Page 90 of East (The Moral Compass 3)

My darkest fear nearly came to light today. West, my only true friend and ally in the world, turned his back on me. All because of my relationship with is sister. This was what I was afraid of.

I force myself to sleep with the image of East with tears in her eyes in my head. The clanging of keys wakes me up. This time it is not Mateo. It’s another police officer.

“Zed, your lawyer is here. Follow me.”

I follow the officer down the corridor and into a small room. The walls are a dirty grey, there’s a window at the top of the wall that is so dirty you can’t tell whether it’s daylight or not, and it stinks of piss. I rub my hand over my face. I feel dirty, and my scruff is now nearly a beard. Even in the field, I never felt this disgusting.

A guy in a sharp suit sits at the table, and I take the seat opposite. The police officer is standing guard at the door. What the hell does he think I’m going to do?

“Hi, Zed. West sent me. I’m your lawyer. My name is Federa Gomez. I am going to try and get you out of here as soon as I can.”

Relief fills me. If West sent him, then he must know that the man in the photo wasn’t me. I still can’t believe he thought I could ever do something like that.

“I need you to tell me exactly what happened.”

So, I tell him everything I can remember, right from the phone call asking me to come out here.

“Hmm, okay. Well, that’s all for now. I’ll be back later if I need anything else.”

“What do you mean later? I want to go now.” I growl.

“Sorry, Zed, but that’s not possible. I have asked for a private cell and some clean clothes. West is on his way. He will only be a couple of hours, and I’m sure once he waves his chequebook, you’ll be free as a bird. Unless you get Judge Jefferson.”

“What’s wrong with Judge Jefferson?”

“She’s a massive Drake fan.”

Chapter 37

East

Thereisonegoodthing about being on painkillers for my arm: they work on period pains, too. Or maybe it’s because since we landed in Vegas, my feet haven’t touched the floor.

West is currently waiting at the police station in the hope of either freeing or seeing Zed. South and Daisy have gone to see if they can talk some sense into Drake. If he decides to go all the way with this, Zed will be in serious trouble. North, Kara, and I are on our way to the hotel. I am hoping my friendly receptionist is on duty, and he’ll let me have a quick peek at the security cameras.

The lawyer has told us what Zed claims happened, and it doesn’t add up with what the police told the lawyer. When I get to the reception desk, the nice guy is nowhere to be seen, and as you can probably guess, the lady behind the desk is not very helpful. That is, until my handsome brother North arrives and charms the pants right off her. That bloody smile of his will get him in to trouble again one day.

She calls the manager, and he leads us into the security room. It’s as I guessed: the footage has been corrupted, but what they don’t know is I installed a backup system and extra cameras for this exact reason. When Drake was receiving the death threats, it was impossible to retrieve the files as they deleted seconds after recording. However, the backup system doesn’t delete anything. Ever!

The scene that unfolds on the screen is brutal. Zed loses complete control, but he never once smashes anything. He never threatens the two sluts. It’s exactly as he described it.

All we need to do is get the hotel to sign a release and let the police do their stuff, but not before I take a copy. Alicia seems to have people all over the place, and there is no way I’m letting this footage get tampered with.

Easier said than done. The hotel won’t release all of the footage, and they are also threatening to have me arrested and charged with data breaching and all sorts of other charges. It’s only when I present them with a bill for eighty thousand dollars for the upgrades and explain the benefits of the improvements I’ve done to the suite do they back off… quickly. I also agreed to consult for them for free for the next two years.

The things you do for love…

It takes what feels like an age before the manager of the hotel signs over the footage and signs that he himself downloaded it from their servers. Everything needs to be as legitimate as possible. One wrong move, and it could land Zed in prison for even longer.

When I arrive at the police station, West is still waiting. He isn’t a man that has much patience, but when we tell him what we have, it steadies his temper.

“So, is there audio on the footage?” West asks.

“Yeah, and it appears that we all need to watch our backs until Alicia has been arrested and charged. You need to watch it for yourself. The woman is completely and utterly nuts.”

I shake my head. I still can’t believe she would go so far with all of this. It was never her family’s business to take over. Her grandfather was on the board and, yes, she worked directly for my dad, but that didn’t give her the right to take control. I get why she would feel peeved and disgruntled, but to try and ruin all our lives? It just shocks the hell out of me. And what the hell did Jessica have to gain from it all?

I hope that, at some point, I’ll get to ask them or at least get an answer. How could Alicia use her boyfriend like that? She had Margaret convinced she was in love with Drake. How could he let her do that? I mean, her friend had her mouth around her boyfriend’s dick. Did it not upset her? I couldn’t think of anything worse, and that was the whole point. They knew that if I saw it with my own eyes, it would take the very last bit of confidence I have left and destroy any trust I’d built with Zed.

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