Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 122896 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 614(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122896 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 614(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
Finn quickly sent her a text but knew she’d ignore that, too. But what she did do was glance up into the camera, jerk her chin up in an unspoken message and then head over to the Astro Van.
For fuck’s sake.
“What’s she doing, Finn?” Crew asked.
Finn was damn sure they were going to find out any second now. He grimaced and squeezed the back of his neck out of frustration.
Oh fuck!
“Is that your ASP baton?” Crew bellowed.
Of course it was. She must have grabbed it from his duty bag. He had finished moving into her church a few weeks ago. Since he didn’t need any of his uniforms or equipment—except for his service weapon—while working on the task force, he had shoved his duty bag toward the back of his half of the walk-in closet.
With a sharp flick of her wrist, the metal baton expanded to full length and without even a goddamn slight hesitation, she used it to smash the back window.
“Well, damn!” came from someone behind him.
The next thing she pulled from under that coat looked like a can of lighter fluid.
Was she about to…
Oh fuck, yes she was.
“Holy fuck!” came from someone else.
She squirted the highly flammable liquid inside the smashed window, chasing it with a lit match.
Of course she fucking did!
A collective groan rose up around him as she made her way over to the passenger side next and shattered that window, too. She shook the can making sure to get every last drop out of it and then chucked it in the window.
With a flick of her wrist, she lit another match and tossed that inside the van, too.
Smoke began to billow from both broken windows. Light at first, then with every passing second, it became thicker and darker. Within seconds, the flames spread enough for the task force members to see them on the screen.
But Finn wasn’t watching that.
He was watching Mel as she slammed the tip of the ASP baton against the pavement to collapse it before tucking it back inside her jacket.
He was torn on whether he was impressed or horrified. But what he was sure of was, he never should’ve shown her how the expandable baton worked.
Never.
Then, she turned to face the camera and in an exaggerated motion, she dusted off her hands.
Of fucking course she did.
With a tip of her head and a flash of a smirk, she disappeared off screen.
Finn remained frozen in place, still trying to process what his woman just did and what he should do about it.
“Goddamn,” Reynolds hooted, “that van is lighting up like a Viking’s funeral pyre.”
“Someone grab some popcorn,” Powers said.
“Fuck the popcorn, grab the marshmallows,” came from Reynolds.
Rez drew an invisible cross by touching his forehead, below his chest, his left side, then his right, finishing the ritual by bowing his head. “May that piece of shit Chevy go with God.”
Somewhere behind Finn, Decker asked, “Should we call the fire department?”
“Fuck no,” Crew said with a sigh. “Any evidence in there is already destroyed, let the fucker burn. But what you can do, Powers, is document the system glitch.”
“System glitch?”
“Yeah, the glitch that caused that section of footage to be corrupted.”
The trooper grinned and gave the DEA agent a thumbs up. “You got it, boss.”
As Mel slid her key in the lock, the front door was flung wide open.
Finn, his face an unreadable mask and flanked by Minx and Jinx, stood with his legs apart and his hands on his hips blocking her entrance.
She waited for him to say what was on his mind but he only closed his eyes and shook his head. Then with a drawn-out sigh, he stepped back and let her inside her own house.
She glared at the two traitors. “Since when are you two more loyal to him than me?”
“Since I explained what a bonehead move their mommy made when she torched a van involved in a federal investigation. That’s when.”
She pursed her lips and kicked off her shoes by the front door.
He slammed the door shut and spun on her. “That’s not the same outfit you were wearing on your ridiculously reckless mission.”
“I changed.”
“No shit. What did you do with those clothes?”
There was no point in lying. “Burned them.”
“Completely?”
“Yes. They’re nothing but ashes out in a field of weeds.”
“Unlike the stash van that’s now nothing but a burned-out metal skeleton.”
“You said the task force had all the evidence needed for The Peach Pit and the Demons who work there.” Simply saying that MC’s name left a bitter taste in her mouth.
“We do. But that didn’t mean we stopped monitoring the Demon’s activities there since we already have the cameras installed. Until they’re rounded up and charged, they’re still committing daily criminal acts we can document. The more we can pin on them, the less likely they’ll be able to beat those charges.”