Page 44 of Break for Me

It was quiet out here once he was gone. Quiet enough that I could hear what I imagined were the sounds of the city just a few miles deeper in the direction that Mark had gone. So, at least it wouldn’t be difficult to find my way into a crowd soon. I was somewhere in between the woods and urban life in this parking lot though, with no other buildings in immediate eyesight through the trees in any direction. There were a grand total of four trucks and two cars in this lot with me. But for a bar in the middle of the day, somewhat in the middle of nowhere, that was probably normal. I headed for the door, not really sure what to expect from the inside of a Kentucky bar that sat alone in the woods.

thirty-three

JERSEY

“What, Memphis?” I asked after pushing the button on the display to answer her call through the Bluetooth.

“You need to slow down, Jersey.”

“What?”

“I’m looking at you on my screen right now. Says this little purple dot is currently moving a hundred and seventeen miles per hour,” she said.

“I don’t have time for this,” I said and reached toward the display.

“Don’t you dare hang up on me, Jersey Boy. I didn’t put you in this predicament.”

Trista was already ahead of me by a good three hours after having to just sit and fucking wait for the truck to show up with new tires and to get the slashed ones swapped out. Three hours of imagining the stupid look on that girl’s face while she would’ve taken my own fucking knife to my baby’s tires. The fury over Persephone had blinded me to everything else. I hadn’t even made my way around to being pissed off about what she’d done with my suit jacket yet. She had no way of knowing that the connections within this organization were limitless. Memphis managed to have the driver who delivered my tires also bring me the replacements of just about everything that had been in my wallet. So, at least I had a license in case I were to get pulled over for hauling ass down every open road I found.

“Jersey?”

“What?”

“Wanna talk about it?” She asked and giggled.

“Memphis.”

She laughed again. “What were you thinking though? Really? How did this play out in your mind?”

“I thought I might as well have an orgasm or two before I dropped her ass off and got the biggest payday of our career.”

“You couldn’t just pick out somebody else to achieve that?”

“She was conveniently located.”

“I’m going to need you to start thinking with your big head, Jersey Boy. Not the little one.”

“They’re really about the same size.”

“Oh my,” she said. “That one’s a bit much to be sharing with your coworker.”

“Hey, you’re the one who wanted to talk about it.”

“It really didn’t cross your mind beforehand that maybe she was seducing you just for this reason?” Memphis asked. “You didn’t even stop to think that maybe that’s how she got away from so many other teams? I saw the pictures just like you did. She’d be an idiot to not use herself to her own advantage.”

I nearly went fucking blind again imagining her screaming the name of any other state. Half the fucking bed was wet by the time I was done. There was no way she was that good of an actress for that to have all been faked. I didn’t know the other Executioners who’d had the job before Texas and me. Couldn’t have even offered a guess as to what they looked like. But the thought of some other dangerous, faceless motherfucker who could make her whimper and squirm that way?

Wait.

None of that was what I was supposed to be pissed off about right now.

What the fuck was that?

“Jersey?”

Fuck. How long had I been lost in that pit of rage?

“That’s not what happened with the others,” I said quickly. “Texas kept her drugged and without clothing. I got the feeling that she wasn’t a willing party for whatever might have happened there.”

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