This time, Kat’s throat bobs in response.
I shuffle closer to her and settle my knee against hers, offering silent support.
“You can change your story, though,” Allen continues. “Flip on Donovan. Help me put the cuffs onhim, and you can skip the jail time. You can breathe fresh air while he rots in a cell.”
Kat scoffs. “Fuck you, pig.”
“Have it your way.” He shifts forward again. “What comes next won’t be easy. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Breath stalling, I find Decker’s eyes in the mirror.What comes nextsure as hell better not be what I was subjected to in that cell my first night in town. Like I told Decker, not a single Sinner woman will be left alone in a cell with these assholes. I will burn that fucking station to the ground before I let that happen.
Once we’re parked, Sergeant Allen hauls Kat inside while Decker releases me. He shuffles close, voice dropping almost to a whisper, hand finding my hip and squeezing. “You good?”
“I’m fine. What’s gonna happen to Kat?”
“I won’t let anything happen to her.” He presses my purse to my chest. “Call Triss and tell her what’s up. I’ll have Miller drive you back to my place. And lock the door. Something’s off. Allen is too… chipper. He’s planning something.”
I nod and let out a shaky breath. I almost kiss him. Almost. It feels like a reflex. Casual. Like it’s a habit. Like it wouldn’t get him in a world of trouble if I pushed up on my toes and planted my lips on his in the middle of the South Bay PD parking lot.
Instead, I take a step back and call Triss, who’s in the car by the time she hangs up on me. Then I jump into another cruiser and let Jake Miller drive me back to Linc’s house.
I pace his kitchen. I watch two hours of Netflix. I lock and unlock my phone, waiting for a text, an update from Triss. It’s just after nine, and I’m about to raid Decker’s beer stash and some suspect leftovers in a glass container at the back of the fridge when my phone vibrates. A number I don’t recognize.
“Hello?”
A low chuckle crackles in my ear. “Hello, Gracie.”
When I don’t recognize the masculine voice, I go still. “Who is this?”
Another laugh. “So you’re a fuckin’ Sinner. That why you killed him? Did they send you?”
My stomach plummets. No. Idorecognize the voice. The Raider prez. The man I was supposed to give myself to. To jump on the block for. The man who expected me to lie back and let him fuck me, hurt me, pass me around. That was my mandate, what I was directed to endure. He wanted me, so he gets me. That’s the rule in that club. I’m property to be freely given away, used and abused and, if he commands it, killed.
I clear my throat. “What do you want?”
He clicks his tongue. “I’ve been waiting for Keegan to bring you back to me. But he’s dead, isn’t he? Your pig boyfriend do that? Or was it your snake of a brother who got that honour?”
“No,” I say quickly. “No that was… that was me.”
Decker said a fight was coming to South Bay. The Sinner blood that runs in my veins makes what I did a war crime. But if it was just me? Justmycrime, maybe that means no one else has to get hurt. Maybe I can keep the trouble out of South Bay completely.
“Impressive,” he rasps. “I almost respect it. Taking two of my men. I sure fuckin’ underestimated you. But I guess that’s what happens when you let a snake in the garden, isn’t it? You get bit. Time to come home, Gracie. Time to face what you did. What you owe me.”
Bile rises in my throat. “I-I can get the cash. And the coke, okay? I?—”
He lets out an icy laugh. “We’re well beyond that, little Sinner. What I’m owed isyou.Your sweet cunt, and then your life. Blood for blood, bitch, and you’ll be bleeding all of it for the lives you fuckin’ took.” He breathes into the phone, making theline crackle. “What we were offering you was a fuckin’ honour. A chance to give yourself to us. To me. Know how many women would fuckin’ die to be in that spot?”
“None I know,” I say dryly. “Stay away from me, or my brothers will fucking kill you. Understand?”
He hums. “The Grave Man is in lockup, and your prez won’t be doing much killing. Not for long.”
The knot in my stomach twists. “What… what do you mean by that?”
“I’m gonna send you an address. My men will be there to bring you home to me. So we can properly talk about how you’re gonna atone for your sins. You got twenty minutes.”
“I’m not going anywhere with those assholes.”
“Thought you might say that. Check what I just sent you.”
