I know I’m being difficult. It’s just that I’m not in any way used to people talking to me like I’m some sort of fragile flower or something.
I work at a biker bar where the most sensitive guy can open a bottle with his teeth, for crying out loud, and my dad wasn’t exactly all that in touch with his emotions.
I am what I am, I guess, and I kinda like me this way. Roman did, too…once upon a freaking time.
“It rang once, okay? And then it went to voice mail. No, don’t look at me like that, I know what that means and y’all better believe your brother will be hearing about it when I get my hands on him.”
In fact, I called like twenty times before I got scared that someone would notice and I’d somehow blow his cover. The truth is, I started suspecting by the tenth call that he was ignoring me.
“Uh, well that’s good,” Jared starts and I feel all the pent-up frustration begin to boil like a volcano in the midst of eruption.
“Good? You call having the father of my unborn child ignoring me good?”
“Not good as in good that he’s…erm, look, if it rings that means it’s on and we can track it,” Jared rushes to explain.
“And what does that mean? I thought he told you guys to back off till he gets what he needs from those idiots,” I say, recalling Roman’s frustration every time Miah or Jared would get too close and he’d be forced to pull away more.
“Mellie, the truth of the matter is that Lynn has been released. We have eyes and ears on her, but we can’t guarantee his safety when she rejoins her people. Cleo has also woken up from her coma and we’ve only just recently survived an attack from her side. We need to get Roman out now, whether he’s done or not. If we don’t, he could die.”
Seeing the fear and what I think might be desperation in Jared’s eyes is hard to look at, because I know that if this man is saying we’re done, then we’re done.
It strikes fear into my heart and I know what I’m going to do to get to Roman even as Jared and Jace start talking about tracking the number.
I need to get to him and fast, because I have met the real Cleo Conrad and I know exactly how evil that woman is.
We don’t need proof anymore. We just need to live.
Chapter Three
Roman
The sound of screaming reaches my ears. I block it out the best I can and focus on the task in front of me, praying as I do that with this last upload of information to Jim Dobson, we’ll all be free soon.
Being a plant in an organization that goes against every personal belief I have and the freedom and safety of innocent Americans is starting to take its toll.
I hardly sleep anymore, only when I’ve been drinking so much with Dyson Bruno that I pass out as soon as I hit my bed. It’s getting harder to keep the lines from blurring, something Miah warned me about when I went into this mission.
I have to follow through to the end, no matter how much it kills me to have to watch my family suffer my loss and think of my Mel all alone in that cabin, afraid but fighting so hard to be tough. In reality, I think she’s the softest person I know. No matter how tough she is she’s still that soft, smiling woman I fell for and I will do anything to keep her that way.
My baby girl is a one of a kind, ball-busting angel and I’ve loved her for so long that I sometimes think of our relationship now as karma’s sick sense of humor.
I’ve known that Mel was my girl for almost three years now since she started tending bar at that hole in the wall and flirted with me one night after a happy hour that left my stomach curdled.
I always planned to make a play for her after I cleaned up the department and went into private security with Miah. Hell, I’ve been carrying the ring on a chain around my neck for as long as I can remember.
And yet I never got to charm the grumpy bartender and get her to agree to a dinner and moonlit walk or even an ice-cream cone while holding hands. What I got instead was her coming to me about the rot in the department and her father’s unwilling involvement.
Every day that we had together was a blessing, but I may never see her smiling face again or kiss her sweet lips as I take her tight body, all because two women decided that money and a bitter family feud are more important than decency and respecting human life.
I desperately want to see her again, but any day now one of these ingrates could catch me sneaking information to Senator Dobson.
I’m so close to getting the name of the last member of a secret council that exists in the organization. With that name, we’ll have them all and there’ll be no running from this or setting up shop in a different part of the country.
If I manage to find the last member and get the intel to Jim, I could potentially get out of this alive and go home to Mel and my family.