“Her hands were shaking so bad I could hear the metal clanking, and I can smell the cherry from here. Don’t know too many guys who wear cherry-scented shit. Here. I brought the file. I need to get back to my driver and away from this shit. I’m mostly legit nowadays, remember?”
He hands her something small before a small wand turns into a cane with the snap of his wrist, and I watch as he feels his way out with it.
I just shot at a blind man.
Holy shit.
“Thank you, Bentley! I love you for this.”
“Love gets my dick sucked. Not shot at,” he mumbles from just outside the door.
Sarah laughs like I’m not in a full blown, cold-sweat panic over here.
“I owe you one,” she tells him, even though I can’t see him anymore.
“I won’t need those services. Like I said, I’m legit now.”
“But you could have problems one day in the future because of your past.”
“Speaking of the past,” Bentley says, “you need to get out of here before yours catches up with you. Your father has men all in the feds, and now the feds know who you really are. It won’t be long before that information spreads to him. There’s nothing else left here for you anymore.”
Sarah’s face falls, and she clears her throat. “Not until I’m sure he’s safe.”
“He’s a fucking criminal and a big boy. He’s never going to be safe and he can take care of himself, A. Just get the hell out of town before it’s too late.”
As they continue to talk, my heartrate slowly starts getting under control. Unfortunately, the rest of everything else catches up to me, and that rug that was firmly planted under my feet gets ripped away, and a painful realization hits me. Everything Sarah said earlier sinks in and resonates, bringing to life a very harsh truth that I believe.
My father didn’t kill himself.
He was murdered.
Chapter 37
DREX
“Where the fuck is she?!”
Sledge jerks back like he’s ready for a fight, as I kick over the Death Dealer bike that has been abandoned not far from the warehouse. A fucking SUV drove up, took my motherfucking girl, and no one stopped them.
I run a hand through my hair, unable to focus on anything and have no fucking clue what to do. Colleen is in the hospital with a bullet in her stomach, and she’s never been on Pop’s bad side. I was fucking arrogant and stupid to think he wouldn’t come after her. And even fucking dumber not to realize he had assholes like Lester under his command. Lester hates me because of Jessie, and Jessie died two days ago.
I overestimated myself and underestimated him. A locked door was never enough to keep them out, and I was an idiot to think it could.
Now… Now this is all on me. Eve is missing all because of me.
Rush walks toward us with a look on his face that doesn’t set well with me.
“What?” I snap, clenching and unclenching my fists in rapid succession.
“We found Lester and the SUV that took Eve.”
“And?” I prompt impatiently.
“And the shit was blown up.”
My legs try to collapse under me, but I force myself to remain upright by locking my knees into place.
“Eve?” I ask hoarsely.
He shakes his head.
“Two men’s bodies were found outside of the vehicles. They’re saying they were dead before they were burned, but they don’t know exactly what killed them or how they burned so fast. Burning a body to be unrecognizable in a short span of time isn’t fucking easy.”
No one even bothered to fucking interrupt our meeting to tell me, and Eve has been missing for over a fucking hour.
“Where the hell is Dash?” I growl.
“He’s been gone since he found out they took her. He’s literally riding up and down the roads, asking anyone what they saw, Drex. He’s killing himself enough, so get the hell off him,” Sledge barks.
Just as I spin around to get in his face, a heavy hand clamps down on my forearm, dragging me back.
Before I can fully go ape shit, Axle walks up. “Don’t worry, Drex. Eve is alive. Just got word she’s safe,” he says while exhaling heavily.
I’ve never felt so weak in my life as I do in this moment, especially when I’m forced to sit down on the ground because my entire body goes limp at once from the swarm of relief I feel.
“How? From who?” I ask him, clearing my throat.
“She’s going to be coming back soon. I also know who is working with Ben now, and it’s not good. It’s—”
“Where the fuck is Eve?” I interrupt. He’s lucky my body is being a bitch right now, or I’d be beating the fucking information out of him.
Axle’s eyes narrow.
“She’s coming.” He glances around, eyeing everyone, and they take the not-so-subtle hint to take a walk. As soon as they’re gone, he turns back to me. “Sarah—or AJ, rather—saved her. She called me to let me know she has Eve and that she’s sending her back to us with a lot of information on our giant pain in the ass. It’s not good, Drex. We need to take care of this.”
Before I say anything else, a car rolls up in front of the warehouse, and a tall, unknown driver gets out. My legs start working again, and I shoot up from the ground before running toward the vehicle, ready to pull my gun.
But I stumble to a halt when he opens the back door. Eve slowly climbs out, and bile rises up my throat. Her face is bruised, her hair is everywhere, and her bottom lip is swollen. I don’t even know if I can handle hearing what happened to her right now.
I should have fucking killed my father when I had the chance.
Her eyes seem distant, as though she’s not staring at anything in particular, but the second she looks at me, the far-off look fades into relief. In five more long strides, I have her in my arms, and she clings to me, burying her head in my chest as her body begins to shake. It takes me a second to realize she’s sobbing, clutching my shirt in her hands, as small, suppressed sounds escape.
She’s gone through hell since coming here, and I’ve only seen her really cry once. One time. And… I really hope they didn’t fucking do what made her cry.
My entire body is rigid, but I force my arms to stay around her, denying my anger so I can focus on her and whatever in the hell she needs right now. Axle’s eyes meet mine as he approaches, but neither of us even think to question the driver as he speeds away. Fucking shit.
I wish I knew how much damage they’ve done, but I sure as fucking hell don’t want to ask Eve right at this moment.
Axle shakes his head, as though he’s in my head and hearing my thoughts run wild, but I ignore him. He can’t possibly fucking know. There’s no other reason she’d be sobbing and holding me like she can’t let go right now. Nothing else has shaken her but what Jessie almost did.
I bend and lift her, cradling her to me as she tucks her head under my chin. Dampness touches my neck as her tears continue to stream, and I swallow thickly before saying the first stupid thing that comes to my mind.
“Tell me who to kill,” I whisper against her forehead. “I’ll make them disappear.”
Even if she says my father, I’ll fucking do it. At this point, I want a bullet in his brain as much as I want to watch Eve smile. Never thought I’d see the day when I hated him enough to kill him myself.
Eve doesn’t say his name. I really don’t even expect her to answer, because Eve isn’t dark and sick like me. She doesn’t want blood to spill for any reason.
However, she shocks the fuck out of me by actually making a request.
“My uncle.” She leans back, staring at me with watery eyes as her lips thin. “And I want to be there when you do it.”
Chapter 38
EVE
I’m in Drex’s lap, since he refuses to let me out of his sight. I’ve gone over the digital file already. I don’t have to see more proof. Sarah showed me all her findings, including the coroner’s report. Well, Bentley’s findings—the blind man I almost killed for simply walking in.
I’m so messed up.
How did I go from playing in the sandbox with my young brothers, to asking my boyfriend to kill my uncle in the span of a few months? And I meant it when I said it. I still mean it. And that’s Drex’s idea of a romantic gesture—kill the man who killed his girlfriend’s father.
He’s a fucked-up Romeo, and that dark, twisted side of me I didn’t know existed loves him all the more for it.
“The coroner’s report wasn’t doctored, but I stand by the theory he threatened Aaron’s family. Maybe even threatened to expose them to us just to ensure Aaron died and took the suspicion to the grave with him instead of ever ratting him out,” Rush says.
“Sarah gave you all this?” Dash asks me, clicking the button that makes the screen change on the wall, shifting it to the picture of my uncle.
When my jaw grinds, Drex tells him to change the picture, and Dash immediately flips forward to more family documents that tie my uncle and father together. Dad really didn’t want to be linked to absolutely anyone. He tried so hard to keep us a secret… Even tried to keep his brother a secret. I half wonder if he did that to save his brother or himself.
Either way, it allowed his killer to go free for too long.
Ben was right when he told me my father had been killed, probably even gave accurate details of how it all came to pass. He just didn’t accuse the right person. I wouldn’t be surprised if he really does believe it was Drex, despite the fact Sarah thinks it was just him trying to manipulate the facts and turn me against Drex.