Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
“Look at this.” He gestured to the computer.
I saw the file he had open, titled Bennett family. Inside there were additional folders for Kai Bennett, Tanner, Jonah, Brooke, Cord, Riley, and others. Logan looked at me. “Is that their whole family? Zeke’s looking into all of them?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Kai mentioned his brothers and their partners. He mentioned Tanner by name.” I motioned to Tanner’s folder. “Click on his.”
It contained a multitude of photographs taken with a long lens. In one he was walking with Cutler Ryder. Others showed him with a different guy, and in one Tanner had him backed against the wall, gripping the guy’s hair.
Logan clicked on a few other files inside of Tanner’s folder. Bank statements. Building layouts. There was too much for us to take in at this moment. I tapped his shoulder. “Make a copy.”
“I didn’t bring a USB—” He stopped talking because I had. He took it from my fingers, a wry grin on his face. “It’s like condoms. You came prepared.”
“Speak for yourself. Some of us weren’t man whores growing up.” I scoffed, heading for the door. “Hurry. I’m going to take his truck and leave.”
“Okay. Wait.”
I waited.
“Security system. We don’t know how to arm it.”
Fuck. He was right. “Finish with the copies. I’ll go upstairs and see what I can figure out.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything.
Studying the security panel when I got there, I realized I had no clue what I was doing. There was no button that said push me to arm. I didn’t recognize this security system, and I’d been around my fair share of security systems.
I weighed the odds.
If his wife came home and the system wasn’t on? If we weren’t done with him by then? She’d know right away something was wrong. Cops would get called.
We didn’t intend to harm Zeke, not any more than we already had, but I wanted to scare him.
The most logical person to call would be Channing, because of his profession. He might know this system or a way to get around it. But my gut wasn’t telling me to call Channing. I grimaced but called Nate.
He answered on the third ring, growling into the phone. “I’m going to murder you, Mase. You better be in the hospital or the police station or—” He cursed. “God. Sorry. I didn’t think. I’m hoping you’re not in either.”
“That’s Mason?” I could hear Quincey in the background.
There was rustling. “Yeah.” He said to me, “Hold on.”
More rustling. A door shut. He groaned. “Fuck. I’m tired. Why are you calling me at—seriously? It’s… What? That doesn’t make sense.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re being dramatic. It’s not even midnight.”
“I’m in Pacific Standard Time.”
“We’re in the same time zone.”
“Still fucking tired,” he mumbled. “What’s up, though?” His voice grew more alert. “Please tell me you’re not in the hospital.”
“Uh, no.”
He was quiet for a beat before he cursed. “What’d you do?”
There was no way around this one. I just said it, “There wouldn’t be any reason you might know how to re-arm Zeke Allen’s security system?”
There was silence on his end.
I tucked my chin down. “You know, since you’re practically family with him.”
“I’m not family with him. And what the fuck are you talking about?”
Yeah. He wasn’t happy about this call.
“Why the fuck are you asking how to arm his security system?”
I laughed a little. “Maybe I decided to turn the tables on him for once? See how he feels being stalked.”
“Cut the shit. What’s going on? Why can’t you ask Zeke himself?”
I sighed. “It’s better if you don’t know. I thought maybe you’d dropped by his house or something over the years and maybe he rearmed it in front of you, but I can see I was wrong—”
“No. Wait.”
He went silent again, but I waited.
I knew what he was thinking. I was in Allen’s house, and I couldn’t ask Allen himself. Everything about this call indicated I was doing something illegal. Highly illegal. I’d called him for information because I trusted him, and I was asking him to choose which side he was on.
He wasn’t like us, as I’d been reminded the other night with the bikers at the warehouse. I’d been hurt at first, thinking he was judging us. But I’d realized Sam was right. I needed Nate because he balanced out whatever was inside of us that surfaced when we were in Fallen Crest. If I didn’t have friends like Nate and Matteo, and if we stayed too long in Fallen Crest, I didn’t know who I might become.
I didn’t want to think about that.
He sighed. “Goddamn you, Mason.”
I straightened, my voice going cold. “Forget it.”
“Wait.” He cursed again, but I heard more rustling sounds on his end. “My sister goes over there all the time.”
I closed my eyes. He was going to ask his sister how to arm the system. I knew Nate well enough to know that if she asked the reason, he would lie for us. A part of me regretted asking, but another part of me didn’t. I needed to know. That was the ruthless side of me. The same side that had chosen to call Nate, because it would put him in this exact spot.