“That’s fucked up. You realize that, right?”
I shrug while pushing away from the railing. “That’s because I’m fucked up. I quit apologizing for it a long time ago.”
He laughs under his breath while following me down the stairs, but we both stumble to a halt just as Isaac yelps and lands hard on his ass right in front of the staircase. Snake storms out of his room, and Isaac covers his face.
“The fuck is going on?” I ask, watching as Snake throws a fucking tantrum. He’s yelling at everyone, and I can’t understand a word coming out of his mouth. His veins are pulsing visibly, and he’s blood red, almost as though he’s about to erupt.
Is he high?
My eyes move to Isaac as he crawls up to his feet, wiping blood away from his face.
“The hell?” I prompt.
“That whole fucking ‘shoot the messenger’ shit is real, man,” Isaac mumbles, cursing when he wipes more blood from his face. “But I think I know how the feds fit into the equation now.”
Something crashes, and I look over as Snake beats the hell out of the coffee table with a fucking baseball bat. When did he grab a bat? He’s lost his motherfucking mind.
“Snake!” I yell, but he doesn’t even slow down. The bat crashes against the bar now, slamming into all the liquor bottles and shattering them.
He finally gets tackled to the ground by a couple of our guys, and I cut my eyes back to Isaac as they wrestle to keep Snake from breaking free.
“Explain,” I growl.
“Fuck you!” Snake barks, struggling harder as a third guy joins in on holding him back. “Fuck you! You’re full of shit!”
Isaac eyes Snake warily, making sure he’s fully restrained before he turns his attention back to me.
“Sarah’s gone. Feds showed up with a warrant for her arrest, man. Sarah Burrows died last week in a car accident. She lived in some Ohio town, had a fiancé, and even worked at a coffee shop. Yet she’s been living with us for however many months. See the problem?”
It’s too confusing to understand what he’s saying, until it’s suddenly really fucking clear.
“What the hell is Sarah’s real name then?” I ask him.
“Fuck you, Drex!” Snake roars, cursing the guys holding him. “How fucking dare you believe that shit! Can’t you see they’re setting her up?”
I slide my gaze back to Isaac, hoping he damn well has some serious proof. He frowns over at Snake before picking up a piece of paper from the floor that must have fallen during the fall he took.
When he hands it to me, it almost feels like the wind is knocked out of me. We really fucking suck worse than I realized about checking people out. We need a better hacker, one who can dig deeper than the surface value of shit.
I actually feel pretty damn sorry for Snake. It’s all there. Everything he’s saying is right. Sarah Burrows is definitely not the same person who has been living with us, even though they have a strong resemblance. It would’ve been close enough for our Sarah to pass as the real Sarah on a standard background check from one of our guys doing a quick check on girls coming in to work with us.
“You’re sure this is legit?” I ask him, looking up at Isaac. “If so, who is our Sarah?”
He frowns, running a hand through his hair as Snake threatens to destroy him. I ignore Snake, even though it feels like a betrayal. The feds are all over us, and now they’re here with an arrest warrant? They’d need a name for that warrant, and it wouldn’t be Sarah Burrows.
“Alexius Jenkins. You’ve probably heard of her… AJ.”
Axle looks at me, I look at him, and we both burst out laughing. Sarah is fucking AJ? Hell no.
“AJ is a guy. If anything, he’s a fucking urban myth. Not a girl who was working as a stripper a few months ago,” I say dismissively. “Snake, he’s full of shit. Calm down.”
Isaac swallows hard while shaking his head. “AJ is a girl. Friend of mine confirmed it. She’s the daughter of the Phillip Jenkins. His daughter was his favorite mercenary… Until she turned over all the evidence she had to the feds three years ago and disappeared into thin air.”
Snake finally breaks free, and he races toward us, lunging for Isaac. I catch him midair and sling him against the wall, groaning when his elbow connects with my side.
“Fucking shit! This is insane,” I growl, trying to get Snake to calm down, but it’s pointless.
“It’s true,” Isaac says from behind me. Then adds, “I wish it wasn’t but it is. Sarah is our fucking leak to the feds. Has to be. Not Cecil. Or not just Cecil.”
Snake stops struggling against me, and his eyes coldly meet mine.
“If it was her, they could have already busted down the doors and took us all to prison. She knows everything. Every-fucking-thing. I didn’t keep secrets.”
That’s when I see the anger give way to the pain. Something colder crosses his eyes, and I release him as he shrugs away and stalks through the warehouse.
“Where’re you going?” Axle calls after him. When he starts to follow, I put my hand on his chest, holding him back, but he slaps my hand away.
Axle doesn’t always appreciate being touched, and I get why, but Snake needs a minute, so stopping him becomes a necessity. I grab him by the arm and jerk him back when he tries going after him again.
“Stop fucking touching me,” Axle growls.
“Stop chasing him. He needs a minute.”
The roar of a Harley gives us a little warning before tires are screaming out of the hangar. My phone dings with a text, and I pull it out to read it.
UNKNOWN: Feds won’t come back. They were just trying to spook you by using me. The warrant for my arrest only allows them to search my house and my place of employment for now. Now I’m on camera at the airport. I made sure to get noticed. I moved the bookcase in front of the basement door to cover it just in case though. All your documents are down there as well.
Sarah. Or Alexius. Or AJ. Or whatever-the-hell her name is. It has to be her.
I toss my phone at Axle, letting him read it, as I jog toward the back side of the warehouse. As soon as I reach the meeting room, I see the oversized bookcase has been moved to completely shield the door as if it doesn’t exist.
That thing has to weigh a fuck-ton. How did she move it?
Axle walks up behind me, shaking his head as though he can’t wrap his mind around things.
“Guess you never really know anyone.”
“The hell was she ever even doing here?” I ask him, confused. “And her father is in prison because of her? She’s a rat? Hell, I thought AJ was a fucking guy. Not a chick. Never knew J stood for Jenkins either. If anything, it was just a myth to keep Phillip’s enemies at bay.”
“I don’t know, but if Snake is telling the truth about her knowing everything, she’s not the leak to the feds. She could have buried us by now with very little effort. We need to focus on our own problems. Not this crazy shit.”
I nod, agreeing, but it’s still irking me.
I thought Benny was a fucking dumbass for not knowing he had a fed in his crew. Turns out, I had an urban legend right under my nose…
I miss the days when I just punched shit and shot people.
Chapter 30
EVE
Drex walks in just as I finish packing my bag. I don’t even know who went and got all my things from the damn motel, but I hope those sick freaks didn’t lick or sniff my underwear or anything else disgusting like that.
I almost feel like I need to wash everything just to be safe.
“What are you doing?” he asks quietly, keeping his distance, just as he has for the past two days while keeping me hidden away in his room. Hell, he’s kept his distance for much longer than that.
“Going back to my motel room,” I tell him without looking back at him.
Angrily, I shove my phone in my bag, ignoring it when it goes off with the text ringtone.
“Why?”
Does he really have to ask why?
“Can Axle give me a ride?” I ask instead, keeping my tone neutral and not shaky.
He glares at me, but it lost its effect a while back. “As soon as you tell me why you want to fucking leave, I’ll carry you there myself,” he growls.
“I’ll ask him myself.” I glare back while tossing my bag over my shoulder, knowing he’d rather let me storm out than attempt to touch me. He hasn’t even slept in the damn bed—his bed.
I really don’t want to know where he’s been sleeping or who he’s been sleeping with.
Just as I predicted, he doesn’t stop me. He doesn’t argue. I hear him call for Axle, but I tune him out other than that. Axle walks up just as I hit the bottom of the stairs, and his eyes move from me to Drex a few times before he nods at whatever Drex has said.
I stay quiet, ignoring the men staring at me, ignoring Drex’s hot gaze burning a hole in my back, and ignoring whatever Axle is saying. Until he touches my arm and I jump.
“Sorry,” he mutters. “You seem out of it. You okay? Why are you going back to the motel? It’s not safe there right now. I can’t believe Drex is even letting you.”
I look around to see I’ve somehow made it out to the garage where the bikes are, and I don’t even remember getting here.
“Last I checked, it’s my life and my choice. Anything is better than staying up there with an asshole who can’t even stand being in the same room with me.”