Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 67663 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67663 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
“Nothing to talk about. I took Mallory to the free clinic to get birth control. Mom found out. She freaked and said I ruined Mal. They kicked me out, took my car and cell phone, and then they gave me my birth certificate and social security card before they sent me away. I walked to school. I called you from the school office. They had a phone book for me to find your office number. I couldn’t remember your cell since it was programmed in my phone.”
“Give it time, Madyson. They’ll come around,” I tell her, even though I am not fully convinced myself. At this point, I can only hope they will come around. Otherwise, what am I supposed to do with her? I barely made it out of my own teenager years with my sanity intact because of our parents. Me trying to reign in all that is my little sister might be enough to finally put me in a nuthouse.
Chapter
5
Ice
Three weeks later…
“How many are we at right now?” I question the men in front of me. Every patched member of the Regulators MC sits here, all of us going over the details of yet another missing woman.
“Twelve in our zip code. Sixty-eight in our territory,” Coal answers.
“That’s fuckin’ twelve too many at our back door!” I shout, feeling out of control.
“We can’t hire them all. We can’t hide them all,” Hammer states the obvious.
“No, we can’t, but we can shut this shit down. According to Commander Wall and his team, Medina named Lazaro Sandoval as the ring leader. Why can’t we tie him to the missing girls? Where the fuck is he keeping them?”
“All questions we are trying to get answers to,” Coal glares at me.
“Why do I have more fuckin’ questions than answers? Riddle me that, knuckleheads. We do not exist. We are not who any of these scum bags think we are. We have resources above and beyond any alphabet agency in this country can access, and you all sit in here and tell me there is yet another girl missing in our territory. All of this, and we have no new information?”
“We’re working on it as much as we can without drawing attention. Sandoval has his stuff locked tight, Ice,” Screech pipes in.
“So unlock it,” I snarl back.
“Fuck you,” Coal narrows his eyes. “It’s not that simple, and you damn well know it. Get laid, go for a run, blow something the fuck up—I don’t care what you do, but don’t sit here and make it sound so simple.”
I won’t take shit from many people, but Coal has made a valid point. We have been buying drugs consistently from Sandoval. We have built the foundation of a strong affiliation with him. However, it hasn’t been enough.
“Time to step up our ties to Sandoval. We buy guns next, work our way in. We may have to buy the pussy to find his inner workings, but in the meantime, we need to get our people in every damn club we can. The more eyes we have, the closer we can come to stopping the next target from becoming a victim.”
“Agreed,” Hammer begins yet is cut off by my phone ringing.
Without looking at the screen, we all know it is Brooke calling based on the set ring tone.
“In the middle of something, baby girl,” I answer in the hopes of deterring her from going on with teenage ramblings.
She is supposed to be spending the night at her friend Madyson’s house, who did check out, finally, from Screech’s report. The girl has a three point eight grade point average and takes two honors classes with Brooke. She may come off as a rebellious punk-ass teen, but she actually has two partial scholarships to college based on her grades in math alone.
Madyson Powell’s sister, Morgan, is more clean-cut than any twenty-four-year-old should be. According to the reports on her, I doubt she has ever had a single drink. I had guys watch both Powell sisters for two weeks before I agreed to let Brooke spend the night there. Things aren’t always what they seem. I know that better than anyone.
At first glance, I assumed Morgan was irresponsible with her younger sister. It turns out she was merely adjusting as her sister made the choice to live with her instead of their parents. This made me curious as to why an eighteen-year-old would make a decision like that, so I had Screech dig into their parents next. After looking over the reports, the debt and overall character information we were able to obtain, their parents wouldn’t be a place I would want to grow up in or have Brooke around. They are more focused on keeping up with the Jones’, so to speak, than being a real family.
My thoughts are shaken when Brooke whispers into the phone, “Come get us, Daddy.”