Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 36019 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36019 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
My eyes widened. “Me?”
“You’re the one who’s been studyin’ this shit,” he explained gruffly. “You have the instincts, and you already found patterns everyone else missed.”
I felt the weight of what he was asking but not in a bad way. It was heavy but also meant he trusted me. That I wasn’t just some girl who’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was part of this now.
I nodded. “Okay. Let’s figure this out.”
I’d been reviewing the files for at least an hour, combing through site maps and inspection reports Deviant had dug up when a familiar name stopped me cold.
Little Horizons Children’s Library.
I clicked into the linked file with growing dread. It was a small, nonprofit renovation project to retrofit an old firehouse into a neighborhood library. It had been part of the same construction initiative I’d flagged in my thesis research after the back portion of the building collapsed a week after the final walkthrough.
I opened the corresponding footage.
The man we still couldn’t identify crouched beside the rear foundation wall, moving with the same quiet precision we’d seen before. A few minutes later, he vanished into the shadows.
Nobody had been in that building when it fell, but there could easily have been kids there.
My breath hitched. “Reid.”
He looked up immediately from the screen of his cell. One glance at my face, and he was beside me in two long strides. “What is it?”
I pointed at the screen, barely able to speak through the tightness in my throat. “The Little Horizons Children’s Library collapse? It wasn’t an accident. That building was sabotaged. On purpose. And the guy who did it—he’s the same one from the other sites.”
Reid scanned the screen, jaw clenching. I could see the fury boiling behind his eyes.
“We have to go to the police with this,” I whispered, my voice trembling.
His expression hardened in an instant. “No.”
“Why?”
“The club will handle it.”
I slammed the laptop shut and stood. “Children could have been killed, Reid.”
His expression was set in stone. “The system fails people like them all the damn time. Like your dad. That bastard in the video isn’t gonna walk free because some asshole with a badge decides he’s too rich or too useful to prosecute.”
I understood as well as anyone where he was coming from, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to question this call. “You can’t just decide you’re above the law.”
“No,” he growled, “but I can damn well make sure justice gets served when the law turns a blind eye. Those buildings never would’ve collapsed in the first place if these bastards weren’t paying people off.”
My hands curled into fists at my sides. “They need to be held accountable.”
Reid took a step closer, his body radiating fury and control in equal measure.
“You want justice?” he snarled. “Then let me handle this, baby. When we’re done, there won’t be a single brick left of their empire.”
Maybe I should’ve pushed back harder. Or walked away, demanding space, something to clear my head. Because everything about what Reid had just said terrified me…but not for the reasons it should’ve.
I wasn’t scared of Reid. Only what I was starting to feel when he looked at me like that. When his voice dropped low and dangerous, every cell in my body reacted to his intensity.
Reid’s chest rose and fell with uneven breaths, his gaze locked on mine. I felt that raw, electric thread neither of us had been willing to name yet snap between us.
I didn’t look away. Didn’t run. I couldn’t.
9
WRECKER
The tension between us sizzled. I was practically vibrating from the strain of holding myself back.
Peyton was clearly feeling it too because her deep purple orbs were dark and bright with heat. Then she took me by surprise when a tenacious glint entered them, and she crossed her arms. Her mouth was set in that stubborn line I was learning meant she was about to drive me outta my fucking mind.
“Fine,” she huffed. “If you and the club are going to handle it, then I want in.”
I raised a brow, already knowing where this was going—and not liking it one fucking bit. “What the hell does that mean?”
She straightened her spine, chin lifted and violet eyes flashing. “I can go to the sites. If I’m there in person, maybe I’ll notice something the videos didn’t catch. I know what to look for.”
“No.” My voice came out low and sharp.
“Reid—”
I stepped closer, looming over her smaller frame. “No fucking way. You’re not setting foot near one of those buildings. Not while someone out there wants to shut you up.”
“I’m not made of glass, Reid.” Her voice shook, not with fear but fire. “You can’t just wrap me in bubble wrap because you think I’m gonna break.”
“The hell I can’t.” My tone turned rougher, harsher, because I could already see it. Her boots on concrete. A crack in the floor. Dust floating in the air like it had that day I found her. And her body buried under steel and debris while I clawed through hell to get to her.