Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75406 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75406 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
She nods.
“And then you heard shots and the first explosion and had to go out the front.”
“What’s your point?” Arturo asks, brows furrowed.
“Your car was at the pumps. The bikes were scattered near the pumps and the SUV was off to the side.”
Kaylee frowns and chews on her lower lips as she thinks. “Yeah, that sounds right.”
“So if she was the only one there to actually fucking fill her tank, what the hell was everyone else doing there?”
The door to the meeting room slams open and Deuce stands there with his arm over a girl looking confused. Deuce blinks, obviously drunk. “Oh, shit. Wrong room.”
“Get the fuck out of here.” Badass, closest to the door, shoves him back, hard and slams the door in his face. “Fucking prospects.”
Arturo ignores the interruption, his focus completely on King’s line of questioning. “Think hard. Did you see or hear anything that made you think they were talking? Was there yelling before the shooting started?”
“I… I don’t think so. I don’t know. It really did happen fast. They definitely weren’t talking when I went outside. One of your friends was already d—dead,” her voice hitches for the first time and her fingers spasm in mine. I hold them even tighter.
“Sure as fuck sounds to me like they went there for a reason, and if that wasn’t part of why they were supposed to be there, then what the fuck were they doing?”
Arturo scowls. “I don’t know, but I promise you we’ll find out.” He looks really fucking pissed that things are getting turned around on them.
Kaylee continues her description, and when it gets to the part where we show up, King and Arturo ask us some questions about what we saw. Which is unfortunately not much. Then we explain how, not knowing that the Eagles were about to get pulled into the mess, we sent Kaylee home with a warning to not get anyone else involved.
“And yet, she ended up quite cozy with the city’s finest,” Arturo says sarcastically.
She shrinks back as everyone’s eyes are on her. “I didn’t have a choice.” That doesn’t do much to assure anyone. “It’s true! They came to my house, handcuffed me and dragged me to the station! I haven’t been home or even been allowed to talk to anyone since then. You think I was working with them?”
Tears rolling down her cheeks, she jerks her hand out of mine and stands. With angry, jerky motions, she pulls up her sleeves, revealing red welts around her wrists and deep purple marks about the size of fingers on her arms. “This is what I got for NOT doing what they wanted!”
“What the fuck? Who did that to you?” I’m on my feet, examining her bruises. Someone’s going to fucking die, and before it happens, they are going to experience exactly the kind of pain and fear Kaylee has gone through. Looking at Tank and Nitro, it’s clear we’re all on the same fucking page.
“Sit your asses down,” King snaps. “Kaylee, we’re going to need you to tell us everything about what happened while you were in their custody.”
Tank holds her face in his hands and brushes her tears away. “You’ve got this.”
She nods. “They have the security footage from the gas station and I’m on it. I had to…” She looks at me. “They wouldn’t show me the video but they had pictures. You’re there too, with me, but I swear I told them you weren’t involved. I told them you guys were just driving past when you saw me and came to help. I told them you didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Were they asking you to identify Wraith, Tank and Nitro as the shooters?” Viking asks.
“No, not exactly. They just kept telling me that the Screaming Eagles were responsible and they had this binder full of pictures. I don’t know if it was all your members, but some of you were definitely there. And your president, too. Eagle-eye. At first they didn’t seem to care who I picked so long as it was someone in the binder, but on the second day, the detective pulled out six pictures and told me it was them. He—he locked me to the table and made me just stare and stare at them. I told them they weren’t the right men. I told them.”
Someone’s going to die, and it’s not going to be fast.
Arturo, frowning, raises a finger to get her attention. “Miss Thompson, I need you to answer me honestly, and I swear that my people will make sure you’re safe even if it angers these men. Did you see any of the men involved in the shooting in those pictures?”
Kaylee looks at me, and I don’t like the look on her face. I have a split second to make the decision, because I’m fairly fucking sure that if I tell her not to, she’ll keep her mouth shut for us.