Page 87 of East (The Moral Compass 3)

“You could say that,” he mutters, but I hear him.

I walk down the stairs and cross the hallway into the office. North and Kara are huddled around the computer.

“I told you not to wake her up until I’ve verified these are real!” North shouts at West.

“I didn’t. She overheard me on the phone.”

“Move over. I need to see what all the fuss is about.”

“East, I really don’t think you should. These pictures are pretty graphic.” Kara stands in front of the screen.

“For fuck’s sake. I need to see. I need to be able to tell you all that you’re wrong.”

I can tell by North’s face that he doesn’t think they’re fake, and neither does West. I just can’t believe Zed would cheat on me and so soon, but there on the screen is a picture of a woman on her knees with a cock in her mouth. The next one is of her again, but this time, the cock is further down her throat, and she is looking up athim.The third is of her looking directly at the camera. It’s bad enough looking at your so-called husband being sucked off, but then, I see who it is.

“It can’t be.”

“It fucking is.”

“I’m so sorry, East, I didn’t believe it myself at first.”

“No, it’s not that, it’s the woman… It’s fucking Jessica.”

“Blow up those pictures. I want to see his shoulder.”

“Why?”

“Just do it. I’m telling you now, that is not Zed.”

“East, those are Zed’s tatts. I know. I gave him most of them,” West says as he puts his hand on my shoulder.

“No. When Zed was imitating Drake, they had body stocking made to cover up Zed’s tattoos and replace them with Drake’s.” I blow up the picture as large is it will go.

“Here, look. Look at those two bits of ink. They don’t match, and they don’t blend. It’s where the body stocking meets the real person.”

North, Kara, and West look at each other and then at me.

“So, that’s not Zed.”

“No! That’s Drake pretending to be Zed.”

“But why?”

“Because Alicia is a fucked-up little bitch, and she orchestrated all of this. But, West, you need to ring Zed right now and make it right. He’ll be ready to kill someone if he thinks he’s lost your friendship, and you know I don’t mean just beat someone up. He will kill them all. You need to stop him.”

West tries to call, I try to call, North tries, and we try from the office phone, but he doesn’t pick up any of the calls. So, I text him.

East: I’ve seen the pictures, and I knew immediately they were not you. West knows, too.

East: xxx.

We all sit, waiting and waiting for him to either call one of us or text me back.

Nothing.

Seven hours later, my phone rings from an international number that I know instantly is Las Vegas, but why isn’t he calling from his mobile?

“Hello?” I answer.

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