Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
She blinked, mind clicking through maps I couldn’t see. “If they came all this way, it’s not random. But I don’t know who they would contact.”
When they backed off, I felt Melody sag against me like the adrenaline keeping her spine straight had finally burned off.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, the words breaking. “I should’ve seen—should’ve said something sooner—I—I thought they were behind us.”
“Stop.” I put two fingers under her chin and made her look at me. “You got knocked off a moving bike and watched your family bleed. You don’t owe anyone perfect recall on top of that.” I softened my thumb along the line of her jaw. “You told me. That’s enough.”
Her lip trembled. “They meant to do it.”
It wasn’t a question, but I answered anyway. “Yeah.”
“How did they find us?”
I could’ve lied. I could’ve said coincidence, wrong place, wrong time, men who didn’t know what they were doing. But she’d been fed lies all her life by men who loved control more than truth. I wouldn’t be one of them.
“Because you got out,” I said. “Because people who live scared hate proof that chains can break. Because you wouldn’t crawl back on command. And from what Guru has gathered and text me about an hour ago, they hacked some traffic cams, toll booths, and shit on the car that y’all drove in. Guess it was registered to Lyric’s ex.”
Her eyes closed like the weight of that landed. A tear slid sideways across her temple and into her hairline. I caught it with my knuckle.
“Listen to me,” I said, and my voice dropped. “You’re mine. That means you don’t walk through this alone. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not when they try to crawl out from under whatever rock they duck under.” I leaned in, so close she could feel the truth of it in my breath. “And if you’re thinking they can touch you again without consequence, stop. Right here. That ends now.”
Her inhale shuddered. She nodded, a small, decisive movement that sent something unclench in my chest.
A uniform drifted our way, notepad ready. He had the wary look of a man stepping into a den of lions with a steak around his neck. Behind him, Pinky lifted his palm like: easy. I squared my shoulders.
“Sir,” the cop said, eyes flicking to my cut and back up to my face. “Ma’am. I’m taking statements from parties involved in the motorcycle incident on Route 17. It’s my understanding, you two were transported from the scene and were impacted by the collision.”
“Had to lay the bike down not to run into the backend of the truck,” I explained. “Got some road rash. We had the green light, that’s all I remember.”
“Did either of you get a look at the driver?”
I felt Melody tense. I put a hand at her back and kept my focus on the cop. “Just remember the green light, officer.”
He nodded, scribbling. “Dammit, Flores, I know the Kings don’t like to share information with with cops. But this shit, we’re on your side, man. Let us help you. Tell your boys to loop us in on what they get and we can give you the same respect.”
“They’ll do what they feel is right,” I replied. “We want the same thing you do.”
He studied me like he knew that wasn’t entirely true. I didn’t blink. After a beat, he pasted on that polite professional look again and left.
Melody’s fingers found mine again and squeezed. “I’m scared,” she whispered.
“Me too,” I admitted. It cost me nothing to say it and bought me the thing I actually needed—her trust. “But I’m fueled by revenge. This won’t go untouched.”
The clock over the nurse’s station ticked. A TV on mute flashed images of a cooking show that felt obscene in the face of what was happening behind those doors. Melody’s head slid down again, this time not to cry or shock, but from sheer depletion. I moved us to a loveseat time of set up and let her sag against my side.
While she slept against me, I let my head hit the wall and, for the first time since the truck, I let myself think about what I’d do when we had the all-clear. I didn’t let it get bloody in my mind. I didn’t need gore. What I needed was precision.
We’d figure the motive beyond the obvious. The obvious was Melody. But Tiny in front with Lyric? That made the truck hit the first bike it could reach. Were they aiming at us and took the shot they got, or did they plan to hit any of our patch? If they meant to terrorize, they’d succeeded. If they meant to take Melody off the board, they’d failed. That fucked with men like that. They got sloppy after a miss.
I pictured Logan’s face the way she’d described it—scar on the cheek, a boy who grew into a man who thought a mark made him special. I pictured BJ laughing with his mouth open like a fool when the world lit up with sirens and blood. I pictured their hands shaking when the adrenaline ran out and their brains caught up with the fact that the people they’d hit weren’t the paper targets they were used to; we were flesh and bone and family and the kind of men who bury our dead with honor and go hunting after.