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A pause.
“I could text her to find out.”
My stomach soured, and I held back the violent urge to vomit, heat searing across my chest.
I remembered the timer, and I looked up to find I had less than six minutes now. I started forward again, pulling my other blade from the pallet board and tucking it away so I held just one in each hand.
Whatever Diesel thought she’d done, he was wrong.
He had to be wrong.
She was telling someone things about me and the guys, but so what? It probably wasn’t what it sounded like. Or if it was, then she…she was being manipulated. Maybe even blackmailed. Maybe…
The recording started again, and I paused, my lungs wringing themselves of air in my chest.
“Listen, baby,”the male voice said. “You know they’re monsters. Killers. They killed one of our men just last week. Diesel put a bullet between his eyes.”
My mouth fell open as it all began to fall into place in my mind, the jagged pieces fitting perfectly together where I wished they wouldn’t.
Becca was dating an Ace. That was why she was so secretive about him. It wasn’t because it was a teacher or an older guy or any of the taboo things I might’ve assumed. It was because he wasn’t allowed in Thorn Valley. And if the guys had found out she was with someone from a rival gang, her life at Briar Hall would’ve been over.
The sound of something shifting on the recording alluded to movement I had to assume was Becca.
“If my crew takes Thorn Valley, it’ll be safer, you’ll see. And if the Saints were gone, your Dad could finally come back. If Diesel isn’t here to keep buying up all the vacant properties, he’d have no reason to keep buying further south.”
“I just…” Becca trailed off. “I just don’t see how feeding you information on my friend is going to help you do all that.”
A condescending laugh from the Ace. “Don’t you see? She’s one of them now.The Crows are Diesel’s best weapons. Take them out and he’s just an old man with a gun.”
No. No, Becca, why?
“I don’t—”
“Listen to me!”the Ace thundered and something banged loudly, crumbling as Becca gasped on the tape, making my skin crawl.
“You’re scaring me!”
Heavy breathing. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, baby. I don’t want to scare you. I just need you to listen to me.”
“But they aren’t like you think. They’re good guys. Ava Jade is my friend.”
“You’re so naive. You have no idea what the world is really like. You know the Saints are the reason your mother died. What more incentive do you need?”
Another pause. So long I thought the tape had ended, but then Becca spoke again, a resolve in her tone that hadn’t been there before.
“If I help you,”the recording said, making my blood chill in my veins. “Will you promise to leave Ava Jade out of it?”
Becca cried harder, her sobs echoing around the warehouse, but this time, I couldn’t bring myself to feel empathy for her pain.
“All right. Fine. Now, tell me about the trials. And I want to know where they are at all times. Can you do that for me?”
“I…”
“This is forus. So we can be together. Isn’t that what you want? Don’t you trust me?”
Oh god.The betrayal stung more than I could’ve thought possible and my eyes burned with hot, angry tears.
“Yes.”
