Without hesitation, Trish confidently answers for me. “I know a secret tunnel that leads into the basement, we can go in that way.”
I look at her suspiciously. “How the hell do you know about a secret tunnel?”
She shrugs. “Someone showed me it once, told me it was where they’d smuggle booze in during the prohibition. Zeke plans to use it to sneak all kinds of things in and out,” Trish explains.
I’m suspicious, and I don’t like it, but with no other options, I agree. “Alright, show us where it is.”
Trish leads us away from the house into the woods, winding through the trees like she’s done it a hundred times. After a few minutes of walking, she stops and clears away a thicklayer of dead leaves to reveal a rusted metal handle. She grins like a magician revealing her best trick. “Ta-da!”
She moves out of the way so that Rex can open it. He doesn’t move. He looks at me, making sure I’ve got my gun ready in case anything is down there. I nod once, and he opens it. The door groans, as if resisting the intrusion, but it finally opens. The heavy metal door falls to the earth with a thud. I peer down the dark hole; there’s a ladder leading down into the blackness, but it’s too dark to see the bottom. The air is thick with damp, the cloying smell of wet earth rising to greet us.
“It’s a good job that phones have torches now,” Trish says merrily, turning on the flashlight on her phone. “I hope neither of you is claustrophobic,” she adds before climbing down ahead of us.
Rex and I follow suit, turning on our flashlights. I don’t like having to holster my weapon to climb down the ladder, but I need at least one hand free to do so. I reluctantly holster it and begin my descent. The beam of my flashlight bounces off the stone walls. The tunnel is narrow and cramped, barely enough space to fit a fully grown man. It stinks even more of decades of rot and decay the lower down we get.
When we reach the bottom, I realize my mistake. I should never have let go of my weapon. It’s too quiet. This was too easy. I turn around with the flashlight raised and instantly regret ever trusting Trish.
Mary Beth and three goons are standing waiting to ambush us, their guns raised. Trish steps casually out of the shadows, a smug smile on her lips. She’s in on this.
While I didn’t suspect Trish, I’m not surprised to find Mary Beth here. We were pretty confident she was the womanwho took Lena and that she was working for Zeke. For how long? Who knows. But I am surprised by what she says to Trish.
“Good job, sis.” Mary Beth says smoothly. Trish preens with pride.
“You two are sisters?” Rex says incredulously, voicing my thoughts exactly.
“Yep, can’t you see the family resemblance?” Trish says gleefully, excited to have pulled the rug out from under us and accomplished her mission.
Now that she mentions it, I can see some similarities between the two women. Same jawline. Same eyes. Same snake-in-the-grass backstabbing energy. I can’t believe we didn’t see it before. But we never bothered asking much about their lives beyond the club, their pasts, or their families, so it’s easy to see how we never knew. They both played their parts as the dumb party girls well enough to avoid us looking at them too closely.
I feel like a damn fool.
I can’t believe we fell for Trish’s trap, though. I should have known. There were signs, there must have been, but I was so eager to find Lena that I ignored them.
Mary Beth steps forward, her eyes never leaving Rex. “It’s funny. All these years, and you never saw me, not really. I would’ve been loyal to you, Rex. I would’ve stood by your side. But you chose that bitch over me.”
“She isn’t the one who became a traitor,” Rex growls, his voice like gravel.
Mary Beth shrugs. “Maybe not. But she wasn’t ambitious either. Zeke and I? We’re going to run the entire area. And you… Well, you’re going to die regretting your choices.”
I’m still focused on how my failure has doomed us all. There’s no point in Rex and me trying to fight our way out. We’re outnumbered.
However, Rex has other ideas. He quickly darts behind Trish, using her as a human shield, pointing his gun at her temple. “Let us go, or I shoot her.”
Trish whimpers, her eyes wide and pleading as she looks at her sister.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Mary Beth is eerily unruffled by the fact that Rex has a gun pointed at her sibling’s head. “Zeke wants to punish you for what you’ve done. He’s my old man now, and I’m always loyal to my man, just like I would have been to you if only you’d seen how perfect we were together. Zeke’s going places, and I’m gonna be right by his side. But first, he needs to end this war once and for all. Unfortunately for you, you picked the wrong woman.”
“I’m serious, Mary Beth, I’ll shoot her,” Rex warns.
Mary Beth rolls her eyes. “This is taking too long, Zeke will get mad.”
Without flinching, Mary Beth points her gun at her sister and pulls the trigger. The bullet hits Trish in the gut, and she whimpers in surprise before crumpling to the floor.
“What the fuck?” Rex cries in horror as he bends down and tries to stem the blood flow.
Meanwhile, with one man pointing a gun at my head, I’m helpless to assist. One of Zeke’s goons slams the butt of his rifle into the side of my head, sending me sprawling. My gun is ripped away before I can recover, and they cuff my hands behind my back.
“She was a junkie whore, always asking me for money, always trying to take my men from me. She’s a liability. Where Zeke and I are going, she can’t follow. It’d be bad for our business, our image,” Mary Beth says callously.
