AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Braden shakes his head again, but he can’t deny what we’re saying is true.
“Why?” I demand. “Why would you do that?”
“I-I don’t know. I just…thought it would be a good idea, I guess. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. I was just trying to make some extra money.”
“So you could do what? Buy more drugs?” Ace sneers at him.
Braden shakes his head furiously denying it. “For the church. I didn’t steal your money, I swear. I only accepted the money you gave me in exchange for helping you.”
“Bullshit,” Shades snarls, still standing close and towering over him. “We want the truth,” he says with deadly calm.
“I am telling you the truth.” Braden looks around at all of us, his eyes wide and pleading.
Ace nods and steps back from Braden. “If we find out you’re lying to us, or if you so much as breathe a word of this to anyone, you’re dead. Do you understand?”
Braden nods quickly, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. “I understand. I won’t say anything, I promise.”
“Once we’re satisfied you’ve told us everything and have been truthful about it, Ace will decide what to do with you.” Coop smirks at his ominous words and their effect on Braden.
With wide eyes, Braden turns to Ace. “What does that mean?”
Ace shrugs. “It means exactly what he said. Now, do you have anything else you want to say?”
“I didn’t steal from you,” he says, an air of resignation about him.
“You just borrowed the money without asking?” Coop’s derision is clear, and Braden is rightly afraid of the man’s anger.
“I-I was going to pay it back.” Braden pleads with us, but it falls on deaf ears.
“And the deal with the Iron Kings? What was that about?” I ask again.
“It was just a mistake. I was forced into doing it by Hector Santos and his crazy second-in-command.”
He’s talking fast now, spilling some lie about how he needed to test Gia’s skills for the Iron Kings, and that’s all it was.
“Why would you agree to something like that?” Coop asks, his brow furrowed in confusion.
“I-I don’t know. I was just trying to stay alive and I thought this was a way I could do that. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. They threatened my wife for God's sake!”
“And what about the information you gave them?” I ask.
He shakes his head, and I can see the wheels turning in his head as he tries to come up with a believable lie. “I didn’t tell them anything and I told Gia to put the money back, and if she didn’t, that’s not on me.” He looks at each of us, his eyes pleading.
“That’s bullshit,” Shades growls. “Sounds like you want to die today.”
“No,” he shakes his head. “I don’t want to die. I’m telling you the truth.”
This guy, this so-called man of the cloth, isn’t just a liar, but he’s also a prick. He’s willing to sell Letty and Gia out to yet another MC just to save himself.
“Braden, let me give it to you straight,” I say.
He nods. “Preacher, you have to believe me.”
I nod as if his bullshit words hold weight with me. “Actually, I don’t. But if you don’t tell Ace everything you know, where the money went, how you did it, and make sure it is the absolute truth, then I’ll personally make sure you and your wife are buried together, fighting for the last gasps of air inside the same coffin. Understand?”
He nods quickly. “The absolute truth,” Braden promises.
“And why should we believe you?” I press.
