Page 85 of Texas Hold Em'
Fuck ‘em.
This was my plan. My design. My fight.
I had every right to be there.
“I need to borrow a ride,” I said as I strode down the porch steps.
Both women hurried after me as we made our way to the shop.
“Where does Grant keep the keys to the bikes he’s working on?” I shouldered open the side door to the shop and flicked on the lights. They buzzed overhead as they warmed up, and I surged ahead, weaving through the bikes, checking if keys were in ignitions. They weren’t.
“This is crazy,” Sam said.
I put my back to them, lifted the back of my T-shirt up, and showed them two pistols tucked into the back of my jeans. “I never really had any intention of staying here tonight. I shouldn’t have let Tex convince me to stay. For all I know, they’re already in over their heads. But I can help them. You’re going to have a baby, Samantha.A baby.Jackson needs to come home tonight. He needs to. If I can be another set of eyes on the ground to make sure that happens? Well, then I’m damn well going to make sure I’m there. Now tell me, where are the keys?”
Sam’s eyes glistened with tears. Suzie marched forward. For a moment, I thought she was going to let me have it, but she pulled a set of keys from her pocket and dropped them into my palm. She took me by the shoulders, spun me around, and pointed to a mean-looking bike sitting near the bay doors.
“You can take mine,” she said. “It was William’s. It’s fast as hell on straightaways, but it’s not built for cornering, so don’t go into them with too much speed.” She continued listing off things I should and shouldn’t do on the bike as she opened the bay doors.
I rolled the bike out onto the gravel. “Don’t worry. I’ve ridden enough to know what I’m doing. And hey, Sam?”
Sam looked up. Her arms were wrapped around herself and she looked pale.
“Your secret is safe with me,” I said.
She smiled thinly. “Be careful, Carrie.”
The engine of the motorcycle roared to life as Suzie pulled open the metal gate on the side of the house. I pulled out into the street, leaving the women staring after me. Wind whipped at my cheeks and the fear I’d felt on the deck blew away.
Now that I’d taken back control, fear had no place in my heart.
It was time to get shit done.
CHAPTER 35
JAMESON
The landfill had three exits.
The first, that was set farthest back from the others, had a roundabout way of accessing it and it was for private business trucks that operated disposal businesses in Reno. The road was accessible from the far side of the landfill, so it required driving about three miles past the site, circling back, and accessing the road from the back.
Which was what I had to do while the others peeled off and took the second entrance.
The third entrance was the one we assumed Bates would use because it was the most direct.
Jackson had pulled me aside before we left Grant’s and let me know that he didn’t want me arriving with the others. He explained that I was supposed to be dead. The last person Bates would expect to roll up on him tonight would be me.
The dead guy.
The guy whose throat his own daughter pressed two fingers to and confirmed without a shadow of a doubt that he in fact had no pulse.
It almost made me smile to think of how surprised they’d all be to see me.
Almost.
I’d agreed to ride in on my own and hang back. Jackson wanted me to be the backup plan. If things didn’t go well, I was to be the guy lying in wait who might stand a chance of getting the upper hand.
With a little luck, our hands wouldn’t be forced.
