Page 136 of Break Out

In hindsight, I should have stayed in Steel’s room eavesdropping on him and Jordan.

No, I couldn’t blame myself like that.

I had every right to walk down to that fire pit. Josie and Mug never should have been able to get into the compound the way they did.

Knuckles jerked his head to the side. “Go check out that noise. I don’t trust it.”

Mug shook his head. “Nobody followed us, but I’ll go. Probably the sun beating on that cheap metal siding making it pop.”

“Check it anyway,” Sledge muttered.

Mug trudged out.

Knuckles glared at Josie. “Leave. You served your purpose.”

Surprise rushed over her expression. “But I haven’t been paid—”

He leaned toward her. “Go, or you won’t get paid shit.”

She glowered at him, then calmed herself, turned on her heel, and left.

Once the door closed behind her, Knuckles noticed the cocaine on the card table. “Dammit! You assholes are sampling the product again. Got enough fuckin’ problems with the cartel breathing down my neck. I don’t need y’all making it worse.”

Sledge stood. “Still don’t think Steel’s gonna give up shit. Why should we wait? Kill this bitch, and go after all the Devil Lancers. Be done with it.”

With a glower, Knuckles shook his head. “When are we gonna be in a position to extort money out of two fucking clubs again?”

I watched Sledge pace the small room. “Right. Forgot about that.”

Knuckles crossed his arms. “You stop snorting our blow, you won’t forget shit.” He crossed to a small window and pulled the ratty curtain to the side. “Where the hell is Mug?”

It had been less than five minutes since Mug left. I didn’t think he had anything to worry about. The idea that someone could be here to save me was wishful thinking.

Those odds were ever not in my favor.

Being a stubborn, independent twenty-something, I’d wanted a top-of-the-line smartphone and took advantage of a deal exclusive to new customers. It was a double win for me. Cut my dependency on my parents and it got me a fabulous phone. And my parents no longer had the ability to locate my phone by GPS

That would have come in handy right about now.

The keys in my pocket came to mind, but no way would Dad think to involve Alexandra or Jasmine in this. They were the only two people who knew about my keychain. If only Rafferty had come up this trip. He might know about the Apple AirTag on my keys. And no doubt, Raff would call Alexandra to ask her if she had any ideas on how to find me, but Steel hadn’t mentioned anything about Rafferty yesterday or today.

I fought against a sigh because I was gonna be stuck here for a long while. I needed to think about anything except how hungry I was.

Chapter 25

Bright Ideas

Steel

Torque’s cell rang. “Greco, you good?” He stared at me and arched his brows. “You believe Farah? Why would he tell her that? She’s trying to get rid of you.”

I moved closer to him during another pause.

Torque squinted. “No street number for this place?” After another pause, he said, “I don’t care. You stay with Farah until we have someone drive by the area.”

He ended the call. Before Torque could update me, I heard Rafferty talking. His loud, irritated tone put me on alert. The way he let the shit that Greco and Torque gave him slide off him, I didn’t believe there were many people who could annoy him.

“Lex, she’s missing and I need to know if you can help me. Jasmine mentioned Simone having a tracker for her keys because she kept misplacing them. I searched Simone’s purse and her keys are gone. If she’s got them with her, we might be able to find her… but only if she shared that kind of info with you.”

---