Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
“Unless the cops got something,” Jessie remarked.
“Unless the cops got something,” Raye agreed.
“Time to have a chat with Jayden,” Shanti said.
“Time to recruit a cop informant,” Luna decreed.
“Me, Shanti, Willow and Harlow in the Merc. Luna and Jess in the Kia,” Raye ordered.
“Only if we switch around so Jess and I get the Merc on our next ride,” Luna stated.
“Obviously,” Raye replied.
That sorted, we all walked to the door.
After Luna tugged it open, I saw Javi’s truck was gone.
Cap and Gabe came alert, then got in Gabe’s Jeep.
And we headed out.
SEVENTEEN
“WHATTA MAN”
(SALT-N-PEPA/EN VOGUE)
At Zipps Sports Grill, we didn’t even make it to Jayden’s table before our dreams of cultivating a cop informant went up in flames.
First, Shanti’s cousin was gorgeous. Tall, lean, his skin a couple of shades darker than hers, beautiful bone structure. And we knew who he was immediately, because when he first laid eyes on her, he smiled, and he had two (two!) dimples.
Then he spied the rest of us, the smile died a fiery death, he shot straight in his chair, shook his head and bellowed, “No fuckin’ way!”
We all stopped dead.
Everyone in the bar looked at him.
He paid them no mind as he jumped out of his chair and stormed to Shanti, which meant he stormed to us all.
“Are you serious with this shit?” he demanded of Shanti.
“What shit?” Shanti asked innocently, and I could tell she was perplexed at his volatile response, as were we all.
Then we weren’t when he eyed Raye, Luna, Jessie and me.
“We got a bulletin on you,” he stated.
Uh-oh.
“The entire Phoenix Police Department got it,” he continued.
Uh-oh!
“With pictures,” he went on.
Eek!
“And you are not dragging my cousin into your shit,” he concluded.
“Listen, Jayden—” Luna tried to play it cool.
“Fuck no,” Jayden cut her off. “Are you high?” His eyes went over her head. “Are you high?” he asked again.
We all turned around.
Cap and Gabe were standing there.
They’d followed, but they hadn’t followed close. My guess was, they were close now because we had a tall, angry, fit man in our faces.
“No,” Cap drawled as an answer to his question.
“You know better than to let your woman do this kind of shit,” Jayden declared, aiming this at Cap.
Uh-oh!
Raye’s face went hard, and we all tensed.
But it was Shanti to look out for.
Her voice got soft. “Excuse me?”
Jayden looked down at her. He was married, he had a mother, he obviously had female cousins. I didn’t know what other females were in his orbit as he was growing up until now. What I did know was that he heard Shanti’s tone, took one look at her face and realized he’d just messed up huge.
Thus, he was a whole lot calmer when he said, “Do you know what these women are into?”
“I know they found fourteen missing women when your department wasn’t even looking for them,” Shanti retorted.
Woo.
Zinger!
“I also know they made it so a crew that was rustling up about three gang wars on top of abducting homeless people to use them as forced labor in their drug operation was shut down, and I don’t know if you all were even doing anything about that,” Shanti kept at him.
We’d just met Jayden (kinda), but still, at the expression on his face after she delivered that, we all scooted back a step.
Shanti, however, did not.
“So, you were saying?” she asked.
“They got lucky,” Jayden bit off.
“Do I have to bring up Elsie Fay?” Shanti retorted.
A muscle in his jaw bulged.
“You can get lucky once. Even twice.” Shanti didn’t let up. “But three times? Brother, you’re a cop. You know that isn’t right.”
Jayden didn’t speak.
He knew that wasn’t right.
“Now, a man got dead. Trevor Clampitt,” Shanti continued.
“His last name was Clampitt?” I whispered to Willow.
She nodded.
That seemed to fit him somehow.
“And you remember Kev.” She gestured to Willow.
Willow gave him a short, awkward wave and said a short, awkward, “Hey, Jayden.”
Jayden jerked up his chin to her and muttered, “Yeah, I remember that guy.”
Well, it seemed Willow had been invited to Shanti’s family’s shindigs, and she’d taken Kevin along.
“We’re broken up,” Willow blurted.
“That’s good,” Jayden stated firmly.
She’d definitely taken Kevin along.
Willow bugged her eyes out at Shanti.
“Trev was Kev’s best friend,” Shanti shared with Jayden.
“And you think you can get what out of me…exactly?” Jayden asked his cousin.
“It’d help if you could tell me if the cops found anything when they searched Trev’s apartment, or if they knew what they were looking for or what Trev was into, considering, after whoever killed Trev did him, he went to Harlow’s place.”
Now she was gesturing at me. When Jayden turned to me, I also did the short, awkward wave.
Shanti kept going.
“And they tossed that because she’d had a kind of fake date with Trev that night, although she didn’t, she was supposed to be having a fake date with Kev.”