Luke hung up the phone and turned back to Sparky and Rose. Whatever comfort Sparky had provided the teen had given her enough strength to go back and stay with her parents again, but she still spent most of her time at Sparky’s place. Now it was for a different reason.
She was scared.
The guy who’d sold her friend the drugs had tracked Rose down and threatened her after seeing the piece on the news that blamed bikers for her friend’s overdose. But goddamn if she wasn't a feisty one. She was scared, yes, but she refused to let anyone bully her. Which was why she had put herself under Trojan protection and said she’d help them in any way she could.
Sparky had a laptop resting on his knees, and was going through photos of Reapers MC members. Rose hadn’t remembered for certain what the guy had looked like before, but now that the idiot had come after her in broad daylight she had a much better idea.
Luke never got tired of dumbass crooks. They made life so much easier for him.
Rose was looking a lot better than the last time Luke had seen her. She wasn’t sobbing, which was part of it. She also just seemed more determined and less vulnerable. With a backbone like hers, maybe Luke would have to reserve a jacket for her when she turned twenty-one.
“That’s him!” she shouted suddenly. “I can’t believe it! There’s his little ratty face!”
Luke jumped up and sat down on the couch next to them. They were looking at the Facebook of Brad Kingsley, one of the Reapers’ lower level members, if Luke remembered correctly.
Luke scowled as he saw that Chester Smith was in the photo also, with his arm clamped around Brad’s shoulders. Herman’s third and youngest son, Chester still seemed to cause the most trouble. And despite his other siblings’ vendetta against Luke, Chester knew better than to get within ten feet of the Trojans leader. The Brad kid was a pretty good looking guy, so Luke could see why Rose’s friend had been lured under his spell.
“Well now we have a name. Brad.” Sparky put his hand on the lid and began to close it.
“No!” Rose flipped it back up. “Not the pasty little one. The burly guy he’s with.” She pointed and tapped on Chester’s face.
Luke’s blood boiled. “Are you sure?”
She turned to Luke and nodded, conviction in her eyes. “I would bet my life on it.”
Luke rose up from the couch, his fists balled at his side. “I can’t believe it!” he stormed. “What kind of shit is going on in that club if they’ve got Herman’s goddamn son running petty drug transactions and pushing bad pills onto teenageers?”
Rose, to her benefit, did not cower back. Neither did Sparky, but he’d seen Luke’s rage plenty of times before.
“Who’s Herman?” Rose asked.
Luke leaned against the wall and closed his eyes, trying to calm down. “He’s the leader of the Reapers.” He opened his lids and gazed at her, but she seemed unmoved. Serious balls.
“That’s good though, isn’t it?” Rose asked brightly. When both men looked at her questioningly, she continued. “If he’s high up in the gang they have even more reason not to want him exposed.”
Luke gave the girl a sardonic smile. “I wish I could still see everything with the same sunny disposition.” He walked over and sat back on the couch, leaning into the cushions. “We have no proof. It’s your word against his, and frankly his dad will do anything he can to keep Chester out of prison.” He sighed. “It looks like he’s easier to bring down, but in practice it’ll be a lot harder. I can’t even go kick the living shit out of the maggot.”
Rose jolted upward, standing and turning on the bikers. “You can’t?” Her eyes were wide.
Sparky stood up and placed a hand gently on her arm. “Not yet. But we will do something, I promise.”
Luke sat forward. “Don’t worry, little rage demon, we’ll get him.” He groaned in frustration. “We just have to be a bit more careful.”
“I don’t want to sit here and watch that douchebag hurt someone else while you guys hang around with your dicks in your hands!” She shrugged out of Sparky’s grip. “He threatened me, but I came to you because you promised me revenge!”
Luke stood up, towering over the tiny girl. “And you’ll get it,” he said sternly. “And until you do, we’ll protect you. If Chester tries anything, we’ll have his ass in the ground before he even blinks. But there are a few matters we need to take care of before we can punish him for this.”
She clenched her jaw but didn’t argue.
Luke gave Sparky a look that told him they needed to talk. The men walked to the kitchen, where Luke grabbed both of them a beer from the fridge.
“Has Chester lost his damn mind?” Luke asked lowly. “Do you think his father knows about this?”
“It’s worrying to me because it’s not like Chester needs the money.” Sparky cracked his beer open and leaned against the counter. “He’s doing this for fun. Probably just to get his dumb ass laid.”
Luke nodded. “So how do we approach it? My instincts tell me we should take it up with Herman as soon as possible. If he doesn’t know about this shit, then he could end up fixing the problem for us.”
Sparky nodded. “I agree, except I think this needs to wait until things are a bit more stable with Raven. Especially because of the way he reacted when I called about Holly’s overdose.”
Luke remembered Sparky calling him in a rage after Herman had basically told him to go fuck himself, and that he would beat his face in for accusing any of the Reapers of selling drugs in Trojan territory. Luke had also told his friend about his encounter with her and her brothers. But Luke knew the only way he could solve things with Raven would be to stop seeing Shayla—and he straight up could not and would not do that.
“Give me some time to think about this.” Luke knocked back a swig of his beer. “Can you stop her from going AWOL until I have it figured out?”
Sparky’s lips tugged into a smile. “I’m not sure a nuclear missile could stop her on the rampage, but I’ll try.”