Page 101 of Outcast

"In here," Matthews said. He was waiting with the office door open.

Again, I went in first and Esteban second. Matthews' two guys stood on either side of the closed office door with their arms crossed. Shocking that they hadn't taken the time to get a weapon. Unless they were hiding it in the ass of their shorts. Unlikely.

The three of us sat down, Esteban taking the chair Rita had sat in. Leaning back, I let my gun hand dangle from the end of the chair arm. I still had a good grip on the weapon, but this way, they wouldn't feel like I was aiming it at their chests.

"So, what brings you back with so muchfriendliness." Matthews bared his teeth.

"It seems you left out some key details when we were here."

Matthews snorted. "Of course, I did. I'm not from here, but I'm not stupid."

"Hey, I get it," Esteban spread his knees and got comfortable. "We're not allies or anything like that. Why would you tell us anything at all?"

"I think I gave you plenty." From the heavy set of his brows, he believed he had.

"You did," I agreed. Flicking my gaze to the men at the door, I checked their expressions. They were stone-faced. Either they had a hell of a poker face, or Matthews had filled them in on what he shared. "The question is, why did you share just enough to get us killed?"

Matthews started twisting from side to side in his chair. "Your buddy would have tried to kill you whether I gave you that information or not. In fact, it worked in your favor, because, not only did you uncover a person who tried to kill you, you survived."

"The funny thing is, he could have been your rat." I watched for a cue.

Not even the most minuscule twitch of his face or hands that were in full view.

"He's not,” I deduced.

Matthews slowly relaxed as if he felt the danger had passed. "He's not."

"If he was, you would have said something. Maybe or maybe not." Twisting my mouth to the side, I pretended to think this through. "But you or someone in your–Do you have a club name yet?"

A real smile broke out on his face. "No, not yet. We thought about Freedom Fighters and all kinds of cheesy names, but none of them feel right. So we're just the club until we think of something better."

"I wished I could help you, but I'm shit with names. Javier came up with Dirty Dogs," Esteban said lightly and Matthews relaxed further.

"Not a big deal. It will come to us when it's time."

"Which one of your guys has been hanging out with the Dirty Dogs?" I asked.

Matthews froze. "What makes you think that we're hanging out?"

"That's the funny thing. You see, Rita's cleaning house, and we discovered that someone from your club has been hanging out with some of our problem children."

"Our?" Matthews asked, likely as a distraction.

"What can I say? I put in my application so I already consider myself part of the club."

His nose twitched. He didn’t seem to appreciate my sarcasm.

"You became part of the club when you started sticking your dick in Rita,” Matthews returned dryly.

What the fuck?

Esteban shook in silent laughter.

"Don't look at him like that. We already knew. The first time I met Esteban, I told him I'd done my homework on every single person's name I could find." His gaze shot to me. "Which includes you."

"Who has been meeting with the club?" I asked again. I didn’t give a shit about what he did or didn’t know about the club. I wanted his contact. I wanted any information he had on a plan to hurt Rita.

"I have." One of the men by the door said. He was a burly motherfucker. A full head of hair and scruffy beard. Not anything I thought a US military man would look like.

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