Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81245 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81245 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“That was… fun,” I murmur.
“Good.” He drops the cloth next to the bed when he’s done, then crawls into bed next to me, finding his own spot to wrap an arm around, leaving me the filling of a biker sandwich.
I know in a few minutes I’m going to have to deal with everything, but for right now, this is enough.
23
JACKAL
Meeting someone in a dark parking lot behind a boarded up hardware store isn’t exactly a new thing for us. A lot of our business doesn’t do well in the light of day. What makes this unusual, though, is the fucking cop.
Just feels wrong.
Detective Adrienne Chen is out of uniform, looking like any of a hundred other people on their way home after dropping the kids off at school. Clothes picked specifically to not stand out, with a baseball cap pulled down over her eyes. If she’s got long hair, it’s all packed up into the cap. Still, there’s something about the way she stands and where her attention goes that tips you off if you know where to look. She’s short, and between me, Hellfire, Stiff and Lash, she seems even smaller, but her expression is determined and her sharp eyes unafraid. She’s brave, I’ll give her that.
The steady drip of cold rain onto the ground outside of the overhang makes me feel like I’m in some kinda noir detective movie, all shadows and sadness.
Hellfire shoves his hands in his pockets. “So? Whaddya got for us that made all this cloak and dagger shit worth it?”
“Look, I shouldn’t be here,” she says in a low voice, looking around to make sure no one’s observing. “But there’s a lot more happening than I think you know. The only reason I’m here is because I’d rather be dealing with you than anyone that would move in to take your spot.”
“What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?” Hellfire growls, low in his throat. He’s a grumpy fuck but usually pretty even tempered, unless the threat is to one of us or the club.
“You know it’s true. You wouldn’t be here if I kissed your ass and acted like I want to be in this position.”
He rotates his hand in a, ‘get on with it’ motion.
She nods as she straightens, like she’s about to debrief her chief. “I looked into the report on Georgia Vale’s accident and the autopsy results. Quite frankly, it stinks. Her car was found off the highway just outside the north end of Freemont, wrapped around a tree. The weather was fine, and there were traces of marijuana in her system, but that’s it. Nothing that would significantly affect her driving. Which is funny because the official report makes it look like she was off her head on fentanyl with a healthy dash of coke.” She looks serious, poking her palm with a finger to emphasize her point. “The only reason I noticed the discrepancy is because I scratched deeper when you asked and looked into the individual testing records in the lab and not what was put in the report.”
“You’re welcome,” Stiff grumbles.
She rolls her eyes. “That’s not it. Once I knew something was off, I looked deeper into the accident itself. Her car was totaled, so a few scrapes and dents don’t stand out, but her back bumper was crushed in a way that would indicate someone hit her from behind, and recently. Her internal damage was extensive, enough to kill her, but…”
“But what? Either the crash killed her or it didn’t,” I snap.
“Oh, it killed her, but the medical examiner believes she could’ve been alive for up to an hour after the crash.”
Stiff’s face goes blank, too blank. “She just bled out in there?”
“No. All the evidence points to someone getting her out of the car and leaving her where she was later found. There was wrist bruising consistent with being tied up for a short time, and no evidence of anything that could indicate that aid was given. Honestly, with the extent of her injuries, it’s difficult to tell if getting her help would’ve made a difference in the long run, but it looks like someone purposefully ran her off the road, held her for whatever reason, and then left her to die.”
“And all the system says is that a junkie had an accident?” Hellfire growls.
She nods. “Exactly. There’s no way all this was missed, but once the final report was slapped together, nobody would bother to look any deeper considering Ms. Vale’s general history of minor drug offenses.”
“They didn’t expect her to have anyone that gave a shit about her.” Lash wrinkles his nose in disgust.
“Sadly, you’re probably right. Which brings me to the reason I wanted to meet in person. A few hours before Georgia Vale’s car was driven off the road, a police officer was shot and killed not far from where she lived. The ballistics analysis matches a gun we have in our database. A service weapon that dropped out of the system a few years ago.”