Bourne wants Julio dead. He wants control of Julio’s territory. I want them both dealt with. My investigation of Bourne has been on my own time because it’s in another State, but now that Julio is dealing in Queensland, I’m investigating him on work time, and am hoping to get to Bourne that way,” Carter explained.

“Jesus, it’s a fuckin’ mess in my head at the moment,” I said. “All this double crossing and secrets.” I eyed Carter. “Why are you telling me all this? Aren’t you investigating me, too?”

Carter ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “I’m going to be real honest with you, Cole. Your father was a piece of shit and when he died, I celebrated with drinks. It was one of the happiest days of my life, knowing that the man responsible for my sister’s death was dead. Then I got lumped with fucking investigating that death when Rogue turned up with his bullshit information, accusing you of killing Marcus. My partner is all over that investigation, but I’m not. Now that Rogue is dead, I’ll be doing my best to shut that down. For all I care, you could have tortured your father for a year before killing him and I wouldn’t give a shit. And so long as Storm keeps its hands clean of drugs, I don’t care what else you do. But next time you want to suffocate one of my informants, give me a head’s up, so I can get the information out of them that I need before they die.”

I wasn’t sure what to make of him, and I sure as shit wasn’t admitting to anything, but I was ecstatic to hear he’d be ending the investigation into Marcus’s death. The less I had to worry about, the better.

“Where does this leave us?” I asked, ready to get back to Harlow, but needing to know what lay ahead.

“As I suspect you already know, Julio has gone missing. Bourne’s left Adelaide and is heading to Brisbane from what I have been told, but he’s not here yet. I want you to let me know if you hear from Bourne. I believe he’s coming here to kill Julio, so I need to know when he hits town.”

I held his gaze, and lied to his face. “I’ll be in touch if I hear anything, but for now, I need to get back to the hospital.”

No fucking way was I giving up Bourne. To do that would mean also giving up my opportunity to kill Julio, and I wasn’t giving that up for anyone.

That honour would be mine.

16

Scott

I stared out the window of the clubhouse office and contemplated everything I knew, which seemed to change so often I wasn’t sure what to think.

I’d spent the night with Harlow at the hospital last night and done my best to focus on her and put what Carter and Blue had told me, out of my mind for the night. The doctors had agreed to let her go home this morning and once I’d gotten her home and settled, she’d told me to leave and take care of Storm business.