N9ne: The Tale of Kevin Clearwater (King, #9)(33)

She stops and looks down to where I’m touching her and tugs her arm away. “You don’t have to drive me. I’ll just call an Uber.” She takes out her phone, but I rip it out of her hands.

“We don’t have time for this shit,” I growl.

“We don’t have time for what shit? If you think I’m going to—”

I push her into the shadows until her back is flush with the wall of my RV. I cover her mouth with my hand. Her eyes go wide with terror.

Lenny struggles to free herself, but I only hold tighter. Hopefully, anyone who spots us would think we’re just going at it.

“Stop and fucking listen before you get a shit-ton of my friends killed,” I grate out. I turn my head and spot to two soldiers searching the back of the crowd. “Look over my shoulder, but don’t be obvious. Do you see the two men who aren’t drinking and don’t look like they belong here? They’re at nine o’clock. Don’t answer. Just nod.”

After a second, she nods and swallows hard.

“They are soldiers of Tico Ricci. Do you know who that is?”

She nods again.

“Your ex fucked them over. They can’t find him, so now, they’re searching for you. And here’s the thing, if I don’t get you out of here right fucking now, they’ll take you somewhere where they’ll probably kill you regardless if you tell them what they want to hear or not. Or if they spot you and you try to run, they won’t hesitate to shoot through everyone standing between you and them. You don’t have options right now. You are coming with me so we can lead them away from all of these people. Do you understand?”

She nods once more. Her smooth lips rub over my palm, and the feeling makes me want to lean in and breathe in more of her sweet scent, but now is not the motherfucking time.

I release her and step back, tugging her toward my truck. I open the passenger door and lift her inside. Jogging around to the other side, I hop in and pull us onto the darkened dirt path between the trees.

“What do they want with Jared?” she asks as I turn onto the main, paved road. “I can’t reach him either! I can just tell them that.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but while your solution to try and reason with Ricci’s men is adorable, it’ll get you killed.” I blow out a sigh. “You really are from the other side of the causeway,” I mutter.

Might as well be another world.

Lenny shoots daggers at me with those big blue eyes of hers. She opens her mouth to reply but stops when the rearview mirror brightens, reflecting the headlights of the army-style Hummer tailing us. It’s speeding and catching up to us. Fast.

I slam on the gas and yank on the wheel, turning us onto an almost hidden path in the center of the neighboring cornfield the tractors use to tend the fields, but it’s not fast enough. Because as I complete the turn, we’re hit with what sounds like a swarm of angry metal bees.

In reality, it’s a spray of bullets.





Chapter Thirteen





NINE





“Tell me what the fuck is going on!” Lenny screams as we tear down the road as fast as my truck will take us.

“Please,” she begs, lowering her voice to a whisper.

I make a sharp turn onto a dirt path that leads to a clearing in the middle of a circle of thick trees that block out any light. I throw the car in park when I’m sure that we’re covered and out of sight.

Lenny opens her mouth to speak again, but I press my fingers to her lips to silence her, waiting until I’m sure we’ve lost Ricci’s men before I remove them. “First, tell me what you know about Jared. About his business,” I demand.

Lenny fidgets, pulling on the hemline of her dress then balling her fists and releasing them over and over again. I notice the scars in the center of her palms. The movement must be a habit of hers.

“He owns an investment company that mostly deals in real estate development and foreign investors looking to grow their money in the states.” she replies, as if she’s heard him say those exact words a thousand times.

“That’s it?” I press.

Lenny throws her hands in the air, then drops them with a smack to her thighs where I notice her dress has risen up, exposing her black panties. “Yes, that’s it! You obviously know more than I do, so why don’t you tell me!”

I look away and get back to the subject at hand. “Jared was…is a fuckin’ weasel. He was running a Ponzi scheme. The Lawless MC and my brother, Preppy, along with King,” I look to her. “You’re from here, so I assume you know who they are?”

She nods.

“They had some excess cash that was already clean. It was my idea to invest and grow another line of legit income. I picked Jared to help us do that. At first, everything seemed good, but the statements we were getting weren’t real. The numbers on the return were way too high for the current state of the market. I checked the accounts, and I was right. The money was gone, and when I went to find Jared...”

I killed him.

“He was already gone,” she finishes.

Yeah, he’s gone alright.

“What about those guys at the party?” she asks. “What do they have to do with your friends’ money?”

“The reason why I invested with Jared in the first place is because he was already working with Tico Ricci, and I figured it was a safe bet because fucking over Tico means certain death, and not a painless one either. I assumed Jared knew how the game worked when getting into bed with people like us. He either knew or didn’t give a shit because not only did he fuck us over, but Ricci as well. He drained every fucking penny.”