Page 8 of Devil Inside: Green

“Greed,” I say, cutting him off. “Exactly like my mom. I know they aren’t releasing this information to the public, but I obviously know what we’re up against.”

“I know we got casinos here. Are there any in Tennessee?”

“I don’t know about that yet. I’d say a Google search will give us our answers.”

“Come back inside. I have a computer in my room. I hate trying to look things up on my phone.”

“Weren’t you heading somewhere? You left your party.”

“I just needed to catch my breath.”

Finally, someone on my side. I slide off the hood, following Green back inside the clubhouse. Neither Dusty nor Aja sees me, so caught up in laughing and having a good time. Maybe I’ll get that back one day.

Green leads me down the hall, stopping at a door about three-quarters of the way down, letting me inside before he follows, shutting the door. His bedclothes are rumpled and there’s a torn condom packet resting on the comforter.

“Have a seat,” he offers, but the only place to sit is clearly the place where he’s very recently had sex.

“I’m good,” I reply, waiting as he fires up his laptop. Green pulls up Google and then searches casinos in Kentucky and Tennessee.

“I don’t see any in Tennessee.”

“It doesn’t look like it. If they have them, they aren’t listed here.”

“Then we search Kentucky. There’s a lot of ground to cover, though.”

“True. So I think our next step is narrowing down which cities he’s already killed in. I doubt he’d go back for a repeat performance. If I were a killer, I wouldn’t. Someone might remember his face or a camera might have caught him.”

“Do you have that information?”

“At my hotel in Middlesboro. In my small atlas.”

“Let’s go, then.”

“So…” I take in the man and the hope versus anger warring in his eyes. “Does this mean you’re helping me?”

He stares me down.

Thank you, universe.

4

GREEN

What the hell am I doing, going off with this bitch? It goes against my better judgment and considering I’m the one saying it, that’s saying a fuck of a lot of something. It’s not like I’ve been known for my good choices in recent months.

We move through the party and thank God, we go unnoticed. I don’t need any of my brothers giving me shit about the cheerleader. She walks to the driver’s side of the car, sliding in before I have a chance to say anything, so caught up in my own head.

I fucked Jaycelynn tonight and now I’m going off with Miss Goody Two-Shoes here. What would Dela think? Dela is always in my head reminding me of how I failed her. How did he get onto the compound? That’s something we could never answer. The kid on the gate said she’d never left—but he’d gotten her. He’d gotten her and he’d killed her. Torn her shit up.

If I’d stayed with her… If I’d never broken up with her when I prospected for the club, then Dela would’ve never been in that psychopath’s sights. But no—I wanted to live the biker life with different pussies dripping to suck me off at every party.

“You okay?” Danni asks.

“What?” I can’t believe she caught me fucking woolgathering. Embarrassed, I say the first shitty thing to pop into my head that will stop her from talking to me. “You wanna go faster than twenty miles per hour? At this point, my grandkids will make it to Middlesboro before I do.”

“Unless you’ve already got kids out there floating in the ether to give you those grandkids, you have to have sex to get those kids, and it being only you and me in this car, rest assured, buddy, you’re not getting into my pants. Sort of makes your point moot.”

“Who says ‘moot’?”

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