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Marshall let out a low whisper as he crouched beside her body, her eyes wide open and lifeless. “Somebody wasn’t too happy with her.”
For starters, her left eye was purple and black, she had a big split in her lip, and her jaw looked to be broken.
“I got a couple of guesses.”
“Any of those guesses Ashby?”
I shook my head. “Nope. This isn’t their style. But she used to date a pusher named Dealio, and he was a real piece of fucking work.”
As far as I knew, Tits hadn’t been abused, but this was definitely a sign, maybe a fucking message.
“Maybe this will help.” The medical examiner had finally arrived on scene and motioned for me and Marshall to help turn the body.
“Holy fuck.” The fuckers cut her up like a goddamn Thanksgiving turkey, and then carved the Ace of spades onto her back, which meant she was killed by the Black Jacks, or copycats of the Black Jacks. “She was still alive when they did this to her.”
“Good eye,” the doctor, his wide smile showing how impressed he was with me. “The streaks of blood mean her heart was still pumping when they did this. The slit throat is what killed her. This was just for fun.”
Marshall stood with a grunt but his gaze never left Tits. “As tragic as this is, how does it help us nail who killed Mueller and Ashby?”
“The Black Jacks did this,” I insisted angrily. Pissed off for Tits because she didn’t deserve this. She was a cool chick who did what most people in the Green Zone did, whatever the fuck they had to in order to survive. “Until recently, the Black Jacks worked with Brendan Rhymer in his bid to take over the family business. When Brendan failed, they started working with the old man.”
Marshall blinked. “Rumor has it they were behind the kidnapping of Savannah Rhymer.”
“Yep. Kidnapping, drugging her up and gang raping her, if you want the whole story. Orchestrated by her own damn brother if you can call him that.” I shook off that thought because Savannah was free and Tits was dead. Shit. “I honestly thought the Jacks were gone.”
“This case is turning into a pain in my ass,” Marshall growled.
“I need to talk to some people, and it’ll be better if you’re not with me.” I stared at Marshall and waited for him to object, but the guy was old school.
He nodded. “Let me know what you find.”
I nodded and jogged back to the car and headed in search of Savannah and Charlie.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Madison
I didn’t normally answer calls on my cellphone from numbers I didn’t know or even restricted numbers. A lesson I’d learned after too many calls with deep breathing and nasty comments. But when my phone pinged, I answered it without thinking.
“Hello?”
“Maddie? Hey, it’s me. Molly.”
Molly? That was music to my ears. “Molly? Holy shit, I’ve been looking all over the place for you. How are you? Where are you? Just—"
“Madison, stop.” My lips snapped shut, and I closed my eyes and listened. “I’m okay, but it’s not safe for us to talk right now. When it is, I’ll contact you. I promise.”
“But Molly—”
“Please. Listen to me. I’ll call you when I can.” Molly ended the call before I could tell her the good news, that Mueller was dead, and she was safe. I heard the fear in Molly’s voice. Which told me how bad things had been for her, but it was clear she didn’t know about Mueller.
I stood in my room for at least an hour, staring off into space, feeling pissed off that Molly didn’t even give me a chance to explain. Hurt that she didn’t even want to talk to me when I’d spent so much of my time and energy searching for her. Hell, I got myself mixed up in some shit I was quite sure I didn’t want to be involved in, and I did it all with the end goal of keeping her out of her prison.
And she didn’t even ask how I was doing.
That fucking sucked. Big time. Maybe it was time for me to move on from Glitz? It seemed like Molly had a new ID and a new life and wanted nothing to do with me. Maybe I ought to take the fucking hint and leave town, live my life on my own. Completely on my own.
I dressed quickly in jeans and a t-shirt because I no longer felt like getting all sexed up. I grabbed my ID, some cash, and my car keys, and I headed to the one place I knew I could vent and cry until I felt better about it all.
“Hey.” Jameson opened the door with a sexy grin that only curled up one side of his mouth.
“Hey,” I sighed because, hot damn, how was it fair for a man to look so good in basketball shorts and a t-shirt? My heart sped up at the sight of him and my nipples hardened behind the soft cotton cups of my bra, at the searing heat evident in his gray eyes.
