Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
And there was Nyx’s ex.
Czar Petcova.
Looking between all of us with raised brows.
“Another day, another Henchmen girlfriend kidnapping,” Erion said, waving a hand dismissively. “We were prime suspects for a while,” he added, completely not offended by that fact.
Before Czar could even process what was going on, though, I was turning and storming out of the room, vaguely aware of Colter’s footsteps behind me as we went.
“Melissa,” I hissed to myself as I reached for my phone, calling Nyx’s studio.
“Ah, karate place,” Rook answered, too distracted to remember the name of the place he was pretending to work.
“Rook. The name we are looking for is Melissa,” I said.
“Melissa,” he repeated. “That sounds… familiar,” he said, and I could hear the keyboard clicking at a pace that felt inhuman for a second. “There it is. Melissa. Ex-girlfriend of Gray. Also has a rap sheet. Lots of arrests for possession. Only one charge, but she got out in six months.”
“Is she still living around here?” I asked as I rushed toward my bike.
“Ah…”
“Rook,” I hissed.
“I’m trying, man. I don’t see her listed any… hm,” he said.
“Hm, what?”
“She’s got a grandmother who lives in the trailer park,” he said. “Thing is… her grandma is in long-term rehabilitation after breaking her hip.”
“What’s the trailer address?” I asked, getting on my bike, mentally calculating the distance.
Not far from the apartments.
Past the schools, then the ‘burbs.
The park.
Then there it would be.
I’d lived there on and off through my childhood, staying with my grandma when my old man was traveling for work since our ma died young.
I had only good memories of the trailer park. My grandma had struggled a lot when my grandfather died, leaving her with kids and a no resume since she’d been home raising kids. She’d lost their house and needed to struggle for a while, living in short-term housing until she could build a nest egg.
She bought that trailer and had so much pride of ownership since she’d managed to buy it and take care of it all on her own.
The inside was always meticulously clean. I wasn’t sure I’d ever been there without it always smelling like lemon cleaner and carpet foam.
The outside had gorgeous flower beds full of bright, happy flowers that she tended to lovingly.
It didn’t look like that anymore.
Because she didn’t live there anymore.
Since she’d joined her husband in the graveyard a few years before.
My old man lived there instead.
I doubted it smelled like lemon cleaner anymore.
And last time I’d been around, the flowerbeds were full of weeds.
I didn’t hold that against him. I didn’t garden either. And with his fucked-up back, he didn’t do any extra work if he could help it.
I drove down the road I remembered riding bikes on all summer with Dallas, always trying to beat him to the end of the street.
There was a second of longing, a nostalgia for the way things had once been, before my mind was on other shit.
Like how our bikes would alert people to our presence.
If Colter was surprised by my swinging a turn and driving away from the park, he didn’t seem to hesitate to follow me.
“Is there a plan?” he asked as I heard more bikes driving toward us.
“We go in, we get Everleigh,” I said.
“I get that your head is with your heart right now,” Colter said, nodding. “But you need to be smart here.”
“Okay…” I said, brows pinching as the rest of the guys pulled up, cutting their engines.
“Look, the thing is, you can’t go in there and kill anyone,” he said as everyone else walked up. “If they die, so does your proof that Everleigh and Gav are innocent.”
Fuck.
That was true.
I couldn’t explain it, but the disappointment I felt right then was almost overwhelming.
I’d never been an overly violent man.
But I wanted to wrap my hands around Gray’s throat and slowly strangle the life out of him. I wanted him to suffer for what he’d done to Everleigh.
“He’s not wrong,” Slash agreed, nodding. “You got a better plan?” he asked, looking at Colter.
“You’re not gonna like it,” Colter warned.
“What is it?”
“You need to call your brother,” he said.
“Oh, fuck no,” I said, shaking my head.
“Listen, I’m not saying don’t go in and get your woman. I’m saying leave the real criminals alive to be hauled in and turn on each other. And exonerate your girl.”
He was right.
I fucking hated that.
But he was right.
I couldn’t kill Gray.
“Alright,” I said. “I want to scope it out. See what kind of danger she’s in. Then, depending, I’m going in. You call my brother,” I said, looking at Slash.
To that, he sighed, and nodded.
“Give me five,” I demanded.
Then I ran.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Everleigh
I woke up to a migraine jackhammering into my skull, the pain so intense that I could do nothing but press my hands to my eyes and rock my body to try to soothe myself, to think past it.