Page 45 of Hell & Back

What the fuck? How could someone hit someone on a bike and not feel it? How drunk does someone have to be for it not to even register? He felt bad for her, but not enough to show her mercy. Darren’s life depended on him getting answers out of her.

“The fucking Phantoms have a brother of mine. Darren. They’ve had him for several days and I need to get him back before they do anything stupid, like kill him.”

She didn’t respond, choosing to remain silent. Her gaze grew more defiant the more pressure he put on her throat. The way her eyes locked with his led him to believe if she had a knife she would stab him. “Where would they be keeping him?”

“I don’t know,” she said through gritted teeth. “I’m a woman and not even one in their club. They don’t exactly tell me all their dirty little secrets.”

“Would they keep him in the clubhouse? Do they have a basement? A special room they would want to keep others fromgetting into by accident?” He eased up on his grip but didn’t let her go.

“I don’t know. When I go there, I stay in the main room. I don’t ever go back to the rooms the brothers keep there.”

His brows dipped. Something was bothering him. She sounded like she hated the club, but she still went there. “Why? If you’re not a part of the club, why do you go there? You a club whore? You let those filthy Phantoms touch you? Fuck you? Do you like it hard? With more than one man at a time?”

She slapped him. Hard. He hadn’t expected that, but he reasoned he deserved it. He could feel a muscle in his jaw flexing as he tried to rein in his temper.

“I apologize if I crossed a line. So what part did you find offense with?”

“All of it. I’m not a fucking whore despite what you might think after what happened at Bottom’s Up.” She added the last part as his brow arched in question. All of the fight seemed to leak out of her all at once. Tension left her body. Her whole attitude went from wanting to fight him to a sense of hopelessness in the blink of an eye. “They have my nephew. One of the brothers and his old lady is keeping him when he’s not at school. The only way I get to see him is at the clubhouse and I only get one hour.” She looked away, but not before he saw the tears pooling in her eyes.

Could she really be that good of an actor? Possibly. She did wear a wig and changed her appearance and name in order to get a job at Bottom’s Up. Which reminded him, “Why were you working at Bottom’s Up?”

“Crockett made me get a job there to get closer to one of the Sons.”

“Which one?” Did he really want to hear the name of one of his brothers come out of her mouth? No. He didn’t and that bothered him more than he could understand.

“He didn’t care which one,” she replied.

“I’ve seen your dancing. You’re really good. Was the lap dance you gave me and the way you got off dry humping all part of your act? Crockett put you up to it?” Would she have treated any of his brothers with the same kind of dance? Would she have gone further with one of them?

He mentally chastised himself for sounding like a pussy and to remind himself she was the bad guy in all this. He needed to quit feeling sorry for her just because he thought she looked like a goddamn sex goddess when she climaxed. And he needed to stop thinking about how much he wanted to fuck her for real.

“The dance was an act. The way I responded to you was me just having fun.” His expression must have stated ‘what the fuck’ because she got defensive again. “A girl can get horny, too, you know.”

He pushed her harder into the wall. “Are there any other buildings on the property?”

“You’re giving me whiplash with all your bouncing around.”

“Just answer the fucking question.”

“There’s a building out back. Don’t ask me what it’s for because I don’t know. The only time I ever step foot on that property is to visit Oliver.”

Damn it. She just had to give the kid a name. Knowing he’d regret it, he asked, “How old is Oliver?”

A small but genuine smile tipped her lips up as she talked about him. “Five. He’s in kindergarten.” Her eyes darted to a picture next to her bed. It was a picture of her and a cute white-headed little boy. It wasn’t blonde, it was white as snow. He had green eyes like Sadie and sported a smile missing one front tooth.

“Look, I don’t need to know your family drama. I just need to know how to get my brother away from them. I need to knowwhere they’re holding him. Then I need to know where they’re keeping that Euphoria shit stashed.”

She frowned. “Euphoria?”

“It’s a drug ten times worse than a roofie. They say it tells your body that you want to have sex even though your head might be telling you you don’t. They call it EZ Lay on the street. Know anything about it?”

“No. I don’t know anything about that drug. Are you wanting to steal it so you can sell it instead of the Phantoms?”

“Fuck no. We want to destroy the whole damn supply. They’re trying to get a toe hold in Redemption for the cartel. We want it gone.”

A noise from the front of the house had both their heads jerking that direction. There was a knock then the sound of the door opening. “Sadie! You here, girl?”

“You better go. That’s RIP. He’s Crockett’s enforcer and nothing makes him happier than killing people.”

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