Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 66580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
“I’d like to speak with you and your sister inside, Ms. McBride,” he said, the words casual but the tone firm. Shade’s fingers tightened on my shoulder and I had a sudden, horrible realization.
Of course there hadn’t been enough time for Hannah to call Andrews. Either this was a total coincidence, or he’d been planning to come here all along. Holy shit, they really did kill Rebel and now he’s come to question me!
I felt my body start to tremble, a rush of fear and adrenaline filling me. I remembered the cops pulling up next to me in Missoula. I hadn’t even been smart enough to realize I was in trouble. Nope, I’d been too busy Facebooking on my phone, for God’s sake.
I’d waved hello to them.
Then I’d spent three nights in the county jail before a friend managed to bail me out, and I was still on probation. Sure, it was unsupervised probation—the prosecutor had thrown me a bone, seeing as I’d been clueless about the whole thing—but my record wasn’t exactly clean.
Shit shit shit!
“I have to get ready for work,” I told Andrews, the words coming out in a rush. “I have a shift down at the Pit and I can’t be late. Can we talk another time?”
His eyes narrowed and a new tension filled the air.
“Ms. McBride, this won’t take very long, but it’s important that we talk. Would you mind stepping into the trailer?”
“You got a warrant?” Shade asked, his voice deceptively casual. Andrews shook his head slowly. Shade let me go, taking a step forward. “No warrant, no probable cause. Sounds to me like you got no reason to be here at all.”
“Heath?”
My sister’s voice was strained. I spun around to find her standing on the porch, halfway through the door.
“Ms. McBride,” the deputy said, nodding his head to her. “I’d like to speak to you and your sister, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course—come right in,” she said, flustered. I stepped away from Shade and moved toward my sister. I wasn’t sure what was going on here, but I did know one thing. No way in hell I’d leave her alone with that cop if he’d come here because of me. This was my mess to clean up. Not hers.
Andrews started toward the steps, somehow never quite turning his back on the bikers. He didn’t seem afraid or uncomfortable in the slightest, despite the fact that he was totally outnumbered.
“Would you be willing to join us?” he asked me again, polite but pointed.
“I’ll come with you,” Shade said.
“I need to speak with Ms. McBride alone,” Andrews replied, and while his tone remained even, there was something in his voice that made it clear this wasn’t a negotiation. Shade stiffened. We were about to have a badass showdown if I didn’t do something.
“I’m happy to talk to you,” I said, ducking out from under Shade’s arm. He glanced down at me and I widened my eyes, willing him to go along with it. He didn’t like the idea, but thankfully he decided not to force the issue in front of the deputy.
Heath waved me into the trailer, following me inside. Hannah closed the door behind us.
“Can I get you anything to drink?” she asked him, looking nervous. Not nervous in a I-did-something-wrong-and-the-cops-are-here kind of way. I knew all about that from my time with Trevor. No, this was cute-boy-is-talking-to-me-in-the-cafeteria-at-school nervous.
Oh. My. God.
Was my sister into the sheriff’s deputy?
Andrews smiled. “Nothing to drink. I appreciate the offer, but I just wanted to be sure you ladies were all right. I don’t usually see the Reapers around here. Figured I should check up on you.”
“That’s very nice,” Hannah replied awkwardly, and any doubts I might’ve had disappeared. She liked him. How did I not know this already? I’d told her everything about Rebel, and the whole story about Shade, too. We always spilled—always. How had this gotten by me?
Except she knew how uncomfortable I felt around cops. She’d probably been scared to talk to me. Andrews turned to look in my direction.
“You’ve got some bruising on your face,” he said quietly. “Do you feel safe with those men outside?”
“They’re fine,” I said quickly. “I got the bruises from falling…”
Gee, that sounded like a scene from a low budget PSA for battered women. Heath Andrews wasn’t fooled for a minute.
“You can tell me what happened,” he said. “I’ll help protect you. The Reapers have a lot of influence in the area, but you don’t have to put up—”
“No, it’s really not that,” I said, glancing between him and my sister. “Hannah, tell him. It wasn’t the Reapers.”
“It wasn’t,” she agreed. He caught her gaze and held it, assessing, then nodded.
“Then who was it?”
“I fell into a pickup truck,” I said. “I mean, the side of it. I hit my head on the mirror. I was drinking.”