Page 177 of Back in the Saddle

It was one I couldn’t identify.

Not even marketers called at this time, and with all the shit going down, I couldn’t ignore the call.

So I took it.

“Hello?”

“Jess?”

It was Jeff.

My heart skipped a beat.

“Jeff, are you okay?” I asked.

“No,” he answered. “I’m at the police station. Javi and me have been arrested.”

My eyes zipped to Eric.

Fuck!

* * *

No oneever thought racing to a police station because their brother was arrested was fun and games.

But let me confirm. It was not.

Matters were worsened because Eric had to make a call to someone to relieve us, which meant we had to wait to leave our stakeout until they arrived.

And once Liam showed, we then had to race down the stairs and jog to the Denali, and I’ll take this moment to remind you I didn’t do official exercise. So jogging what amounted to probably seven blocks (because, again, we had to avoid lights and not be seen on a direct trajectory of heading back to the SUV, or at all) made me reconsider my philosophy that living a generally active life kept me in shape.

I reconsidered it more when we both angled in the Denali and Eric wasn’t even breathing heavy, but I was, and added to that, I had a wicked stitch in my side.

He didn’t fuck around getting to the police station.

Once there, I was forced to explore the depths of my patience when I was relegated to a chair in a waiting room, and Eric disappeared into the bowels of the station accompanied by a uniform.

I wasn’t sure why he was allowed in and I was not, but asking that question might be detrimental to exploring the depths of my patience, so I decided to keep my mouth shut.

About seven hours later (okay, it was probably maybe ten minutes), Roam strolled out from where Eric had sauntered in.

Even in the current circumstances, I took the needed moment to recover from how fine he was (as with all these men, he was just that fine) while he made his approach to me.

He sat down beside me and turned my way.

“Your brother and Montoya are being released,” he announced.

I let out the breath I could have sworn I’d been holding since I heard Jeff’s voice on my phone.

“They weren’t arrested,” Roam continued. “They were taken in for questioning because they brought two males who’d sustained gunshot wounds to an ER.”

My heart stuttered to a halt.

“Gunshot wounds?” I whispered.

Roam’s lips thinned before he shared, “One was DOA.”

That was when my heart twisted.

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