Jackson Stiles, Road to Redemption (Road to Redemption #1)(99)

Dozer lowers his head again, and I can feel the hot, sticky air his nostrils blow out as I swallow down the fear he just instilled upon my ass.

I breathe out to squeeze past the last couple feet of Dozer’s space, then I want to f*cking faint.

“Jesus.”

“You make it?” Nick calls out from the other side of the pen.

“Yeah.” I slink around, quietly calling out to the kid, in case he’s hurt or something. When I hear banging, I move in that direction. And then I see it. A room with no windows. The door is closed, but I hear the muffled sound of who I have to assume is Stix on the other side of it.

Just as I’m about to kick the door in, out flies the kid. He’s a banshee with a vendetta who’s been waiting for the opportunity to escape. He drops the inner workings of the door knob he just broke, and I should have f*cking known he’d find a way to break himself out.

Fucking genius.

Before he sees it’s me, he starts swinging his hands around just hoping he hits something.

“It’s me, Stix. Whoa!” He doesn’t hear me. Or can’t hear through the anxiety and stress that’s no doubt pumping through his veins. But lucky for me, he’s dehydrated, so he doesn’t have a whole hell of a lot of energy.

When he throws another punch, not only does he miss me but he falls right the f*ck into me.

“I got ya.” We fall to the ground, and it’s only now I see the state he’s in. He’s got a rag around his neck and a rope, that’s been cut, hanging from one of his wrists. He’s dirty and his lips are cracked. I can’t imagine the f*ck-heads who brought him here have even fed him.

His eyes roll into the back of his head, and he lets out a sigh of relief. He tries to talk but it’s all jumbled.

“Settle down.” I try to get him to see reason, but he’s frantic.

“He heard shooting.” His voice is strained and rough. He swallows. “And he left, but he won’t be gone long, Jackson. We gotta go!”

“What? Who? Who left?”

“Me.” The semi-familiar, deep voice surprises me. I hadn’t even heard him come in, and I wonder why Nick didn’t f*cking warn me somehow. I twist around to get my bearings and prepare for a battle of sarcastic wit, when boy-toy Connor’s fist meets my face.

For a split second, I wonder if Green knows his role in this f*ckery. The next thing I know, there’s a white flash, some hot pain, and then nothing but black.





X X X


Massive amounts of cold water wake me.

I almost have myself convinced I’m dreaming until I breathe in the smell of hay, shit, and pot again.

To my right, tied up again, is Stix. To my left, Nick is still bleeding and on the verge of passing out. In front of me, is the head dick.

“Connor.”

“Mr. Stiles.”

“You’re Anonymous?”

“Not exactly.” He grins at me like we’re playing a f*cking game here. I’ve had enough games to last me a lifetime.

“Meaning?”

He smiles but doesn’t answer me. Not that I expected him to.

“Man,” I cough out. “Green is so kicking your ass.”

He laughs but gives nothing away.

I still don’t know her role.

Which pisses me the f*ck off.

“I gotta say, you really got me with this one. I was expecting dirty cops, and instead, I got a bad accountant.” I try to bait him some more. Let’s see where this goes.

The dick-bag laughs some more. “The police in Redemption don’t have what it takes to make this kind of plan happen, Mr. Stiles.”

I spit out some blood. “You mean the plan where we fall in love and run away together? That plan?”

My gut pays the price for that one.

I cough out, “Shit.”

“That’s enough, Mr. Riley.”

Asshole. Of course, he’s here. I guess Hank had some ambition in him after all.

I’ll worry about his sorry ass later. Right now, I need to keep this conversation going, seeing as I can’t exactly seem to get myself out of this situation.

Yet.

“Why shed the shadows, Connor? You at least had the cover of mystery going for you. Now all you’ve got is”—I look up at him and it hurts. But f*ck it—“bad looks and even worse decision-making f*cking skills.”

A deep guttural laugh and he proceeds, “You haven’t put all the pieces together yet, have you, Mr. Stiles?” He tsks. “And Emma said you were smart. Pity.”

Hank strolls over with a tablet in his hand. He turns it on and starts up a news app. When it begins the live streams, Graham Black is holding a live news conference.

I look around for Green. You know, out of curiosity’s sake. I find her off in the background looking worse for wear and checking her watch. When she looks up and sees me, she tucks some hair behind her ear and looks away.

Typical.

“I’m guessing this is where you think I’m going to confess to my crimes. Explain my plan?” Now Connor’s baiting me? The stupidity of that comment makes me want to laugh. Too bad my ribs are aching too much to make it happen.

“Nah, I’m good.” I stretch my neck to wipe the blood off my face and onto my shirt. “Cops are making too much money off their drug rings. You want in with no middle man, so you’re staging drug theft within gangs and killing kids.”