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“What’s the hold up?” Rory asks, peering past me at the closed garage door.
“I want to ride my bike to wherever you plan to keep me,” I respond, trying to sound firm about it.
“No,” Sloan says immediately. “Not happening.”
“What? Why not?”
“You think we’re that stupid?” He narrows his eyes, leveling a flat look at me.
“What am I gonna do, run off?” I snap. “Flee across the border to Mexico? You’ve got my dad by the balls for whatever reason. I’m not going to abandon him.”
He just shakes his head and keeps walking back to the car, and the other two follow suit, leaving me there seething.
“We’ll send someone to pick it up and bring it to the house later,” Levi offers, like it’s some kind of olive branch.
I flip off his back and sigh, following them to the car. I don’t have any other choice, clearly.
The car ride is at least pretty short, and Rory seems to have finally exhausted himself of flirtatious jokes. Either that or he’s just resting until he gets his second wind, but I’m fine with the silence either way. It’s better than the teasing.
I keep my arms folded and stare out the window, but I don’t recognize the neighborhood at all. The trees and houses that whip by are a good distraction from my three captors, and I focus on the scenery instead of them, still stewing in anger and worry.
This is so fucked up. The Black Rose gang shouldn’t be able to control people’s lives like this. They shouldn’t be able to get away with basically forcing Dad to do their dirty work.
It’s bullshit, and the fact that I have no choice but to go along with them if I want to keep Dad safe makes me want to hit something. Preferably one of their faces. Or all three of them. I’m not picky.
But my rage isn’t productive, and it won’t do anything to help Dad with the problem he has now.
Maybe there is something I can do to help though.
These men said they’re keeping me as collateral. From the sounds of it, I’ll be living with all three of them. I have no idea exactly what that will entail or how much freedom I might have in this new arrangement, but I do know one thing.
I’ll be behind enemy lines.
They’re all thinking of me as a captive, a pawn. But maybe, if I’m smart and play my cards right, I can be something else too.
A spy.
I don’t know too much about the Black Roses, except that their business is dangerous and illegal, and most people in Fairview Heights are afraid of them. But maybe this will be a chance for me to find out more about how they operate. Maybe I can find some weakness in their organization or dig up some dirt on them that I can use as leverage.
Determination settles into my chest at the thought, slowing my pounding heart and clearing my head a little.
If no one stands up to these assholes, they’ll just keep walking all over us. They’ll make demands and back them up with the threat of violence, and who’s going to stop them? Who’s to say that even after Dad completes this job for them, they’ll actually let him go?
They could keep insisting that he owes them, demanding more and more until they finally kill him anyway when he’s no longer useful.
These men clearly have no honor. So the only way to ensure our protection is to learn their secrets, figure out what makes them tick.
And then I can make them pay for all of this.
I can find a way to bring the Black Roses down.
4
After another ten minutes of driving, we pull up to a house, and it’s just as annoying as everything else about these guys.
The place is gorgeous, for one thing. Big and expensive, set back from the street with a sprawling lawn that they probably have no idea how to maintain themselves. I highly doubt any of them spend their weekends out under the sun pushing a lawnmower, the way I remember my dad doing on Saturdays in the spring and summer.
They have their fancy-ass cars with the tinted windows, this fucking mansion of a house, everything they could ever want, probably, and they still throw their power around to wreck people’s lives. People like my dad, who has just been trying to earn a fucking living with his fights, since that’s the thing he knows best.
