“You know he’s right,” Mug says with a shrug.
“Of course I am. Besides, we’re going to be right here. If you feel like shit is going south, just walk away,” I tell the two of them, and they nod.
We go over our plan for a few more minutes, and then the two of them put rings on their ring fingers. One of which is Mug’s, and they walk away as if they’re happily in love.
Everyone in the farmer’s market is dressed in small-town attire. Overalls, blue jeans, and button up jackets, so the two of them fit right in.
Even though I have on the same things, I feel like a fraud. I do my best to just browse the merchandise people are offering, but I do my best to keep Reno and Abyss in my peripheral.
Mug and I walk around. We grab some cakes and shit like that, just to make sure that we’re not out of place.
After staying out at the farmers market as long as possible, I decided it would be better if we left separately, or at least to make it seem as if we did. I don’t want to make it obvious that we are all here together, but there’s no way that I’m letting them out of my sight. Mug and I get into our car, and we pretend to drive off, but we really just park at the back end of the park.
“This shit is wild. You would never think those people in white are as ruthless as we know they can be,” Mug says as he stares out the window, making sure to keep watch.
“Ain’t that the fucking truth,” I scoff.
“So . . . what’s going on with you and Beretta. I didn’t think you’d want to leave her.”
Damn it. The last thing I want to talk about right now is everything going on at home. I already miss her more than I care to think about.
“No shit, I didn’t want to leave her, but I have shit to take care of,” I say as a poor excuse.
“Yeah, bullshit. You and I both know if you had told Boss that you didn’t want to leave her, she would’ve heard you out. You were just itching to get out of there.” Mug laughs, but he isn’t wrong. I could’ve told Boss I wanted to stay back, and she would’ve let me . . . even if she knew being around Beretta and keeping these lies up has been eating at me.
“I wasn’t itching to get out. I just wanted to slow things down. I don’t know what I’m going to do when she gets her memory back. I love that woman. How the fuck am I supposed to go back to just pretending we can be friends after this? That shit is impossible,” I say.
“Who says you’ll be friends. Did you ever think of the possibility that she still loved you? I mean, as much as I’ve seen in the past few days, there’s no way she just lost all those feelings. You may wake up one day and find that Beretta has all her memories and is still in love with you too. You never know. Either way, you’re going to have to face up to this.”
I grunt in response, but my mind’s already reeling with the thought of Beretta still having feelings for me. Maybe Mugisright. Maybe there’s still a chance.
* * *
We wind up circling back and meeting Reno and Abyss at a small restaurant.
Abyss is all smiles that she no longer has to wear the disguise. I’m not complaining, either.
The four of us go over what we know, but it’s mostly us listening to Abyss and Reno go on and on about what they learned from the cult.
“I can see how so many people get sucked into their nonsense. They seem so passionate about their beliefs. If I didn’t already know they were sick assholes, I might have actually looked into it myself.”
“Yeah, you may need to go find yourself some religion. You were asking plenty of questions.” Reno makes fun of her, and Abyss jabs him with her elbow.
“I’ll be asking even more questions tonight,” she says.
I take a sip of my bear and cock a brow in her direction. “Tonight?”
“Yup, we did such a good job that they offered to let us come to a baptismal tonight,” she says with a large grin on her face. “They’re going to wash away our sins.”
“Oh shit, that’s exactly what we need. Good fucking work!” I nod and go back to my food. We came here to get more information about our enemies, and now we have a surefire way in.
This is happening much faster than I thought it would. Maybe we can shut this cult down once and for all. Fuck, if we can do it, the club would be overjoyed. These bastards have taken so much from us, even Boss’ father, Rage.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Beretta
It’s been a long time since I was just able to let go and share everything that was on my mind without any fear someone would think less of me for it. That’s exactly what I get with Giada. It feels like I have my best friend back, and I’m so grateful for her.