Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 61900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
I shake my head in confusion. “What do you mean? Where are you?”
“At the country club. I was just stopping into see my mother because she wouldn’t answer my calls and when I got here, it is swarming with police...I don’t know what’s going down.”
Is this the clubs doing?
They’ve been MIA for a day and night, not answering, not giving us a single damned thing. We’ve all been worried, wondering what the hell is going on, but I’m starting to think this is all part of their plan.
“I’m coming to get you,” I say. “Wait there and don’t move, I’ll be there soon.”
“Ok,” she sobs, hanging up the phone.
I’m not meant to be driving, but screw it, I’m going because clearly something huge is going down and I’m going to see what it is. Star is with Delilah, she took her so I could have a rest, so I don’t have to do anything but get into the car. I move quickly, well, as quickly as I can and head to the country club.
By the time I arrive, the place is swarming.
I mean swarming.
Cops, reporters, people surrounding the place trying to get some information. I park and move towards the crowd, looking for Delilah. It takes me a few minutes shoving through the crowd, looking anywhere I can. People are talking rapidly, reporters are yelling and screaming for answers, and the place is chaos.
I finally see Delilah standing with her mother, Star screaming in her arms, tears running down her cheeks. Her mother is sitting on a chair, head hung, and there are police officers standing beside them. I shove through the people surrounding them and when Delilah sees me, she crumbles. I take Star from her arms, carefully bouncing the poor baby girl who is beside herself from all of the drama unfolding around her. It’s too much and she’s frantic.
“Hey, hey,” I say, pulling Delilah into my spare arm as I keep trying to bounce Star. “It’s okay, it’s okay.”
“Have you heard?” Delilah sobs, wiping her face.
“No, what’s going on?”
“It’s my dad. There were...there were recordings of him. You were right. You were all right. He was involved the whole time. They’ve arrested him, there are going to be reports all over the news, it’s all crashing to pieces.”
Shit.
Oh shit.
This must be what the bikers have been doing and why we haven’t heard from them. How in the ever-loving hell did they manage to get this kind of information? They must have leaked it. It’s genius, all the money in the world won’t hide this one. Everyone is currently finding out what a monster Delilah’s father is and what he and his little minions have been up to all this time.
Still, it’s heartbreaking for her.
“We need to get you out of here, come on,” I say, tugging her.
“Delilah, did you know what your father was doing?”
“Delilah, were you involved?”
“Delilah, do you know where any of the missing girls are?”
People are shouting questions, it’s absolute hell and I can’t think, let alone deal with this. I’m already hurting just from shoving through the crowd. I need to get Delilah out of here, and I need to do it now.
“Come on,” I pull her again.
“My mother, I can’t leave her,” Delilah says, shaking her head, eyes wide and tears rolling down her cheeks.
“We’ll take her, let’s help her up.”
Delilah goes to help her mother up, but instead she throws her hands out. “No, I’m not leaving. I’m not.”
“Sorry, ma’am,” the police officer says, “we need your mother to remain here for questioning.”
Delilah looks frantic.
“It’s okay,” I say to her, squeezing her hand. “We’ll get Star out of here, and then we’ll go to the police station and find out what is happening. Being here isn’t helping, okay. We need to get out of here.”
Delilah nods and eventually, I get her out.
Once we’re in the car, she starts sobbing.
By the time we are halfway home, the radio is already going crazy with the news. I slam my hand on it, switching it off.
This is bad.
Yet, good.
These people, they had it coming.
They did what they did, and they couldn’t hide it forever.
Still, this is going to do a lot of damage to Delilah and for her, I didn’t want that.
But she has us now, and we’ve got her back.
We’ll always have her back.
“SHE’S ASLEEP,” GABBY says quietly, coming down the stairs. “Poor thing cried until she was exhausted. I feel so bad for her.”
I look over to Hugh, who is watching the television.
The club members got back a few hours after the news broke. Riggs told us what had happened. They had enough information to tip the police off, including footage that showed Delilah’s dad right in the act, plus confessions from those around him. Not even the cops who were covering it up could keep this one from blowing up. They tipped off every news reporter within a hundred-mile radius that it was going down, so there was no way it could be hidden.