Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 94997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
“I don’t ask questions,” Jared gasps. “I was just told to start funneling it here. I’m not even a main guy. I’m nobody.” He begins to cry. “I didn’t want any of this. I didn’t want to kill Makayla, but I had to, or they’d come after me. You understand, don’t you?” The grimy fucker has the audacity to look into my eyes, begging for his life.
The door opens, and guns are pulled and aimed at the intruder. Braxton puts his hands up in the air.
“Boys,” he says, looking directly at Eli, who makes no move to lower his gun.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Eli asks. “I don’t recall us handing you our location.”
Braxton looks at Jared and whistles, impressed by his bloodied face. “No, you guys didn’t. But Ivy did.”
Eli looks at me unimpressed, and I shrug. “I didn’t tell her we’d be here. But she is pretty good at tracking.” Then I smile wide and add, “Oh, Braxton, Ivy, and I are a thing.”
Eli rolls his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose as he pockets his gun. Everyone follows his lead.
“Will you stop calling your situation a ‘thing’? She’s your woman, girlfriend, many other terms,” Ford suggests with a raised eyebrow.
“But I like ‘thing,’” I reply, and Ford swears under his breath.
“You don’t really care if you get to play hero with this, so why are you doing it?” Eli asks. “This asswipe won’t last a week in prison.”
Braxton smiles. “True. But you’d be surprised how much a politician is willing to pay for his only daughter’s murderer.”
Dutton’s eyebrows perk. “You wouldn’t have known any of that without the information Ivy provided.”
Braxton casually shrugs. “I’m an opportunist when money is involved, and besides, I’m honoring the bargain I made with her. She wanted him to be put on the media, most likely as some way of offering their families peace.”
“In other words, Hope is busting your balls to do as her friend says.” I laugh at him. Fuck me, we’re all pussy whipped.
“I’m somewhat impressed,” Dutton says to Braxton as he stands to take his leave. “We’re done here. He’s given us all we need to know.”
“Wait. So what now?” I ask. “You can’t seriously believe Striker is behind this?” Sure, he’s the president of a motorcycle club and does some shifty shit, but I like Waylon, and we haven’t had any issues working with him this past year.
“We go ask Striker some questions,” Eli growls, clearly irritated by the only answers we were able to get. “At least we’ve found a thread to this recent problem. We’ll see him tomorrow. I want this sorted.”
“And if he’s involved?” Ford asks, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his black jeans.
Eli’s jaw tics, but he doesn’t hesitate as he says, “Then we’ll make the problem go away.”
I’m not paid to use my brains like the others, but I have a gut feeling that Waylon has nothing to do with this. And I think Eli has the same feeling which is most likely why he’s coming to address this head on instead of simply sending us instead.
“So, can I take him now?” Braxton asks, interrupting us. “Maybe pump him up with some drugs so I can say I found him overdosed?”
I turn to Eli, who nods his head. I walk over to one of the containers we have and find an old needle.
“Boss?” I say, holding it up.
Eli is watching Braxton. “It could kill him,” he points out.
Braxton shrugs. “I don’t think any of us care about that, do we? We’re just making sure our women are all okay and feeling in charge.”
“Seems like my wife is the only obedient one,” Eli grits, and I throw my head back and laugh.
“I’d love to see you say that in front of Jewel.” But when I see his lethal expression, I’m quick to clear my throat and apologize as I line the needle up with a vein in Jared’s arm.
At the end of the day, he’s just a pawn in a game.
He weakly tries to fight me, but I pin his arm easily to the chair before I stick the needle in. His eyes go wide as I inject him with the contents.
Too fucking bad.
This is far kinder than I’ve been with any asshole I’ve wanted to torture.
His mistake was coming for my woman.
CHAPTER 41
Ivy
“Weren’t going to stop, huh?” I growl at him as he sheepishly walks past me in the bedroom. I’m not that mad because I know Hawke well enough to know he had no intention of letting Jared make it out of whatever dungeon they were torturing him in, which is exactly why I put a tracker on his favorite boots a week ago. I can also track his phone, but this made it easier. The moment he stopped at the location, I sent it to Braxton and Hope.