Nash lit a cigarette and dragged in deep, letting it burn low before exhaling, smoke seeping through his teeth as his gaze tracked the tree line.
Already charting the roads branching out from here—the ones that didn’t show up on any map.All the places someone could hide a house.A body—two—and no one would ever stumble across it unless they were looking.
Because he was going to find Cassie.There wasn’t another option.
He wasn’t about to lose both Berrys on his watch—especially not this one.Not when he’d just gotten her back.Just enough to see what could’ve been—
Boone burst through the doorway, already talking.“You’re gonna wanna hear this.”
Nash flicked his cigarette away and followed him inside.
Back in the living room, Rook stood off to the side, wiping his blade clean with a rag while Jimmy lay on his back, shirt cut open, chest exposed.A thin, deliberate pattern of short, crisscrossing cuts marked his skin.
The woman was crouched over him, one hand pressed uselessly to his stomach, the other shaking as she tried to push Snake back.
Snake nudged Jimmy’s face with the toe of his boot.“Tell him what you just told us, sweetheart.”
Jimmy sucked in a broken breath, his swollen eyes finding Nash.“No—she don’t know what she’s sayin’—”
Snake’s boot pressed harder into his face, grinding him into the floor as Jimmy gagged and cried beneath the weight of it.
“It’s a cop!”the woman cried.“Jimmy’s workin’ for a cop!”
Nash stilled, his eyes cutting to Boone.
Connor had been found with drugs on him.Cash, too.
It hadn’t sat right then.
It sure as hell didn’t now.
“Get her outta here.”
Snake hauled the woman up and over his shoulder.She screamed, kicking, reaching for Jimmy on the floor.“Jimmy—Jimmy—!”
Nash stepped forward, grabbing Jimmy by his greasy ponytail, hauling him up just enough to force his eyes up.
“Who?”
Jimmy shook his head hard.“You don’t understand—”
Nash tightened his grip.“Who.”
“I can’t—” His voice broke.“He’ll kill me—you don’t—”
Nash wrenched him the rest of the way up and slammed him into the nearest wall hard enough to rattle it.His hand slid from Jimmy’s hair to his throat, squeezing.
“I’ll kill you,” Nash said quietly.“And Rook’ll make sure nobody ever finds what’s left.Now say the goddamn name.”
Jimmy’s eyes bulged, heels scraping uselessly against the floor as his hands clawed at Nash’s wrist.
“…Mc—”
Nash squeezed harder.
“—Coy,” Jimmy gasped.
Nash let Jimmy drop hard to the floor.He turned for the door, already pulling his phone from his pocket.
