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Precarious(72)



“You’re under the arrest for the murder of Johan Reed. Anything you say or do will be used against you in the court of law.”

“Yeah, fuckin’ yeah,” he snorts.

Tears run down my cheeks, because I know what this man is doing for Krypt. He’s giving him freedom. The officer turns to Krypt.

“You’re under arrest too.”

“What fuckin’ for?” Krypt snarls.

“At this stage, we will need evidence to back up this claim. You escaped from prison, and we need to ensure your involvement in that was nonexistent. Then, if the old man’s story checks out, you will be released with conditions.”

My tears get heavier as Krypt’s gazes turns to me. “I’m comin’ back, baby.”

I nod as a hand squeezes my arm. It’s Maddox.

“We’ll get him outta there.”

“I know,” I croak as the officer pushes both men into the car. “We need to take those guards down, Maddox. We need proof they’re corrupt.”

“Only one way to do that, honey,” he murmurs. “You’re going to make a visit.”





CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR


My heart pounds as I approach Tristan’s front door. I don’t know if this will work, but it’s worth a shot. To get evidence on Howard is next to impossible; the man is smart. But what he didn’t consider in his plan was that I am close to Tristan, and all I need is a confession from him. Maddox and the guys are close, in case anything goes wrong.

This was Maddox’s plan, and I’ll admit it’s a clever one. If it works. I have a recorder in my pocket, so tiny it’s barely noticeable. Maddox didn’t want wires, because he had no doubt Tristan would ask. I raise my hand and knock on the door, then I take a step back.

A moment later, the door swings open and Tristan appears. His eyes widen when he sees me. I know I have to act this out well, so I raise my hand, and I slap him across the face. “How could you?”

“Shit, Ash, what are you doing here?”

“Doing here?” I screech. “Don’t pretend you don’t know. How could you, Tristan? I thought we were friends.”

His eyes scan the street and road, and then he mutters. “Come in.”

“I don’t think I trust that,” I say, my voice wobbling for effect.

“I’m alone.”

“You are the last person I thought would do such a horrible thing. Really, Tristan? Guards died because of you.”

He narrows his eyes. “You wired?”

“What?” I gasp.

Maddox was right.

“Is this a set-up?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Turn around and lift your shirt.”

I roll my eyes dramatically, and I do so, lifting my shirt’s front and back. I even slide my jacket off. He leans forward, patting my pockets and legs, before staring at me. Lucky I taped the recorder in my cleavage.

“Why the hell would I be wired?” I ask.

He glares at me. “Because your boyfriend got arrested.”

“Beau?” I ask. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Can we do this inside?”

“I’m not sure I can trust you, Tristan,” I say sadly. “Why would you do something like that?”

He growls and leans in close. “You have no fuckin’ idea how much money we were paid to pass information out, and set that ambush up.”

Shit. I just realized if Tristan talks about the ambush, he’ll give away that Maddox got there before Howard. I quickly change the subject.

“I don’t care about the ambush. I’m talking about lying to me, and feeding information out of the prison.”

“He was giving me a lot of money; he set me up. It was just fuckin’ information on one person. It was only one fuckin’ job.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I cry. “Claire and Leo got hurt because of you. I nearly got killed.”

“Do you think I wanted them to shoot at you? Fuck, Ash, of course I didn’t, but you knew too much; you’d seen too much. I didn’t want it anymore than you did, but I had no choice.”

“And Claire and Leo?” I whisper, my voice shaky. “They didn’t deserve any of it.”

“We needed to draw you out. You were hiding with that club, and Howard was growing impatient. We needed to scare you, to give you a reason to hand yourself over. The sooner you were killed, the sooner our plan could continue.”

“You set an innocent man up,” I yell.

“I didn’t fuckin’ do any of that. Howard set the café scene up; Howard shot the other people. He just made it look like Beau did it. The club were then in the cop’s sights. Howard only came in to us when he wanted to plan that ambush. He wanted information; we gave it to him.”