Page 15 of Roses and Skulls

He pounds his fist on the table, making me jump clean out of my chair.

Dan puts his hand on my dad’s shoulder, his fingers digging deep in warning.

“Billie Rose, why don’t you take your mom a bottle of water and check on her,” Raffe says, nodding towards the door.

I nod jerkily, grabbing a water out of the fridge, making a quick exit.

But when I get around the corner, I pause and listen to their conversation.

“Do you think you can scare the answers out of her?” Dan asks angrily.

A chair scrapes across the floor and I hear someone stomping across the kitchen. “You don’t think it’s a little odd that she just happens to come home with a fucking crow?” my dad yells.

I quickly tuck myself behind the bookcase when JD rushes down the hall, heading for the kitchen.

“One of the Desert Dipshits bought the bar,” he exclaims.

The silence that follows is deafening. Do they already know about Draven?

“Well, fuck. We need to know what this guy is up to,” Dan says.

“You know what he’s up to. It’s always what the Devils are up to. He’s probably planning to peddle their crap here,” JD responds.

“Not on my fucking watch,” my dad says, deadly calm.

“I hear he’s trying to start up a new chapter of Devils. He even brought over some of the old fuckers from Trap County.”

“Not good. Well then, we need to get someone on the inside. We need to keep our eyes on him.”

I creep towards the door so I can hear better. What the fuck are they talking about?

“It’s got to be someone none of them know,” Raffe adds.

They’re quiet for a minute.

Then my dad pipes up. “We send our new recruit.”

“Oh shit, Dirk, Jesse won’t be happy about that,” Raffe says.

“I’ll work on her. Don’t worry about it. But this isn’t our only problem. We still need to find out who gave Billie Rose that fucking bird.”

I’m so confused.

“Don’t you think it’s an awful big coincidence that a new chapter of the Devils is starting up at the same time Billie Rose totes home a live crow,” Dan chimes in.

Crap.

I hurry down to my mom, not wanting to get caught eavesdropping.

She has her eyes closed when I approach. I stand there, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, wondering if I should wake her.

“I’m not asleep,” she peeks one eye open.

She pulls herself up and pulls her long silver-black hair over her shoulder.

I brought you something to drink,my phone tells her as I sit down on the coffee table in front of her.

“Thank you, baby,” she says, taking the water from me. She leans over and pats my cheek. “I’m sorry I scared you.”

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