Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83777 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83777 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
“I was lying low. Been staying with a couple of friends, but that didn’t stop him.” She looked up, and her eyes were red and filled with tears. “He still found me.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.” Her shoulders started shaking, and the tears fell. “I don’t know his name. I just know he’d been looking for me since that night. Been asking around my crew, trying to find out where I was. He kept flashing his badge and trying to scare them into talking.”
“This guy was a cop?”
She nodded. “He had a badge and everything.”
I motioned my hand towards her face as I asked, “And he did that to you?”
She nodded again, and fear riddled her voice as she said, “He was crazy, man. Like off his rocker kind of crazy.”
“What the hell did he want?”
“Wanted to know what happened that night. He kept asking who was there and where it happened. The car. The guys. He wanted to know what happened to them. He kept at it. Asking over and over again. Kept smacking me around.” Her voice cracked as she admitted, “So, I—I told him.”
“You told him what?”
“Everything.” It was hard to keep from coming unglued as I sat there waiting for her to drop the bomb I knew was coming. “About those guys drugging me and trying to take me and how you stopped ‘em.”
Dread washed over me when I asked, “And how’d you tell him I stopped them?”
“Told him you fought ‘em and beat the hell out of ‘em before you locked ‘em in the trunk.”
“Who’d you tell him I was?”
“That you were a biker named Creed.”
“Damn.”
I let out a breath, and she lost it. She covered her face and started sobbing. “I’m sorry. I knew I should keep my mouth shut, but I didn’t know what else to do. He hurt me, and he said he’d have me arrested for drugs and prostitution if I didn’t tell him everything. He told me I’d go to jail… I’m so sorry.”
“Fuck.”
I was doing my best to remember that she was just a kid and none of this was her fault, but it was rough. She’d just fucked me and the club. I was trying to think of how to play it when she said, “There’s something else.”
“Ah, shit. What else?”
“He wanted me to tell you something.” She hesitated for a moment, then said, “He said you’ve been fucking around in his backyard, and now, he’s about to fuck around in yours.”
That sounded like a fucking threat, and that had my blood boiling. I stood and looked down at her as I said, “We’ll handle him.”
“You think you can?”
“I know I can,” I told her, biting back my fury. “You hang here for a bit, and I’m gonna make some calls.”
“Okay.”
I stepped out of the lounge, closing the door quietly behind me. I pulled out my phone and dialed Preacher. As soon as he answered, I told him, “We've got a problem.”
“That seems to be the theme of the day,” Preacher groaned. “What is it now?”
“The girl from that night at the Vault just showed up here, and some cop’s done a real number on her.”
“A cop?”
“Yeah, she said he was asking questions about that night and what happened to the guys who tried to take her.”
“And what’d she tell ‘em?”
“Everything.”
“Damn.”
“There’s more.” I drew my hand into a fist as I added, “This cop told her to give me a message. Said that I’d been fucking around in his backyard, and now, he was about to fuck around in mine.”
“The fuck? Who the hell is this asshole?”
“I wish I knew.”
“Bring her to the clubhouse, and we’ll let Shep have a run at her. Maybe he can piece something together.”
“I can do that, but it’s going to take him some time. This guy wasn’t afraid to make a threat. We need to be ready in case he follows through on it.”
“The Vault is good. We already made sure of that. We need to do the same at the clubhouse. I’ll get the boys to move everything over to the storage unit out east.”
“And what do you want to do about the girl?”
“What are you thinking?”
“She’s pretty rattled, and she’s on her own. Doesn’t have anyone to fall back on. Need to find her somewhere to hide out until this thing blows over.”
“You trust this girl.”
“Got no reason not to, but you never know.”
“I’ll put her up at the stables with Misty. She can keep an eye on her until we can figure something out.”
“Sounds good. We’ll see you in ten.”
I ended the call and stepped back into the staff lounge. Gabby was still sitting at the table, clutching the half-empty can of soda, and she looked just as freaked out as she had when I first spoke to her, only this time, it looked like she’d been crying. “You okay?”