Page 70 of Burned in Stone
I’ve never been more in it.
“Time to teach Mr. Hall here a lesson,” Gabriel seethes.
I crack a grin, letting him see the feral street kid I used to be. “You really should have left those cuffs on.”
23
MERCY
The police station waiting room is lit by little more than glare and bad intent, all too bright and ugly for one in the morning. The benches are the same kind I remember from visiting Gabriel’s precinct back in Ailington. Same cracked vinyl, same smell of burned coffee and body odor. But now I’m on the other side of the counter, clutching a paper cup of coffee so bitter it hurts, and waiting for someone—anyone—to tell me if my boyfriend is going to jail for a crime everyone in this room knows he didn’t commit.
Tank sits next to me, hands too meaty and restless for the child-sized cup of coffee he’s been trying to balance for the last hour. He keeps glancing at the police station’s front desk like he’s daring them to arrest him next. Bones is across from us, legs kicked out and crossed at the ankles, arms folded across his patched chest, looking like he might simply outlast the entire city with his willpower alone. Kya’s on her third cup of terrible vending machine coffee, and Lee keeps checking his phone for updates from the brothers out searching.
I get up and start pacing again.
“You’re going to wear a hole in the linoleum,” Bones says, not looking up from his phone.
“I can’t just sit here.” My hands are shaking. “They took him hours ago. Where the hell is he?”
“We have people on it.” Bones’s voice is steady, calming. “Come sit. You’re making everyone nervous.”
I drop into the chair next to him, leg bouncing immediately. “How are you so calm?”
“Practice.” He pockets his phone. “This isn’t my first police station rodeo. Hell, one time I had to bail out Stone’s daughter from a drunk tank in Vegas.”
“Emma got arrested?” Kya perks up at this. “When was this?”
Lee sits forward, brow drawn tight. “Yeah, Bones. When the fuck was this?”
Bones just laughs. Lee’s big brother vibes do nothing to the seasoned biker, who looks around the same age as him. Both seem older than Cash, but younger than me. So I’d put them around thirty.
“About four years ago,” Bones says. “Right before she started dancin’ for the Joffrey Ballet.” He pauses and cracks a smile. “She and some of her dancer friends decided to celebrate their acceptance by driving to Vegas on a whim. Got wasted, decided to stage a performance on the edge of the fountain at Caesar’s Palace and she fell in.” His grin turns faraway, and I realize it’s the first time I’ve ever seen his expression this soft. “Her so-called friends took off and security fished her out, called thecops, and she called me because Stone would have gone nuclear if he found out.”
Lee stares daggers at Bones, but there’s no real heat behind it. “Funny. She’s never mentioned that.”
“Probably because you still treat her like a kid sister.” Bones tips his cup in salute as Lee scoffs.
“What happened?” I ask, glad for the distraction from my own problems for a moment. “I mean, was she charged?”
“No. I paid off the hotel security to keep it quiet. Pulled her out of lockup before the news could get wind.” Bones’s expression goes gentle for a moment, like the memory of Stone’s daughter means something real to him. “Not that she seemed bothered by any of it. When they took me in to get her out of the drunk tank, she was fucking pirouetting on the bench in the middle of the room. All these half-drunk, half-high women sitting around and Emma just—” Bones shakes his head, the fondness obvious. “She did a whole routine with no music, then curtsied to the cop when he called her name.”
Kya cracks up, and even Lee can’t help a little grin. For a minute, the tension in the room lifts. But then the moment snaps, and the anxiety rushes right back in the moment the main station door swings open and Stone walks in, Josie trailing at his side.
I take in the grim look on Stone’s face and my stomach drops.
“He’s not here,” Stone says without preamble. “They never brought him in.”
“And they just kept us here, sittin’ on our asses while they scrambled trying to figure it out?” Lee says. “Fucking typical.”
“What?” I’m on my feet. “But they arrested him. We all saw?—”
“They obviously took him somewhere else,” Josie says, her professional composure cracking slightly. “This is kidnapping, not arrest. We can file charges?—”
“Fuck charges,” Lee growls. “Where is he?”
Stone’s already pulling out his phone. “Every brother, every prospect, every hang-around. I want them looking. Check every Summit property, every?—”
Bones’s phone rings. He answers immediately. “Yeah?”
