Page 81 of Forbidden Hearts

I hadn’t realized how big the biker gang had gotten recently. While Jacob was getting drunk at the club, Ben was out recruiting men and coordinating their drug operations.

I walk to the back of the club and notice the door to Jacob’s office partially open. Ben is speaking with a reaper. He leans down and points at a pool of blood on the floor.

Alex?

“Ben?” I ask.

I push the door open. It hits something hard, preventing me from opening it all the way. I look behind the door and see the body of the big fella who is always standing outside Jacob’s office.

“What happened here?” I ask him.

Ben straightens up when he sees me. “One of the reapers got pissed drunk and accidentally shot Sammy. We’re cleaning up the mess.”

He’s lying. The body on the ground has two bullet holes in his chest. “He was accidentally shot twice?”

“Yeah,” Ben says, scratching the back of his neck. “That’s how drunk the other guy was.”

Without breaking eye contact with Ben, I place my hand on the door and slam it shut, locking us inside. The reaper behind Ben pulls out a gun, but I shoot him dead before he even has a chance to point it at me.

Ben startles, fumbling back to a corner of the room.

“What’s going on, Alonzo?” he asks, terrified.

“You’re lying to me, Ben. What really happened here?”

“I—I’m not lying,” he says. He pushes himself as far back into the corner as he can, making himself tiny. I know the reapersoutside heard the gunshot, and it’s only a matter of time before they break down the door.

“Where is she?” I ask, pushing my body up against Ben and pressing my gun to his forehead. He squeezes his eyes shut and puts his hands up.

“Who? Who?” he asks.

“Alex! Where the fuck is she?”

“Jacob took her!”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” he says. “He never tells me anything. I don’t even know why Alex shot him or Sammy in the first place.”

His eyes tell me he’s telling the truth. Finally.

“Where did Jacob take her?”

“I don’t know!”

A lie. I flip the gun in my hand and smack him on the forehead with it. He lets out a sharp scream.

“Where, Ben!”

“What’s going on in there?” someone outside the door yells. “Ben, are you okay?”

“I’m only going to ask you one more time, Ben. Where is Alex?”

Loud bangs knock at the door as the men try to break it down. “Ben, are you okay?”

“Jacob has a ranch out in Wimberly,” Ben says. “That’s where he took her.”

“Okay. Call off your men and write the address to Jacob’s ranch,” I tell him.

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