Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 128812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
As if controlled by words, Scott opens his mouth to yawn, his arms lifting over his head, stretching with a grunt that just rubs me the wrong way.
I'm pulled from my consideration of how easy it would be to hide a fucking body in the woods when he speaks again.
"Yeah," Scott agrees. "Jail isn't on my agenda tonight."
He closes the car's trunk before heading back to the driver's seat.
"Bobby is going to be really excited about that AR-15 we just scored," he says.
I climb into the back seat, my ass hitting the stained cloth as he drops in behind the wheel.
"You don't think he'll be mad we went off script?"
"Naw," Scott says, shaking his head as he cranks the car. "Like I was saying earlier, the guns are great, but that's not where we make the most money."
Instead of questioning or even engaging, I sit back and watch the trees roll by as we make our way off the mountain, taking the same path we took on the way up here because one of the most frustrating things about Tennessee roads is that there's usually only one way in and one way out of any given location.
He doesn't slow down as we drive past the first cabin we hit tonight, and I do my best to keep my breath of relief from being heard as we turn left off that road and continue toward town.
"The most money we make is with the women and girls," he continues. Riding the high of breaking the law is clearly making him less worried about giving us too much information, but that's how criminals' minds work. When you do something illegal with someone, they see you as part of a brotherhood, and then the chance of secrets between you and them is lessened. It's no different fighting in a war alongside other Marines. Even thinking of the similarities between myself as a soldier and these degenerates makes my skin crawl.
"We could go back and grab those guys," Scott offers, making me snap my eyes in his direction. "But our clients aren't really into watching two guys fuck, and Bobby said last week that the demand for snuff films is on the decline."
He reveals the group's involvement in murder for entertainment, just as he would if he were explaining why the price of cheese on burgers at The Garage has gone up.
"Yeah," Zayne says, his eyes focused on the passenger side window. "I'm not really into wasting time and resources on shit that doesn't further our cause."
Chapter 23
Zayne
The ride back to The Garage seemed to go on forever.
I have a million things to say to Zeus, but words aren't something we have the privilege of knowing the truck is bugged.
If anyone is listening or monitoring what we say in the vehicle, they may find it strange that neither of us says a word on the way back to that shitty little house we're calling home right now. But I just don't have the energy after what happened tonight to make small talk, even if it means making whoever's listening suspicious.
What happened tonight was no surprise to me.
Working in this field, it didn't take long for my sheltered bubble to be popped, to realize that there are more people like Scott, people willing to hurt and assault others just for existing the way they were made, than a lot of people want to think.
I was never completely ignorant of the existence of those people. I was just raised to believe that people would whisper their distaste for certain things, assuming the people they were talking to felt exactly the same way.
To be so blatant and open about their opinions was a slap in the face the first time it happened, and to be honest, it took a minute for me to realize that they fully expected me to feel the same way.
The fact that Scott backed down so easily, rather than confronting and challenging me at my suggestion, was surprising, though. I've been faced with situations very similar to that before, and more often than not, it's a struggle to guide someone's attention away from their evil intentions, especially when they're behaving the way they think people expect of them.
Thankfully, all those past situations were like tonight, and I was able to prevent terrible shit from happening. I've never been faced with having to blow my cover to keep some really bad shit from happening, but I know how close I came tonight. Although I know there wouldn't be any blowback from Cerberus if that's where the night took us, I'm grateful that piece-of-shit Scott was easily persuaded to change his mind.
The look in Zeus's eyes at the moment told me he wasn't sure if I would stand back and let those two men get assaulted in order to stay in character, and I think that hurts me more than the way he treated me all those years ago. The fact that he doesn't know my character and limits not only saddens me, but it pisses me off to the point that I'm vibrating with anger as I pull up to the front of the house.