“I’ll keep that in mind.” Dan snorts, his face softening with fake politeness. “As long as we are trading advice. Here’s one for you: Don’t mistake my sister’s fascination with disasters for loyalty. When it’s time to choose, she won’t blink. You don’t stand a fucking chance.”
My heart hammers as I stare between Dan and Mason.
A long moment of silence draws out, weighing heavier and heavier in my chest with each passing second.
Then Mason’s lips curl up. “Then I guess she won’t get a fucking choice.”
24
MASON
“Filey’s getting impatient.”A brooding Kane paces up and down the quiet lane behind East Bridge Police Station.
“Filey can wait.” I take a slow drag on my cigarette. “He gets paid for his impatience.”
Kane throws me a look without missing a beat. This arsehole has had a thorn in his side ever since he saw me with Eva. The two-hour drive to London was fun with him sulking through every mile. He’s only gotten worse since I picked a fight with her brother tonight.
I saw Daniel Etheridge walking up to us, nostrils flaring, ready to peel her from me. His so-called message failed to deliver.
So, of course, I had to stake my claim on her in front of him. How else would the fucker know who she belongs to? The prick still seems to be under some misconception. One I will be happy to clarify if he had the balls to face me without his guards or his sister to save him.
Kane doesn’t want any friction with Etheridges that will risk whatever he is hiding. Well, fuck him. If he wants to keep me inthe dark, I’ll do whatever the fuck I want. He can’t have it both ways.
Still, it’s a fucking drag being in his proximity when he walks around with a clenched jaw as if the world owes him an apology.
“Where the fuck is Pike?” he grumbles. “The fucker has one job—show up.”
“It’s not every day Hugo gets to dip his dick in London.” I snort. “You’ll just have to wait.”
A loud engine interrupts us, before headlights cut through the pitch dark, and tires grind to a halt on uneven asphalt.
“All right, fuckers.” Hugo steps out of his car and slams the door. “Let’s get this over with. There are some very hot girls I need to pay a visit to.”
Kane gives him a hard stare while Hugo grins like an idiot.
We head to the back entrance of the police station at half past midnight, right after the next shift change. Special Constable Filey, the short, slender officer, who has been a Fort recruit since his induction a year ago, lets us in and leads us into a small closet office. The kid is practically sweating bullets as he locks the door behind us. Hands shaking and everything.
“So, what you got for us, Filey?” Hugo smirks and shoves the officer onto the chair with his hands on Filey’s shoulders.
“I told Tom I would be happy to send this over. It’s likely nothing. I?—”
“We’re here now,” I snap. “So quit wasting our time and get on with it, will you?”
He flushes red, fixes his glasses, then spins around and starts typing on his screen.
“It came from an unknown source tonight. Unlabeled. It made no sense because it’s out of our jurisdiction, but then I noticed something…”
He clicks on a link?—
The video rolls. From the frame and angle, it appears to be a cell phone recording.
An SUV lies upside down—a crumpled shell of metal and glass. The visual flashes, bright to dark, with each flicker of broken headlights shining over the carnage on the road. The driver lies still, probably dead behind the wheel. Farther down, a woman is sprawled on tarmac, a large piece of metal twisted in her ribs. Then a second pair of headlights cut through the frame. A truck reverses into the adjoining field and then speeds off.
The fuck?
Filey’s shoulder hits the wall when I shove him aside and leap for the mouse, then tap rewind to watch the truck reverse.
The registration plate.
