I stood there frozen in shock.

No – this couldn’t be right –

Benjy?

The simpleminded, sweet guy who’d been shot the night of the armed robbery?

“Bullshit!” Jack yelled, enraged. “You’re lying!”

“Tell him,” Lou said to Benjy, gesturing with the gun. “Tell them the truth.”

When Benjy looked back at us, his eyes were afraid – but there was more shame and guilt in his face than there was fear.

That was when I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt.

It was like someone had hit me in the stomach with a baseball bat.

Benjy’s mouth moved, but I couldn’t hear him.

“Louder!” Lou yelled.

“I’m sorry!” Benjy cried out, and began to sob violently. Tears ran down his face. “I’m sorry – I’m sorry, I’m sorry – ”

“Shut up,” Lou snapped, and cuffed him over the head with the butt of his pistol.

Benjy stopped talking, though he still kept whimpering like a sick animal.

I wanted to vomit.

I had finally found out who Ali’s killer was… and the truth was even more upsetting than not knowing. At least five minutes ago I still believed it was some scumbag who deserved the electric chair.

Not a guy with the mind of a child, who probably hadn’t known what the hell he was doing.

“Jesus Christ,” Jack whispered, his voice full of shock.

I glanced over at him. He looked physically ill.

Exactly how I felt.

“Now you know,” Lou said. “So – we good now? You get Benjy, and I get Einstein there, and we all go our separate ways?”

“Wait a minute,” Jack called out. “How did you find out, Lou?”

Lou seemed confused by the question. “…what?”

“How did you find out it was Benjy? And when? And why the hell didn’t you tell us?” Jack yelled.

“I only found out in the last two weeks, asshole. You and I weren’t exactly on speaking terms, remember? Now are we gonna – ”

“She was gonna mess up the club, Jack,” Benjy wailed. “That’s why I did it – ”

My stomach knotted up.

The DEA – Ali was going to mess up the club by ratting them out to the DEA –

But there was something strange there, too.

According to Jack, Lou knew Ali was a snitch.

So why hadn’t he mentioned it?

“Shut up!” Lou barked at Benjy.

But Benjy kept going, almost stumbling over his words in a panic. “She was working with some other biker gang – Lou said so – ”

Biker gang?

“SHUT UP!” Lou screamed, and pistol-whipped him in the face, sending him to his knees.

It felt like ice water flooded through my body.

She was working with some other biker gang – Lou said so –

Even though Lou knew she was snitching for the DEA.

Lou said so.

Lou was behind all of this.

Benjy might have pulled the trigger, but Lou had put the gun in his hand and whispered in his ear. I would have bet my life on it.

“You fucking son of a bitch,” Jack murmured.

I could see by his expression that he’d come to the same conclusion.

“The kid’s fucked in the head,” Lou shouted. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

“I think he does,” Jack yelled.

“Look, this can be a win-win for both of us. Fiona, you can bring your cousin’s killer to justice.”

“So you’re going to turn yourself in?” I yelled.

Lou ignored me. “Jack, with what I’ll give you plus the insurance money on your place, that’s a quarter million or more to start over someplace new. All I ask is that you give me my guy, leave my set-up here in peace, and then just… walk away. Look – I’m gonna prove it.”

Lou held out his hands to his side so that his gun was no longer aimed at us.

Simultaneously, the other four bikers behind Lou lowered their pistols to point at the ground.

Lou smiled. “I’m negotiating in good faith here.”

I hesitated.

No matter what he said, I was convinced Lou was behind Ali’s death.

But he’d lowered his guard. Why was he doing this if he wasn’t sincere?

Unless –

“Guys?” Sid said into my earpiece. “Don’t freak out.”

A single gunshot rang out.

CRACK!

Someone screamed over to our left, far away from the other bikers.

Kade, Jack, and I all swung over to look at the side of the main house, where a body toppled over lifeless onto the ground.

In his hands was a rifle with a scope attached.

Lou had been distracting us.

The whole thing was a ploy so someone could sneak up and kill us from behind.

“Negotiating in good faith, my ass,” Sid muttered.

“Wait – hold on, this isn’t what it looks like!” Lou yelled.

Jack got a look on his face like You motherfucker, then turned to the right, aimed the rocket launcher at the barn –

“NOOO!” Lou screamed.

– and pulled the trigger.