Page 49 of Grave Games

A faint frown dimmed his grin, but before he could open his mouth my phone went off. Gently I moved out from under him, took a moment to mourn the loss of his cock from my body, then plucked the phone out of my purse.

“Hello?”

“Hey, girl, it’s me,” came Heather’s voice, and I stiffened at the tension weighing down her every syllable. “Listen, I just got to work, and, um… I’m so sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Shiloh, but someone has completely totaled your truck.”

Chapter Seventeen

Let it Die

Romeo

I scowled at the wrecker backing in to take Shiloh’s little pickup out of Buzzby’s parking lot. There wasn’t much left. The tires were gone, as were the doors. The windows were smashed, same with all the lights, and the hood had been ripped off to reveal someone had taken an ax to the engine. The sideview mirrors were nowhere to be found, and the truck’s tailgate hung onto the rest of the truck by one sad little hinge. There were also ax punctures throughout the truck’s body and interior, especially the driver’s seat, tearing up the seat until it was nothing but exposed stuffing and springs.

The message was clear.

This was what they’d do to Shiloh once they caught up to her.

Fuckers.

Too bad for them that they’d never lay a glove on her.

My attention shifted from the wrecker to Zee, who’d left the diner with two cups of coffee in hand, one of which he handed to me. “Anything?”

“Tight-ass manager won’t cough up any security tapes, because we’re not theproper authorities.” His sneer was so spectacular it was a wonder it didn’t strip the asphalt off the parking lot. “I ask you, how would it fuck up the tapes if he just let us watch it a couple of times? It’s not like we’re confiscating his precious videos. I just asked to take a look at them.”

“This is the asshole who fired Shy for standing up to her rapist, so no surprise there.”

“Clown-haired fuck-nugget,” Zee muttered, then lifted a shoulder. “Anyway, Tomahawk went across the street to that pawn shop. Turns out he knows some of the peeps who work there, so we’re hoping to get something out of that. It’s just a formality, though. We know who did this.”

“Yep.” Hades and his crew. Had to be. “Always good to have confirmation, though. We’ll take what’s left of Shy’s truck back to the barn and see if there are any other calling cards they left behind.”

“Othercalling cards?”

I nodded. “Ajax found the truck’s tires and the front bumper around back in the alleyway, exactly where I gave Marvel his ass-whooping. Made a nice little arrangement with Shy’s insurance papers—complete with her name and address right on top.”

“Really?” For a moment Zee looked like he didn’t know whether to laugh or curse. “Well, well. Look at Hades and his trained assholes trying to be all tough with their messaging. Too bad all they managed to do was make themselves look as weak as a fart in a windstorm.”

“Yeah, going after an unarmed civilian woman’s truck isn’t exactly what I’d call a power move.” It did, however, make me so pissed off I couldn’t stop myself from fantasizing about heading straight over to Hades’s crib so I could smash a few heads together. Which was exactly the response that old bastard was trying to provoke—get me or Tyr so mad we did something stupid. That left me with nothing left to do but grind my teeth and try to make it up to Shy as best I could.

“It really shits me, brother.” Zee scowled as we watched the sad husk of Shiloh’s truck get secured to the wrecker. “Whatever happened to leaving civilians and family members out of club business? It’s like they think they can do whatever the hell they want with this poor woman. At this point it’s a wonder she puts up with any of our shit.”

I really didn’t need to hear that now. “She’s strong, and she’s smart.”

“You can’t smart your way out of being constantly fucked with by people who look just like us.”

“My woman can tell friend from foe.” Or that was what I kept telling myself. But even I had to admit there had to be a breaking point. This woman—mywoman—had been through so frigging much, even before I knew she existed. Enough was enough. “Shy still inside?”

“Yep, talking to that dark-haired waitress friend of hers.”

“Who’s with her?”

“The waitress with the dark hair?”

I glared pure murder at him.

“Oh, you mean your ol’ lady. I left that prospect with her, Arthur. Would you believe he’s telling everyone his road name is now King?”

“One single prospect’s not good enough,” I muttered, hands balling into fists as I turned and started for the diner. I halted just a few steps later when the glass door opened and Shiloh stepped out into the sunshine, wrapping her jacket around her like she was freezing to death. She was trailed by the prospect, a young kid with shaggy hair who looked like he was trying to be Shiloh’s second shadow. Good. Anything less and he and I would have had words.

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