Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
“Let the man run his mouth,” Regan suggests while grabbing my arm to ensure her suggestion is enforced. “From what I heard, today might be the last time it isn’t filled with an inmate’s johnson.”
She says her last sentence loud enough for Cedric to hear. He isn’t being held in custody solely for his alleged involvement in my accident and subsequent hunt, but also for tax fraud, malpractice, and even more concerning, the sale of organs on the black market.
Isaac’s contact high in the Bureau held nothing back when he reached out to him for any information he had on Cedric and his family. He’s been wanting to take him down from the moment he rocked up at Ravenshoe Private acting like he owned the place.
I thought his dislike was from two alpha males clashing.
I learned otherwise quick smart.
After watching Cedric being led into a holding cell, Regan shifts on her feet to face me. “We have a bit of a dilemma.”
“Isaac?” I query, panicked his tussle with Cedric has gotten him in trouble with the law.
Regan shakes her head. “No. He’s fine.” She drags her eyes to the end of the corridor. When I follow the direction of her gaze, I find Isaac standing at the end, talking into his cell phone. “If not a little gluttonous with his gloating.” After returning her focus to me, she adjusts the collar of my shirt and straightens my skirt like she personally selected it from my wardrobe for me to wear. “The judge assigned is a friend of a friend. He’s strict but understanding that not everything on paper is as it seems.”
“Which is good for JR…” I say, pushing her along. I hate suspense. If I read a novel, I’m one of those annoying readers who flick to the last page to make sure everything ends okay before I start reading it.
“Yes…” I breathe a little easier until she tacks on, “… and no. He can’t be bought, which means the bail hearing is marked in his calendar as a murder hearing.” She stares me straight in the face while saying, “They are rarely granted bail.”
“But since it was in self-defense, the charge should be lesser, right?”
Regan shakes her head. “Self-defense can’t be argued when there’s no body.”
I stare at her in utter shock. “What?”
“The man he is accused of murdering has been missing for seven years…” Regan once again straightens my collar, a bad habit of hers when she’s nervous. “… but a body was never recovered.” Hope fills me long before dread, but Regan is quick to shut it down, “Authorities believe CJ may have hidden his body somewhere in the woods.”
“JR,” I correct her, too shocked to tackle the big flaw in her reply. “He likes to go by JR.” I take a breather before pushing out, “He also loves those woods. They’re his home, so he wouldn’t desecrate the land like that by burying someone there.”
Regan breathes heavily out of her nose before suggesting, “There is a way we could find out.” I know what she’s going to ask before she can articulate it. She wants me to convince JR to lead us to his victim.
I shake my head so fast, even if JR can’t hear the whooshes, he’ll feel them. “I can’t do that. If there’s a body...” I stop talking, my heart to shatter by the prospect he killed a man to continue as normal. It’s been living in denial ever since he confessed. I said days ago that JR confuses protectiveness as possessiveness, so who’s to say he didn’t make the same mistake a year ago?
“Not if it was self-defense as claimed. We have the report you lodged years ago arguing against the coroner’s findings of Cecil’s death. If we can prove it wasn’t suicide, and JR, who was in fear for his life, responded solely to protect himself, he won’t face a single hour behind bars.” When I remain hesitant, Regan adds, “This is what he wants, Jae. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have made this.”
My heart beats in an unfamiliar pattern when she plays a video currently going viral across multiple social media platforms. JR is standing front and center on the screen. His hair and beard are back to their original bushy state, and he’s clutching the shirt he plucked from the floor when he left me in the shower stall for almost two hours.
“That’s my private cell phone,” I murmur when a reflection bounces off the stainless-steel trim around the kitchen.
Regan hums in agreement. “Hunter had a trace, but we lost it when he took you deeper in the woods. The helicopter flew over where it was last pinged a couple of times, but all we saw was snow and deer.”
“We?” I ask, too stunned to form entire sentences.
“Yeah, we. Hunter, Hugo, Isaac, Alex, and me. We’ve been out this way since you failed to board your flight.” She laughs like it’s no big deal. “Isaac has tabs on all his favorite people. I thought you would have realized that by now.”