Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80957 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80957 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
“Dammit.”
Grim didn’t say a word.
He just stood there watching as I let out a frustrated breath. My gut was screaming at me to move. I needed to do something, but I didn’t know where to start.
“We gotta find her.”
“We will. You can count on it.”
Grim hadn’t stopped searching. Even as he stood there next to me, his eyes were scanning every inch of this fucking place. We moved out of the office into the rest of the house. Grim was like a bloodhound, so I wasn’t surprised when he mumbled, “What the hell is that?”
He walked over to the detective and knelt beside him as he reached into his hand and pried something from the dead detective’s fingers. I stepped closer and saw that it was a crumpled piece of paper. It was stained with blood, which made it difficult to read. “What does it say?”
Grim smoothed it out, and his eyes narrowed as he read. He looked up at me with a cold expression as he replied, “Send the brother.”
My stomach dropped.
I’d known all along that Rooks had a part to play in all this, and now, it was confirmed. A new kind of rage burned through me, hot and consuming. “I’m. Going. To. Fucking. Kill. Him.”
“Gotta make sure you get that chance.” Grim clenched his jaw and crumpled the note in his fist. “We need to get the hell out of here. Cops’ll be swarming this place soon.”
He was right.
I forced myself to take a breath, to push past the fury clawing at my chest. If we got caught here, we’d be no help to Tallie. I motioned my head towards the detective’s body as I asked, “What about him?”
“He’s not our problem.”
“What about Tallie’s car?”
“They know she was with him.”
“But…”
“They’ll think she had something to do with it.”
“Okay, fine. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Grim and I rushed out of the house, and my thoughts raced as we jumped into the SUV. The moment the doors slammed shut, I threw it into drive and peeled out of the driveway. Grim reached out and gripped the front dash, holding on as he said, “We need to bring the brother in.”
“Already on it.” I grabbed my phone and hit Ghost’s number. After a couple of rings, he came across the speaker, “She never showed.”
“Yeah, I know. I need you to get over to the safe house and get Rooks. Bring him to the clubhouse.”
Ghost was quiet for a second. “Something going on?”
“Just do it.”
“What about the mother?”
“Just need Rooks.”
“You got it, brother.”
The call ended, and I shoved my phone onto the console. I continued towards the clubhouse, and it wasn’t long before Grim asked, “How far you willing to take this?”
“As far as I need to.” My grip tightened on the wheel. “I’m done playing games. Rooks either tells me what the fuck is going on, or he spends some quality time with you in the playroom. Hell, I might even join in on the fun.”
“Whatever you need to do.”
Grim leaned back in his seat and tapped his fingers against his thigh. “I gotta say, I kind of hope the motherfucker plays dumb, so I can have a go with him.”
“Knowing Rooks, you’ll get your chance.”
I felt like the weight of the world was crashing down on me as Grim and I stepped into the clubhouse. We’d had a plan. It was clear and concise, and we thought we’d worked through all the possible missteps. We were wrong.
Never once had we considered the possibility that Tallie would go to the house without telling us. I knew her well enough to know that she wouldn’t have pulled a stunt like that without a good reason. I just had no idea what that reason could be, and it pissed me the hell off. It was my job to keep her safe, and I’d failed.
And now, Tallie was out there somewhere, with people who clearly knew how to play this game better than we did. That was enough to have us all on edge.
Prez’s expression was hard as stone as he waited for Grim and I to make our way over to the bar. “What the fuck happened?”
Memphis and Goose were standing there with him, and they listened as Grim and I filled Prez in on everything that had gone down, including finding Detective Joyner dead and the note that was left in his hand. Goose shook his head as he grumbled, “I knew that asshole was up to no good.”
“Yeah, you and me both.”
“I put a call in to Cotton,” Prez announced. “He’ll get back to me when he finds something.”
Cotton had been the president of the Washington chapter for as long as I could remember, but he’d stepped down a few months back and had taken on a much more powerful role. He’d taken over a kind of distribution role that put him in contact with some of the most powerful men on the planet, and their power hadn’t come from politics or old money. These guys were heavy into the mafia and cartel, and everything in between.