Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 224(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 224(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
“Just an update on everything. Figured since you were here you’d want to attend. You ain’t Bones, but close enough.” Carnage shrugged, his gaze straying to me slightly before returning to Styx. Instantly, Styx’s whole demeanor changed.
“Give me five minutes.”
“I have pie if you want to take it with you,” I said, turning to grab the pie plate where I’d made a butterscotch pie. “It was my Grandmother Rose’s recipe.”
His gaze zeroed in on the pie. “Butterscotch?” I nearly giggled when his tongue darted out to wet his lips and he rubbed his belly with his hand.
“Yeah. She said there wasn’t a Hatfield or McCoy what could make a better butterscotch pie than her.”
He reached for the pie with both hands, snagging a fork from the table. “Ain’t promisin’ I’ll share, but I promise it’ll get ate.”
“Now, just a Goddamn minute,” Carnage protested, taking a step toward Styx. “Anything goes to church at Bones gets shared.”
“Yeah? Fuck you. How ’bout sharin’ that?” Styx said, flipping the other biker off while curling his other arm protectively around the pie.
“I can make another one,” I said quickly. “Share that one, and I’ll have you a new one made by the time you get back.”
Styx bared his teeth at Carnage. “Fucker. You know damned good and well officers’ll take first dibs. By the time it gets to me, there won’t be a fuckin’ thing left.”
“Well, come on, then. Let’s get this over with, and your woman will have you one made all for yourself.”
Styx sighed. “Fine.” He glanced at me. “Don’t like leavin’ Jolene here.”
“It’s not like she won’t be perfectly fine. I can get Cain to send Angel and some of the other ol’ ladies over if you want.”
“I’m fine,” I said. “I’ll just wait here until you get back.” It had been two weeks since I’d come here with Styx, and I knew there were things going on I didn’t know about. I got the feeling it had something to do with me, but Styx just told me not to worry about it. He said all I needed to do was let my body heal, and that he’d take care of anything needing taken care of. Which didn’t sit well with me. If there was something going on with my family and the Maybach, then I wanted in on it. But really, the odds of whatever was going on being about that car were slim to none. These guys were super careful. Anyone could tell that. If my poppy was looking for that car, they would never find it here.
True to my word, I made another pie. I’d just pulled it out of the oven when I heard a commotion outside our window. At first, I ignored it. There was all kinds of stuff going on around the compound and not much of it quiet.
Then there was a gunshot. And the top of the window glass crunched as a bullet passed through the pane to imbed in the wall across the room. I shrieked, dropping to the ground and crawling toward the door.
“Jolene! You fuckin’ cunt! Get your fuckin’ ass out here a’fore I kill every single person in this fuckin’ place!”
Poppy. Marshall McCoy. How had he found us? And how had he known which room I was in? Because there was no way he shot that window out by accident.
“Yeah, Jolene. Get your ass outta there and tell us what you done with the Maybach!” That was my eldest brother, Alex. So, they knew where I was but not the car.
No way.
I scrambled to my backpack and dumped everything in it out onto the floor. I was frantically searching the contents when the door burst open. I screamed and dove under the small table where Styx and I had eaten every day.
“Hey, hey,” Styx called soothingly. He crouched down and reached for me. “You OK? You didn’t get hurt, did you?”
I went to him immediately. Styx pulled me into his arms, holding me tightly. “No. But how did he find me?”
“Not sure.” He glanced at my upturned backpack and the mess of stuff on the floor where I’d dumped the contents. “You think he put a tracker in your pack?”
“I don’t know!” I sobbed. “It’s the only thing that makes sense since he obviously doesn’t know the car’s here.”
“Here,” Styx took me back to the pack. “Put everything back in. Get anything you had in it when you got here and put it in there. Any dirty clothes, including those prison oranges. Put it all back in.”
He helped me. Everything I’d brought with me went back in that pack. Then Styx shouldered it while putting himself between me and the window where my poppy had shot. Once outside our room, he snagged my hand and hurried down the hall through the compound.