Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
His answer makes perfect sense, and I nod my easy acceptance. “All right.”
Preacher turns on his heels and leaves to fetch Gia.
“If you know what she knows, why does she need to be in here?”
“You’ll see,” Ace answers Shades without looking at him.
Preacher returns and takes his seat, but Gia stops just outside the door. “What’s up, guys?” Her eyes dart back and forth as fear curls around her spine.
“Come on in, Gia, it’s all right,” Ace assures her.
After about five seconds, Gia takes one hesitant step forward and then another. “This is cool?”
“Nope,” Shades growls in her direction.
“Yeah, it’s fine.” Ace motions for her to come in further. She does, letting out a small squeak when Joaquin gets up to close the door behind her. “For fuck’s sake, Gia, relax.”
She nods. “I am the epitome of relaxation,” she shoots back in her smart-ass tone. “What’s up?” Her gaze is on Ace, but to her credit, her nerves slowly vanish.
“That conversation we had earlier? It’s time to share with the class.”
The rest of her anxiety fades away when she realizes why she’s inside our most sacred space.
“Right. That.” She takes a step back and nods again, shaking her hands to clear her nerves.
“Last night, I saw someone cruising on a bike around the port. At first, I didn’t think anything about it because I knew Dix and Joaquin were there checking on things at the warehouse. It didn’t look like them, but I figured if some bad shit was going down, they would handle it, so I texted Dix.”
Dix nods and finishes her sentence for her. “And we had just gotten back here when her text came in.”
Gia nods. “Exactly. So, I go back to the monitors in search of the mysterious biker because I don’t know all of your bikes yet, but it looked vaguely familiar.”
“You know who it is?” Shades asks, suddenly less bothered about her presence at Church.
Gia pauses but then jumps back into her story. “This time, there were two bikers chatting between shipping containers in an effort to avoid the cameras. But we installed a bunch more recently, and not everyone knows about them.” Gia sucks in a deep breath for the next part. “I took a screen grab of the two bikers and went to find Dix to show him.”
“Why didn’t you say anything to me?” I ask, feeling unreasonably angry.
“Because Dix was here. Awake. You weren’t.”
“Okay.”
“But this morning, before all the other shit went up in smoke, I uploaded the screen grab into our enhancing software and went straight to Ace with it.”
“Jesus, Gia. Why didn’t you come to me?”
“Once again, you weren’t here.”
“Let’s see it,” I say and motion for her to give me the tablet in her hand. I glance at the image and let out a low whistle. “Son of a fucking bitch!”
“Let me see,” Dix says and snatches the tablet from my hand. “Shit, is this for real?”
“Yeah,” Gia says, her voice full of regret. “It’s Jordi, right? And that other guy is clearly wearing an Iron Kings patch.”
“Motherfucker! I knew it!” Shades pounds angrily on the table because he hasn’t been Jordi’s biggest fan since he failed to keep a close eye on Letty. “No wonder that asshole’s been MIA for more than a week now. He’s got to be the fucking mole.”
Ace looks over to Gia with a bland smile, holding his hand up so everyone is quiet. “Thanks, Gia. Good work.”
“Am I through here?” she asks.
Ace replies, “Yep. Thank you.”
Gia opens the door and leaves and once the door clicks shut, Dix starts, “What the fuck does Jordi know that could make him valuable to the Iron Kings? Or Devon, for that matter? Can’t find him. Either.”
They were prospects, nothing much of importance filtered down to the new guys.
“They know where the money and the bodies are stashed,” Ace growls. “You took Lucky and Diesel with you to clean up Cyrus’ body, after all.”
“Yeah, okay. Good point.”
Ace nods in satisfaction. “Right, so, we need to come up with a plan to take all of these fuckers out, starting with Nogales. Ending with Jordi. Or Devon. Or both.”
“So, what the fuck is the plan?” Joaquin asks. “Absolute destruction?”
“Love the way this kid thinks,” Dix says to fill the silence.
“That’s a good start, but we need to think strategically,” Ace says. “Settle in, boys. We have a shitload of planning to do. Tonight.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Maven
“Damn, girl, are you some kind of hustler?” Lucky, a handsome young prospect smiles at me, impressed with my skills at the pool table.
“Hustler? I wish I were that cool. I spent some time at a pool bar with cheap pitchers of beer when I was younger.” Playing pool with Lucky and McKenna is the perfect distraction from all the shit going on.
The perfect distraction from my doomed relationship with Cyrus, what he’s done to my house, and what he will do next. I can almost forget that we’re all here together because we’re on lockdown because a biker war is brewing just outside the door.