Page 103 of Ricochet

He snorted. “This is the smooth-talking plan you have tokeep Adelia alive?”

She kept her face emotionless. “I’m here for information. Not your mind fucks.”

He nodded. “That sounds true to your style.” He squinted. “But Adelia… she’s nearly your kid.”

Lenora would claim Adelia a thousand times over. “Let’s knock the ‘nearly’ out of your mouth, sweetheart. But since we’re on the topic of kids, how’s Seven?”

Cullen’s spark dimmed. “Hung up on me lasttime I called.”

“Thought so.” She didn’t live to be a bitch, but Cullen lived to be an asshole.

“What’s your point?”

“Let’s get you out of here again, my friend. We’ve worked together for too long for you to be Mister Tough Guy and me not to know your end game.”

“If you think I don’t control what I want to with the MC from in here—”

“I’m talking about making amends with your daughter. You’renot doing that from in the clink, and we both know that.”

“Don’t give two steamin’ shits.” He shrugged. “But proceed, counselor.”

No, he didn’t. He’d give the world so long as he never had to admit how big a screw-up he was. “You help me, and I help you.”

He grunted. “No other way to play our game.”

“What do you know about who’s running money in and out of the club?”

Cullen snorted. “Youmean in addition to Adelia?”

She gritted her teeth. “Yeah.”

“It’s not the obvious.”

“So not… Ethan?”

Cullen’s cracked lips curled in a knowing smile as he lifted his chin. “But I didn’t say he wasn’t up to his neck.”

How much was going on that the club didn’t know? And Cullen wasthe club. He had a duty to Mayhem, to protect it, no matter where he was. Lenora narrowed her eyes. “You knowthey’d skin you alive if you talked about another member?”

He didn’t so much as blink.

“Why say that?” she pushed. “Even to me?”

Carefully, the powerful man angled forward, and the only sound in the cold holding cell was the pounding of her anxious heart and the clank of his chains. “Not if they knew that I know.”

More than embezzlement. More than… what?Why would Cullen pass Ethan’s name?“Keep talking.”

“Get me out of here.”

Now was her turn to play the cards she had, and their BS about no bullshit games had been total BS. “I thought three square meals made you happy.”

“So does getting my dick sucked by my choice of Mayhem pussy.”

“Lovely,” she snipped, unaffected. “I’ll see what I can do.”

She stood, unsure how much of this was helpful—

“One more thing you should know.”He leaned back in his chair. “I know a dead man walking.” Cullen dropped the front metal legs, and itsboomechoed off the cinder blocks. “And he’s walking with a fat bank account. When you figure that out, you can fix everything.”

---