Page 93 of Petty's Crime

If Thorne kills me today, next week, next month, what I’ll regret most is not getting a chance with Petty. I’ve never met a man who more intrigued me, and I want to learn more about who’s actually under the mask.

I want him, and never exploring what was tentatively growing between us is the biggest regret I’ll take to my grave.

The silence continues. I presume Thorne is waiting for Saul, but that wait will go on forever. I observe him, now staring out of the window into the deserted parking lot, while checking the screen of his phone from time to time.

He’s my brother? It doesn’t seem real. I can dredge up no familial feelings for him. Only a moment ago I was wishing him dead, as I know in the end, it will be either me or him.

Of course I’m sorry for the way he was brought up, and if his story is true, have many questions for my parents.

I’ve been deceived all my life.But hell, I even look like my mom. Thorne’s story doesn’t seem credible or real.

I could have lived out the rest of my days without hearing the truth.

But now he’s told me, I don’t know how to deal.

CHAPTERTHIRTY

Petty

“I’m a cop!” the man screams as soon as Twister removes his gag.

Unsympathetic, I sit on the seat that someone had thoughtfully set up for me. While the gesture was good, without the additional painkillers Roller again takes it upon himself to give me, sitting, standing or lying now, nothing much eases the aches within me.

Worst of them all is the pain in my heart. The feeling that I’ve lost my chance.RoseLyn could be dead already.

The only thing keeping me taking breath going into my lungs is that the man who’s taken her is technically her family.Her fucking twin.Blood means more than vengeance, doesn’t it?

Family is who you choose, not what you’re born into.

“You want in on this?” Twister, his back to Elton, asks me quietly.

I fucking wish.“I can’t.” I hate that my voice is so weak. While I’d love to be exacting some punishment on the man who aided Saul and Thorne in making RoseLyn’s life a misery, I’ll save what little energy I have for finding her when the enforcer’s beaten the information out of him.

Dead or alive, I’m coming for you, RoseLyn.

Twister grimaces, gives me a knowing nod, then turns his attention to the man Owl and Meat have strung up.

“I’m a cop,” Elton repeats.

“Yeah, yeah, I got that,” Twister tells him in a bored tone, while turning to the array of implements Owl’s just laid out for him. He picks up a cordless drill, tests it, puts it back down, then studiously studies a pair of pliers, before settling on an evil-looking knife.

“You can’t touch me!” Elton again yells, his voice panicked as a dark patch appears on the crotch of his jeans.

Red walks past his enforcer, and stands in front of the cop. “Might have more respect for your badge if you hadn’t used your resources to terrorise a young woman.”

“I don’t know anything about that!” Elton’s voice rises. “I don’t, honestly.”

“So you haven’t been searching for information on Rose Blakeney?”

His eyes glance to the side. “Never heard that name.”

Red shakes his head sadly, and steps back. “All yours, Twister.”

“No!” Elton screams as Twister steps up, proving some cops aren’t very brave men. They hide behind the badge most of the time, and here is one place that won’t work. “My partner is Rose’s twin. I was just helping him find her.”

Red turns back. “You were giving what you found to her abuser asshole of an ex, Saul.”

Elton’s eyes widen. “I wasn’t. I only told Thorne.”

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