Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 141428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
“So? I helped you.”
“Yeah, but you’re not so helpful anymore, are you?”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Hayes drew out his gun, waiting to see what would happen next.
“What does that mean?” Stein took a step back, looking nervous. “You can’t . . . you can’t kill me!”
“Afraid I can.” The other guy drew his gun.
Fuck.
Hayes aimed at his arm, which wasn’t easy in the poor light, and fired.
The guy let out a scream of pain before turning and shooting back at him. Hayes took cover as Donovan shot back.
“Don’t kill him!” Hayes yelled.
“He’s down,” Donovan said as the shooting stopped.
“Cover me,” Hayes commanded as he walked around the pole. He could see the guy on the ground. His gun was about a foot from his hand.
Hayes approached cautiously.
“Stay the fuck where you are,” Donovan snarled just as Hayes spotted something from the corner of his eye.
Stein.
Cowardly bastard had been trying to escape.
“Freeze or I fucking shoot you, Stein,” Hayes snarled, not taking his eyes off the guy on the ground.
He was breathing; Hayes could see his chest moving. But as he got closer, he could see the blood. He’d taken at least one bullet.
This was fucking insane.
“Have you forgotten you work for me?” Stein whined.
“Shut up,” Hayes said as he kicked the other gun away and kneeled by the guy.
He was still conscious but not really taking anything in.
“What do we do?” Donovan asked.
“Call Kent. Explain everything. Oh, and give me your belt.”
Ten minutes later, Donovan returned with Kent on video call. He paused for a second as he took in what Hayes had done.
“You used my belt to tie Stein up?”
“Yeah. If you want to donate your socks, I’ll shut him up too.”
“You can’t do this!” Stein said. “I’m going to ruin you! I’m going to destroy you!”
“Shut the fuck up,” Hayes told him. “You’re the one who messed up. You took money from this asshole to make sure that Rohan Dawson went to jail.”
“He likely would have anyway. He was found at the crime scene with blood on him and the weapon close by.”
“Yeah, only this fucker set him up,” Hayes spat. “And you knew about it.”
“How bad is the shooter?”
“He’s in shock,” Hayes replied. “Losing blood. I used my belt to make a tourniquet for his arm, but it’s not the real issue. He also took one to the chest. He needs to go to the hospital.”
Kent started swearing.
Hayes eyed Stein. “Who the fuck is this guy?”
Stein glanced up at him with glassy eyes. “We’re all dead, you know. Once he finds out.”
“Who finds out?” Hayes asked.
“His father. That’s Freddy Mars. His father is Lucan Mars, the most powerful guy in the county. Head of the Black Scorpions.”
Hayes pulled up one of Freddy’s sleeves. There it was. A black scorpion tattoo. Fuck.
“Rohan Dawson is a member of the Scorpions,” Donovan said slowly. “Freddy paid you to make sure that one of his fellow gang members went to jail?”
“I shouldn’t have done it, but I was in deep shit. I needed the cash. I had to do something!”
“So you conspired to put an innocent man in jail? Nice,” Donovan spat out.
“He’s hardly an innocent. He’s a gang member. No doubt he’s done bad things, he just hasn’t been caught.”
“Doesn’t excuse what you did,” Donovan said. “What do we do? Chief?”
Kent sighed. “We have two choices. Number one, you call the cops. You tell them everything. And hope like hell we get someone competent and on the up-and-up.”
Stein snorted. “Good luck. Most of the cops in this town are as crooked as I am.”
“Or, I try and find a doctor and a cleaner we can pay off,” Kent said. “Zander might know someone.”
Hayes thought about it for a moment. “Talk to Zander. If he’s got no one, we’ll have no choice but to go to the police.”
“Right. Just keep him alive.”
“Who? Mars or Stein?” Donovan asked.
Stein started protesting. Hayes sighed, rubbing his head. “Where the fuck are those socks, Donovan?”
18
Devi startled as she heard noises from the other side of her bedroom door.
Shit. She’d fallen asleep? Where was the bat? She looked around frantically.
There! It must have fallen onto the floor while she’d been asleep. Picking it up, she unlocked her door and stepped into the living room.
Devi hated violence, but she was also sick of being pushed around and hurt.
So she raised it over her shoulder as she rushed into the other room. There was a man crouched on the floor in front of the kitchen sink with the cupboard door open.
She wasn’t sure what he was doing but she was certain it couldn’t be good.
“What the fuck do you want?” she screamed.
Her father turned to stare at her with his hands up. Then his face filled with recognition. “Mouse? What the fuck are you doing? You could have fucking hurt me with that!”