Page 92 of Lawless

“That’s what he wants,” Dev says.

“Which is why we’re not going to give it to him,” I mutter. “I’m done playing by his rules.”

“And how do you propose we do that when we have no intel?” Ezra asks.

“Something will come up,” I say, sounding a lot more confident than I feel.

It has to.

Despite the past and everything I’ve thought of Alana and Mav, I can’t leave them out there for Victor, Razor and Kurt to play with.

Not only would JD fucking kill me for doing so, but because they don’t deserve it.

“Have you spoken to Aubrey today?” Dev asks.

“Not yet.”

“If she’s as good as you say she is, she’ll find something,” he assures me.

She’s going to have to because we’ve exhausted all other avenues.

Ellis has done everything he can to try and get through the barriers Victor has put in place to stop us from tracking them. Griff has had his IT guys on it as well, but as of yet, nothing has been uncovered.His signal blockers are too good.

It’s literally like they’ve fallen off the face of the Earth.

As far as we can tell, none of them have turned back up in the Creek to allow us to follow or track their cars.

There’s nothing. And it’s driving me fucking insane.

With every hour that passes, the fear that he’s going to beat me only increases.

But I refuse to give up. I can’t.

I’ve got to do this for J. For Alana and Mav. For my brothers. For this entire fucking town who needs that cunt out of their lives.

They might not know it, but they’re all relying on me to see this through and come out as the winner.

There is no other option.

“I’m going upstairs. Call me if you hear anything,” I bark before blowing out of the room and running up the stairs as if it’ll help.

I stop beside JD’s door to take a moment to calm down.

The last thing he needs is to see what a fucking mess I am over all of this.

I need to be strong for him. He needs my support and my strength.

Once I’m confident that I can walk into his room with my head held high, I take a step forward and push the door open.

“Hey, how are you doing?” I ask, thankful that my voice comes out strong and unwavering.

“Fantastic,” he deadpans.

It’s been just over twenty-four hours since he properly woke, and he seems to be getting stronger with every hour that passes. Thank fuck.

Doc swung by yesterday, changed his dressing, and removed the tubes delivering him blood and medication now that he’s fully awake. That means the responsibility to ensure he takes his meds is now fully on my shoulders.

I could relax while it was automatically dripping into his veins. But now…

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