Page 37 of Caged Bird

A freestanding police station came into view, and I took my foot off the gas a little, my heart leaping into my throat while I tried to think about what to do.

Spider frowned at me. “My grandmother drives faster than you. You want to fucking hurry up?”

I already knew I couldn’t just turn into the driveway, wander in, and make a report while all of Eddie’s guys waited for me in the truck.

I needed time to think. To come up with some sort of plan.

A smart one that wouldn’t end in Fawn or Otis or Mom getting hurt.

One that preferably didn’t end with me dead in a shallow grave either.

The police station disappeared in my rearview mirror. “Tell me about the job,” I demanded of Spider. “What’s at this address we’re going to?”

“A house.”

I pulled my gaze from the road and glanced over at him. “Super helpful. Want to be more elaborate?”

“No. Turn right up here.”

I did, just wanting to get whatever this job was done. I raised my voice to talk to the guys in the back seat. “Any of you want to fill me in?”

No one said a word, probably because Spider had set the tone and the others were taking their cues from the devil they knew. I couldn’t really blame them.

“No? Nobody wants to speak all of a sudden? I’m not going to be much fucking good as your fifth if nobody fills me in on what’s going on. Drugs, right?”

“Oh darn it, you caught us.” Spider clapped his hands together sarcastically. “Yeah, it’s drugs.”

The guys in the back all chuckled, telling me I was clearly off base.

“Guns, then?”

Nobody said anything.

My blood ran cold. “Women. You’re fucking trafficking women?”

Of course they were. Eddie had always loved lording it over women, using their bodies, bending them to his will until he broke them. It wasn’t much of a jump to trafficking them.

“Big white house up there on the corner.” Spider pointed ahead of us. “Drive past, park on the side street.”

I eyed the house as we passed, but it was just like any other suburban home on the block. Albeit a nice one, in an upper-class neighborhood.

“Santos, you go around the back.” Spider pulled a gun from the back of his jeans. “Derek and Ward, you come in from the left and right.” He sneered at me. “The boss here and I will cover the front.”

The guys all piled out of the truck as soon as I parked it and took up the positions Spider had indicated before I had even moved.

“You fucking coming or what?” Spider’s gun gleamed in the morning sunlight. The weapon felt out of place in a nice neighborhood like this.

Any thoughts I might have had about just leaving them there and driving the truck away disintegrated with a weapon pointed at me and the reminder the house I’d rented for Mom was also in a nice neighborhood, just like this one.

I got out and followed Spider, walking right up to the front door. He rapped his knuckles across it, and when nobody came, he leaned on it sharply, popping it from the lock with a single hard shove.

I felt sick watching the way it opened so easily.

The one on my house was exactly the same.

“You take the upstairs,” Spider directed once we were inside. “I’ll handle the lower level.” He motioned with his gun toward the stairs. “Go. Get anything of value we can sell. Cash. Jewelry. Whatever.”

I frowned. “Seriously? Petty theft is the aim of the game here?”

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