Page 73 of Breaking Conviction
“My grandmomma did too, but once I found out about the oven, there was no goin’ back. I like how it gets crispier all over.”
“It’s damn good. That all you gonna eat? Don’t want it to go to waste.”
“Won’t Hawk, Wes, and Devil want some too?”
Phoenix kept shoveling in as he answered. “Doubtful. After they’re done ‘interrogatin’ Ascot, they probably won’t have the stomach for it.”
Naomi’s fork paused on the way to her mouth and the eggs fell off. “Wh-what’s that mean? Wes said y’all were gonna persuade him to talk today?”
Phoenix snorted. “Sh’yeah, right,persuade, that’s a fancy-ass name for it, but sure.”
Naomi blinked a few times, watching Phoenix scarf down his food like a starving man. “What’s therightname for it, then?”
“Um,torture? Shit, if your belovedWeswas in charge, the guy might not even be above ground right now, let alone in our basement.” Phoenix continued to laugh before looking up. Whatever he saw in her face made him green again and curse under his breath. “Aw hell, he didn’t tell you.”
Naomi set her plate aside and spoke low. “Phoenix, I’mma ask this nicely. Whatthe fuckis goin’ on?” Her conversation with Wes flashed across her mind like headlights in the dark.
“...maybe you should ease up on the boxin’...”
“Yeah, uh… you’re right.”
He hadn’t lied,per se, but omission was just as bad.
Phoenix swallowed hard, even though he’d stopped shoveling food down for the time being. “Uh… I-I dunno.” He lifted his hat and turned it around on his head. “I-I’m still drunk, who the hell knows what I’m sayin’?” He forced a laugh, but Naomi glared at him until it died. “Shit, you’re scary when you go all mom face, you know that, right?”
“Where are they, Phoenix?”
“Like… really, really scary. You just went zero to one hundred, real quick.”
“I ain’t fuckin’ around, Phoenix.” She was so pissed off, her accent came out thicker than even she was used to. “Take me to ‘em right now, or so help me I’ll tell everyone what you said last night.”
A flood of panic and bewilderment filled his face and she could tell her bluff had worked. She couldn’t remember what he’d said the night before, but obviously he was filling in blanks he didn’t want anyone else knowing about. She mentally pinned that in the back of her mind to investigate.
He gulped and nodded. “Okay, sure… just, uh… just follow me.”
As Phoenix led her through toward the staircase in the center of the converted warehouse, Naomi silently cursed her blind trust in Wes. She’d promised herself that she’d stay clueless. Plausible deniability and all that.
But she wouldn’t let herself stay in the dark any longer. Her daddy had been the best investigator Ashland County had ever seen before he got promoted. Needless to say, Captain George Ward’s genes held strong, and she couldn’t go one more second without figuring out what the hell was going on.
They traveled the stairs, but when they got to the first floor, Phoenix led them out of the stairwell and into the war room where she and Wes had had their first kiss. It’d opened her eyes to her feelings for him and how much she needed to get out of her toxic relationship. But had she just traded one monster for another?
They entered the war room and Phoenix went to the opposite wall and pressed what looked like simple grooves in the metal.
“Fuckin’ A, they’re all gonna kill me,” he murmured under his breath.
“Wes won’t if I get to him first,” Naomi grumbled back.
A hole in the floor opened up like magic. Seriously, one moment it was a seemingly impenetrable concrete floor, the next it was a damn hole that led to the basement.
“This way.”
Phoenix descended the steep metal staircase and Naomi had a moment of hesitation. She obviously had poor judgment in men. What if this was a trap? Immediately, she shoved the paranoid thought away. She had nothing to offer these men. At best, she was good at making breakfast and exposing party guests. At worst, she was a drain on their resources and a potential liability that could get them all killed.
She took a breath and followed Phoenix down into an empty hallway made of concrete and metal. They didn’t have to walk far before he stood in an open doorway.
“Guys… we have a visitor.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
