Page 143 of Break Out

Bleh.

They’d ordered a pizza, which was delivered ten minutes ago. Little did they know, pizza was the only kind of food I wasn’t craving these days – besides coffee. Pizza gave me heartburn now that I was pregnant. My doctor assured me that would pass once the baby was born.

Hopefully we’d make it out of this alive.

Once I knew my peanut was healthy and safe, I was going to find out if we were having a boy or a girl.

Surprises be damned.

“She needs to be praying her daddy and Steel come up with the fuckin’ money. Either of them stiff me, and she’s dead,” Knuckles said.

“Thought you told Volt, you’d get Doc here to examine her,” Sledge said.

Knuckles shook his head. “He’s back in Savannah.”

“I can examine her, since you said Farah’s off-limits even though you’re through with her,” Mug said.

I willed myself not to frown or grimace as his words made my stomach roil. The light in the room changed and I opened my eyes.

Sledge had moved to the small window and closed the ratty curtains. “Fuckin’ sun is finally setting.”

If the sun was setting, then it had to be closing in on seven-thirty. Thinking about the time made my stomach growl.

I couldn’t believe I’d been gone for at least eight hours. Steel knew I was gone… what was the hold-up? Hell, Dad knew I’d been taken, but he had a four-hour drive.

“You want me to take your back when you meet Manuel?” Sledge asked.

Knuckles aimed a sour look at Mug. “No. Can’t trust this fucker with her any more than I can trust you with the blow.”

Well, that was nice of him… sort of.

“You should have somebody at your back,” Sledge said.

Knuckles shot an annoyed look at Sledge. “You’re right, and Flip’s gonna do that for me. Spoke to him before I got here. He’s at the strip club and he’s gonna meet me by the river. Make sure Manuel doesn’t have a bunch of men with him.”

My phone rang and I jolted.

Knuckles grinned. “Looks like Daddy wants a chat.” He picked up my phone. “Hello, Volt. Got my cash?”

He hadn’t put it on speaker, and I wished I could hear what Dad had to say. The way Knuckles cocked his head to the side, I knew he didn’t trust Dad.

“You got over three million that fast? Like you said, that kind of money can’t be wired, and it’s only been six hours since I called you.”

Knuckles shook his head. “It’ll have to be at midnight.”

The thought of being here for another four hours didn’t make me happy, but at least I knew Dad was on the way.

Knuckles paused.

“You want to meet at eleven, well, too fuckin’ bad. If you want your daughter back in one piece, we do this shit my way.”

I hoped Dad wasn’t fucking with Knuckles because putting together a million dollars was hard. Three-point-five times as much?

Yeah, that didn’t happen in a day’s time.

Sledge shook his head. “They can’t have the cash already.”

Knuckles shrugged. “He says their strip club had cash on hand and so did a bunch of brothers. Either way, we’re gonna find out.”

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