Page 98 of Claimed By the Deputies

“Taking care of my man,” she replies with a cold smirk. “Did you really think you and Lucas could keep me away from Dante indefinitely?”

“How did you?—”

“I followed you the other day.” A chilling laugh escapes her before she takes out a gun.

My blood runs cold as I slowly raise my hands in the air.

“Sherry, you need to think about what you’re doing here,” I try to reason with her.

Dante laughs and helps himself to another piece of chicken from the bag. “She’s here because she did think about it, and she made the right decision. There’s a storm coming, honey, and we intend to get on the ark.”

“That’s mighty poetic coming from a guy like you,” I mutter.

“Bitch,” she sneers. “Trevor’s pulling off something big. Something that will either get us all killed or make all of us really rich,” Sherry snaps, her lips twisted with contempt. The excessive makeup makes her ugly on the outside, but it’s her cruel demeanor, her character, and her true nature that makes her repulsive. “And I like money.”

“Sherry, you are breaking the law here. You’ll go to prison.”

“Not if there isn’t a sheriff in town to arrest me.” Her giggle contains a sinister undertone.

“What the hell did you do?” I stop breathing.

“Trevor is offering quite the ransom for your ass alive and for Lucas’s ass dead. My man’s Stallions are taking care of the sheriff, and I’m here taking care of you,” she says.

This isn’t trouble I just waded into. It’s something far worse, and definitely something we didn’t plan for.

This whole time, the conspiracy has been unraveling with a certain degree of discretion. But now, Trevor has taken everything to another level, and I don’t know how we’re going to stop him.

I subtly cradle my lower belly.

I need to find a way out of this. For myself and for my baby.

27

TASSIA

“You weren’t even hard to catch,” Sherry taunts. “All I had to do was sit and wait for you.”

“I wasn’t exactly hiding,” I bluntly reply. “This is still my place, and Dante is still in protective custody.”

Dante picks up the handcuffs and waves them in the air for me to see, a cocky grin on his face. “Protective custody my ass. Besides, I’m not locked up anymore.”

“Which is the dumbest thing you could do for yourself,” I say. “Dante, they will kill you. You’re a liability.”

He shakes his head. “All I did was give you Fitz. I didn’t betray my brothers.”

“But they will betrayyou. Don’t think for a second nobody’s going down for Tim’s murder,” I warn him. “The DEA is involved, Dante. No matter how powerful or connected Trevor is, he can’t take on the DEA. Frost Valley will be investigated, even if you do take over the sheriff’s department. Which, by the way, you won’t.”

Sherry takes a step forward, pointing the gun at my chest. “You can forget about Lucas, Mitch, and Tyler, you stupid bitch. They’re gonna die today if they’re not dead already.”

I need to buy myself some time. To find a way out of this hot mess before a bullet leaves that chamber and finds a vital part of my body. Sherry may think she outsmarted me, but she isn’t thinking clearly. Her ego is fragile and her mind easy to rot with doubt, provided I say the right things.

“They’re not dead. They survived the ambush, if that’s what you were banking on,” I tell her and Dante. “Five of your Stallions are dead, and a sixth is in custody. What do you think will happen to him? Do you think he’ll live until his arraignment, or will a deputy slit his throat in the holding cell like they did Billy Jade? Like they will do to you, too, Dante.”

Sherry hesitates for a fraction of a second. “The whole club is going after Lucas and his deputies. They won’t make it to midnight.”

And there it is. I catch the tiny betrayal of her own mind, of her own injured heart. I remember the story I heard about her and Lucas. About how it started and how it ended. This is the only distraction that might give me an opportunity to escape.

I laugh lightly, bewildering the two easily.

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