Page 53 of Heresy

But we can’t be blamed for missing her at that point in time. The servers were still in Luca’s storage unit that night, and Jerry Thornton hadn’t yet taken off to run God knows where.

I can’t help but wonder if the reason Brinley was at the party that night has everything to do with Jerry’s disappearance, rather than him running because of Luca’s phone call about the servers.

There are simply too many questions. And fortunately for the Inferno, I might have the answers to several of them firmly in hand.

I’ll do whatever it takes to rip those answers out of her whether she likes it or not.

To date, the rest of the guys have been playing by a certain set of rules to get what they want. A code, more or less, about how far they are willing to go and what they are willing to do to achieve what they need.

That’s probably why it took Tanner and Gabe so long to get their women under thumb. Their ethics, while not exactly acceptable by modern society, were still precariously housed within a grey spectrum.

Their actions were forgivable, their methods digestible. Their women fell in love with them despite everything they had done.

But I’m the heretic of the group, and I’m not known for following rules. Coloring within the lines of ethics and morality is meaningless when it comes to getting what I want.

There are things I’ve done that not even the Inferno knows about. And the truth is if they found out, even they would probably never forgive me.

But I did those things for a reason.

And I’d do them again if given the chance.

It’s why I hope Brinley is happily compliant with everything I ask of her today. It’ll make things easier for me. But mostly, it’ll make things easier for her as well.

I’d hate to see what lows I’m willing to drop to this time to take care of a problem.

Dialing my phone, I push up to one elbow, my mattress sinking beneath my weight as the sun barely scratches the horizon. Why I’m up so early is absolute bullshit, but two is better than one when it comes to misery.

“There better be a good goddamned reason you’re bothering me this early in the fucking morning.”

“Because I miss your company.”

Priest hangs up on me, the sudden silence forcing a burst of laughter from my lungs.

I call him back immediately.

“For fuck’s sake, Shane. What the hell is your problem? It’s—”

I hear the blankets of his bed shuffle as he’s most likely twisting around to check his alarm clock.

“It’s only six in the damn morning. What kind of brain damage do you have that makes you stupid enough to think you can call me this early? I’m going to beat your ass with a fucking tire iron next time I see you.”

Ignoring him, I push up to sit on the side of the bed, my legs swinging over the side and feet dropping to the floor. I’m feeling oddly chipper for this ungodly time in the morning.

“I need you to get to the shop and call Brinley in.”

A few second of silence before, “It is six in the fucking morning, you piece of shit. What do you not understand about that?”

Holding the phone away from my ear for his response, I just barely prevent my eardrums from bursting. When Priest gets mad, he gets loud.

I put the phone back too soon, my ears ringing when he yells, “Fucking six, you bastard!”

Apparently, Priest needs a second or two to calm down.

I wait patiently while his grumpy ass groans and grumbles, the blankets shifting more before the sound of his neck cracking is followed by what I assume are other joints doing the same.

Prior to being a mechanic, he was a stunt driver who wrecked cars for a living. While he lived to tell about it, the job didn’t do great things for his body.

“Okay, I’m better.”

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