Ivan’s eyes went wide.
“Who were you talking to on the phone right before we walked in here?” I asked.
I’d heard all that I needed to hear.
But I wanted to allow him to dig his hole just a little bit deeper.
“Um, no one,” he lied.
“Have you heard from Bruno’s stepfather?” I asked. “We can’t seem to find him.”
That’s when Ivan slumped.
I knew he knew we knew.
“Sin here didn’t hear your story,” I said as I took a seat. “How about you tell me that now, so he can hear. Did you know Sin was one of those guys I got released? But don’t worry, he only got sent there because he caught a man trying to harm a woman. You should be safe. You know. Because you’re just trying to protect Six, right?”
Ivan’s face went white.
“I swear, they told me what to do, and I did it. I had no choice.” His chin wobbled. “I had no choice.”
I leaned down onto his bad leg, causing him to wince.
“I think it’s time for a little transparency, Ivan,” I said softly.
Ivan’s face went even whiter at my comment.
I kept leaning, knowing that it had to be hurting now.
How lucky was it that he’d just had knee surgery before he’d broken his leg, and that they’d left the cast off except for some flimsy piece of shit brace that he just so happened to have off?
It enabled me to…
Crack.
Ivan screamed, but Laric, showing that he knew what was about to happen, covered his face with a pillow.
I let go of his leg.
“Damn, didn’t think it’d be that easy to break,” I admitted. “Now… tell me everything.”
• • •
“He fuckin’ snowed us,” Laric said as he shoved an unconscious Ivan into the back seat of Six’s car.
Honestly, now I was glad to have her car because it meant that mine wouldn’t get dirty. Which had me fuckin’ laughing under my breath because I somehow knew that Six wouldn’t feel the same. Not at all.
But, maybe she’d be okay with it if I just bought her a new one. After a while. Possibly in ten years.
Ivan wasn’t bleeding, per se, but there was no telling whether he would be doing by the time I was done driving him to the land where I shared all my best skills with the visitors.
After tumbling the unconscious asshole into the back, I tipped my head at the orderly that I’d been paying to keep an eye on Ivan and hadn’t done an all-too-good job of it.
But, again, he was a low-level employee of mine. Or, an unofficial one, anyway. I didn’t really expect all that much, which was why I wasn’t too mad at the fact that he hadn’t overheard the phone calls.
“Ready?” Laric asked, looking around him at the practically empty parking lot.
“Ready,” I confirmed. “What’s wrong?”
He gestured toward the parking lot. “Why the hell is everyone gone?”
“Everyone always leaves during lunchtime,” Sin said as he snacked on a beef jerky stick that he’d gotten from the gas station beside the rehab facility. “That’s what the manager at the gas station said. He was quite helpful, actually. I know who is and isn’t fucking each other, too. Because he can see the parking lot. I gave him a hundred dollars to not see anything.”
I snorted. “Thanks.”
“Welcome,” Sin said as he got onto his bike. “I’m ready when y’all are.”
I got into Six’s SUV and started it up, wincing at the sound of her motor.
Laric laughed at the look on my face as he got on his bike and started his up, too.
My heart seized in my chest for a moment as I watched him pull out into traffic seconds later, reckless and uncaring.
Sin gestured for me to go first and placed one booted foot onto the ground to wait for me to pull out.
I did seconds later, followed shortly by Sin.
I’d just caught up to Laric at the red light when he gestured for me to roll down the window.
I did, on both sides, and looked at Laric.
“We need to find out why Wyett was told not to share that information with Six.”
Laric raised his voice over the din of his engine. “Good catch. I heard that the other day and wondered the same thing. Why wouldn’t Wyett share that?”
I nodded once. “Already planned on that. I’m going to text Six at the next long light and ask her to…”
A car horn blew, bringing my attention away from Laric and toward what was going on in front of me.
I blinked and watched in horror as a car ran the stoplight on the other side and headed right for us.
Knowing that there was only one thing I could do and realizing rather quickly that this was going to fuckin’ hurt, I drove forward and met the car head on, hoping that the force of the crash wouldn’t push me into the bikes.