Page 81 of Break Out

She nodded. “That makes sense.”

“Why would you say that?”

She grinned. “Five miles gives you a fair amount of leeway if you have someone there against their will.”

I drew the truck to a stop at a traffic light and looked at her. “Simone, I would never bring an enemy to my place.”

Her head dipped. “It doesn’t mean they wouldn’t follow you there.”

The light changed and I faced forward. “And you think I’d kill someone in my own backyard?”

“Maybe. I think you’d shoot them and ask questions later. If it’s five miles to your nearest neighbor, I’m guessing you got a fair amount of property and you have somewhere you could hide a body – and by hide, I mean bury.”

I grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. “You’re a crazy woman. My nearest neighbor is five miles away because my property sits between two tree farms. You’ve been watching too much television. It’s a shitload of work for one person to bury a body.”

“Enter your brothers, maybe prospects, but that depends on how much you trust them.”

Before I could disspell her vengeful ideas, my cell buzzed, Torque’s name on the display.

I accepted the call and put the phone to my ear. “Yo, I’m about twenty minutes from my place. Let me call you back.”

“Shit. Is there anyway you can come here first? Knuckles and his enforcer put a beat down on Circles and two of his direct reports.”

None of the brothers had ‘direct reports.’ Circles dealt with prostitutes though, which meant two of the girls had been beaten, too.

“I don’t have you on speaker, but how do you know who was behind it?”

“Circles didn’t report into Tie as scheduled. Tie found him just before the ambulance showed. Circles had just enough energy to tell him who did that shit.”

I blew out a sigh. “Yeah. I’ll be there in fifteen.”

“If you’re twenty minutes from your house that puts you half an hour from the clubhouse.”

“Yeah, I’m picking up the pace.”

“Don’t get a fuckin’ ticket, man. The cops are itchin’ to bring you in for any fuckin’ thing they can.”

I let my foot off the gas. “Right. Thanks for the reminder. Be there soon.”

I set the phone back in the console.

“No grand tour of your home, I take it?”

“Not yet.”

“I get to see your clubhouse instead?”

“Seems so.”

“You sound disappointed.”

“Shit’s hitting the fan, Jade. Didn’t want to drag you into this, but I guess I’m gonna see what you’re really made of.”

Torque running out of the clubhouse forced me to park the truck closer to the front of the compound than I’d have liked. I hadn’t seen him haul ass like that in years.

I leapt out of the cab. “What’s wrong? Is Circles gonna make it?”

Torque stopped a few feet from me, breathing hard. “It’s not Circles. We got another problem.”

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