Page 124 of Shattering Nash

It was musty and damp with a faint smell of blood. This was not the first time this house had been used to silence people. And it wouldn’t be the last.

There were a few brothers around the perimeter of the open space. The two officers, Mitchell and Becker, were seated in chairs in the middle of the room. They’d been worked over. Dried blood and swelling on each of their faces. Their clothes were dirty and ripped in a few places. They’d taken beatings, but as promised, they were still breathing.

For now.

Nash stopped a few feet away, watching their features shift to shock as they eyed each man entering the room.

Ace spread out his arms, taunting the officers. “You’ve got us all in one room. Isn’t this what you wanted?”

Rogue laughed, walking closer and circling around them. “If a whole fleet of cops and feds stormed this room right now, you fuckers would be hailed as heroes. Get your name in the paper, be on the fucking news giving interviews. Fuck, they’d probably organize a parade in your honor.” Rogue looked over at the staircase leading to the door. “But that’s not fucking happening.”

“We gave you everything you wanted,” Mitchell said to Ace.

Nash moved closer, narrowing his gaze. “Now you’ll give me what I want. Charley Hudson.”

He blinked, sharing a look with Becker. “We didn’t fucking touch that girl.”

Nash arched his brow. “No, you just set her up to take the fall for her brother.”

“Fuck,” Becker muttered under his breath. “What? What do you want?”

“Details,” Oz said. “We know you made a deal with Cody to act as an informant. Start there.”

Mitchell shifted in his chair. “We picked Cody up a few months ago. He’d been running with Zeke for a while. We saw our in. He had a clean record and wasn’t affiliated, so he was a perfect informant. He agreed to sign on without hesitation. We may have under-investigated the situation. We figured he was a casual user. Didn’t realize until we were deeper in that he’d been an addict for years.”

Nash folded his arms. “Yet, you still moved forward.”

“Hey, man. We sent the kid to a program to get him clean.”

“Aren’t you a fucking saint,” Rogue snapped.

Nash moved closer. “You did that for your own gain. And news fucking flash, asshole. Thirty days isn’t gonna do shit for an addict with eight years under his belt. But I think you knew that. Just had to keep him clean until he no longer served a purpose. Right?”

“Look, we invested a lot of fucking time with this kid and the operation. He was holding a lot of product for Zeke. We couldn’t just bail.” Mitchell drew in a breath. “And we thought he had enough of a healthy fear to cut back on the shit. It was all working according to plan. Until” —He paused, clearing his throat— “He had an altercation with his sister.”

“Altercation?” Nash snapped and stalked forward. “Is that what you said? A fucking altercation? He tried to strangle her.”

He held up his hands. “How could we have predicted that was going to happen?”

“Isn’t it yourjobto be one step ahead in an operation like this?” Trey asked.

“Up until that night, we’d never seen any signs of violence. He’d been acting off a few days leading up to the bust on Zeke, but we were so fucking close. We couldn’t just shut it down.”

Had they, Charley would’ve never been attacked or had to deal with any of the events of the aftermath. Nash balled his fists, trying to regain a semblance of control. He’d get his revenge.

“What happened to the product?” he asked.

Becker looked directly at Nash. “We took it with us when we got Cody outta there.”

Nash clenched his jaw. “You set this whole thing up with no thought to how it would play out for her. You had to know that Zeke would come back for the stash, and she was left alone with no protection or knowledge. What the fuck did you think was going to happen?”

“There were missteps,” Mitchell said.

That sent Nash over the edge. This wasn’t a misstep, this was total disregard for someone innocent in the situation.My fucking woman!Nash lunged forward, reared back his fist, and slammed it directly into Mitchell’s jaw. He flew back, falling off the chair. But Nash wasn’t done. Not even close. He gripped the man by the throat, knocking his head into the floor twice.

“I would love nothing more than to gut you. Start at the throat and cut you down to your stomach. Rip out your fucking heart and send it to your wife in a box with a fancy fucking red bow.”

“Well fuck, I’m not opposed to that idea,” Rogue said.

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