“I have a theory about that too,” Ghost confessed.
Pumpkin’s eyebrows drew down and he felt the need to verify. “About the bomb?”
“About who built it.” Ghost ran a hand down his face. “I haven’t mentioned it to anyone because it didn’t change anything. Merrick is still dead and I have no proof.”
“Wait,” Pumpkin shook his head in confusion. “You don’t think Merrick planted that bomb?” The bomb the clubexecutedhim for?
Ghost shrugged. “Like I said, I have no proof. I’m not activelysearching for any either, but I am keeping an eye on the situation. If I thought any one of us were in danger, I would have said something.”
Pumpkin didn’t understand, and Ghost’s vagueness only increased his frustration. “Are you saying we executed an innocent man?”
“‘Innocent’?” Ghost asked back, his tone mocking. “Did you not just tell me you believe he was beating his wife and special needs child?”
Pumpkindidbelieve that, and he would have killed Merrick himself if given the chance for that crime. Billy Merrick had not been a good man. Per Cage, he’d been a fucking moron and an asshole. Yelizaveta’s casual confirmation of her abuse made Pumpkin want to find a necromancer so he could raise Merrick from the grave and kill him again himself.
But if Ghost thought Merrick innocent—at least of building that bomb—then the real question that needed to be asked waswho. The club had gone through this already when they’d been divided over accusing Merrick. No one else was there on the security camera. Pumpkin remembered watching the footage. Merrick had pulled up beside Pumpkin’s cage to pick up Carter and Yelizaveta from the clubhouse. The bomb hadn’t been there before Merrick’s truck had pulled in and was there after the truck pulled away.
For a brief moment, the club had suspected Yelizaveta, but she hadn’t been on the side of the truck where the bomb had been dropped. Only Merrick had been.
Except, he actually hadn’t been.
Pumpkin’s eyes widened as the proverbial lightbulb clicked. But Ghost couldn’t possibly be saying what Pumpkin thought he was saying.
Ghost, though, stared back at him, unblinking. “What would you do to save your mother from her abusive husband? What lengths would you go to?”
Pumpkin’s father was many things, but abusive had never been one of them. Just neglectful and selfish.
Pumpkin shook his head, still trying to process Ghost’s insinuation. “Are you sayingCarterbuilt that bomb?”
“It makes more sense than Billy did,” his brother said with a bit of scorn. “Cage argued from the beginning that Merrick wasn’t smart enough to build that bomb. He’d worked with him for years. Wouldn’t he know? Add the fact that it took some serious time and effort to build that sophisticated device, but the bomber just happened to use rubber glue to neutralize it?” Ghost shook his head. “That took either great stupidity or great genius.”
“You’re still saying akidbuilt a bomb and somehow framed his father for it?” Disbelief rang heavy in Pumpkin’s voice.
“Carter’s not your average kid. He doesn’t think about or see the world the way we do,” Ghost pointed out. “He’s extremely smart. Demo said most of the supplies needed to build the device could be found at any hardware store. All he’d need is a chemistry lab, which he had at his high school. According to Harper, the only reason he wasn’t in a gifted program years ago was because his father wouldn’t let him.”
Pumpkin still argued, “A bomb is extreme. There are other ways to get your abusive dad out of the picture.”
“We had Billy Merrick on surveillance camera planting a duffel bag outside the clubhouse. It would take a lot more to frame him another way. Was Carter supposed to get Merrick to walk in here with a gun in his hand?”
Pumpkin’s heart wanted to argue with Ghost so badly, but logic was not on his side. Then a conversation from a year ago came to mind. “He knows Demo worked with bombs. He specifically asked Demo why he was missing his fingers.” Fuck, no. He wasnoteven considering this. It just wasn’t possible! Pumpkin shook his head. “I won’t believe it. Abuse or no abuse, abombis excessive.”
“Maybe that’s the point,” Ghost said thoughtfully. “Who would blame a teenager for building a bomb when all evidence points to the dad anyway?”
“How could Carter know we wouldn’t point the finger at Yelizaveta?” Pumpkin argued.
But Ghost had an answer for that, echoing the very thoughts Pumpkin had just had himself only minutes before. “Yelizaveta was onthe other side of the truck. She never touched the duffel. Carter and Merrick got in on the driver’s side. We all assumed Merrick dropped the duffel. Carter could have too.”
That itchy feeling down his spine was back. “Let’s say you’re right. And I’m not saying you are, but let’s justhypotheticallysay you’re right. How could Carter know we’d execute his father? That we’d even get Merrick out of his life?”
“Maybe he didn’t. Maybe he just wanted his father arrested,” Ghost argued.
That, hopefully, made more sense. Pumpkin certainly didn’t want to believe that a sixteen-year-old boy orchestrated his own father’s execution. And worse, it meant that Bulldog had pulled the trigger on an innocent man—or at the very least, innocent of the crime he’d been executed for.
Bulldog was a fiercely protective man. It was what made him such a good SAA. He looked out for everyone, took their security and safety personally. Yelizaveta fell under his protection as a club’s employee, but if Ghost was right, Pumpkin wondered if the man would feel guilty about pulling that trigger under a false accusation.
Pumpkin wasn’t sure how he would handle it. He’d voted for Merrick’s execution because he’d believed that the man had planted a bomb outside the building where Pumpkin’s son slept. He felt like heshouldfeel guilty that a man had been executed for a crime he didn’t commit, but he didn’t. And maybe that made him a bad man and father, but he was the sort who would never condone any violence towards women and children. He didn’t doubt that Merrick went after Carter too, but Yelizaveta was such a fierce mother that she likely took the brunt of that rage.
“What are you going to do?” Pumpkin finally asked.
